IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PULVERISING TAILINGS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 132, 21 May 1872, Page 5

IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PULVERISING TAILINGS.

We have been favoured by Mr W. Watson, late of the Royal Standard battjry, with the following details of an improved apparatus for pulverising tailings. The idea seems feasible, and we lay it before our readers for them to judge of its value. It will be seen to be a modification of "the berdati"; and, in the event of large quantities of pyrites being found generally through our reefs, may prove of considerable importance. The plans can be inspected at our office : This machine consists <jf two wooden horses on frames to carry the driv!.»j and vortical shafts ; a basin, or pan, of cast iron ; a grinder ; wooden shoots ; and a cast-iron cistern containing quicksilver.

Its object is to extract as much gold as possible from t tilings, by the following process : The tailings fill into a wooden sho >t at t!ie foot of the copper tables, by which they are conveyed into the grinding pin or basin, in which is inserted a grinder having an upright shaft, and bevel wheel ; geiriug with a horizontal shaft ,tnd bevel wheel, driven by moans of a belt and pulley from theca n-shaft. The grinder, or pulveriser, fits close; to the basin, and has an adjusting screw to regulate the fineness t > which the tailings may be reduced. They thou pass through two or m ire apertures in the bottom of the grinding pan, into a wooden shoot of any convenient height, the cod of which is immersed in quicksilver contained i 1 a cistern. All the tailings must be expose 1, by means of grivitation, to a pressure of mercury, thereby e.umriug amalgamation of all the tine particles of gold that would pass over the surface of the tables and be lost. Where steam is used, a pipe may be led to heat the cistern surrounili lg the mercury. With this machine, all occasion for the use of blanket-tables is done away with. The cost of the apparatus, for a ten-stamp battery, would be about £IOO.