GOOD NEWS FOR MINERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1194, 18 January 1895, Page 37

GOOD NEWS FOR MINERS.

News has reached the Mines Department by the last English mail of a judicial decision at Horae which will have a powerful influence upon the mining industry. Its practical effect is to set aside the patent rights under which a royalty is charged for the application of cyanide of potassium to the treatment of gold and silver ore. It appears that an action was brought in the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice in London by the Cassell's Gold Extracting Company for an injunction to restrain the Cyanide Gold Recovery Company from infringing their patent. Mr Justice Romer, in giving judgment, said, inter alia :—“ At the date of this patent no invention was required to discover that a solution of cyanide of potassium could be practically applied to dissolve gold and silver in crushed ore, but in addition to the above I think there is another ground on which this patent is bad. Even if the invention was one that formed good subject of a patent, I think it was anticipated by Rae and Simpson’s specifications. To hold that Simpson’s was not an anticipation would lead to a strange result. A person using cyanide of potassium alone would be an infringer, but if he choose to use a slight amount of carbonate of ammonia, which is cheap and practically innocuous, he could not be restrained. This would in itself render the plaintiffs* patent practically valueless. Now, as the specifications of Rae and Simpson were published before the date of the plaintiffs’ patent all persons in this country are at liberty to use the process there set forth, and that right is incompatible with these persons being liable, if they do use such process, to an injunction at the suit of the plaintiffs. For these reasons the action must be dismissed.”

We are informed by Mr Gordon, the Chief Inspector of Mines, from whom we obtained the above particulars, that at

present the royalty charged in this Colony for the use of the cyanide of potassium process varies according to value from 5s to 7s 6d per oz of bullion. In Auckland, where the gold is worth £2 12s 6d an ounce, it would be ss, and in Otago and on the West Coast, where the gold won ranks as high as J*3 17s 6d an ounce in value, the royalty would be 7s 6d. Mr Gordon considers that the abolition of the royalty will enable many mining companies to carry on at a profit that have hitherto failed to obtain any adequate return. Consequently they will be able to employ a larger number of men, and the general effect will be to give an impetus to mining operations.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In the article published above, you call attention to Mr Justice Romer’s decision declaring 1 the patent for using cyanide of potassium in the extraction of gold to be invalid ; but your informant has forgotten to point out that this decision has been appealed against. It will be well for users of the process to remember that even if the patent be invalid in Great Britain it may be valid in New Zealand, and, moreover, that the invalidity of a patent does not necessarily annul existing agreements. The patent in question is the first granted in New Zealand to MacArthur and Forrest, of Glasgow, but the same applicants have several other patents supposed to be necessary for effectually carrying out the process, one being of recent date.—l am, &c., Henry Hughes, Memb. Chart. Inst. P.A. On the above question of appeal, a correspondent signing himself J.W.H. makes the following remarks : This is an important matter, for if the company ultimately made good its patent, and we know the great uncertainty of first legal decisions, any person in the interval using the MacArthur-Forrest process without the necessary permission could be pro-

ceeded against and found liable for damages. Further, it does not follow that, because prior publication of a similar process in England invalidates a British patent, that a New Zealand patent could not be made good. Miners had, therefore, better act with caution in this matter.

Auckland, January 11. The Cassels Company’s representative states that the Company has appealed against Mr Justice Romer’s decision impugning the patent rights for the cyanide process of gold saving.