REDUCTION OF LOW GRADE ORES BY ELECTRICITY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 317, 17 November 1888, Page 2

REDUCTION OF LOW GRADE ORES BY ELECTRICITY.

The Utah Mining and Eeduction Company, whose works are located at Bingham, ten miles south of Salt Lake City, are using the new " Meech process " in the reduction of their low grade and rebellious ores with success. The ore is passed through a crusher and rolls, crushed to 40 mesh fine, thence into a disintegrating machine, four tons at a time, through a valve, with sufficient water and chemicals to treat the sulphur and re* fractory elements. Steam is then admitted to a pressure o£ 1001b per square inch, and, at the same time, the mullers are revolved atabout 30 revolutions per minute, generating electricity in such volume as to greatly assist in the decomposition of the ore. This is continued for three hours. The ore is reduced to an impalpable powder, many times finer than is possible by other methods, and is thoroughly decomposed and desulphurised. The water absorbs the chemicals, every atom of gold is made bright, and in condition for amalgamation. The pulp is now discharged into tho amalgamator below, a revolving machine seven feet long and five feet in diameter, in which are copper plates placed lengthwise, and, by hydrostatic pressure, quicksilver is thoroughly pressed through the ore, by .i " settler "of peculiar shape, having an electric copper wire broom to assist in gathering the fine amalgam before the tailings arc discharged. The cost of the treatment is from two to three dollars per ton, and as the gold ores treated run from 12 dollars to 20 dollars per ton, it leaves a handsome margin for the owners. The ore veins are large, and thousands of tons, or enough to supply the mill for the next one hundred'years, are already in sight. By this process about 90 per cent of tne gold is saved, The works occupy about nine acres of land on the banks of the Jordon River, and consist of two main buildings— 32 by 64, and 24 by 34 — one two-storey boarding house, one^ blacksmith shop, two 35 horsepower engines, one crusher, one roll, and other necessary appurtenances, are connected with the mines by the Denver and Rio Grande and Western Railway, and demonstrate in a practical manner the immense sums that can be realised from the treatment of low grade and refractory ore dumps, that have heretofore been considered absolutely worthless.— Scientific American.