The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-01-22
MODERN ALCHEMY
Aew Unsightly Dirt and Rock Are Cen
verted Into Gold and Silver.

New Unslghtly Dirt and Rock Are Cen
vertsd Into Gold and Silver.
The ore, fresh from the mines of Mon.
tana, Colorado, Idaho or Utah. reaches
the works in its native condition. The
greater part of the mineral earth is a.
foreign to the appearance Of the treas
ures it contains as can well be imagined.
Look through the rough rock or ash
like dirt as you may, and the unpractic-
ed eye can not detect mineral trace.
Yet it is notorious fact that this ugly
substance is richer than the clear quartz
which exposes its free gold or virgin
silver. The bonanza carbonate of Lead
vile, for instance, is q dried clay, which
will crumble between the fingers, and
was long overlooked by the pioneer mi
ners of California Gulch, until some en-
terprising fool" assayed the worthless
stuff"
The first step toward delivering the
metals from their native disguises is
taken in the smelting-house proper. A
furnace cupola is filed with ore inter.
mixed with broken rock, and operated
upon by fires famed to an almost in
credible pitch of heat. When this mass
becomes molten the metals. obeying the
laws of gravity, fall to the bottom and
are drawn off and nodded into white
leaden bars called crude bullion, and
containing usually lead, copper, anti
mony, silver and gold. The molten re-
fuse, the Stag, is then removed, and
when cooled, broken up and dumped
along the river bank, as above stated.
The bullion is first passed through the
cleaning or softening furnaces. and the
copper and anthony taken out. The
remaining lead. silver and gold. 60 then
into large kettles and melted. Zinc ID
thrown in, and with its affinity for those
metals it takes up the silver and gold
and floats to the top.
The lead is drawn ont, and after pas
sing through refining furnace is cast
into bars for commercial use. The zinc
amalgam of silver and gold is skinned
Of. and the little remaining lead sweated
out. In the retorts the zinc is thrown
off and the silver and gold taken TO the
cupel shops for the removal of jmpuri-
| ties. The gold and silver is separated
by reducing the silver to solution in
sulphuric acid. through which the gold
falls free in granular form to the bot
tom. and is then remelted and cast into
ingots. The silver is freed from its so
luton by precipitation and cast into
bricks, and the process of producing the
precious metals is completed.
Meanwhile the copper and antimony
have been operated upon. The mass is
melted. and the two metals separated by
the forces of their relative specific gray
ity. The antimony is a white mineral,
commonly known rs Babbitt metal.
After the copper is thoroughly worked
for all the gold and silver it may have
retained it is converted into the chemical
form of q sulphate or blue vitriol. 10
which condition alone it is shipped from
these markets.
This lengthy and intricate process re.
quires the large number of buildings
which constitute the smelter. All the
refuse except the rough Stag from the
first furnaces is submitted to repeated
tests to thoroughly extract the metals
spd 20 much care j. taken to save every
precious particle that the hue dust and
SCOT are collected periodically and
smelted.--On.aAa Bee