Improved Apparatus for the Treatment of Slimes and Tailings for the Extraction of Gold and other Precious Metals therefrom.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Nov., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 25th Feb., 1898-Accepted, 30th Apr., 1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by HARRY SAMUEL DENNY, of 26 and 27, African
City Properties Trust Buildings, Market Street, Johannesburg, in the South
African Republic, Mining Engineer.]
Improved Apparatus for the Treatment of Slimes and Tailings for
the Extraction of Gold and other Precious Metals therefrom.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows:-
-
This invention relates to an improved apparatus for the treatment of slimes and
tailings formed in the reduction of ores to extract the precious metals therefrom.
It is designed with the object of providing a simpler and more efficient plant
for this purpose cheaper both in original outlay and also in actual working expenses
than those generally in use at present; to avoid handling of the slimes when
subjecting them to treatment and to enable the treatment to be carried out con-
tinuously.
It consists of an apparatus composed of a series of precipitating or settling vats
and mixing or solution chambers, each vat being provided with a pipe led upwards
through the bottom of the vat, projecting internally to a point of discharge within
the vat below the surface of the water, which point of discharge is variable as the
density of the outflowing pulp, and which said pipe is preferably fitted with a
wide or bell shaped mouth, a funnel being also preferably suspended mouth down-
wards over the said discharge of the pipe aforementioned: the water or cyanide
solution, as the case may be, escapes along an overflow or discharge launder at
the top of the vat, while at the bottom of the vat is a regulating stopcock or valve
to enable the slimes, which have been settled, to be drawn off into a cylinder or
vessel into which cyanide solution is introduced with or without pressure for the
solution of the gold; compressed air may also be admitted in order to agitate the
mixture thoroughly.
In practice we find it advantageous to have a direct connection between the
vat and the mixing chamber thus making the latter an entirely closed vessel.
From this mixing chamber the mixture of slimes and cyanide solution with
the gold in solution is drawn off continuously and passed into a second vat identical
with that first described, where the slimes are precipitated, and the cyanide solu-
tion containing the gold carried by suitable launders or pipes to any known
apparatus for recovery of the gold.
The whole operation from first to last is continuous, and automatic when once
the various stop cocks etc. have been properly adjusted.
Dad thin 07th dow of Nanombor 1907

page_text: introduced through the opening G, and the pipes H and K for the admission
respectively of cyanide solution and compressed air, substantially as hereinbefore
described and illustrated on the accompanying drawings.
4. Tu apparatus for the treatment of slimes and tailings to extract the precious
metals therefrom, the combination of a precipitating vat as referred to in Claims 1
and 2 with the mixing vessel or chamber referred to in Claim 3, substantially as
herein before described and illustrated on the accompanying drawings.
5. An apparatus for the treatment of slimes and tailings to extract the precious
metals therefrom, arranged substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated
on the accompanying drawings.
25th day of holy 1999
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45. Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.