Show I THE ORE ATOMICPROCESS A New System For the Treatment of Gold Ores The New York Tribune gives the following fol-lowing interesting account of a new i process for the treatment of gold ores I There are two general methods of separating gold from the rock with i which it is associated in a vein In both the ore is crushed to a certain degree of fineness greater or less according ac-cording to circumstances The stuff is then washed with water over a layer of mercury with which the gold amalgamates I amal-gamates or else perhaps after a preliminary pre-liminary roasting mixed with a chemical chem-ical solution which dissolves the precious pre-cious metal Subsequently the gold is recovered horn the amalgam or the solution by further treatment In the system in which quicksilver is em ployed there is always a certain loss of the precious 1 metal Inasmuch as the rock is exceedingly hard usually quartz it is subjected to heavv hammering ham-mering in the final stage of pulverization pulveriza-tion apd in consequence some of the particles of gold are flattened into tinplates tin-plates or saucers and float away with the wash water Then too the mechanical me-chanical separation is not quite perfect per-fect and a little of the gold still remains re-mains imbedded in the minute bits of rock which go off as refuse or i tailings As it is usually a rather I highgrade ore which is handled in this I way the loss is apt to be disregarded But there has been a great tendency I toward more economical methods of late years and some of the chemical processes now hi vogue are well adapted to the treatment both of tailings tail-ings and lowgrade ores Attention has recently been directed in England and Australia to still another an-other plan for insuring the recovery of a very large percentage of the gold originally existing in the ore The main idea involved that of breaking up the quartz by alternately heating and cooling cool-ing it is old but some of the details of the process are new and it is claimed tor the socalled oreatomic system that it is more successful than I previous attemots in the same direction direc-tion I In the preliminary crushing the rock is brought down only to small lumps of convenient size and not to actual I powder The material is then iiVosed in a chamber from which the outside air Is caroiullv excluded and the I chamber is placed in a furnace in I which beside the fuel there are pieces of redhot iron A jet of steam is thrown upon both the coal or coke I and iron and the result is the development develop-ment of water gas and hydrogen These I gases have access to the chamber and I prevent the oxidization of the metal Indeed if there be any oxide in the ore it is reduced by the hydrogen Any sulphur which mav be present is also eliminated passing off in the form of sulphuretted hydrogen After the ore has remained in the heated chamber I I for a time whose length varies according I accord-ing to the composition of the rock it I is suddenly quenched by the injection injec-tion ot cold water Inasmuch as the fragments to which this first chill breaks up the quartz are not as small as could be desired the water is I drained off and the series of operations opera-tions is repeated several times Finally the contents of the chamber are I dumped into a tank When the ores ore-s cool enough to he taken between I the fingers it crumbles intu powder I easily No heavv stamps are required to pulverize the substance now It is alleged that there Is absolutely no loss in the form of float gold and no oxidization oxi-dization and therefore that all of the precious metal originally in the ore I may be recovered I In some experiments recently made I with the oreatomic system in London samples of Cripple Creek and West I Australian ores were treated An English En-glish weekly publication Invention I declares that disinterested experts were present and assisted in the tests It adds In every respect the results I were most satisfactory and unquestionably unques-tionably demonstrated the correctness of the principle involved It is announced an-nounced that the West Australian gold district corporation has bought the right to use the oreatomic system I |