IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING GOLD AND SILVER FROM PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION PROM ORES,, ALLOYS, OR COMPOUNDS CONTAINING SUCH METALS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Cameron and James Napier, both of
Loughor, in the County of Glamorgan, Practical Chemists, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING GOLD AND SILVER FROM
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Cameron and
James Napier at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 15th November 1858.
We, JOHN CAMERON and JAMES NAPIER, both of Loughor, in the
County of Glamorgan, Practical Chemists, do hereby declare the nature
of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING GOLD AND SILVER
PROM ORES,, ALLOYS, OR COMPOUNDS CONTAINING SUCH METALS" to be as
follows:-
Our Invention consists in the separation of gold and silver from their
ores, alloys, or compounds containing such metals, by the application of
the property (when fused with such compound) of reducing such metals

page_text: from the state of oxide, carbonate, or chloride, to the metallic state
possessed by the under-mentioned matters or materials, or a mixture
of two or more of them, and in the property pertaining to them
of not reducing any or very small portions of the other metals.
When the compounds in which the silver or gold is contained do not
contain any other metal, simple fusion with one, two, or more of the
reducing agents is sufficient, with the addition, when necessary, of
fluxes to form a fusible slag. When the compounds contain metal
other than silver or gold, these must be reduced to the state of oxides,
carbonates, or chlorides, if not already in that state; this is to be done
by calcination of the compound in a pulverized state in the ordinary
way when we wish to form oxides, whereby all the metals will be
oxidized, and when fused as before with any one, two, or more of
reducing agents and fluxes, if necessary, to form a fusible slag, the
silver and gold will be reduced to the metallic state, and the other
metals will remain in the slag.
When we wish to form chlorides we calcine the compound in a
pulverized state with common salt, whereby we form chlorides of all,
or nearly all, the metals which might be reduced by fusion.
When the compound is an alloy in the metallic state, we in the first
place fuse it with any substance capable of rendering the alloy brittle,
if not already so, whereupon we crush and pulverize it, and proceed to
calcine, as above, to oxidize or chlorize the metals, after which it is
fused, as other oxides or chlorides.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Cameron and James Napier in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 11th May 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
JOHN CAMERON and JAMES NAPIER, both of Loughor, in the County of
Glamorgan, Practical Chemists, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of November, in the

page_text: year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said John Cameron and James
Napier, Her special licence that we, the said John Cameron and James
Napier, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said John Cameron and James Napier, our executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and 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 ORTAIN-
ING GOLD AND SILVER FROM ORES, ALLOYS, OR COMPOUNDS CONTAINING SUCH
METALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John
Cameron and James Napier, or one of us, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and seals, or under the hand and scal of one of us,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 John Cameron and James
Napier, 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 consists in obtaining gold and silver from ores, alloys,
or compounds containing such metals; and in order that our Invention
may be fully understood and readily carried into effect, we will proceed
to describe some of the processes we have found to answer. When
there are a variety of ores to operate upon, we arrange or classify them
for obtaining gold and silver by our Invention in the following order.
Should the ores contain copper or any other metal which we may also
wish to obtain, we separate these from such ores as contain gold and
silver, and proceed thus:-We first fuse the ore in a reverboratory

page_text: furnace, adding such fluxes as will make the slag quite fluid, two or
three per cent., by weight, of carbonate of soda or potash added, greatly
assists this operation; the slag is stirred well for several times during
fusion with an iron paddle, and then, after about half an hour, carefully
removed by skimming or tapping. If the silver and gold ores have con-
tained no other metal, or sulphur, the gold and silver will be obtained
at the bottom, under the slag, ready for parting; should there have
been present other metals, with or without sulphur, but not copper,
then a portion of these will be found either as an alloy or with sulphur
and oxygen, forming what is termed a regulus, with which will be the
gold and silver; if regulus, it is ground fine and transferred to an
ordinary roasting or calcining furnace, in order to drive off all the
sulphur, raising the heat gradually till the whole of the sulphur has
been liberated and the metals converted into oxides. The calcined
powder is then fused in a small furnace or pots, as convenient, when
the gold and silver will be obtained as a metallic alloy; in this fusion
we prefer adding a little.carbonate of soda or potash, or other suitable
fluxes, in the proportion of half a pound to the hundred pounds of
powder. If the metals obtained in the first fusion be an alloy having
gold and silver in it, it is treated in a way to be herein-after described
when treating of metallic alloys.
Should the ores be those termed auriferous pyrites, the principal part
being sulphuret of iron, we first calcine in a state of fine powder till
all the sulphur is liberated and the metals converted into oxides; we
theu fuse the calcined ore as herein-before described, when the gold and
silver will be obtained in one or other of the conditions referred to
above, and is treated accordingly, as the case may be.
Should the ores contain copper and sulphur, we proceed as in the
ordinary method of copper smelting, namely, calcine a few hours and
fuse, so as to free the ore from the earthy matters and obtain a regulus,
having the copper and any other metal with sulphur and the gold and
silver.in it; we then proceed to calcine the regulus in a pulverized-
state with common salt, in the proportion of two parts common salt to
one part of silver contained in the regulus. The calcination is con-

page_text: tinued for three or four hours, which will be sufficient to convert the
whole of the silver contained in the regulus into chloride; we then fuse
the calcined regulus in the usual way, using three parts of any reducing
fluxes to one part of chloride of silver in the regulus, we prefer carbo-
nate of soda or potash; the slag is then skimmied and the metals are
tapped or ladled out, when the gold and silver, alloyed. with: a little
copper, will be found. We refine this alloy in the ordinary way by
cupellation; the scoriae of this cupellation is fused with carbonaceous
matters and the copper will be obtained, or it may be put in with
copper ores as cobbing, or the alloy may be remelted with the uncal-
cined regulus of the first class of ores, when the copper will be separated
in the slag; but the slag skimmed off the fused metal is either ground
and calcined and proceeded with to obtain the copper in the ordinary
method of smelting copper, or it may be roasted, and the copper
obtained in this way, as is well known in practice.
In order to separate gold and silver from alloys we fuse the alloy
with any substance capable of rendering it brittle, if not already pul-
verizable, whereupon we crush and grind it into a fine powder, and
proceed to calcine, as herein-before described to oxidize, or with com-
mon salt to chloridize the gold and silver, after which it is fused as
other oxides or chlorides, to obtain the gold and silver, using carbonate
of soda or potash.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the means
for performing the same, we would have it understood that we do not
confine ourselves to the precise details herein described, provided the
peculiar character of our Invention be retained; and be it further
understood, that although we have only mentioned carbonates of soda
and potash as the fluxes or reducing agents we found to answer, but we
also find that the following substances can also be used for the same
purpose:-Sulphates and sulphites of the alkalies and alkaline earths;
hyposulphates and hyposulphites of the alkalies and alkaline earths;
the alkalies and alkaline earths, carbonates of the alkaline earths,
chloride of sodium, oxides of iron. It may sometimes be found that
one or more of these substances exist in the ore in sufficient quan-

page_text: tities to effect the purpose required, in which case we do not add any
flux or reducing agent.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Cameron and James
Napier, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Sixth
day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
J. TREV. JENKIN,
of Swansea, Glamorganshire,
Solicitor.
JOHN CAMERON. (L.S.)
JAMES NAPIER.
(L.S.)