REDUCTION OF PYRITES.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1079, 10 June 1873, Page 2

REDUCTION OF PYRITES.

The importance of the works under-" taken by the Pyrites Seduction Company, at the Thames, deserves flotice, not only on account of the expensive character of the work themselves, but the importance which must attach to any method adopted for extracting the gold from quartz, a large per centage of which is known to be lostv The erection of these works has already been commenced, under the supervision 1 of Mr Masters, and they will no doubt be carried to a successful issue. The principal feature of the process is a large reverberating furnace. The erection of this has been commenced. It will be 56 feet long and 14< feet \tido when finished, and divided into five compartments, each ten feet long. At the extreme end of the furnace are two condensors, to condense the fumes. After the stuff is thoroughly it is drawn off through a shoot fixed in the end of the furnace, and then subjected first to the dry grinding process, and next to the wet amalgamating process. The first treatment of the tailings before they are sent to the furnace will be a concentration by which the stuff will be reduced to one tenth of its bulk, only the heavier portions and the pyrites being retained, and the rest of the worthless debris drawn off from it. The treatment which the ealcined stuff has to undergo after passing through the furnace is simple enough, very little manual labor being required. The greater portion of the apparatus is self-feed-ing. The chimney stack will be 98 feet high, and will be so constructed

as to consume not only the smoke, but the sulphurets and other vapours discharged from the furnace. The manager guarantees .to extract 90 per cent, of the gold contained in any tailings submitted to this process.