CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF COPPER ORES
Year: 1853

page_text: Castle Street, Holborn, London, Patent Agent, for the Invention
of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF COPPER ORES."-
A communication.
Sealed the 29th March 1854, and dated the 15th October 1853.

page_text: the ore and wood or coal. When the stacks, are prepared they are set
on fire and the calcination continued till the ore is changed into sul-
phate, which is easily known by exterior signs after a little experience
of the operation.
The calcination may also be effected in reverberating furnaces, and
much more quickly; but the ore must then be crushed. Lime or other
kilns can also be used for the purpose.
Carbonates, oxydes, or other copper ores not containing sulphur can
be reduced to sulphurets by being crushed and mixed with sufficient
sulphur and thrown-into a reverberating-furnace, care-being taken to
agitate the mixture frequently during combustion.
Almost all copper
ore can be converted into sulphate. by being calcined with sulphur, and
also by sulphuric acid, which may be especially well employed for ores
rich in copper.
APPLICATION OF THE NEW PROCESS:
First operation. Washing the calcined ore. After having calcined
the ore by the above process, wash the ore containing sulphate of
copper this operation is continued till the wash marks (60°) sixty
degrees. This wash is made thus, in vats of masonry lined with wood
or lead to avoid infiltration, and placed at different heights, in order that
the liquids which they receive may pass from the first to the other vats
by means of a cock Throw prepared ore into all the vats; water is then
let into the first, and agitated, so. as, to penetrate the mass of ore, then
left long enough to dissolve the salts of copper formed by calcination.
When the solution is completed it is passed into the second vat, and
successively into the others till it indicates forty degrees. The wash is
then run into spare vats, and left to clarify. These vats should be of
greater capacity than those in which the solution was made. The ore
should be repeatedly washed to dissolve all the salts of copper, and cach
time should be well agitated.
=
これ
Second operation. To concentrate the wash of sixty degrees, it is
conveyed by troughs into evaporating leaden vessels of about one foot
deep, and placed over furnaces, by which the evaporation is easily
effected by a slight consumption of fuel. When the wash indicates

page_text: sixty degrees add three per cent.in weight. of powdered vegetable
charcoal, by which a mass or paste is obtained hard enough to be
made into bars. The addition of the vegetable charcoal is requisite
not only to remove the concentrated. mass from the vessels, but also
to deprive it of all the sulphuric acid which it contains, as will be
explained hereafter.
The paste should be taken from the vessels
before it is cold, or it will be difficult to remove it afterwards. By
mixing a larger quantity of vegetable charcoal in the wash at forty
degrees the coppery mass could be formed without the aid of the
evaporating vessels. This is a quicker and cheaper process, but not so
perfect as the preceding.
Third operation. -Te deprive the mass obtained of the sulphuric
acid which it contains. Put the bricks made of this mass into pottery.
ovens, where, being strongly heated, they will be quickly deprived of all
the sulphuric acid which they contain, and there will only remain a
metal easily converted into pure copper. Any other kind of oven may
be used for this purpose. The bricks may be considered to have lost
all the sulphuric acid when they become of a deep violet colour.
Fourth operation. Melting and purifying the copper. To melt the
bars put them in a Castillan furnace or in German cupels; a single
furnace will melt twenty-five quintals of these bars daily. The copper
obtained is then passed to a reverberating furnace to be formed into
ingots. This process has the great advantage of using inferior ore,
even of two per cent. of copper, a saving of twenty-five per cent.
over the wet processes already known, and the yield of a very pure
product.
A channel conducting the water into the vats B, in which the ore is
placed to be washed. C, channel conducting the water from vats B, to
the saturating vats D. E, path to facilitate the operations. F, channel
to conduct the water from the vats D, to the clarifying vessels G.
H&I, channels to conduct the water from the vats G, to the evapo-
rating vessels J. K, fire places of the evaporators. I, fire places.
M, chimnies. N, fire places to contain the ores.
my
Inven-
Having now fully described and ascertained the nature of
tion, I do not confine myself to the exact details herein given, but

page_text: copper ores.
In witness whereof, I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bell-
ford, have hereunto set my hand' and seal, the Fifteenth day
of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hun-
dred and fifty-three.
A. E. L. BELLFORD. (L.S.)