Gypsum mine output goes to three cement plants.

              Gypsum Mine output goes to Three Cement Plants
By CLYDE REICHELT
9-29-1963 Great Falls Tribune
HANOVER-There is a clean, almost fresh smellto the air even though you're 1-00 feet down
and 3,000 feet back underground from the elevator cage of the gypsum mine near here.
Modern mining machines and several shafts opening to the outside from stopes underground
make the mine an almost idea place to work. Temperatures are from 40 to 46 degrees above
zero whether there's a January blizzard blowing outside, or a hot August sun turning the valleys
into pockets of shimmering heat waves.
Seven Employees
The Hanover gypsum mine, a subsidiary of ldeal Cement Co, employs seven men in its opera-tions
plus the general foreman, Jerry Baarsma. They work a regular eight-hour shift five days a
week, 52 weeks a year.
Gypsum mining started here almost half a century ago in 1914 when James Bickell started a
plaster plant which continued on until 1951.
Several years later ldeal bought the gypsum property and equipment from the originalfounders
of the mineral deposit. A cement plant was built in 1917-L8 operated until 1931. Lime-stone
was brought from a quarry at a nearby hilltop to the plant by aerialtram. Some 200 men
worked there during the plant's heyday.
Since the cement plant was abandoned in 1931, only ldeal's gypsum mine has been in
operation.
Gypsum is put in cement at the final stage of production to control the setting time of the con-crete.
However, it is also used extensively in manufacture of sheetrock, plaster, lath, tile and
other related interior construction material.
Allthe gypsum mined Hanover goes to ldeal's c e m en t plants at Trident in Montana and at
Grotto and Spokane in Washington.
A barrel of cement, 376 pounds, contains 4 per cent gypsum, or 15 pounds.
The gypsum vein here is about 110 feet down and 20 feet wide. Mining is done by the pillar-stope
method; that is, huge rooms supported by pillars are opened next to the main haulage
way.
No Waste
"There is no waste in the vein," Baarsma said, "and the roof is very solid and requires practically
no timbering or bolting."
From the four compressors topside, which provide air for power drills, jack hammers and
slushers, to the diesel locomotive used to pullthe ore cars, mining here is a job done by
machines as well as men.
Air-powered drills make six to eight-foot holes for explosives in gypsum stopes. After blasting,
jackhammers break up the bigger pieces of rock.
Slushing machines, or small draglines, scoop the loose gypsum rock from the stopes into the