Gilpin observer., 1911-11-23
Treatment for
Low-Grade Ore

who solve the problem of treating
her vast stores of low-grade complex
lead, zinc and silver ores and of saw
ing the contents, says the Denver
Times.
The task is difficult. 1t requires
wisdom in chemistry, patience ani
capital. 1t is worth studying. There
is an almost unlimited field for a
process enabling mines to market
these obstinate low-grade ores. Those
who demonstrate that they have such
a process ought to become immense
ly wealthy while enriching the min
ers of the entire state and other
states.
There are two great belts of sui.
phide ores in Colorado. One lies in
Boulder, Gilpin, Clear Creek. Sum-
init. Lake and Eastern Eagle coun-
ties. 1t includes such we'll known
mining camps as Ward, Central City,
Black Hawk, Eldora, Georgetown,
Silver Plume, Breckenridge and Lead
Vile.
The other stretches across parts
of Ouray, San Miguel, San Juan and
Dolores counties. Its best known
camps are Ouray. Telluride. Silverton
Campbird and Smuggler.
DIR. Frank w. Traphagen, professor
Of metallurgy at the Colorado School
OF Mines in Golden, said yesterday:
There are millions of tons CT ore,
intrinsically worth about s22 a ton,
which are now practically worthless
because the miners have no method
Of treating it and saving all the val
ues. This ore varies, of course, but
amount of it containing from 10 to
Is per cent zinc, to per cent lead
four ounces of silver and one
twentieth of an ounce of gold.
quotations are SIS for Is per cent
zinc, 81 for 4 per cent lead, 81 for
the silver and 81 for the gold, max
ing a total of s22 ton for this
grade of ore, which may be used as
a basis for calculation. This gives on
idea of low grade ore values. An
actual average is. of course. impossi-
ble to obtain. t--z.-
This ore lies unused in the mines
or on the dumps. There is besides
the low grade ores a big loss in the
smelling Of high grade ores. which
could be checked by the right pro-
cess.
''In lead and copper smelling prac-
tically all the zinc. iron and sulphur
are lost. The lead is lost in copper
smelling. This waste If stopped would
make big differences in the bank
accounts of mining and smelling COM
panies. 1t would enable innumerablc
mines now idle to be worked at a
profit.
''The average concentration plant
saves only from so to 20 per cent
of the ore contents.
81 believe that the future OF min
ing in Colorado lies in the conserva-
tion of ore values and that there will
soon be solution of the problem.
"Men have been working upon 1t
actively for perhaps ten years, though
there have been efforts foryears be-
fore. Electricity is the agent upon
which most chemists place their
hopes. Mendelyeff, the Russian chem
tot IN, ha
use of chlorine gas to render soluble
the metallic contents Of sulphide ore
more than twenty years ago and was
perhaps aware of it fifty years ago.
THE principle upon which the pro-
cess is based is the fact that the
heat produced by the combination OF
metallic chlorides Is vastly greater
than that of corresponding sulphidcs,
so that when chlorine gas Is added
to sulphide ores, even at ordinary
temperatures, they are converted in
to metallic chlorides soluble in water
from which the various metals can be
separated from each other and read
lily reduced to the metallic form.
"a number OF chemists have been
and are experimenting. The reason
that no one has yet made a ccmmer-
cial success is perhaps due to the
fact that good deal Of money is re-
quired to carry on the work and
most capitalists prefer to let some
one else do the experimenting. When
the process is success they are
willing to buy and exploit it. They
do not care to take the risk OF pio.
neering.
Among those who have been ex.
perimenting are All Singer Larsen
of Norway. Swinburne and Ashcroft
OF England. e. A. Ashcroft in Nor
ualxz. naars..on In Ghlnn nrEa