The building in the back is the smelter which removes much of the impurities in the nickel concentrate and converts it to a molten state. The structure behind the tall structure below the smelter tracks is the slow-cooling facility were the nickel has its grain structure altered. The taller building is where the nickel ingots are broken, crushed and reduced to a fine powder. The closest structure is the concentrator.
The heart of the smelter is the "Mitsubishi Process," a line of furnaces that convert the 10% pure nickel concentrate from the mine into 35% molten nickel matte. The process uses an exothermic chemical reaction to provide the heat.
	Molten nickel matte from the smelting furnaces is sent to the anode furnace to improve mixing and act as a holding tank for the bottle cars which will take it to the slow-cooling facility.
The waste material, slag, is by far the largest output from the smelter. A constant stream of slag pot cars arrive at the slag troughs and depart for the dump.
	After the molten nickel matte leaves the anode furnace, it is transported by 90-ton bottle cars to the slow-cooling facility where the metal is allowed to cool in a mold with a cover to promote segregation of the metal and waste material. After a few days the cover is removed, the ingot taken out and brought to the crusher.
The nickel matte ingots are broken, crushed and reduced to a fine powder before being sent to the concentrator for further refinement. The ingots are brought to the crusher by a narrow gauge railroad.
	After the concentrator has raised the nickel content, the concentrate is sent to the fluid bed roasters to burn out almost all of the remaining impurities. Once the nickel is at about 90% pure, it is conveyed to the loadout hopper for shipment to another facility.
The electrostatic precipitator plays an important role in cleaning the sulfur-laden smelter off-gas before it is sent to the acid plant and 300' smokestack.
	The off-gas from the smelter is laden with sulfur which is converted into sulfuric acid in the acid plant. This is a valuable byproduct and is shipped out in 30' tank cars since the liquid is one the heaviest by volume.

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