Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-09-05
Excelsior.

the summit Of the Sierras, men hay,
been leaving the country by scores ii
search of lodges, groupings thereof, towr
lots, mill. sites, and fortunes generally,
While these parties may be p~ractica.
miners and can WELD the pick with sturdy
arm. each one might, in 'loaing hours
if he chose. so learn the subtle art Of
chemistry that he could separate the gold
from refractory quartz. and then be master
of his own labors. For the benefit Of such
a. will read we herewith present a full
description as to the best mode of getting
gold from ores no matter how refractory.
The method is the result of long years OF
study Of a friend of ours. who, in the gold
and silver mines of Freiburg, aud the ar.
gentifrrous quartz of Mexico and Cali
fornia. has successfully succeeded in each
theory herein contained. Read it, you
miners over in Excelsior, or any where
else: Mode of extracting the gold from
very refractory ores, such as arSen'cal
auriferous pyrites etc., which will not al
low of a beneiciation by the common
arastra. This method is practised with
success at some of the European mines.
and the principle of it is as follows: The
ores are roasted first. in the shape of
Jumps. then crushed to a powder, and
finally roasted in very fat r%everbatory
furnaces. to expell as much as possible the
sulphur and volatile metals. When in
that state they are subjected to an armos
phere of chlorine; the hereby formed
chloride of gold is leeched and washed
out with water, precipitated with cop
peras (sulphate Of iron) as metallic pure
gold, then filtered off and melted. The
gold prodaced in this process is 81 karat
fine. or in other words chemically pure,
at a value of $50 81 per ounce. The ap-
paratus necessary for an establishment to
reduce ores by this method is not very ex-
pensive, but require skillfui operators.
The " Hutte," or metallurgical works at
Reichenstein, in Germany. are not built
on an extensive scale, only bene6ciating
5000 to $500 pounds of ore daily, but q
| description of it will enable the reader to
Judge Of its merits. The whole structure
is one spacious building, the center Of
which, a space of II feet square, is design
ed to receive the ores to be treated for
one day. Outside of this space are dry
ing hear,hs. on which the ores are SHOW
eled. and heated not over 40 to so deg.
Fahrenheit, in order to facilitate the chic
rifcation. which does not take place if the
ures are 700 cold. On both sides Of these
hearths are the rooms. 80 to 50 fee: square,
in which the leech tubs are arranged in n
rectangular manner. The space left in
the centre of these is occupied BY the ap-
para,us for generating chlorine gas. Every
ire place has SIX stills, every still its own
tire-room. and they oil feed their gas into
one main pipe. On each side of this ap-
paratus are sheet-iron heaters, for III pur-
pose Of heating the water FUSED in leech-
inS) 70 a temperature OF 10 to 70 deg.
Fahrenheit. Hot water can not be used
in this operation Of washing, as it would
decompose the chloride of gold. A few
fee, from these kettles are placed more
leech.tubs, arranged like those in the rooms
above described, eight on each side and
four on the ends. These tubs are the most
Essential part of all the apparatus, they
are Of clay resembling our ea%rthenware).
dll0 aIC OOuld u lNOll llOOpS = tISN
hang in u gallery framework, on their
axis, so as to allow of an easy discharge
by u mere turning over. They are from
three to five feet high. and the bottom
runs to a cone. the point Of which i, per-
forated so as to admit Of the injection Of
the chlorine gas, and the discharge Of the
water. Where the cone shape begins, q
l,,-a =, ao,k .ny,Ia ,ha ~of an ,,htnh a
perforated false bottom of the same mate
rial is laid. The covers Of these pots are
OF wood. well painted with pitch. to re.
Sist the action Of the gas. and have in the
centre a small hole, through which water
may be led when the chlori6cation is COM
plete. Twenty -four Of the pots form a
battery. and are worked simultaneously.
The sill 10 create chlorine is made Of clay,
well burned, the cover and pipes being
lead. The main pipe leads into a vessel
with water. where the gas is freed from its
adhering muriatic acid vapors, which are
detrimental to the chrori6cation. Behind
each Of the leech rooms is a Don 30x40
feet in dimension, where carboys with the
gold solution obtained from the tubs are
placed on a landbash. which is slowly
heated. 20 Of them in a row. In front of
these is a small canal, immediately under
which filters may BE- placed. The liquor
running from these is led by a trough into
beds OF sawdust outside of the building,
which catches those small particles Of sui
phurets Of gold which may have escaped
through the filters. In this same room
are kept solutions of sulphureted hydro
gen water, which are used for precipita-
ron Of the gold as a sulphuret. The mo-
DDS operandi is the following: The comic
portions of the earthen pots are filed one
half its highth with small pebble. and a
layer Of four or five inches Of pulverized
ore. so that the whole mass reaches the
false bottom. Twenty-four Of these pots
are filed, and the chlorine apparatus is
Sc, in operation by a charge Of seven
pounds OF Manganese. twelve pounds of
hydro-chloric, and eight pounds OF sui
phuric acid. which will just produce
enough Of chlorine gas to chloridize 5000
pounds Of ore. The saturation point of
the ore is ascertained by the free chlorine
escaping through the aperture left in the
cover of the pot. This operation requires
not over five or six hours at most. I'm
mediately when these twenty -four pots
are fully charged with chlorine, the other
q are set in operation whilst the leeching
begins on the former, which is done by
leading the water from the sheet-iron
heaters. at a temperature Of about 10 deg.
Fahrenheit, into the pots. The volume
of the solution obtained from these $500
pounds of ore, which is the gross charge
Of the "a pots, is about 100 cubic feet. or
GA gallons. This is led into the carboys
Of the precipitating room. and will fill
about 30 of them. where the gold is pre-
cipi;a,ed as sulphures of gold BY the sui
phure,ed hydrogen water. This precipi-
tate is allowed to settle over night. and all
the liquor filtered the citrate running
into the beds containing sawdust, for the
purpose above mentioned. On the third
day of commencement to charge, the