Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-05-07

Scientific Press regarding the treat
ment of concentrates and the detrimen-
tai effect of metallic iron on the extrac-
tons, as we'll as on the consumption of
cyanide, and this reminded me of some
experiments made several years ago
that confirm his conclusions very decid-
edly. am sending you herewith the
details of one experiment,
! have been making many tests by
agitation in an old iron cleanup pan and
was very much. surprised at the ex-
tremely poor results obtained, and after
considerable striving for the solution of
the problem concluded they might be
due to the iron, and therefore put up
wooden agitator and ran it alongside of
the iron one under precisely the same
conditions. 1 was simply astonished at
the results, which clearly showed that
the extractions were not only greater in
the caseof the wooden tank, but that
an actual precipitation occurred in the
iron one.'' The material worked on (the
Bullionville shines tailings) had been
treated by pan amalgamation two or
three times and contained, beside about
ten per cent lead and little copper,
considerable acid salts that were added
during the amalgamation treatment.
The muller in the iron tank ground
slightly on the bottom and some metal
lie iron doubtless got into the sludge in
this way.
After discovering the very bad effect
of the iron on the Bullionville material
l took the same tanks to Phoebe, New.
Gan adjoining mining camp, where we
were about to treat the ore from the
Yuba mine by agitation leaching), to
determine if the same bad effects would
be noticeable on the Yuba ore. Tests
were conducted side by side under pre-
cisely the same conditions with the re-
suit that the wooden agitator extracted
just 20 per cent more values than the
iron agitator did in eight hours. There
fore in constructing the Yuba mill,
wooden agitators were installed and no
more iron than was absolutely neces-
sary was used in the agitators. The
Yuba ore contained three per cent lead
mostly irethe form of carbonate, and
about IS per cent of the silver and gold
was extracted after concentration,
with a consumption of about about one
pound per ton of cyanide. So it could
not be considered very ''base' ore.
Following is a summary of the agita-
ton cyanide tests on Bullionville shines
made in wood and iron agitators at Bull
lionville, New, August Is, 1897:
The following conditions were the
same in both cases: The iron agitator
used was an all iron cleanup pan, while
tAe wood tank was composed entirely
of wood; thirty-fve pounds of ore to
sfxty-five pounds of water; twenty-five
pounds of lime added per ton of ore and
aeitated one hour. Than cyanide was
added to bring the water up to O5 per
cert solution, or solution containing
one pound of cyanide per ton of water.
is.material containing a considerable
quantity of ''cyanicides, enough eva
hide was added to maintain a solution
of from OPS to .05 per cent.
Wood Iron
Tank Tank
Additional cyanidesadded at
start, lbs. per ton of ore 1.34 1.34
Additional cyanidesadded end
1 hour, lbs. per ton of ore 10 10
Additional cyanide added end
hours, lbs. per ton of ore 10 10
Additional cyanide added end
4hours, lbs. per ton of ore 10 10
Additional cyanide added end
6 hours, lbs. per ton of ore 10 10
Assay of heads, ounces silver
per ton 17.4o 17.4C
Assay of tails at end hours,
ounces silver per ton lilo 1873
Assay of tails at end hours,
ounces silver per ton 11.2O 14.2C
Assay of tails at end hours,
ounces silver per ton HOO Is. OC
Per cent extraction at end
of hours 32.7 pol
Per- cent extraction at end
of hours 35.7 1874
Per cent extraction at end
of 8 hours 36.8 $50
Cyanide consumption at end