Show metallurgical M agi cal research at LJ of U 0 BY DR L A LYON the metallurgical research department at the university of utah was created in for the purpose of conducting investigations on the low grade and complex ores of the state with the idea of obtaining data which would ultimately lead to their utilization however it was not until the latter part of january 1914 that the present organization of the department was effected and a rw working agreement entered into with the united states bureau of mines whereby tle the metallurgists of the salt lake city station of th ebu bureau reau with headquarters at the ithe university operate cooperate co with those in charge of the department in the direction of the work after the cresent organization of the department part ment was iwas effected nearly a year was spent in definitely determining the location metallurgist in charge nature and extent of the low grade and complex ore bodies of the state and the nature of the work that would be necessary to solve E the pr problems oblenis which presented themselves them selve S an analysis of these problems was published in U is bureau of mines technical paper no 90 and the great part of the research work which is now being carried on at the metallurgical laboratories of the university was undertaken during the year 1915 that the mining industry is being greatly benefited these days as a result of investigations similar to those being conducted by the department of metallurgical research of the university of utah is shown by what has been accomplished by the anaconda copper company in the treatment of its ores by the utah copper company and hy by many others for example up to three years ago 0 70 per cent of the copper con tent of the ores treated iby by the anaconda company was lost in the tailings now hy by treating th the e mill tailings toy by flot flotation atio and the acau accumulated mutated tailings by a sulP sulphuric hurn uric ic aid acid leaching process the copper value in tho f tailings is reduced to per cent which means that an additional pounds of copper are recovered for every ton of ore treated which at the present time sells for about 2 which means that the anaconda company is now obtaining a daily added adde dex extraction of copper which has a value of i about for this reason and by reason of having substituted electrical energy for steam power in the handling of the ore and thus saving 50 per cent a ton on oil the tons of ores it handles annually the anaconda company is now able to successfully cess fully treat ores containing five pounds less of copper than the ores formerly treated As for the utah copper company due to the tremendous scale on which it carries on its operations it is able to mine mill and smelt its ores at a cost not to exceed per ton and so is able to profitably mine a large deposit of porphyry ore that was formerly considered of no value due to its being so low grade although the tonnage of ore treated is enormous and the amount of copper produced is very large the percentage of the value contained in the ore ore is very low this is due to the fact that a large part of the copper values in the ore are present as the oxide or carbonate of copper and in concentrating the ore these oxides and carbonates are not recovered the problem therefore that presents itself in the treatment of such an ore is to recover these oxide and carbonate values under normal conditions the yearly production of ore by the utah copper C company om is tons from which pounds of copper is extracted if it were possible for the utah copper company to increase the recovery of the copper value in the ores it mills to the extent that the anaconda copper company has namely 11 2 pounds of copper for every ton of ore treated it would increase its production of copper from pounds up to pounds the above are two notable examples of what has been done and pt will be done in the treatment of low grade ores As for the low grade and complex ore problems in general which confront the mine owners and operators of utah they have been found to be as follows although the gross value of the metals present in the ore may be considerable they happen to be in combinations which interfere with the extraction or the separation of one from the other zinc in both the sulphide and oxidized form is a prominent constituent in a great many ores and when other valuable metals are present such as lead and copper the combination is very undesirable if such an ore be smelted smelter for its ts lead and copper values the zinc not only I 1 interferes with the smelting smelling sm elting process but tile the zinc is not recovered and hence tile the miner not only loses the money value of the zinc in his ore but is often penalized because of the trouble it causes during the smelting smelling sm elting process aside from tile the loss to the miner 1 the state and the nation are also losers for as we know natures store house of metallic wealth is not inexhaustible and although the progress which has taken place along mining and metallurgical lines has made available as ores those deposits which were formerly not so considered there may come a time unless we conserve the values in the ilie ores we are now treating when our metallic wealth will have become exhausted by the increasing demand which is constantly being made upon the same returning to a consideration of the problems which present themselves in connection with the treatment of utah ores some of the low grade and complex ores contain notable amounts of gold and silver with small amounts of oxidized and sulphide minerals of copper heretofore the copper has made inapplicable the cyanide process of extracting these metals likewise the ores were found to be so basic that it was impossible to extract tile the copper without a great expenditure of sulphuric or equivalent acid another type of ore frequently met with is the low grade carbonates of lead which usually carry silver most lead carbonates when crushed in ordinary mill crushing machinery will break up into fine pancake shaped particles which in spite of their great specific gravity will tend to float away in the concentrating water and be lost in the tailing of the mill consequently the concentration of such ores has been subject to such losses that most mills which have tried it in utah have closed down A study of these other problems is now being carried on by the department of metallurgical research of the university of utah in co operation cooperation with the U S bureau of mines the work which has been done by this department has attracted considerable sid erable attention from the mining fraternity tern ity not only in utah but from all over the country by reason of the work which is being carried on and by the publications which they have given to the various tech ical cal journals dealing with various phases of the problems on which they are engaged As a result many mining and metallurgical men make it a point to call at the laboratories when they are passing through salt lake city in order to keep in touch with the work which is being carried on oil in the development of processes for the treatment of low grade and compeli ores and the recovery of the values that are now going to waste from ores that are now being treated As previously stated the research work of the department is under the direction of metallurgists from the staff of the united states bureau of mines this plan originated with dr J F merrill director of the state school of mines the arrangement is that officials of the bureau take charge of the research work of the department and do work on problems which are primarily of interest to utah however the work which is being done on utah ores will also apply equally well to the metallurgical problems met with in other states it is for this reason that such an arrangement was agreeable to the united states bureau of mines and as can readily be seen tile the arrangement is very advantageous to utah for with the limited appropriation pria tion which the university has to spend on work of this kind it is a great help to have the united states bureau of mines send men here to direct the work and thus permit tile the state to use its funds for employing assistants purchasing supplies etc among other things the money appropriated by the state is used in providing six fellowships for graduate students of any accredited mining or chemical school in selecting tile the holders of these fellowships a man is preferred who has had a year or two of practical experience as such experience helps him to understand tile the nature of the work that is being attempted in the department and for that reason lie he can do better work those holding fellowships are generally candidates for the degree of master of science which is granted them if they satisfactorily complete the requirements for this degree these fellowships carry for a year of twelve months this money is not regarded by the university as a salary which it pays to the holders of fellowships it is simply an allotment made to permit a man to come from any part of the country without having to provide the money necessary for living a year applications are received each year from all over the country for these fellowships and from graduates or members of the senior class of the university As dr merrill expected would be the case such an arrangement which brings in expert metallurgists to take charge of the work and employs the best students from the various schools of the country utah included is satisfactory in the extreme the men are doing fine work and the results already achieved in about one year of laboratory work have been astonishing the spirit of attacking the complex ore problems has now spread and people all over the country are beginning to realize that if a refractory ore which has been worthless heretofore can be treated it is better than the discovery of new mines fo for tile the reason that the ores are often already developed and standing in the mine or are on the dumps of the mines or mills where they have been cast a side aside the staff of the metallurgical research department is as follows joseph F merrill director D A lyon metallurgist of the U S bureau of mines metallurgist in charge 0 C ralston assistant metallurgist U S bureau of mines J F cullen chemist U S bureau of mines R H bradford university of utah professor of metallurgy R S lewis university of utah professor of mining C A wright metallurgical engineer U S bureau of mines F B laney and mineralogist U S bureau of mines R E head skilled U S bureau of mines H E meyer technical assistant U S bureau of mines M connor clerk U S bureau of mines G L allen alien graduate of university of kansas research fellow flotation R W johnson graduate university of north dakota research fellow zinc lead complexes H C graduate university of nevada research fellow oxidized zinc H J morgan research fellow graduate stanford university cyaniding cyan iding C E sims graduate university of illinois research fellow precipitation M J udy graduate university of utah research fellow lead leaching G C stott graduate university of utah research fellow state resources E P barrett university of utah analyst |