Arizona republican., 1902-04-04
THE LEACHING PROCESS
A Description of It by MT. James A.
 Fleming.

Mention was made in The Republi- can of yesterday of the return of James A. Fleming after an absence of nearly year, the latter part of that period having been spent at the Black War rior perfecting the details of his fla nous teaching plant, the only one of the kind in the world. MT. Fleming gave an interesting description of the plant and it's development during a pe- riod of several years.
 The reduction of copper ores by the teaching process has been a favorite project with MT. Fieming since long before he obtained control of the Black Warrior. Smelling. he believed to De costly and wasteful, since a great deal of copper is destroyed in the course of smelling.
 He accordingly set about the working out of his idea and being an inventor. after a long series of experiments he has at last brought it to a state of perfection. He derived his first opera ton from the processes of nature ia the reduction Of copper ores. Nature never employees heat, but sulphuric acid, which releases the copper from the iron in which it is sometimes found. That is why many prospectOrs believe that an iron cap is q sign of copper deposits below. The copper has mere ly leached out of it.
 The experiments on this plant and the construction of it, together with the work that has been done on the Black Warrior, have cost more than g, ,00a,C0G but that is a small sum in comparison with the cost of the great smelters which have been recently put up at some of the great copper mines Of the west. The teaching process is cheaper as to first cost than a shelter and the subsequent operation or it is infinitely less expensive in both labor and material.
 No attempt will be made to describe the machinery, but in a general way the process. In the first place the ore is desulphurizcd. That costs practical | ly nothing, for the sulphide ores fur
 nish their own fuel. The sulphur IS not wasted, as it is by the shelter pro- cess, but is converted into sulphurie acid, the manufacture of which costs less than cent and a half a pound. A pound and a quarter of sulphuric acid is sufficient to leach pound of copper. A solution of the acid and ! water is applied to the desulphuriZed ere, which Is put into vat The SOlu-
 tion carries off all the copper which ! is precipitated on iron in the shape of i flakes. This is S5 per cent pure. It is | then melted into ingots and bars and i this process involves the first expense
 for fuel. The melted copper is abso- | lutely pure and is ready for the mar | ket. The product of the shelter has yet to be sent away to a refinery. Oil | is the fuel used in the melting fur
 mace. Compara atively litLe water is re- | Cuired, for almost none is wasted in
 the process except by evaporation. The
 solution. which has really ceased to be
 a solution, for the acid has exhausted
 itself in it's hunt for copper, is pumped
 back into the tanks and standardized
 again. The tailiigs are more poverty | stricken than those from any other ! process. Those ar the Black Warrior contain one-half of per cent and MT Fleming hopes to reduce the povert.,
 to quarter of 1 per cent.
 Now. as to the cost of operating t.4o
 plant. The plant at the Black War
 rior has a capaofty Of 150 tons, DII since it was set in operation about