GOLD RECOVERY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 248, 26 October 1897, Page 2

GOLD RECOVERY.

A NEW PROCESS,

HIGHLY ENCOURAGING TEST,

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

DUNEDIN, this day,

Tests are being made of a new gold recovery method to be known as the " Permanganate sold recovery process.1' It is a modsication"of the chlonnation processes at present in use, and is the result of a communication from M. Etard, of Pans, who is a distinguished scientist, and subsequent discoveries made by Dr. Black. At a test which has been given the solvent powers ot the solution employed were first gone into, The superiority of chlorine over cyanide was shown by"dissolving gold leaf in test tubes, the permanganate solution effecting complete dissolution of the leaf m two minutes, while the cyanide solution had caused little change in the appearance of the gold after two houra 3 immersion. A practical exhibition of the process was then ■nven upon Mount Morgan (Queensland) ore, and the extraction of the precious m^tal began within half-an-hour of the application of the solution. The recovery of the gold from the solution was nest effected. The cost of the process is about three shillings per ton of ore treated, and the extraction exceeds 90 per cent. It is *aid there will be no clashing between the permanganate and cyanide processes, masmuch as they work on different nelds. Copper, which is frequently "found mixed with cold, nullifies the power of cyanide, and renders it almost ineffective after the ore has been roasted. However, it readily yields its precious metal to the power 01 the permanganate solution. A syndicate is being formed to work the process.