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Show LEACHING COPPER I , - '! ---' n . j,r . i -j " , 1 I Huge layers of scrap tin and iron which will be turned to Copper by precipitating or catching Copper in water at Y Bingham Canyon. Tin cans discarded in a stream by the wife ot a miner near Butte, Montana, led to scientific research that resulted in the saving of much copper which otherwise might have been lost, according to a legend of the. mining industry. , The water of the stream near which the miner hsd his cabin percolated per-colated through the hills of Butte, picking up a certain amount of copper. Tin cans thrown into the stream by the miner's wife picked up a certain amount of the copper in the water and eventually the entire tin can was turned or replaced re-placed to copper. This led to scientific discoveries that brought about copper precipitation, precipi-tation, a practice now in Utah in an effort to save every ounce of metal to create industry and employment. One of the largest copper precipitating precip-itating plants in the world is operated oper-ated by the Utah Copper company B at the mouth of Bingham Canyon. 3 Like the mine itself which for so many years was considered worth- less due to the small copper content con-tent of the ore, the water which for so many years flowed aimlessly down Bingham Canyon is now being put to commercial use. For every ton of ore mined it is necessary to mine about a ton of waste and move it to nearby gulches. The water percolates through the great mass of waste which has been removed from the mine, leaches or picks up a certain amount of copper in solution. Ey diverting the water into a plant at the bottom of the canyon much of the copper is saved. The water is diverted into huge tanks which are filled with tin, preferably de-tinned tin or scrap iron, which attracts the copper in the water and within a comparatively compara-tively short time the scrap is turned to copper. Try it sometime by placing your "Christmas Jewelry" in a pan ot water containing copper in solution. |