Show MORE MINERALS separation on november novembre alth the day when the entire civilized world was celebrating the signing of the peace armistice the supreme court of the united states handed down a decision that virtually passed notice although of far reaching importance this was a decision to the effect that the highest court would reopen the case of the minerals separation corporation against the butte superior mining company the minerals separation cases have attracted probably more attention than any other mining suits in history mining and technical journals of every description have published articles and editorials on the subject until now every mining man and engineer in the country knows the history and facts back ba ck of the fight and the results to date the mining review hesitates about again reviewing a subject so well known but the following from the boston news bureau gives a lucid and comprehensive account of the litigation and will be found of interest by those to whom some points of the litigation are not clear the circuit court of appeals at san francisco last march reversed the decision of the lower court in favor of minerals separation company and the case was remanded back to the montana court with instructions to dismiss the bill later the circuit court modified its order and decree so as to grant the minerals separation company an injunction and accounting against butte superior on all operations of the latter company covering the use of one halt half of 1 per cent or less of oil up to and including january 7 1917 minerals separation then took the case to the united states supreme court asking for a writ of certiorari or a review of the whole proceeding butte superior has maintained that if the writ is issued it will bring up only a single question to wit the question whether the patent in suit covers the use of oil in quantities between Us 12 of 1 per cent and I 1 per cent on the ore it also maintains that the patent in suit does not cover the use 0 of f oil in quantities above I 1 per cent as squarely decided already by the supreme court furthermore that the ninth circuit court of appeals has enjoined against the use of Vs of I 1 per cent of oil and ordered an accounting for such time as duttee butte superior used less than this quantity it contends that the only territory regarding which there can be any possible dispute lies between 12 of 1 per cent of oil as the lower limit and I 1 per cent as the upper limit basing this contention on the supreme court decision that the patent must be confined to the use of oil within the critical proportions the outcome of this litigation is eagerly awaited by the mining industry if it results in the united states supreme court upholding the minerals separation contention that anything up to I 1 per cent of oil or twenty pounds per ton used in flotation constitutes utes infringement it will have valid claims for settlement with butte superior miami copper and the jackling porphyries ries utah chino ray and nevada consolidated for all of these are now using an amount of oil in their flotation processes that falls within the scope of the contention of the minerals company millions are involved |