Los Angeles herald., 1907-11-11
WILL TREAT ORES
BY NEW PROCESS
BEING TRIED OUT AT PRESENT
IN MEXICO
1t Is the Invention of Colonel Hood,
Who Suggested Raising Inn
munes for Service in
Cuba

There are now being made in the
famous Ell Orc camp experiments with
new process in the treating of ores
that is declared will revolutionize the
mining industry in so far as ore treat
ment Is concerned.
1t is a new process of crushing ores
applicable alike to gold, silver, copper,
tin, lead, etc. With all ores that are
crushed, it has been customary since the
fourteenth century to employ crushing
devices such as stamps, Gillian mills, etc.,
provided with screens to regulate the
maximum size of pulp discharged.
This process is intended to be used in
similar crushing devices, but substitute
ing for the screen an apparatus provided
with upwardly inclined channels usually
not less than one inch in width and hav-
ing a uniform cross section throughout
their length.
The length of the channel is a fixed
minimum and is determined by the dis
tance which particle of mineral travels
while sinking in water, before reaching
it's greatest sinking velocity, this particie
having started from a state OF rest In
operating the water is supplied at a
fixed head to the mortar or Chilian MILL
and in escaping from the mortar the
water is compelled to flow upward
through these sorting channels. carrying
with 1t the ground pulp which is not
heavy enough to sink back into the
mortar.
How 1t Works
The effect of this is to crush all min
erals to different maximum sizes, each
size varying with the specific gravity OF
the mineral. For example, If quartz is
discharged at ten mesh, iron pyr1tes is
discharged at twenty-five mesh, galena
at forty mesh, silver at eighty-five mesh
and gold at ITO mesh.
The mesh of the pulp to be discharged
is regulated by the amount of water and
the area of the discharge channels.
The motion of the grinding or crushing
mechanism produces Jigging or con-
centrating motion in the channels and
thereby facilitates the separation OF the
finished product from the mineral which
is to be reground.
The channels are narrow in order to en-
hance the effect obtained by the intersti-
tai currents as this is known to have
considerable effect in ore-dressing.
The process either increases the out
put at the same mesh as when stamps
are supplied with screens or crushes TO
finer mesh if no increase in output
is desired, thereby causing an increased
extraction by any of the various methods
of extraction.
Roughly, the pulp from this crushing
process is seventy mesh, as compared
with a pulp of forty mesh, with screens
operating at the same output. The power
required is slightly less than when
screens are used.
Is Under Trial
The new process has been under trial
at the mills of the Ell Orc Mining and
Railway company and the Esperanza
Mining company during the past month
and the results, while not made public.
are known to be fully up to expectations
The process is the invention of Colo
mel Duncan N. Hood, graduate of
West Point who later left the army to
study at the Columbia School of Mines
He left college at the outbreak of the
Spanish war and was the originator of
the idea of raising 10000 yellow fever
immunes for service in Cuba. During
the war he was colonel of the Second
United States Volunteer infantry, which
came mostly from Louisiana and Texas
His father, Gen. John B. Hood, was on
the Confederate side during the Civil
War.
Col Hood has patents on his process
in the principal countries of the world
rhe patents are owned by the Hood
Process company ir which some wealthy
New York business men are interested
The patents in Mexico having been the
first to issue. the process is being first
installed on a large scale at the El Oco
mills after which 1t will be immedi-
ately installed in the United States, South
Africa, Australia and other important
mining countries.