The daily Alaskan., 1919-05-06
BY JOHN P. MCCONNELL


 Is only twentw four hours; by a method so simple and inexpensive as to be within the reach of al- most any owner of a proven pros pect: a process by which re- fined copper can be extracted at a cost of not more than seven cents Der ound in one simple operation; q process that saves not less than S5 per cent of the copper content of the most refractory ores, reads like the fairy dream Of a super op- timistic prospector, does 1t not? Yet such a process has been evol- ve6 and just those results achieved and are being acheived, day by day, in a building on Venables street in this city, where a demonstration plant has been erected and is now in operation.
 The process is the discovery ot two British metallurgical engineers, the late Mir. A. A. Lockwood and MT IC. J. A. Dalziel, who is here ln charge of the demonstration plant. The process has been protected by patents the world over. The pat ents ill all countries have only re- gently been completed and this is the first announcement of the dis coyery to be made public.
 Briefly, the process consists first of tie usual crushing ana grinding through which ores for any recoV- cry of concentrationtreatment ar passed. The roasting is necessary only in ores high in sulphides.
 The LOckwood-Dalziel process i simply the teaching and eleetroly- tic recovery method speeded up by mechanical agitation and' other de vices hitherto unused ill the treat ment of copper ores. The new pro- cess eliminates the necessity of ii.- teration and sedimentation which in the old processes consume so much time and add so heavily to the cost of plant and treatment. In the teaching processes now iu vogue the crushed ore Is held in tanks for periods eight to thirty days, af- ter which the liquor containing the copper in solution is siphoned off aat clarified by tedious and eXpen- sivc alteration, after which the cop- per content of the liquid is recoV- cred by tha ClectrOlytie method.
 Tro big advantage Of the new me thod is it's immense saving iu time and investment in plant with the ctR sequent cheapening of the cost of treatment, which as has ben sug- gested is such as to have rvo- lutiopary effect upon the copper in austry of the world.
 After being roasted the ore is mixed with a solution of sulphurtc acid and other chemicals to a mud dy consistency. This turtb liquad Is agtated in the tank by jets of air the result of which is to keep all the particles of Ore constantly in motion and thus continuously exposed to the action of the solvent. It is by this action that the great say ing in time is achieved and it is in that Smple fact that the revolution ary character of the process, lis 1t is because of the thorough expos sure of the ore particles to the solvent that practically the entire copper content can be recovered from the ore in cycle of twenty four hours. instead of from eight to thirty days.
 After the Eludge, the muddy so- lution, has been exposed to the solYen- for a certain period it is automatically and continuously si- phoned into another tank contain ing the electrically charged cathodes and anodes. By the cunning al chemy of electricity the invisible copper in the solution Is attracted to the cathodes and deposited in an ever ChIekening film. The copper thus recovered is practically 100 per cent pure. The liquid from the electrode tank Is continuously si- phoned back to the solvent tank and recovered on the cathodes of the electrode tank.
 The methoa of siphoning is it. self ingenious and of course spec ially designed for the work. There are no moving parts in the tanks and of course no wear and tear from friction.
 In ores containing silver and gold the tailings are treated by the usual cyanide method The Lock wood Dalziel yprooesa is strictly a copper recovery one. The re covery runs we'll above S5 per cent of the copper content of the ore. Probably the most valuable factor in this process, aside from It's ec- pOou,v- ns o,nrafiO- on5 fhh