The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-01-22
SMELLING OF ZINC ORE
WITH ELECTRIC POWER
WOULD MAKE PosslLHLE WORK.
ING BIG BODIES OF coEuR
D'ALENE ORE.
The electric smelling Of zinc ores is

The electric smelling Of zinc ores is
Ia matter of great interest to the
Occur d'Alene district and the expert
ments that are being made in that line
are being watched not only by the
zinc mine operators here, who hope
for reduced smelling costs, but to many
other owners Of zinc deposits which
can not be successfully treated under
present methods. but which will prob
ably yield to electricity. One of these
Pine creek, owned by Wallace people.
The Douglas Is a developed mime, with
Ia known ore shoot 700 feet long. The
chief value in the ore is zinc. but it's
close combination with lead has made
the separation of the two impossible
under present methods Of treatment.
The owners have sent samples to met
Iallurgical laboratories in all parts of
the United States and to foreign coun-
tries, but without successful results.
The French Process.
Some months ago several hundred
pounds of Douglas ore was sent to
Nelson b. c., to be tested by the
French electrical smelling process. In
a small way this seemed to be sue
cessful, but as the French patent had
been sold to the Trail smelter, 1T was
decided to wait until that concern had
teStad tha .nrncaSa IN a laroar cca la
The smelter is erecting a plant which
will soon be in operation, and il 1T
meets the expectation and claims of It's
promoters. it seems certain that it will
be adapted to handle the Douglas ores.
Meantime the company is not over
looking any other process which prom
Uses profitable treatment of the ores.
The mine is in position to porduce
large quantities Of ore with very little
preliminary expense.
Progress in Zinc Smelling.
Considerable progress was made
during the past year in applying cleo
tricity in the smelling of zinc ores, and
there is substantial reason for the be-
lief that the present year will see it
in practical operation. On this sub
ject Metallurgical and Chemical Ell
gineering has this to say.
Prom metallurgical point of view
the status of spelter production was
not materially changed during 1913.
This is not to imply dearth of ey-
pertinent and research in the winning
Iof zinc, on the contrary, there was
marked activity in almost all branches
VI zinc ore treatment.
1.-The situation with regard to cleo
trolytic reduction in this country
might be relieved If we had enormous
zinc-o ore deposits so that large tor
mage could be relied upon for long
period Of time. But there are not
many such deposits in the United
States, the supply comes from many
small mines.
Experimental work in electric zinc
smelling has been unremitting and the
results are encouraging. This branch
Of zinc metallurgy holds out hope for
the direct treatment of both simple
and complex ores eliminating the pres
ent costly and wasteful intermediate
processes of concentration and separa-
ton. Another attractive feature is the
possibility of high recovery Of the
precious metals which. in the case of
a complex ore, are now subject to loss
in succession of processes Direct
smelling with electric power is prob
ably nearer realization than 1t was a
the present year will witness an at
tempt to put it in practical operation