Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1896-11-27
THE CYANIDE PROCESS PATENTS
DECLARED VOID.
From the New York sun.

From the New York Sun.
Word was received ia this city yes
terday that the High Court at Pret-
orla, the capital of the South African
Republic, had declared void the Mac
arthur-Forrest patents for the cyanide
process for the recovery of gold. This
decision was given in a suit brought
by the combined gold mine owners of
johannesburg and the Transvaal.
The information comes in this cable
gram to Lawyer c. w. Truslow of the
Mills building:
Judgment for plaintiff. Both pat
ents cancelled.
The announced result was crafty
ing to Mr.. Truslow, for very import
ant part of the work of finding and
preparing the testimony upon which
the issue turned was done in this
country by him. The decision Will
have also an important bearing upon
every interest connected with gold
mining, for it is a matter which in
volved many millions of dollars direct
ly AID untold millions altogether.
The export of gold from the Trans
vaal through Natal had reached the
great sum of so, 9,259,525. In 1891 it
was $14, ,5O7, $50, aud in 1892 1t reached
$22, 1906, ,545. Last year it was nearly
double this enormous sum. A great
part of the increase was due to the in
PRODUCTION OF the cyanide process.
Up to 1891 the reduction works had
been running upon the old plan,
stamping up the rock and getting out
of it what gold was coarse enough to
be taken out by quicksilver. All the
rest ran off with the tailings, and hum
dreds of thousands of tons of ready
ground rock were shovelled away as
refuse from the stamping mills until
there was hills OF it at every mill and a
hidden fortune in every hill. Every
ton OF these tailings contained about
81 worth of pure gold in powder so fine
that nothing but chemical process
could gather it from its surroundings.
1t was at this time that the two
Scotchmen, Macarthur and Forrest,
took out patents all over the world
for the cynanide process of gold recov-
cry. They were SO carly in the
field in the South African republic
that their first patent-the one for
dssolving the gold from its ores by
the use Of a dilute solution of cyanide
of potassium-was only the forty
seventh patent issued by the new
ly organized Boer republic. Their
second patent, which covered a pro-
cess of recovering the gold by passing
the cyanide solution over zinc shay
ings in long tanks, was only numbered
seventy-two Of the South African Re-
publics patents.
In the two processes referred to lies
the key to the whole system. The be-
ginning of the process is to mix the
finely ground rock with weak solu-
tion of cyanide of potassium. No par
ticle of gold can elude this, and in the
course OF from one two three days the
whole of the precious metal is dlssolv-
ed. In the second process the zinc
shavlngs are placed in shallow tanks
and these tanks are loaded with the
cyanide solution. AS the solution
flows along the gold is precilitated up
on the zinc, and then it is recovered
as metallic gold by snblimating the
zinc by fire. Recent tables show that
since January, 1891, the output Of
gold recovered by this process has
been steadily increasing, until in Aug
ust, 1895, the production of all other
processes being 100000 ounces, or
about 50, 800, 600, the production by the
cyanide process alone was 10000 ounc-
es, or about 81, 10000 for the month.
In 1894 the mills produced l,405, ,2S2
ounces Of pure gold in the Witwater-
srand district, and the cyanide pro-
duced in the same district 6l8, ,4S0
ounces. In that single year 2,S47, 1878
tons of tailings and lS,3l5 tons of con-
centrates were put through the pro-
cess. These yielded more than SlO,-
900, 900 worth of gold with an appar-
ent profit, over the cost of the pro-
cess, of about 81, ,375,OOO
This seems to indicate that the min.
ers ought to have been well satisfied,
but they were not The company
owning the patent charged such large
royalties that it was said to make
more money than the miners. The
miners, falling to get a reduction in
the royalties concluded to fight the
patent on the ground of lack of
novelty.
The Attorney General appointed
James Hay to bring such suit, at the
The Whole Story
OF the great sales attained and great
cures accomplished by Hoods sarsapa-
rilla is quickly told. 1t puriies and
enriches the blood, tones the stomach