Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1905-11-25

suffering from a confusion of tongues,
and that much time and money must
annually be lost in the futile trials of
many of these methods.
A recent review of a portion of the
patent records for 1904 d!scloses sixty
two grants of letters patent relating
to metallurgy. Of these we are able
to identify only three which have had a
very successful or extended application.
The various schemes involve lixiviation,
electrolysis, electric smelling, roasting,
volatilization and concentration. Some
Of the mechanical devices contrived for
the processes are fearfully and wonder
fully made. Rocking furnaces are
noted in which a preliminary part of
the process is to be carried on in one
end, after which, by fitting the furnace,
the mixture is to be transferred to the
other end for further treatment. In
genious tanks, complex series of u
tubes, devices for carrying on opera
tons under pressure or in vacuum,
schemes for intermittent or continuous
operation, centrifugal separators and
concentratQrs whose supposed virtue
lies in an iigenious and peculiar motion
all go to make up a maze that is con-
fusing in the extreme. Acids and
alkalies are used without Partially, re-
auctions are attempted in atmospheres
Of hydrogen, chlorine or oxygen, and
crude petroleum, hot paraffin, and soap
emulsifed in mineral acid, comprise
the different notifications of the
familiar oil process of concentration.
If one, we're to attempt a general
criticism Of 80 per cent of these patent
ed processes, it might be tersely en-
bodied in the word complexity. Me-
chanical inpossibilities and prohibitive
expenses are apparently lost sight of,
and no cognizance is taken of the fact
that a multiplicity of operations is
fatal to the success of any commercial
and of many laboratory processes. AS
an example of the complex nature of
many of the processes proposed, we
quote the following from an abstract
of a patent for the recovery of precious
metals. 1.-THE ores are placed in an
atmosphere of hydrogen and roasted;
and subsequently treated with an alkali.
The latter is then removed and acted on
by sulphuretted hydrogen. The ore is
further chlorinated and then treated
with sulphuretted hydrogen, while
sodium hyposulphite is applied to the
residue" 1t would be refreshing to
actually observe the recovery of preci-
GUS metals by this process, which, as
we view it, is far better adapted to
more perfect dissemination of the
values.
A few GASES appear, however, in this
desert of impossible processes. Worthy
and successful efforts are noted for the
reclaiming of fine dusts, the recovery
of slime values, the direct reduction of
metals from their ores, smelling by
electricity, and the concentration of
minerals by oil or dilute acids. The
Savelsberg process of reducing galena
is one of these, and it constitutes one
of the most notable advances in the
metallurgy of lead, By roasting galena
with limestone and subjecting it to an
oxidizing blast of air, the subsequent
smelling process is vastly improved.
The Baggaley process for the reduction
of copper ores by converting low grade
matte made direct from ores without
previous concentration, is another one
of the few successes. This process
bids fair to bear as important relation
to the metallurgy of copper as does the
Savelsberg process to the reduction of
lead ores. The Baggaley idea is in sue
cessful operation in Butte and is one of
those inventions born of the necessity
for greater economy in the conduct of
operations.
Another most ingenious conception is
the. process of concentration by treat
ment with dilute acids. This process
is in operation on the famous refractory
Broken Hill Sulphides. According 10
this, method, the pulverized ore is
treated with dilute sulphuric acid, which
attacks a mineral particle and gener-
ates thereon a small bubble of hydro
gen gas which increases in size to a
point where its buoyancy is sufficient
to raise the particle of mineral to the
surface where it is floated off from the
tank containing the material being
treated.