IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER, AND IN OBTAINING GOLD AND SILVER FROM THE ORES EMPLOYED IN SUCH MANUFACTURE
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Hussey Vivian, Bernhardt Gustav Herrmann,
and William Morgan, all of the Hafod Works, Swansea, in the County
of Glamorgan, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF COPPER, AND IN OBTAINING GOLD AND SILVER FROM THE ORES EMPLOYED
IN SUCH MANUFACTURE."
Sealed the 19th September 1856, and dated the 23rd June 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Hussey Vivian,
Bernhardt Gustav Herrmann, and William Morgan at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 23rd June 1856.
We, HENRY HUSSEY VIVIAN, BERNHARDT GUSTAV HERRMANN, and WILLIAM
MORGAN, all of the Hafod Works, Swansea, in the County of Glamorgan, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF COPPER, AND IN OBTAINING GOLD AND SILVER FROM THE ORES EMPLOYED
IN SUCH MANUFACTURE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
copper, and in obtaining gold and silver from the ores employed in such
manufacture. For these purposes, in the manufacture of copper from ores, it
is found that the metallic bottoms of the selecting process contain for the most
part the gold of the ores employed in the manufacture of copper; and in place
of treating or using these bottoms as heretofore, they are again and again

page_text: reduced to a regulus, which is again and again roasted, so as to produce
a metallic bottom in which the gold is concentrated.
In order to produce this regulus we prefer to oxidize the metallic copper.
This may be done by melting, granulating, and calcining the metallic copper,
and thus converting it into oxide of copper (in a pulverized state), which we
melt with sulphur compounds; or the oxidation may be effected by passing a
current of air over the metallic copper in a melted state; and when this
process is employed the gold will for the most part be concentrated in the last
portion of metallic copper, which should be retained and separately treated...
By this process also argentiferous metallic copper may be converted into
a regulus of copper, in which it is more readily treated for its silver.
The repeated abstraction of metallic copper, carrying with it various im-
purities, causes the copper remaining in the state of regulus to be of improved
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Hussey Vivian, Bernhardt Gustav Herrmann, and
William Morgan in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd December
1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
HUSSEY VIVIAN, BERNHARDT GUSTAV HERRMANN, and WILLIAM MORGAN, all of
the Hafod Works, Swansea, in the County of Glamorgan, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Henry Hussey Vivian, Bernhardt Gustav Herrmann, and William Morgan,
Her special licence that we, the said Henry Hussey Vivian, Bernhardt
Gustav Herrmann, and William Morgan, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Henry Hussey Vivian, Bernhardt
Gustav Herrmann, and William Morgan, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER, AND IN OBTAINING GOLD AND
SILVER FROM THE ORES EMPLOYED IN SUCH MANUFACTURE," upon the condition
(amongst others). that we, the said Henry Hussey Vivian, Bernhardt Gustav,

page_text: Herrmann, and William Morgan, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
. NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Henry Hussey Vivian, Bernhardt
Gustav Herrmann, and William Morgan, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say:-
Our Invention has chiefly reference to the treatment of metallic copper
bottoms, derived from the well-known smelting process of selecting or regule
5 making up, to the production of which metallic bottoms we introduce no
alteration in the smelting of copper ores, whether they be auriferous,. argen-
tiferous, or so allied with impurities as to produce bottoms in the selecting
process of greatly depreciated value when reduced to a marketable state. Our
Invention is also applicable to the auriferous, argentiferous, or impure copper
of commerce.
We now proceed to describe the method we adopt for dealing with such
metallic bottoms or copper, which, whether derived from the tapping beds or
purchased, is in the state of pigs or blocks; we melt these pigs or blocks and
tap the melted metal into cold water, of which a constant supply must be kept
5 up, so as to cause the metal to assume the form known as feathered shot; and
to facilitate the after-process of calcination, all large pieces should be picked
out and remelted. We next calcine the metal in an ordinary calciner until the
whole, or practically the whole, is converted into an oxide, that is to say, until
it is susceptible of being pounded to dust in a mortar. We have found that
an ordinary copper-works calciner is capable of bringing 3 tons of copper into
this state in 72 hours. We charge one ton and withdraw one ton each
24 hours, introducing it at the end of the calciner most remote from the fire,
and advancing it each 24 hours towards the bridge; in the meantime
the granulated copper must be frequently stirred so as to expose fresh surfaces,
and a bright red heat must be kept up.
The above is the process of oxidization which we consider the best, but the
metal may be otherwise oxidized if it be preferred.
Having converted the bottom or metallic copper into an oxide, we next mix
that oxide with a sulphurous material, and melt the mixture so as to reduce it.

page_text: into a regulus of copper. We have mixed 26 cwt. of sulphurous copper ore
('containing, say 30 per cent. of sulphur,) with 16 cwt. of oxide, and have con-
verted the oxide of copper into a regulus (of about 40 per cent.) We have
also 'mixed the oxide with raw ore, furnace metal, and siliceous matter, and
produced a like result. A small metallic bottom is usually produced in this
process, which will be found to be rich in gold. It is quite possible to mix a
smaller portion of of sulphurous material, and thus to produce less regulus and
more metallic copper or bottom; but we find it in practice to be better to
reduce nearly the whole oxide of copper to regulus. We then advance the
regulus by calcining and smelting, or by roasting, up to "white metal" of about
70%, and submit this white metal to the selecting process, so as to produce
"light regule" and metallic bottoms. From the ordinary furnace charge of
2 tons we have obtained 30 cwt. of regule and 5 to 6 cwt. of bottoms with a
satisfactory result. These bottoms will be found to contain nearly all the gold
contained in the copper or bottom originally operated on. If any sensible
amount of gold remains in the regule a second selecting will remove it and
concentrate it in the bottoms.
We have found that lead, arsenic, and antimony are generally (collectively
or separately)-present in the 'auriferous copper bottoms, and that their presence
materially facilitates the concentration of the gold in the bottoms; should
neither of these be present, we recommend the addition of lead, in the shape of
litharge or ore, in the reducing of the oxide to a regulus. We then submit the
metallic bottoms, thus formed, again and again to the process of granulation,
oxidation, reduction to regulus, and concentration by selecting until the gold
exists in such a proportion to the copper as to render its separation by any of
the well-known methods economical.
If the metallic bottom or copper should contain silver alone, we reduce it, as
before described, by granulation, oxidation, and smelting with a sulphurous
material to a regulus. We are then enabled to submit it to the process
in operation at our works, for which a Patent was obtained by John Taylor,
to extract the silver.
If the metallic bottoms or copper be both auriferous and argentiferous, we
treat the regule derived from each selecting process for silver by the 'above-
named Patent, and the bottoms as before described for gold. If any metallic
bottom or copper be so alloyed with impurities as to render it of depreciated
value if reduced to a marketable form in the usual way, we granulate, oxidize,
and reduce it to a regulus; and we are thus enabled to submit the copper as
frequently as we desire to the selecting process, and thus to obtain from it
copper of a superior quality.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, we would have it understood that what we claim is, the
reducing metallic bottoms or copper to the state of regulus, and roasting and
smelting the same so as to obtain metallic bottoms, in which the gold is
concentrated, and is further concentrated by repeating the process; and by
which process also a regulus of improved quality is obtained, which may con-
veniently be treated to separate silver, either by the process for which a Patent
was granted to John Taylor, or otherwise.
We also claim the method herein described for producing a regulus from a
metallic bottom or copper, viz, by converting the same into an oxide, and
fusing such oxide with a sulphur compound.
In witness whereof, the said Henry Hussey Vivian, Bernhardt Gustav
Herrmann, & William Morgan, have hereunto set their hands and
seals, this Twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness to the signature of Wm Morgan,
H. P. HARVEY,
Assayer to Mess" Vivian & Sons.