Improvements in the Treatment of Ores.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Sept., 1899
Complete Specification Left, 7th June, 1900-Accepted, 21st July, 1900
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Treatment of Ores.
I, JOHN HODGSON LEE, of 4, Elm Grove, Peckham, in the County of Surrey,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to improvements in the treatment of ores whereby the
metals contained therein may be recovered in a simple and effectual manner,
and in a form suitable for subsequent treatment.
According to my invention I first reduce the ore to a powder of a greater or
lesser degree of fineness by means of stamps or other suitable apparatus. I then
mix the powdered ore into a pasty mass of a suitable consistency, preferably so
that it may be formed into bricks or blocks of convenient shape and size. The
medium employed for this purpose may be any suitable carbonisable material,
such as starch or flour and water, or tar for example. After the powdered ore has
been thoroughly incorporated with the paste, it may be placed in a kiln and
dried in the mass, or may be moulded into bricks or blocks, and afterwards
carbonised in a suitable kiln or furnace. The temperature of this carbonising
kiln or furnace may be such as to volatilise some or all of the baser metals
leaving the residue' sweet" or in a condition for subsequent treatment, the
bricks or blocks being afterwards powdered and submitted to any known process
for the recovery of the remaining metals, such as the amalgamating process,
for example, in the case of the recovery of gold. Or the heat of such kiln or
furnace may be such as not only to volatilise and drive off some of the baser
metals, for example, but also to smelt the nobler metals, for example, which are
contained in such brick or blocks.
11
Cantanhan 1800
Improvements in the Treatment of Ores.
I, JOHN HODGSON LEE, of 4, Elm Grove, Peckham, in the County of Surrey,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:―
This invention. relates to improvements in the treatment of ores whereby they
are brought into a form suitable for subsequent treatment so that the noble
metals contained therein may be recovered in a simple and effectual manner.
According to my invention I first reduce the ore to a powder of a greater or

page_text: lesser degree of fineness by means of stamps or other suitable apparatus. I then
mix the powdered ore into a pasty mass of a suitable consistency preferably so
that it may be formed into bricks or blocks of convenient shape and size. The
medium employed for this purpose may be any suitable carbonisable material,
such as starch or flour and water, for example. After the powdered ore has
been thoroughly incorporated with the paste, it may be placed in a kiln and
dried in the mass, or may be moulded into bricks or blocks, and afterwards
carbonised in a suitable kiln or furnace. The temperature of this carbonising
kiln or furnace should be such as to volatilise some or all of the baser metals
the bricks or blocks being afterwards allowed to smoulder in the atmosphere in
heaps or otherwise so as to be decarbonised, and the residue is then powdered if
necessary and left sweet or in a condition for subsequent treatment by any
known process for the recovery of the remaining metal or metals, such as the
amalgamating process for example in the case of the recovery of gold.
I have found that by binding the bricks or blocks with the carbonaceous matter
and subjecting them to the heat of the carbonising kiln or furnace the carbon
formed acts as a filtering medium to retain the finer particles of the metals to
be subsequently recovered, and prevents them being carried away in the dense
fumes of the metals or materials volatilized by the heat employed in the process.
It is obvious that any suitable carbonaceous matter may be added to the pasty
mass, and I have found that soot, coke-dust or powdered anthracite yield good
results.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
The process of treating ores which consists in mixing the powdered ore into
a pasty mass with carbonaceous material carbonising the same and decarbonising
substantially as described.