The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1897-04-16
REDUCTION MEYHOD
A New Way of Extracting the Gold
From Quartz.
RECENT EXPERIMENTS MADE
Chemical Processes by Which Every
Particle of the Precious Metal Is
Claimed to Be Saved

There are two general methods of
separating gold from the rock with
which it is associated in vein. In
both the ore is crushed to "a certain de- |
gree of fineness, greater or less, accord |
ing to circumstances. The stuff is then
washed with water over layer of mer-
curry. with which the gold amalga- |
mates. or else (perhaps after prelimi
nary roasting) mixed with a chemical
solution which dissolves the precious
metal. Subsequently the gold is re-
covered from the amalgam or the solu
tion by further . eat .ent. In the sys
TEN in which quicksilver is employed |
there is alwa"S certain loss Of the |
precious leta,. Inasmuch as the rock
is exceed N~ly hard, usually quartz, it
is subjected to heavy hammering in the
final stage Of pulverization, and in con-
sequence some of the particles of gold
are fattened into tiny plates or caucers,
ald float away with the wash water
Then. too. the mechanical separation
is not quite perfect, and little of the
gold still remains ilnbedded in the
minute bits of rock which go off as
refuse, or "tailings. - AS it is usually
rather high grade ore which is
handled in this way the loss is apt to
be disregarded. But there has been Il
great tendency towards more economi
cal methods Of late years and some of
the chemical processes now i'll vogue
are we'll adapted to the treatment both
of 'tailings' and low-grade ores.
Attention has recently been directed,
in England and Australia to still an
other plan of insuring the recovery of
IA very large percentage of the gold
originally existing in the ore. The
main idea involved, that of breaking
up the quartz by alternately heating
and cooling it, is old F.; but some Of the
details Of the process are new, and it is
claimed for the so called re-atomic'
system that it is more successful than
any previous attempt III the same
direction.
In the preliminary crushing the rock
! is brought down only to small Jumps of
convenient size, and not to actual
powder. The material is then inclosed
| in a chamber from which the outside
air is carefully excluded in a furnace,
in which. beside the fuel, there are
pieces Of red hot iron. A jet of steam
and iron, and the result is the develop.
ment Of water gas and hydrogen.
These gases have access to the cham
ber, and prevent the oxidation of the
metal. Indeed, if there be any oxide
in the ore it is ''reduced' by the hy-
drogen. Any sulphur which may be
present is also eliminated, passing off
in the form of sui phuretted hydrogen.
After the ore has remained in the
heated chamber for a time, whose
length varies according to the compost
ton of the rock. it is suddenly
"quenched' by the injection of cold
water. lnasmuch as the fragments to
which this first chill breaks up the
quartz are not as small as could be de-
sired, the water is drained off and the
series Of operations is repeated several
times. Finally the contents Of the
chamber are dumped into a tank
When the ore is cool enough to be taken
between the fingers. it crumbles into
powder easily. No heavy stamps are
required to pu]verize the substance
now. 1t is alleged that there is absol-
utely no loss in the form of "foat
gold'' and no oxidation, and therefore
that all the precious metal originally
in the ore may be recovered
In some experiments recently made
with the ore atomic system in London,
samples Of Cripple Creek and West
Australian ores were treated An En-
glish weekly publication, Invention,
declares that disinterested experts were
present and assisted in the tests. 1t
adds: ''In every respect the results
were most satisfactory, and unquestion-
ably demonstrated the correctness of
the principle involved. - 1t is an
nounced that the West Australian
Gold District) corporation has bought
the right to use the ore-atomic system.
THE JOHN MITCHELL.