The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1921-03-24

Zinc sometimes called the meta
mysterious" is like the oriental wo-
man. fast Kidding itself of the veil
/ To Paracelsus, the Swiss medical phil
osopher, is credited the discovery OF
zinc, i'm 1920 Zine, as Walter Renton
Ingalls, has said lis commercially a
relatively young metal The ancients
did not know it at all The Chinese
had it, probably in only small way,
several hundred years ago. but the
production in Belgium was not begun
until 1907 Then for many years the
industry was only a trifling and strug-
Cling affair. There was no broad
market for the metal The people did
not know what to do with it II was
not until Dominique Mosseman. man
OF vast energy entered the business in
1915 and devoted himself to establish
ing a market for zinc by educating the
people in its various uses, that the
industry could be said to have its COM
mercial birth, and even at his death. in
1897. il could scarcely be said to exist
i'm the west of Europe except in ex-
pectancy"
Although zinc remains an indls-
pensable ally of the pharmaceutical
chemist in the last decade it has be-
come of absorbing interest also, to
the technical chemist Clarke places
its atomic weight at 65.S7, its speci-
fc gravity at ZIP. and its fusing Or
melting point at 41S deg c. Found
generally throughout the world, zinc
occurs in ores as oxide, silicate, sulp-
hide and carbonate
In the United States. the principal
zinc mining districts are in northern
New Jersey east Tennessee Illinois,
Wisconsin, Mi $ souri-K ansa s.
Oklahoma (Tri-State) and in some
OF the Western States. c. e.
Siebenthal, geologist, o. s Geo
logical Survey. who is the historian of
the zinc industry in this country
in 1918 that the United
states possesses SO per cent of the
zinc resources Of the world
The Difference Between Copper and
Zinc Mining
William a. Ogg, one of the best in /
'ormed zinc men in the United States, |
said in 1919:
Deposits of zinc in the United /
states as a general rule can be more |
'asily, quickly and cheaply opened up. |
developed. and operated than deposits |
If other metals, such as copper, silver, |
gold, and, perhaps, lead, although |
here is not much difference between
cad and zinc as regards accessibility"
In the Tri- state and Illinois, Wiscon-
i'm fields the zinc orebOdies are only |
between $50 and 300 IT, below the sur
ace)
In further explaining the overproduc-
ion of zinc at times, with resultant
ow prices, Mr.. Ogg said:
ITO give an idean of difference in
productive value between an invest
nent in a Missouri Kansas Oklahoma
inc mine, which for convenience of
Expression we shall call a Joplin zinc
cine and an investment in, say, a
Opper mine in Arizona, / have com
lied some figures which indicate that
1 invested in the average Joplin zinc
property will produce in one year ap-
roximately 60 Id. of recoverable slab
inc, worth, at &c. per h.. say, $3.50,
,hereas 81 invested in a copper pro-
erty in Arizona will produce in a year Z
My about Az ID. of recoverable cop s
er, worth, at 15c per h., about roc,
rot in .F oh. {
nd in value of about l. It is cleai
lerefOre, that a rise of a cent in the ;
notation of slab zinc means about {
,urteen to fifteen times as much on 7
is investment to the Joplin producer y
5 rise of one cent in the quotation a
copper does to the Arizona copper c
-oducer on his investment, subject, of il
'urse. to whatever share of the ad-
lnce he may have to distribute to
Dor, smelter etc" a
eoord Prospecting in Tri- state Field O
1t is, therefore, not strange that Otto a
uhl, a prominent Joplin mining p
igineer, recently stated in the Tri- il
ate field ten years prospecting had ~
zen done in two years time In that a
ED there are now more than 200 zinc e
ines and mills, representing an aver a
.e outlay of approximately S15OOOO e.
Oh. Another cause for keeping up II
e high output of zinc in the Tri-
ate field is that the percentage OF a
Id in the ore runs from one fifth to W
,o-ffths and sometimes one half. n
the total. o.
After the ore has been mined, 81
ncentrated, roasted, and distilled or Il
actrically treated, it becomes the slab is
&c of commerce. and in this form it a
extensively used in the arts, as in If
e manufacture of brass, for zincking II
galvanizing iron and steel. and for 81
ofing and the like. With the ex- II
ption of several electrolytic zinc u
ants the ore is distilled in natural or al
producer gas-fired retort furnaces. II
The ore is roasted at the smelter to al