THERMO-HYPERPHORIC PROCESS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 278, 24 November 1898, Page 7

THERMO-HYPERPHORIC PROCESS.

{ RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS

' As an amount of interest is felt, in the result of the operations that have •for some time past been conducted by {he Rev. Joseph Campbell at Te Aroha, a representative of the 'Auckland Star' had an interview with that gentleman on October 29. Mr Campbell incidentally mentioned in the course of conversation that the Montezuma was purely a private concern, the money obtained for working- the mine having been raised by him while at Home. Already about £13,000. has keen expended. Speaking as to the results of his labours Mr Campbell said: 'It is interesting to compare the j-esults obtained at Home by the TJiermo-Hyperphorie Syndicate, in [London with those secured by myself at Te Aroha. 'Are they not both the one con'No; when I was in London the gtermo-Hyperphoric Syndicate was formed, and by special arrangement secured the right to use the process of which I hold the patent. The results I obtained here show that from S5 to 95 per cent, of the bullion assay per ton of both gold and silver was saved. My saving of, silver is equal to, in ores of low grade, Idwt of gold and loz of silver. If I lose the. dwt of gold I also lose the oz of silver in ore of a most refractory nature such as those heavily-charged with galena, zjnc blend, and pyrites, from Waiorongomai. The ore from the Great Barrier chiefly contains arsenical pyjrites.' 'I suppose arsenic increases your difficulty in treatment?' ISib; fortunately the arsenic, which Js §o troublesome in most processes, can not only be readily- removed-by my method, but may be,. aIV gaye|l H apd. converted into a commercial product.' Is the treatment'" ol~th.e parceT from jfche Great Barrier mine finished yet? It is not yet completed,, but the treatment is proceeding with satisfactory results. The delay is due to 4he fact that at present we have only joije concentrating table. Our grinding power is equal to 50 tons, but imjtil we get more of these tables, com-* pletion of the treatmerit must necessariiy be slow. By yesterday,'s mail 2 received details of the results of a series of experiments conducted by jthe Syndicate in London. I notice ithat the ore experimented upon in ■London contained more gold than silver, whereas the stone I am treating is the reverse of that. After very icareful experiments I have decided that in dealing with the ores of New Zealand it is better to concentrate CQarse ore first. I find it is best to crush finr than 40. Then I roast ihe concentrates, by t>ie hypherphorje process, and then 9S per cent, of the bullion contained in the, concentrates can be saved. . Thgs accounts irom London show that the treatment Uy the hypherphoric process lasted i-oin three to six hours, according to lie nature of the ore. Id was then, crushed by battery, and the tailings ..cvasided. The report states that in tvery case after preliminary . trials ea»h ore to find out tbe tiza^ re, quired fpr roasting by the prppess?-^ which, by the way, has never exceeded six- hours, and all sprts h^ve. been treated—the, results obtained have never been less than 85 per cent in the worst ore, and the usual result was from 9Q to 95 per cent, extraction., "with pnly three to six hp,ars. roasting by this process as compared with Eoineiimes thirty-sis hours, or more.,, in the old style. The, ores treated were—Glen Elgin, Kew? Sputhi Wales, heavy pyritie quartz, time i\ hours, extraction S2 per cent.; Caledonia;' Cripple .Creek, pyrites, taispickle, tellcrium, three hours, 88J per cent, extraction of gold and 85 per cent, of silver; Maori Dream (Ohui), New Zealand, pyrites, mispickle, telleriums, 4 hours, 94 per cent, extraction of gold, and 83 per cent, of silver; Vadova, Eastern Asia, small amount of oxidised copper containing a percentage of iron oxide, 3 hours, extraction 95 per cent.; Gray's Ridge, Borneo, very heavy antimony low grade ore, 6 hours, extractions 84 per cent, of gold, and s?i per cent, of silver. The report also states that the process is simplicity itself. It only took three hands to Manage a 100-ton per \teek plant. The cost of such plant was only £2,500. ■You -will see tkg resu its ara very satis* factory and the cost cheap.