Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1891-07-31


/ have great faith in the future OF
Idaho as a mining country, and take
much pleasure from any information re-
lating to these matters.
Permit me to offer my earnest appre-
citation and sympathy in the matter of
your efforts toward the development OF
your country, and to hope that those
interests with which you are 50 strong
ly in sympathy, will soon materialize
as they ought. What you need, is re-
duction works at home. "Long- hauP'
freight bills are fatal with all but the
richest ores, and, as you have already
several times observed during our cor
respondence, 1.-THE miners of the future
must utilize the low grade properties"
And here, although / do not presume
either to criticise or advise, permit me
to say that l cannot believe that you
speak advisedly when you condemn all
investments on ores which cannot be
worked, by the extractive processes. up
to a high percentage of their actual
contents. Surely it is not the ratio of
what is lost to what is saved that is to
be considered at all, butte me, it seems
very clear that, in the matter of invest
ment the only considerations should be,
the actual amount, in value, which can be
practically saved, and the cost Of Saving 1t.
There can be no difference, these things
being equal. whether there be one per
cent. or so per cent. lost in the tails.
The more rebellious ores must simply
be enough richer to make up the differ
ence in loss and cost from the ore vein
to market metal. These considerations
may "cook his GOOSE" but. with sufli-
GENTLY rich ore, there would be no risk.
When we call an ore refractory" or
"rebellious." we do but acknowledge
our own ignorance of how to work it.
This fact, SO strongly insisted upon by
Prof. Egleston, should be kept always
in mind, for the coming processes of
metalurgy will surely bring the solution
of the problems involved in such work.
ing. The lines on which these things
must be worked out are plain enough.
The more complex the ore, the greater
will necessarily be the cost of working
1t; but few ores only are so "pure" as
to yield the most desirable results with
any simple process, and the true solu-
ton lies In the saving of such valuable
ingredients as arsenic, anthony, lead
copper. cobalt and nickel, and making
each pay its part in the cost of separa-
ton.
The enormous and continually in
creasing amounts of arsenical COM
pounds which must be used for the poi
soning of agricultural pests. make it
highly desirable for the public good that
the price Of such compounds should be
reduced by greater supply; and at the
same time make surety that arsenic
will always be worth something. 1t is a
matter OF the greatest importance in
this connection that such uses do not
require anything but crude products,
such as can be easily obtained.
Anthony has been worth on the ave-
rage about IL times as much as copper.
Probably an increased production would
greatly reduce the price, but even if
new uses are not found for it it will be
always worth saving
The metalurgy of the past has been as
the skimming of Greenland very i'm
perfect skimming too-but with what
ever care and to whatever degree such
process be perfected, the skimming
must end when the cream is gone. And
the cream of our richer mines is fast
disappearing; so that in the near future
necessity will compel the working OF
ores for all there is in them, as nearly
as may be. Even now the report of by
far the greater number of our mining
companies show that the cream does
not pay, to them, the cost of the skim
ming; and the milling and reduction
companies claim that 'the lions share
does no more than pay them reasonably
Those facts are significant; and there
can be no hope of anything better, ex-
cept in the development of such new OF
improved processes as will meet the
more difficult reQuirments of the poorer
ores. Improvements in the innumerable
details of working; radical changes in
the working processes, when necessary;
or increased complications in present
modes, backed by superior metalurgical
skill-these must be the foundation OF
our hope.
As you are aware, my greatest faith
is placed in developments of the smelt-
ing process; and. apart from my own
schemes, this is justified by the actual
progress of the past decade.
The teaching processes have not pro-
we'd equal even to my own expectations
which were quite moderate; but my
faith in them has increased rather than
diminished. A careful consideration OF
the published discussions leaves me
with the conviction that ignorance oil
certain fundamental chemical principles
isthe biggest rock in the teachers road;
and that when men become more scien-
tific, and less dogmatic, they will do
much better. We are too much inclined
to stick with a sort of blind faith to
what we have been taught to believe;
and this dogmatic faith in some entirely
pratuitous assam ptions like thu So callad