Show department of metallurgical metallurgy cal research U of U by PROF D A LYON although utah has long been a metal producer her high standing as a mining state is due rather to her seemingly inexhaustible haus tible supply of medium and low grade rather than to her high grade ores however the successful treatment of these low grade ores has presented a problem which has not as yet been satisfactorily solved in a great many instances it is due to this tact fact that at its tenth regular session in 1913 the legislature of the state of utah provided for the establishment ot of a metallurgical lurg ical research department in connection with th the state school of mines of th the e uni rosity of utah the act creating this department part ment states that the purposes of this research department shall be to conduct ex mP director ector metallurgical depart doliar f utah state to school of mines university of peri ments and researches either alone or in operation cooperation co with the national bureau of mines and other agencies with a view of finding ways and methods of profitably treating low grade ores of obtaining other information that shall have for its object the benefit of the mining industry and the utilization and conservation of the mineral resources of the state and to publish and distribute bulletins and articles relating to the department and work although this act became e effective in july 1913 it was not until the latter part of january 1914 that a working arrangement was effected with the united states bureau of mines abines by which the bureau is furnishing the director of the research department part ment and other assistants the university hersity y of utah is providing the buildings and equipment and also five metallurgical research fellowships of the yearly value of each the fellowships are awarded to graduates of colleges and preferably mining schools who have shown special aptitude for research investigation in its work of the conservation of minerals resources of the nation the bureau of mines attempts to keep in close touch with all important metallurgical research work in this country among its other functions it aims to act as a clearing house for all work being done in this line the department is thus kept in close communication with similar work done by others technical experts and specialists employed by the bureau along various lines also visit the department from time to time and in tills this way assist those in charge of the work along their special lines preliminary survey of state one of the first things that was undertaken by the department of metallurgical research was to make a preliminary survey of the state in order to obtain some idea of the location and extent of the low grade ore deposits therefore considerable time and attention has been given to the examination of the reported low grade deposits and tailings bai lings dumps As was to be expected some of the reported extensive low grade propositions have proven upon investigation to be of such small tonnage as not to warrant special study while others have been found to be all that has been claimed for them of the low grade ore deposits that are at present being worked the mammoth deposits of mono porphyry at bingham are perhaps the best known thes deposits carry low percentages of copper silver and gold the problem of treating these ores was solved only by careful and painstaking experimental research on the part of those in charge of the work that these deposits are being successfully worked is due dua largely to the fact that mr D C jackling and his associates were able to anticipate the results of mining and milling on a tremendous scale twenty five million dollars have been spent in developing this property meanwhile over has h as been distributed in dividends under normal conditions the yearly production of the utah copper company is tons of ore from which pounds of copper is extracted although the tonnage of ore treated is enormous and the amount of copper produced is very large the percentage saved of the values contained in the ore is very low this is due to the fact that a large part of the ore is a mixture of sul aphides and oxides of copper while it is possible in present day milling practice to recover sulphide materials not so with oxides or at least to any appreciable extent the problem therefore that presents itself in this case is to recover the values that occur in the oxides and which now escape and go to the tailings and likewise to recover the values contained in the capping 0 of oxidized ores overlying the ores now being treated this capping material is of itself an enormous low grade proposition as it runs well up in copper in fact often equals equal ls the porphyry ore As this class of capping is kept separated from the ore bearing waste rock forty odd millions tons of it have accumulated which it is expected will subsequently retreated be treated by a leaching process for the purpose of dissolving out the metal contained in it the mining ana milling operations of the utah copper company illustrate the results of the application on an enormous scale of methods worked out for one class of low grade ore deposits treatment of low grade another phase of the low grade problem which have those ores of is the treatment removal only OL of the been left behind after would pay for treatment those ores that could not be which at the time this ore mine cuned d not was either treated at a profit make way for the moved to or was only often this low mining of richer ore very grade material was stored in slopes from which the richer ores had been removed for example inthe in the tintic gintic district the ores cost of mining transportation that would stand the por tation and smelter treatment were shipped to the smelters shelters sm elters in the salt lake valley locally by milling methods or else treated ores high in silica and hence hard to smelt that carried values below 10 per ton were either left in the mine or stored on dumps large tonnages ton nages of low grade ores occur in all of the principal mining districts of the state and the tonnage of these untreated ores is fairly well known the smaller camps also have their problems and the treatment of the ores of these camps will no doubt prove profitable as soon as suitable processes have been worked out for them considerable individual research work has of late been carried on with a view of discovering such processes As a result of work of this nature the holt dern bern process was developed which has been installed by the mines operating company at park city for the treatment of the ore stored in the old of the ontario mine and the knight christensen process at silver city for the treatment of low grade ores belonging to the jesse knight interests commercially efficient treatment the commercially efficient treatment of low grade ores is receiving attention not only in utah but in ull all of the western mining states as well just as in utah so in these other states are there low grade ores which cannot be successfully concentrated by present day milling methods into a sufficiently high grade product to permit of its being profitably treated by the smelters shelters sm elters it is true that the introduction of flotation processes have made it possible to successfully concentrate finely divided sulphide materials which formerly WP went nt over the concentrating tables into the tailings however no sue process has yet been installed on a commercial scale so far as the writer is aware for the mechanical concentration ot oxidized ores therefore as smelting smelling sm elting pro besses are adapted only to the treatment of ores containing relatively high metal values it is only natural that metallurgists should have turned their attention to the develop ment of hydro metallurgical processes al AI though the hydro metallurgy of copper hay has been practised practiced for over fifty years in spain at rio tinto it is only within the past few years that the subject has been given much attention in this country however at the present time we find a large number of min ing companies who are doing experimental work along this line and in many instances such work has progressed far enough to warrant they the companies in the construction of plants prominent among which may be mentioned the inspiration consolidated cop COB per company which hasi has tons of ores to be treated by a leaching process phelps dodge go co bisbee arizona who expect to erect a ton plant the nevada douglas copper company which is also building a ton leaching plant the utah copper company which it is stated expects to build a 2000 ton plant and the anaconda coper company which is erecting a plant which will ultimately have a capacity so it is stated of tons dally daily one of the largest leaching plants now in the course of construction is at chuquicamata Chuqui camata chili which it is expected will have a capacity of tons practically all of these plants are being erected or will be erected to treat ores which at the present time are not amenable to smelting smelling sm elting methods due to their being too low grade As to the importance I 1 of such a plant benjamin B thayer president of the anaconda company is reported as having recently made the statement that the anaconda company has estimated by the installation of its new leaching plant that it will be able to effect a recovery of about more pounds of copper annually without increasing the output of the mines of butte a single ton As will be noted all the plants above mentioned are being installed or will be installed for the purpose of recovering copper values although much has been done along this line very little has been accomplished as regards the recovery of metal values from low grade and complex ores containing zinc in order to permit of its being profitably treated by the zinc smelt ers an ore must contain not less than 20 per cent zinc if it contains less than this amount it must be brought up to the required zinc content by mechanical concentration tra tion if it is a sulphide ore this can be done but if the zinc occurs as an oxide or a carbonate no mechanical concentrating process as before stated has been commercially installed so far as the writer is aware which will successfully treat such an ore again if the ore be a mixed zinc lead su bhide it is generally concentrated into two products namely a lead product and a zinc product the lead product generally contains 10 to 12 per cent of zinc which is not recovered when the lead concentrate is thus in one way or another it is estimated that not over 50 per cent of the zinc mined ever reaches market inar ketas as metallic zinc the zinc problem in utah the zinc problem is especially interest ing in utah as zinc is present in most of ore ores of quite a number of the mining dis 0 in SO s tracts of the state but generally not chent quantities to permit of its being mined n as a zinc ore the problem is there therefore fores ta remove j the zinc from the ore as it generally occurs Dc curs as an interfering element and to con serve it after its removal for its own value having thus in a general way defined the nature and extent of the low grade ore proba lem je as w we find it in utah and other states we may now briefly consider the nature of the work which has so far engaged the attention of the department of metallurgical research of the state school of mines nature of the work performed As has been previously stated upon approaching pro aching the problems of research invests 1 gation gallon of the low grade ores of the state it became evident that each low grade ore s presents a pro problem blent of its own and that it would be necessary to make a survey of the state to determine the location and ext tent odthe of the developed low grade ore deposits considerable time and attention has been R given to the examination of reported large B low grade ore deposits and tailings dumps V the following districts have been visited park city tintic gintic stockton dry canyon and ophir deep creek milford i linc including luding beai ver frisco and newhouse properties and 1 silver reef large representative samples f have been collected from each of these disi tracts and these samples are at present beh ing worked on in the laboratory the ob 13 eject act of the work being to determine if pos sible whether it may be commercially f feasible to treat these ores by processes now being used or which have been pro posed or which may be devised as a result of the laboratory investigations for example the following lines of investigation are being carried on at the present time I 1 A study of roast process es such as the holt dern dem and knight christ ensen processes and processes in general in order ito determine deter minei the possible extent of their application to the treatment of low grade and complex ores 2 A study of the problem of the re moval boval and recovery of zinc from low grade and complex ores 3 A study of the problem of the recovery of precious metals by hydro metal surgical lurg ical processes in the presence of copper and other elements which interfere with the successful application of the cyanide process 4 A study of flotation processes with a view to extending their application to the treatment of low grade ores not at present being treated by the same such as oxides and carbonates which at the present time are not successfully treated by ordinary concentration cent ration or flotation processes lines of investigation the department is also interested in all lines of investigation which have for their object the conservation and recovery of the mineral wealth of the state ana aim especially the utilization of those products byproducts by which are now waste materials as for example smelter fumes the utilization of gases tars etc tc from coke ovens the working up into valuable products and reagents of the waters of the great salt lake and the vast salt deposits of the state by means of some of the products byproducts by above mentioned the department is also interesting itself in a study of the domestic fuel problem due to the fact that our bituminous coals as at present used do not give the highest fuel value that it is possible to obtain from them and also because as now used they give rise to the smoke nuisance the doing away of which presents one of the greatest chiv civic ic problems now confronting many cities of this country and especially salt lake city although considerable data has been gathered along the inies above indicated the department has not been established long enough to enable it to arrive at a definite conclusion in regard to the majority of tho the problems above mentioned A preliminary report of the work which has engaged its attention will soon be issued as a joint report by the united states bureau of mines and the department it is hoped that much information which may be of value to the mining interests of the state may be acquired during the present year |