Show THE PATIO PROCESS communicated occasionally we read something regarding the patio process for the treatment of ores a brief account of which we give with the hope that it may he be of some benefit to mining 0 review readers it is a process best known in mexico where more or less success attended it the word defined means any paved enclosure more or less surrounded by buildings an ore sorting yard a floor or yard where mud is treated by amal tion after the ore is mined it is carried to a covered box there it is crushed with large wooden crushers with heavy iron pestles on the end and working on arms connected with an axle operated by horse power A sieve is provided from hide the pieces and fragments too large to pass the sieve are returned to the box for further crushing after the ore has been thus crushed it is taken to the next system which consists of a round vat where it is ground as fine as desired by several means usually three heavy and hard stones as nearly oblong in shape as will well answer the purpose these are also connected with a revolving shaft and operated by horse power water is gradually added during the process of pulverization until a muddy mass is formed which at the proper time is delivered into the patio yard which has a floor of cement or stone where the mud is treated by a strong brine and quicksilver some ore requiring sulphate of copper in this state it iq i left in the open air for some twenty or thirty days being stirred every day by men and horses or mules tramping it until the quicksilver salt etc are thor orough ly incorporated in this cake of mud after which it is placed in vats and washed leaving in the vats the amalgamated product the amalgam is placed in canvas bags and submitted to a heavy pressure to free it of as much quicksilver as advisable the product then remaining is retorted by the usual process if favorably situated water may furnish the power and perhaps where machinery is installed and all other processes have failed the patio process with all the modern improvements for crushing handling etc would prove an advisable as well as a profitable experiment many of the old patio yards of mexico have a capacity of a thousand and fifteen hundred tons with plenty of space adjoining them for several additional yards |