NEW AMALGAMATOR.

Dunstan Times, Issue 518, 22 March 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW AMALGAMATOR.

(From the Southern Cross.) Messrs Plumley and Cornforth, of Auckland, have recently secured jointly a patent for a new amalgamating process, which they have called the Mercurial Percolation Gold-amalga-matting Proccs?. The method is extremely simple, and is likely, \vc should think, to prove very effective. The design tlie inventor has had in view is to. pass the crushed quartz completely through the mercury, aud so bring, every grain of it in close contact with the quicksilver. This object has been gained by a simple adaptation of the greatest of all natural principles, that of gravitation. A circular quicksilver bath of any desired size is prepared, but for convenience ot illustration we will suppose it is fixed at 8 inches deep, which is a good size for practical purposes. The diameter, c f course, must be regulated by circumstances. Now, quicksilver is thirteen times heavier than water, and it therefore follows

that in order to .make water and quartz flow freely through the quicksilver by gravitation, acolumnof water thirteen and a half to fourteen times the size of the quicksilver must be obtained Based on these first principles, in the percolation process an iron pipe of the required proportion is made. Following out ihe supposition of an eight inch bath, a pipe nine feet or nine feet four inches would be required This is filled with iron guards at such a distance up as to bring the bof-oni of the pipe, when placed in the bath, nearly to the bottom of the quicksilver. Now if water and quartz were poured down this pipe, it is quite evident that *ho foice of gravity would send it completely out of the bottom of the pipe, and the great density of the quicksilver would f )rce it to the surface pf the bath and over the sides. In its passage the quicksilver ‘would amalgamate with the gold, the tailings only being driven to the surface and parsing away over the side. This is actually the process which Messrs. Plumley and Coruforth’s machine dcvelopes. There are, however, additions made to render (ho process more perfect and thorough. These are in the form of a sieve at the top of the pipe, which prevents quartz of too large a size for amalgamation from passing through, and round the bottom end of the pipe there arc five row* of plates perforated with similar holes to those in the sieve. These plates fitclose to the s'dcs ol the quicksil verb?, th, and as they are inserted into the bath and covered with the quicksilver, it is impossible

for the water ami quartz tailings to come to the surface without passing through them. Their object is to make the process of amalgamation more perfect by interrupting the progress of the tailings in their way to the surface, and so bring every particle in contact with the quicksilver. The sieve at the top regulates the size of the crushed quartz passed through, so that no stoppage can be caused at the bottom. The process appears to supply a great want, which has been felt in treating line alluvial gold sand, as every particle must come in contact with the quicksilver. When it is desired to use a bath of such weight as to render working by gravity inconvenient or impossible, a force-pump can be employed to drive the quartz through the quicksilver. The same inventors have also devised an amalgamating machine for alluvial rock ly which the water is passed down a pipe into the bottom of a quicksilver bath, and as it rises to the surface by gravitation is pumped ouf by a suction pump. We arc informed .that the percolation prdeess was ' tried at Tookey’a battery for forty-eight hours as an experiment, with most satisfactory results. It is well worthy of the attention of those interested in ! mining.