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Show i!l SEllil DE01OFECTPIE Many New Processes Being Tried to Circumvent Court Decision. Tiie Viiitcd Slates supreme court decision deci-sion in the litiyiUion between the .Minerals .Min-erals Separation North American corporation corpora-tion and J3utle & Superior linir.- company com-pany has become effective, more than thirty days having elapsed hi nee the decision de-cision was rendered, says the Uo.ston Xcwh B'ureau. Today there will be handed to Judye Bourquin in the federal court at Hch-na, Afont., a mandate enforcing the judgment. judg-ment. This will automatiraliy carry with it an injunction preventing Butte & Superior Su-perior from usiny; les than 1 per cent oil per ton in its operations. A finally, the mining company will be restrained from usin the Minerals Separation process in any form. An accounting, then to follow, will determine de-termine the profits and damages due Minerals Min-erals Separation for admitted infringement infringe-ment and use of "oil flotation" prior to January. UUT. Tho accounting will also cover infringement for all use of less than 1 per cent .since that time. As a result of supplemental evidence being be-ing taken in Minerals Separat ion vs. Miami case, the scone of the various Minerals Min-erals Separat tun patent s should soon be approximated. Minerals Separation has always claimed control over the froth flotation process of ore concentration principally through its alleged bns'y patent pat-ent and the one covering the use of soluble solu-ble f rot Hi ng agents. Most mining men have until recently felt otherwise, and, of the roughly "j.'.O companies using flotation flota-tion in 'the' "Tutted States, about -12o refuse to pay royalty. Metallurgists say the recent decision of the United States supreme court in Minerals Min-erals Separation vs. Butte & Superior not only confirms the former in b;isic control, but by raising the oil limit from -j pet-cent pet-cent to 1 per cent, so increases (he patent's pat-ent's range that successful evasion is difficult. dif-ficult. When the lower courts Interpreted Inter-preted the first supreme court decision in the Miami case as limiting the patent -to Vi per cent or less, many hoped to see it not merely circumvented, but eventually construed as a process patent. This last Butte & Superior decision was therefore a keen disappointment to mining interests, even if most of the large lead, zinc and copper companies had taken out licenses. Utah, Ray, Nevada, Chi no, Miami and Tennessee Copper still resist. Granby, as it will use sea water, not oil, at Anyox, w-ill probably escape. For the others, further fur-ther refusal appears dangerous, even if experts feel that an efficient method of effecting flotation outside Minerals Sepa-rat'on Sepa-rat'on control will be found. Three possibilities of applying flotation without infringement present themselves. The first is that tried latterly by Butte fc Superior use of more than 1 per cent through retort to less expensive oils. Had the controlling patent been limited to Viper Vi-per cent, this alternative would promise much. With the limit per cent, cost, and frequently metallurgical inefficiency, will prevent wide recourse to such practice. prac-tice. A second alternative is use of an insoluble frothing agent. In this direction considerable experimenting has been done and more is contemplated. Rut. judging from certain phases of the Miami litigation, litiga-tion, present developments in this direction direc-tion do not appear to offer great promise of relief. - The third alternative is to obtain ob-tain efficient flotation without resort to "brisk" agitation, whatever that term may prove to mean as used in Minerals Separation's main patent. Minerals Separation will probably continue con-tinue to charge reasonable royalties, otherwise much less use will be made of flotation. On simple ores, gravity concentration con-centration can, with more careful crushing, crush-ing, approach flotation recoveries. On complex ores, leaching methods and volatilization vola-tilization of the metals as chlorides promise prom-ise to become highiy efficient processes. Flotation is here to stay. But the future will probably see its field restricted, not enlarged, in the general treatment of ores. Today milling practice is pregnant with possibilities. |