Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1897-11-17
JOHANNESBURG GOLD.
The City Built on the Precious
Metal.
Yet the Knowledge of the Assayist
Ii Necessary, It II Said, ia De-
termine Its Exact Lo-

1t Is cOmOmnly said that johannes
burg is built on gold; it might be as
truly said that it is built on science, or,
in the concrete,on cyanide of potassium.
l reckon that one-third of the work
able mines, possibly one-half, are now
shut down or unopened; but had it not
been for the MacArthur-Forrest cyan
ide process-discovered just ten years
ago-50 per cent. of the workings still
open would be closed. From first to last
the extraction of gold is a matter of
chemistry. The visitor to a mineralogi-
ca collection has seen specimens of ore
with glittering flakes or crystal grains
of the precious metal. A well-known
Canadian geologist was once taken to a
mine, and on the strength of the sheen
of splendid ore on the side walls of the
mine passages he gave a certificate of
the richness of the workings. The
sparkling nuggets had been placed
there, and the renown of the professor
suffered somewhat. You may ~traverse
the underground ways of Johannes
burg for miles without seeing a CLEAN
of what the miners call visible" 1t is
the assayist who tells us there is gold,
and with refined .,odern methods he
can say exactly how much; but, so far.
it passes the wit of man to get il all
out. When a lump of ore is brought to
the surface, if it contains any gold at
all it is rarely more than one grain in
10000. oftener one in $4,000. The first
thing to determine is whether there is
any likelihood Of any of the metal. For
this purpose there has lately come into
pretty general use the sorting process.
What is wanted is the conglomerate.
the rock, Known as reef, with quartz
pebbles and f1inty cement. The rest is
waste.
1 was pleased at the Celdenhuis Deep
to see that the Kaffirs were intelligent
enough to separate the wheat from the
chaff. The rough stone passed before
them on a revolving table, and they
could at once distinguish by inspection
the Jumps of quartz or sandstone hat
were no good; though, as l have said,
there is not from one weeks end to an
other a scintillation of gold to guide
them. This done, the remaining ore is
crushed in steel mortars by metal
stamps or pestles weighing over 1000
pounds each. They pound the stone so
CACSCdiuRil Siuflt TIA IL IONS OUT III a
thin stream of muddy water through a
screen with mcshes numbering 700 to
o per square inch. Night and day these
ponderous stamps are grinding t o this
minuteness quartz, pebbles, pyritic iron
and fiinty cement that nave for untold
ages been buried like misers, embrace
ing their treasure deep in the rocks. All
the rest is pure chemistry. The soapy-
looking water flows over copper plates
faced with quicksilver. Man himself is
not more eager than this element to
clutch the precious metal, and before
the liquid has flowed a foot the mercury
has laid hold of all the free gold. The
two form an amalgam, and the mercury,
being easily retorted off by heat, can
be used again and again. But the
mercury has taken out only about ne
half the gold. The other half is locked
in the embrace of pyritic iron and other
base materials, and from these it is set
free by the use of chlorine gas, which
has an affinity for gold, and the cyanide
of potassium, which causes the grains
of metal floating in the solution to pre-
cipitate and attach themselves to zinc
shavings- Roughly speaking, the mer-
curry captures so per cent. of the gold,
chlorine IL, and the cyanide % per cent.
Their is still left in the shines 10 per
cent, more or less, uncovered.
In the course of the year there
| must he at least e750,0OO worth
of bullion thrown away on the
Witwatersrand. Treatment of the
shines o. in progress is saving a &C
| ton of this amount. The Crown Reef
| got 1892 ounces out of the refuse last
month, but some of it will always b
lost. This waste of man is nothing to
the vast by nature. The reefs that re-
main are a mere patch, probably, to
| those that once existed. They are what
is left after ages of denudation. But
| enough remains. Mr.. Rudd recently
| stated that before the century was out
the Rand might be producing bullion
| for 20,000,0 900 sovereigns per annum.
| Near as we are to 1900, the estimate is
not -extravagant. When the rich deep
levels get all to work the effect will be
enormous.-London Telegraph.