Arizona weekly miner., 1874-04-03
LIMITATION.

f<fAfF EhA sOANs
 As New Mexico is greatly interested in the mining and working of precious metals, few words upou one of the many processes Of bene. hciating ores may not be entirely unwelcome. We wish to ctl attention to the process known as lxivinion, for the extraction Of silver. This Is comparatively unknown and not employed in the United States. For many years, experiments have heen made by different chemists and metal lurgists, tn endeavoring to perfect this process sufficiently to give it q command over the present modes of working ore; yet ii Is but lately, within the last two or three years thai ts practical work ing has been such as to commend ii as the most profitable. In Sonora, IL wns first developed into it's present high standing; and such Is the esti- mate placed upon it there, that most of the mills are adopting it and all acknowledge It's supeTi- ority In working ores for silver alone. Where gold Is found tn the ore, t Is extracted by the old methods. Lixiviatiou steps in and takes the place of quicksilver otherwise the milling. etc, s just the same. Pans and settlers are done away with. and with them quicksilver. For rough outline of this method we have the following: The ore is dry crushed by battery and roasted m a triple furnace. The roasted ore Is placed in wooden boxes (about feet wide, feet bigh and s feet long) which have false bottoms or a frame of ats work covered with canvass in order to re- tain the ore while filtration takes place. Roast. Ing Is necessary In order to obtain soluble metal. ic salts in the Water Is now run upon the ore in the boxes; the How Of water received being equal to the discbarge-keeping the box always
  in water, we ind that they are decomposed and carried od by this flow of wate-, leaving behind the silver After four or five hours a lest Is made to know whether all the base salts have passed oil. The test Is either made by suphate of lime or by tasting--the water being very sweet when bearing silver. Next the flow of water Is turned of and the ore allowed time to become drained-| occupying abou. an hour. Then a solnlion of blue and salt or chloride oi copper Is run on, which carries of the silver, is received in large tanks twooden) where the sulphate Of silver Is preeipitated by solution of sulphate of calcium. About one part Of lime to two of sulphur is used lD making the latter solution. The clear liquor | ia the precipitating tanks is now run of and pumped into the reservoirs or tanks from which i it originally came--to be used again. The pre-. cipiIated silver Is taken and placed in canvass drains, and washed with water 10 remove the hy. posuphate of lime. It Is then pressed and dried in furnace freyerberalory)- sulphur being aisengaged hy the heat. From the furnace the silver ls placed in crucibles with proper fuxes Some suppose this process to be not applicable to refractory yet s2 and S3 per cent. silver | are obtained from ore which has considerable ga- lena. zine blende, some sBlimony, arsenic, iron pyrites, etc. About one day Is necessary in this process. The number of boxes or tanks used should be regulated by the capacity of the mill | The chcapness oi tue method Is notable: merely lumber for the boxes; some lime and sulphur q no expense in pans 1; entirely avoiding the mon. strous expense Of quicksilver. This subject is we'll worthy the attention Of mill men and miners as it greaoly reduces the cost of beneicating sl. Yer ores.
 | The foregoing is from the Santa Fe New Mexican. All we care to add is that Mir Hitchcock, of Big Bug, in this county, long ago witnessed the trial of this process upon some of his ores, by Mir Kdstel of San Fran ciSo, when it worked like a charm"