IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF ORES AND MINERAL SUBSTANCES IN ORDER TO OBTAIN METALS THEREFROM
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th March 1881. A communication
from abroad by Simon Philippart, of Paris, in the Republic of France.
JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF ORES AND MINERAL
SUBSTANCES IN ORDER TO OBTAIN METALS THEREFROM." A communication from
abroad by Simon Philippart, of Paris, in the Republic of France.
This Invention relates to an improved process for extracting metals from the
ores and mineral substances in which they are contained, and it consists in treating
these materials in the manner hereinafter described, whereby important advantages
are obtained.
In order to extract the metals from the ores or mineral masses in which they
are contained, it has heretofore been the practice to employ either metallurgical
means of treatment, which invariably include and necessitate the action of heat,
or in certain cases and for certain metals only it has been the practice to employ
process of electro metallurgy.
the
This Invention on the contrary has for its object to treat ores or mineral masses
of all descriptions in such a manner as to place the metal in chemical or mechanical
suspension in a liquid, and subsequently to place this liquid containing the metal in
suspension in a battery in order to separate the metal by the direct action of the
battery.
It is evident that a considerable saving may be realized by the adoption of the
improved process when compared with the systems heretofore used; in the first
place, because the chemical action which is employed for placing the metal in
suspension will not fail to take effect upon every particle of metal, provided that
care is taken to previously reduce the ore or mineral mass to a suitable state of
division by stamping, grinding, or otherwise.
Moreover the improved treatment is more economical because it does not require
the employment of so large a number of apparatus, or such a multiplication of
operations, or so large a number of operatives as the systems heretofore adopted.
The quality of the metal obtained is moreover improved, it being well known
that metals in suspension in a liquid are obtained in the pure elementary condition
by means of the process of electrolysis.
1

page_text: In carrying out the said Invention when applied to the treatment of cupreous
ores for example, and assuming that malachite or pyrites, that is to say, a carbonate
or sulphate of copper, is taken as a type of the ores in question, the ore is first
submitted to a preparatory treatment, in order to enable it be subjected to the
chemical treatment, and the ores after such preparation are treated with sulphuric 5
acid, the result of which is to produce a liquid holding in chemical suspension the
whole of the copper that was contained in the ore.
The liquid containing the sulphate of copper in chemical suspension is then
placed in the outer vessel of a battery, and the electrical action commences at the
moment when the inner vessel is filled with the complementary liquid, which in the I
present instance consists of sulphate of iron.
The action of the battery yields as a result on the one hand copper and on the
other hand peroxide of iron; it is then simply necessary to reduce or convert the
copper to the form of an ingot, which may be effected by any suitable means.
The process is applicable to electrolytic metals of every description, either one 1
metal alone being produced at one of the poles of the battery or two metals at
the two opposite poles, the means adopted being varied in a manner which will be
well understood to suit the character of the metal to be extracted.