The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-02-24
FUMES KILLED
BY THIS PROCESS
"Chlorine- EIeCtroIySiS' ELM
mates Objectionable Features
of the Smelling Business.
Is OWNED BY ENGLISHMEN
TREATS ORDINARY AND RE-
FRAcTORY ORES.

In previo,s articles on the smelling sit
nation care has been taken to impress
people with the fact that there is no
intention on the part of the Times to
advocate the establishment of a smelter
which would in any way mar the beauty
Of the city, a beauty which every man,
woman and child takes personal pride IN,
says Sidney Norman in the Los Angeles
Times
On the other hand, it is a well known
axiom Of commercialism that every city
directly prospers and progresses in pro-
portion to its natural resources and the
WeaIth-giVlng impetus which comes from
Inc wage Garner. The establishment of
any enterprise of this nature means Just
so much permanent wealth added to the
assets of the city. just so much more
support TO the thousands of wage earn
ers who are turning their faces west to
the health-giVing sun-blesSed playground
of lower California.
Many people who have not stopped to
consider the matter fully in all its bear
ings decry the effort 10 take advantage
of one of our greatest resources and will
listen TO nothing that tends to prove that
science is making great strides which will
lead to the elimination of the nuisance
hitherto endured through the devastating
effects of sulphur fumes. Leaving all
question of present smelling processes out
of consideration, ii may interest people
a
successful operation in England which
absolutely wipes out the deleteriOus eff
fects of smelling.
Englishmen Own Process.
The process. as 1 am informed. belongs
TO a metaliurgical trust in London, and
my informant is their correspondent
here. The process is worked on very
large scale in England. and ores all the
way from Australia and Tasmania are
brought there for treatment. l have been
shown a letter from this concern. asking
my Informant if he could buy here lead
zinc, lead-zinc-copper or zinc-copper
ores" and ship them by water to Liv-
erpOol and ship them regularly.
The process viii treat any sulphide ore
however complex, and recover all the
metals, and the sulphur as birthstone
1t appears to be entirely different from
the old so-called Chlorine process" 1t
has no fumes. and. if Los Angeles really
wishes to take its place as the unques-
toned center of the mining industry of
the southwest. IL would be well to look
carefully into the advantages which the
new process offers. The people working
il abroad are in every way responsible.
and are at the very top of metallurgical
knowledge. 1t will, of course, work SIM
pie sulphides as well as complex 1t
pays the concern to buy complex refrac-
tory ores, that cannot be smelted by or
binary processes, because they can be
bought cheaper, and because the contents
are more valuable. The process consists
of three stages.
]. Treating the ore with chlorine. which
turns the sulphide into chloride and dis
places and RECEIVERS the sulphur.
, Chemical treatment of the mixed
chlorides by substitution. so that all the
chlorine is combined with zinc. and the
metals recovered.
g. EiectroIysis of the zinc chloride to
extract the zinc and recover the chlorine,
ready to be used over again.
So that the process is cychcaL The
= nal
and it. and the zinc, are used over and
over again
Unlike Old Chlorine Method.
will give brief description of the
process to the best of my ability. as my
informant gave it to me: 1t differs en-
tirely from the old chlorine processes,
which We're not successful 1t smelts
for all 1.-THE metallic contents of the ore,
not only for enc. All the metals are
completely extracted. and there is no
waste by fumes or imperfect extraction.
and there is no Stag The gangue looks
like river sand. and there is no room
for loss All that comes into the works
Is ore and electrical energy; all that
go : out is pig metal. sulphur. gangue and
oxides The chlorine gas goes round and
round and there is no appreciable waste
II NAV be thought that such a prob
lem must be a maze OF chemical opera
tons This is not so. the process hav-
ing three simple stages as mentioned
above
Compare this with ordinary metallurgy.
Try to explain. even most specifically,
the metallurgy and refining OF argenufer-
Gus lead, zinc and copper, and II will be
seen how simple the new process is. Add
10 the description an account of the re-
filming of copper and zinc, and the re-
filming and Decentralization of lead, ana,
even then. YOU have only half done You
must describe the concentration and sep
aration Of refractory ores, and give
description of methods for dealing with
a mixed ore of say lead. zinc. silver iron
and copper The steps in the new pro- !
cess are in comparison, ludicrously sim
Dle-no concentration nor separation of
ore; no refining of metals, no tluXes !
Rut there is more than this. the new |
process treats ores whose smelling by |
ordinary processes cannot be described |
even with unlimited complications, be- |