REVOLNING FURNACE TO BE ERECTED AT WAIORONGOMAI TO COST £2000.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 200, 23 April 1887, Page 2

REVOLNING FURNACE TO BE ERECTED AT WAIORONGOMAI TO COST £2000.

♦ The result of repeated trials rna<le at a small test-plant croc ted by Mr H. 11. Adams, manager of Messrs Firth and Clarkes battery, Waiorongomai, on his return from the American gold fields, which in company with Mr J. 0. Firth he visited last summer to make enquiries respecting the latest improvements in machinery for treating auiiferous and argentiferous ores, have been so decidedly in favour of roasting th.i ore, that the proprietors of this battery have decided to erect a large furnace, etc., in connection with their plant, so as to be in a position to thus treat ore on a large scale. •As any advance made in the treatment of quartz is a subject of great importance to our district we append some particulars respecting the proposed plant, which we are sure will prove of interest to many of our readers. The building about to be erected to contain the furnace and other machinery will adjoin the existing tailings plant, on the western side. The structure will be built of wood, all covered with corrugated iron, and be 55ft in length by 40ft wide, with 16ft studs, lighted by means of side windows, and with a ventilating louvre the whole length of the gable. It is the intention to erect one of the White Owl Revolving Furnaces, a class of furnace very extensively used in America, from whence it is being imported. The furnace will bo 27ffc long, 52in in diameter, and will revolve at a slight angle, whereby the ore as it enters at the upper end will, by natural gravita- ! tion. pass slowly through the furnace and out at the lower end, and by means of this arrangement the ore gradually becomes heated to the highest poiufc, as it approaches the Ores. The furnace will be automatic in its working, self- feeding and self-discharging. Tho building will bo lar^e enough to receive a second of these furnaces later on if found necessary. The furnace will be driven by the present Pelton - water-wheel which works the tailings plant, by tho extension of the existing main driving shaft. The chimney stack will be octagon shaped and 54ft high, 12ft in diameter at the base, and 4ft at the top, the bricks for its construction will be locally made, being supplied from Mr Bew's brickyard. Between the chimney and the furnace, and abutting on to the former, condensing chambers, to occupy about 40ft of space, will bo erected, also of brick. The 24 berdans now in the battery will be removed and ro-erected in tho tailings plant building (which, as previously stated will directly adjoin tho furnaco house) in addition to the 3s berdans already working there; and in the space they occupied in the battery will be constructed a series of largo settling pits, into which all tailings will pass.direct from the stamper j tables. < Fr6ni these pits the settled j tailings will bo conveyed by a tramway, j (which it is intended to construct »«- j mediately abovo the water race load- j ing to the tailings plant) close to tho

fnrnace house, where they will be spread out to suu dry for a time, after which they will be- again tracked and tipped direct into' the roaster, from whence they will fall into the chlorodisinf chambers, and from there be tracked direct to the berdans. The fuel to bo used will be wood.' The estimated cost of erecting the furnace, etc., and alterations in connection therewith, is £2000. Judging by the results obtained from the many tests made on a small scale of treating ore in the manner proposed before it was decided to erect this new plant, it is confidently believed that this method 'of treatment will be .the means of at least 10 per cent more of the precious metals being saved than is obtainable at present. We sincerely trust results will not only be fully equal to, but surpass this expectation, and the proprietors be handsomely rewarded for their pluck and enterprise as evinced by the erection of so costly a plant for the more efficient treatment of ore, and that too in the facoof prevailing depression.