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Show Underground Industry r'v" J 1 Leaching in place at Ohio Copper in Bingham. One of the most unique mining operations in the world is that of the Ohio Copper Company of Utah at Binham, where it is winning copper from a disseminated ore body. Years ago the company mined its copper ores in the usual manner, driving tunnels and drifts through the underground. This was expensive ex-pensive and could only be done during high market prices for the metal, owing to the low grade character of the product mined. In addition to the product mined, there was a vast amount of low grade copper ore iu the porphyry on which the property is located. The proprety was not adaptable to the open-cut methods, so a process of leaching was adopted, using the old workings to collect the copper in solution. In the process, water is sprinkled on thj surface and collected in tunnels tun-nels deep down in the deposit. After the water has percolated through the ore masses, picking up certain amounts of the copper in the ground, it is diverted to tanks in the tunnels. These tanks contain tin, which again attracts the copper cop-per from the water and eventually turns the tin to copper. The water is then pumped back to the surface to rework the ore again. Precipitating copper from water which percolates through copper deposits is a common practice, but Ohio Copper is the only place where it is known to be "mined" in such a manner. The precipitation of copper ia said to have been discovered by a miner living near a stream which originated in the hills of a copper deposit. Tin cans that he disposed of in l He stream soon turned to copper cop-per and to his amazement he had discovered a process which has for years played an important pari in the production of the red metal. |