OCR Text |
Show Eliminate " Resource Waste Emphatic testimony that none of Utah's resources ive haing wasted can be had from the operation o the Ohio Copper Company of Utah at Bingham. Here the company is winning copper from the earth that is too low grade to be mined in the usual manner. Years ago the Ohio Copper Cop-per company mined copper ore at Bingham by the orthadox method of tunnels and drifts through the underground. In mining the richer ores, the company was forced to leave a vast amount of low grade disceminated through the rocks that would not bear the expense of mining. The property was not adaptable to the open-cut methods, so a process proc-ess of leaching was applied, using the old workings to collect copper in solution. Water was sprinkled on the surface sur-face to add to the normal supply provided by rains and snow. After the water has percolated through the masses of low grade ore, it has picked up a certain amount of copper. cop-per. In the old underground workings, work-ings, tanks have been Installed that "catches" a certain amount of this water. In these tanks is placed a certain cer-tain amount of scrap tin, which acts to attract the copper from the water. The copper thus attracted soon turns the tin to copper and after the copper is taken from the water it is pumped back to the surface and permitted to percolate down through the ore again. The system o precipitating copper cop-per from water which washes through copper deposits is a common com-mon practice, but Ohio Copper is the only place where it is known to be mined underground. Precipitation is said to have been discovered by a miner living near a stream which flowed through a copper deposit. Tin cans that ha discarded into the stream were soon turned to copper and unknowingly he had discovered a process which was to play an important part in the production of property and the conser'ition of our resources. |