A GREAT DISCOVERY IN GOLD MINING.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 425, 10 December 1868, Page 3

A GREAT DISCOVERY IN GOLD MINING.

(_F/W/» flic Toronto Leader.) Intense excitement among the mining speculators of Boston has bceu created, according to accounts, by the remark able results attained last Friday in the testing of a new treatment of ores by the use of a material known as the " Stevens Mux," which has recently been discovered aud brought to notice by Colonel C. C. Stevens, of ]N r ew York, it bids fair, it' the report may be believed, to quadruple, or multiply even beyond that, the productiveness of the gold mines of the world, and it is estimated by the Boston Post that at least 40,000,000 dollars in Boston alone, which her merchants aud other capitalists have invested in rich but unworked mines, and advertised as sunk, will be redeemed and agaiu become active capital. We quote from the JPost the following account of Colonel Stevens' discovery aud of the practical trials made last week : Colonel Stevens was no geologist or chemist, and first had his attention drawn to sulphurets and the desulphurising of gold ores while he was in a prison pea in Georgia, in company with a large number of deserters from the rebel army. These men were uneducated, but had worked in the mines of Georgia for years, cud simply knew that if, as the}' said, ' the sulphur could be got rid of, the gold would all appear.' Their oft-repeated conversation made a serious impression on Colonel Stevens, though he had as yet never seen a sulpkurer. Some time after the close of the war (this imt>ression being still upon his mind) le accidentally become acquainted with the material which he now uses for smelting ore, and lor which at the time he knew no name, not being a practical chemist. Directly after this •accidental discorery, which was about

one year ago, he came to Boston, when ho ordered by express a small keg of the material.

Passing through Devonshire-street one day, disectly after his arrival, and noticing the sign of " Samuel P. Guild, assayer," he called upon Mr Guild and employed him to make an assay, having first obtained some sulphuretted ores for his purpose. Neither Colonel Stevens nor Mr. Guild had any idea of what " the stuff" was that they were going to use in smelting the ore. However, the treatment was made; and in the place of getting at the rate of 300 dollars per ton, which was the mint assay of that particular ore, they got over 1,400 dollars per ton. This was astonishing, and the two gentlemen looked on each other with amazement. " Something wrong about this," said the Colonel, " 1,400 dollars per ton—that will never do." So another test was made. The balance of the ore was pulverised, and divided into equal parts. One half was then assayed by the regular mint process, and true enough it yielded at the rate of 300 dollars per ton. Then the other half was treated with the " stuff," and again they found the 1,400 dollars per ton. This was astonishing and convincing, but "we cannot dodge the result,,' said Mr Guild, " for there it is." Repeated experiments were then made by Mr Guild, and ores were sent to his office to be tested from nearly all the companies in the country. In the meantime Colonel Stevens had secured by contract all the material which is now known as Stevens flux, contracting to pay 30,000 dollars a year for it for ninety-nine years. Having thus secured for himself this great desulphurizing agent, he named it the Stevens flux, for treating mining ores. In speaking of this flux, in a recent official paper, Professor Hayes, state assayer, says:—This new flux is a residue, remaining after the extraction of sodium from the mineral cryolite, and consists of fluoride of calcium and aluminium, with some caustic and some carbonate of lime, in varying proportions, like silica and oxide of iron. The fluxing powder is dependent on the fluorides present, and is generally aided by the addition of a chloride, such as common salt, in mixture with it. Besides a high efficiency in causing ordinary rocks and gangues to become fluxed by heat, the fluorides give a remarkable fluidity to the melted mass, and they ensure the disposition of any metallic globules, reduced from the ores submitted to trial, so that the metal is found at the bottom in a clean solid state in cooling." Professor Hayes also says in this same paper that his trials with this flux covered its action on the silicious, aluminious, calcareous rocks and sulphurretted ores with compound rocks ; and in ail these applications their minerals were perfectly melted into thin, glass-like masses, and the metal, or regulus, always separated cleanly from the ore. Here there is an admission on the part ofo.e of our well-known men of science, that this flux is the very agent asked for by the Georgia miners to destroy the sulphur and drive away the silica, the " old queen bee " of the mineral hive. The professor also says that his experiments demonstrated that " this flux may be applied iu the large way for reducing ores directly in furnaces of proper form." This statement has now been fairly verified, the experiment being made by the Acworth Mining Company, of Georgia iu a furnace erected by Colonel Stevens, at Lichfield foundry, in East Boston.