Salt Lake Tribune | 1904-05-14 | Page 12 | Secondary Enrichment of Copper Mines

SECONDARY ENRICHMENT OF COPPER MINES Copper mines ehow clearer characteristics character-istics of secondary enrichment than those of other metalr, and after the richer surface ores are bottomed' the unaltered ores are generally found not only, very much poorer ln metal, but this metal is combined with Iron and sulphur sul-phur to form a compound' much more refractory and expensive to treat, says an exchange. The surface ores are generally gen-erally oxides and carbonates, which are never susceptible to any form of mechanical me-chanical concentration, but where they consist of chalcopyrlte, bornlte and chalcoclto can be profitably reduced ln weight and enriched ln value by several methods, dependent on the distribution of the mineral ln the matrix and the character of the gangue, as well as that of any associated minerals. Thc mineral Itself also has an important bearing on the adaptability of any particular process. pro-cess. Among the very brittle minerals chalcopyrlte chal-copyrlte stands as one of the most brittle brit-tle and easily slimed of all, equal to the comminution and sliming of the tellu-rldes tellu-rldes and molybdenite, and Its concentration concen-tration to a high efficiency has always been a very difficult problem.