The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1914-02-14
QUICKSILVER PLANT
ABOUT READY TO RUN
NEVADA CINNABAR COMPANIES
NEW WORKS ARE BEST IN
COUNTRY

F1fty-hve miles southwest or Aus
tin, New, at lone, Nye county, the fin
ishing touches are being put on what
is probably the finest and most COM
plete, because the latest, quicksilver
furnace in the country. 1t is the
property of the Nevada Cinnabar
company, composed chiefly of Salt
Lake people, f. A. Sweet being n
of the prime movers in the enterprise
and president of the company.
This furnace is of the Scott pattern,
battle plate type, and is constructed
of steel and brick. OF the latter,
more than 100000, made on the
ground, were used, and the furnace
and accessories complete will cost a
little over 100000. Everything in
the handling of the ore, from the
time it leaves the mine, is automatic
and operated by electricity, which is
generated in a power plant using
crude oil for fuel. Each piece of ma
chinery operating independently is
driven by an individual motor. The
furnace will handle fifty tons of ore
daily, roasting it and extracting the
quicksilver from it.
The process of separating the
quicksilver from the ore in which it
is found disseminated is an interest
ing one. In theory it consists in
heating the ore to a temperature of
about 500 degrees, when the quick
silver is vaporized and rises like
steam or heated air. In practice.
the problem is to catch and cool this
| vapor when it condenses into quick
silver, or mercury, in the same way
that steam c%ondenses into water, and
to do the roasting and ~condensing
in a way sufficiently economical
that ore carrying only / or 2 per cent
of quicksilver can be treated at a
profit.
The old plan was to use a retort,
the ore being roasted in a par in an
oven that in a general way resembled
a bakers oven, but having a closed
top, into which the quicksilver vapor
assembled, thence passing through a
metal coil into a cooling tank, from
which it emerged the liquid quick
silver of commerce. This method OBJ
tanned the mercury all right, but it
was so expensive, cumbersome and
slow that only ores running 5 to 10
per cent quicksilver and higher could
be handled profitably.
Tba now f,rpaca concictc of an nm
right compartment, in which are
placed oblique alternating wings of
fire brick, known as battle plates,
around and among which c%irculates
the heat from a wood fire built at
the bottom, the same as it does
burning water heater. From a bin
above the furnace a fixed charge of
the ore is dropped to these plates by
the pulling of a lever, and, after it
has been there long enough to eX-
tract the quicksilver passes out below
and the operation is repeated. The
ore contains a good deal of sulphur
and itself contributes much of the
fuel for it's own burning. In this
type of furnace the vaporized quick
silver passes into a series of coiling
chambers, where it is condensed and
deposited.
The company has about 600 acres
of land containing these deposits. The
quicksilver is found disseminated in
a great intensive area of rhyOlite,
generally pale yellow in color with
occasional rose spots, and scanned
with streaks of all sizes and varying
in color from a pale pink to a bril-
liant vermilliOn. 1t is soft and easily
mined and lies so near the surface
that it will be taken out about as
limestone is quarried near Salt Lake
City by merely shooting it down in
open cuts and hauling it out. Be
fore going to the furnace it goes
through a crusher, which leaves no
pieces larger than an inch and a
half in diameter. Mr.. Sweet says
there is now ore enough blocked out
in the mine to run the mill steadily
for two years. and that their terri
tory is as yet only scratched.
The present owners have had the
property about ten months, wEicl;
time has been devoted to develop
ment work and to the building OF the
reduction plant above described. The
former owners, operating in a small
way and with the more primitive
methods, had taken out a consider
able amount of quicksilver but could
work at a profit only the small
f! streaks of high-grade ore, whereas.
with the new furnace and equipment
ore carrying only a half of / per
cent quicksilver can be worked prof
itably. The furnace is practically
completed, the ore bins are done.
the ore dryer and mine cars are
ready, and all that remains to be
done before the plant can be started