Show low grade manganese concentrated ANACONDA MONTANA STANDARD through experiments being bein conducted at the ophir mill of the butte detroit copper zinc mining company of butte montana it has been demonstrated for the first time in mining history that pink manganese ore or can be put through the concentrator and by mere mechanical manipulation tion made a commercial success there being no record of pink manganese ever before having been concentrated the entire process is being worked out by carl the company metallurgist and engineer frank corr chemist and W J hieber foreman of the mill the tests are being watched with considerable interest by mining men milling of black manganese custom ore returned but a mediocre profit owing to the mill not being assured of a regular tonnage with the demand for it was shown by former samplings at the ophir that there were large bodies of low grade ore in the mine but it had not been demonstrated whether it was carbonate or silicate with the watering unwavering un of the mine great quantities of carbonate manganese were uncovered together with quartz and granite some of this it was found would pay to ship direct but the larger part would not warrant the expense of shipping the chief problem assays essays had shown that the latter ran from twenty to thirty per cent manganese here mr ran up against his chief problem concentration of pink manganese had never before been attempted due to the slight difference in specific 6 gravity between the mineral and ta gangue a 6 matter the prospect looked so good to the metallurgist that he thought 6 it advisable to attempt concentration in an effort to obtain a shipping product having ascertained from the company purchasing the ore that it would accept concentrates the experimenters went ahead and corr tested some of the material on a small equipment at the school of mines and found that the separation could be made and a shipping product ob bained As a result of the operation mr said there was presented the T problem of mere mechanical manipulation to make the process commercially success tul ful on monday and tuesday the commercial 1 tests were carried out at the ophir mill and 11 ll it was found that actual milling showed bet ter results than had been attained at the school of mines tests several mechanical changes were made in the mill as a result of the continuous two days tests carried bout out by corr and helber heiber at I 1 present they are running three shifts at the enill ill and treating between seventy five and tons of ore a day concentrating at ther the ratio of about two and one half to one three products r the material is sized into three products and nd fed to six jigs the jigs making a clean cut concentrates and a hutch iron middling i the tailings from the jig are reground and joined to the hutch this entire ia product being fed to wilfley tables the pris mary inary wilfley tables make an iron concen colleen y a manganese concentrate a mangante man ganse middling and a tailing the manganese 17 middling is cleaned on a second set of wil fley tables at present the mill is working on a feed 5 which will assay 23 per cent manganese an 1 40 per cent silica and making a product as saying 36 per cent manganese and 10 per cent silica iron concentrates from the I 1 tables plus the iron irom from the jig screen make a product which will be I 1 shipped to the washoe smelter as a goldi silver iron concentrate this material pay 1 nearly the entire milling cost according to the men conducting the exi peri ments it is a little too early to say what al the actual extraction is but it is ir roughly estimated 11 to be around 55 per cent of the manganese in the ore it has been found that during concentration the material acts somewhat similar to the zinc sulphide of the butte afield field by further mechanical manipulation it is believed believe d that a higher percentage of extraction and a greater tonnage can be obtained from the present equipment in the ophir mill this is the problem that mr and his associates have to work out from present figures it is costing about 1 per ton to mill this material and a greater part of the cost will be paid for by the iron concentrate which is merely a byproduct of the main milling scheme |