The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-02-12
PROCESS
OF MINERAL RECOVERY
in OPERATION AT MORNING
WILL BE USED BY THE
NATIONAL.

The flotation process of mineral re-
c9Nery has become an important factor
IN concentration, particularly in the
reduction of zine bearing ores. II is
also being used with success in the re-
auction of copper ores, and n this re-
spect the process Will be introduced
in the Occur dAlene district by the
National Copper Mining company. For
practice here in the Macquisten tube
mill of the Morning company at Null
lam An interesting discussion of the
flotation processes appeared in Bulle-
gical Society of America by J. Parke
Claiming, in which he gave d brief
history of the present status of the
methods. He said:
ORIGIN of the Process.
The father Of flotation, or rather, /
should say, the mother, is an Ameri-
can woman, Miss Carrie j. Everson Of
Colorado. Miss Everson's brother, an
assayer in Denver, received a ship
ment of concentrates in canvas sacks
These sacks, after emptying, were
rather dirty, as they had been lying
around for some time and were COW
cred with oil. He therefore handed
them to his sister to be cleaned A
Woman's idea of cleaning Is to use
soap and water; she turned them in
side out, put them in tub and pro-
ceeded to do the washing. In 50 do
ing she discovered that the sulphides
floated to the top and that the SLICE
Gus gangue sank to the bottom AS
Hoover says in his book she had the
usual keenness of Yankee school
teacher, and knew that she had made
a discovery. ! believe she afterwards
made some experiments in which acid
was used, and realizing the advantage
of both acid and oil, in 1885 she was
granted patent No. 34S,157, covering
flotations Of metallic sulphdes by the
use of oil and water.
The Gilmore Process.
Flotation processes, as they exist
now, may be roughly divided into two
classes, exemplified by the Elmore
process and the Minerals Separation
process. The Gilmore process, invent
ed by the Elmore brothers, is based on
the fact that all water at ordinary
temperature and pressure contains air
in solution. The ore is mixed with a
certain amount of oil. From the top
OF covered chamber containing this
mixture the air is exhausted so as 70
give partial vacuum. Part of the
air thus being released from solution in
the water combines with the oil and
the metallic sulphides and the froth Of
air, oil and sulphides floats, and is
skinned off. This process is now be-
ing used in one or two places.
Mineral Separations.
The Minerals Separation process is
based on the experiments and patents
of a dozen individuals. In short, the
Minerals Separation process consists.
as an example, in putting a ton of ore
into water and mixing it with about
two pounds of oil and from / to 10
pounds of sulphurc acid. The mix
ture is then heated and passed into a
mixing machine where it is beaten up
and a froth is formed This frotll,
which consists of OIL ore and air, rises
to the surface and is skinned off.
Two Other Processes.
Two other flotation processes have
been in use. One is called the Potter
Delprat, and the other the dc Bavay.
The Potter Delprat is one in which oil
is not used; it relies upon the princi-
pie that if carbon dioxide be generated
in a mixture, it will attach itself to the
particles of sulphide and cause them
to rise to the surface. 1t is best
adapted to an ore containing calcite.
since by the simple addition of either
sulphuric acid or salt cake the car
bonic acid is disengaged and the flo
tation effect produced. I understand
that this Is used in western Australia.
The de Bavay process was based on
! the idea of surface tension the same
principle that causes a slightly greas-
ed needle to float upon the surface Of
water when gently laid upon it. This
same principle is followed by Macquis-
| ten in his tube process.