Arizona citizen., 1875-10-23
PROCESS OF LIxEvrtTIox.
Notes Upon the History Of the Met
 Ritur2=y in Sonora, Mexico.

HI sr-sAlsh-as +ttAatO-
 PRESENTED TO THE NENICA,; MINING so-
 GETTY BY ENGIXEEE ANroN1o MORENO. Translated for TIE CITIZEN by ]. spring
 Sonora is one Uf the States in whose
 bosom the largest quantity of silver ores are found: but amongst them there
 i, hGle pure sulplure; of silver. seeing
 tha, inc gray copper in is immense
 number of varieties, is the metal which,
 either pure-.hecho,-as inc practical miner savs. or contained n the mat-iX in d state ofmoTe or less fine Gcnerous) ] grain, generally p-clominate>; this i gray copper may b. divided in Sonora in two kinds, one of which is found in
 the veius of galena ores that contain
 few pyrites of copper, and in which, ihc
 galena being united with the pyriies, they form the kind of gray copper, in which the lead is predominant; inc  other which again might be divided in ] two classes, i7 that found in the veins whose pyedominating ore is thc cop porous pyrije, in which also, instead of the copper and iron they contain. either 1 lead or zine being substituted. as well { as arsenic and anthony, tha; exist In almost all the veins, thr other tw1 class : es of gray copper ar- formed. which are lhY,e that contain copper iroa, sil- yer aai suIpAnr small and variable laaatlit5 yl lead, ziac. a---aic aaI aa.imol-: and .ao-a in wai.a sr-.aic and aa.imJay come i4 as.-y-a,G.ls ! in considerable quantities for the -ul. phur There is also found some hes site, 6ellurid of silvcr3 but either be cause it iS scarce or on account of the small influence it has in the process. ! think there is no need of making any special mention of it, as is also the case with the chlorine, bromyrite and iodyrite, which forming chloride, bro mide and iodide of silver are found in some veins and especially in ,al; of iubia.c twelve league, to inc southeast of Hcrmosilio; nor of tho clra1nas. Of lead, which have seen in tae mining district of San Janyicr, some thirty leagues Go the southeast of said IIermo- sil!o, il heinz the principal substance accompanying The silver bearing ore.
 Now. as {, ile composition of thc ores. called hy practical miners rebel liouS ores. all those of high and low grades, that could bo, although imper- lecly concentrated, were worked by fire either by The process of kettles or in crucibIes, and those that did no, .pay for concentration OF consisted in copper pyriles, were thrown away, the result of which was lha' line patio pro cess (hrap amalgama,ion) which may be considered the only process iu the. mining li,tlict, iu the other paris of the country, was used in Sonora only for very few classes of oIes. Not Jill the year 1862. was erected thc fr,t cs- lablishmcn; of importance for the pur pose of working by the barrel process the ores of the mine called De Los Broncos, which name il received on account of the large quantito of copper pyrice its ore contained.
 Al the same time with the barrel pro cess there was established at the viii. lace of San Marcial the process called the pan amalgamation, which some. wanted to compare with that called de cazo," but which is in reality far different from ii, as I shall show in ! this treatise when touching upon this subject Afterwards, that is to say, five or six years ago, one of the three meth ods of the liXiviation process was thought of, having adopted in the min ing district La Dura that of Pattern. and using as dissolving agent for the. chloride of silver not the hypoSul-. phite of soda, but that of lime, which is more easily obtained and cheaper, and as precipi,ating agent the polysul- phite of calcium
 Intending 10 speak afterwards of each of the processes that have been here, I commence in these notes with that of lixciviation, as well as on account of ifs actual importance the dearness of quicksilver as also because, though the price of this article may be reduced this process will be preferred on account of the cheapnesS of the extraction of each mark of silver and because all those who obtain bad results by other pro ceedings, will adopt it also when stim- ulated by the results that daily are ob- tained by it
 l.
 The first operation which the ore has to undergo, is pulverization, which takes place in mortarS, in the same manner as if the ores were to be work ed in the paiio-pan-or barrel process.
 The machinery used for pulverizing