<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></SPAN>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
<h3>MINING.</h3>
<p>Exploratory telegraphy seems likely to claim
a position in the twentieth century economics
of mining, its particular rôle being to aid in
the determination of the "strike" of mineral-bearing
lodes. One main reason for this conclusion
consists in the fact that the formations
which carry metalliferous ores are nearly always
more moist than the surrounding country, and
are therefore better conductors of the electrical
current. Indeed there is good ground for the
belief that this moistness of the fissures and
lodes in which metals chiefly occur has been
in part the original cause of the deposition of
those metals from their aqueous solutions percolating
along the routes in which gravitation
carries them. In the volumes of <i>Nature</i> for
1890 and 1891 will be found communications
in which the present writer has set forth some
of the arguments tending to strengthen the
hypothesis that earth-currents of electricity
exercise an appreciable influence in determining
the occurrence of gold and silver, and that
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></SPAN></span>
they have probably been to some extent instrumental
in settling the distribution of other
metals.</p>
<p>The existence of currents of electricity
passing through the earth's crust and on its
surface along the lines of least resistance has
long been an established fact. Experiments
conducted at Harvard, U.S.A., by Professor
Trowbridge have proved beyond a doubt that, by
means of such delicate apparatus as the telephone
and microphone, it is possible for the
observer to state in which direction, from a
given point, the best line of conductivity runs.
Under certain conditions the return current
is so materially facilitated when brought along
the line of a watercourse or a moist patch of
the earth's crust, that the words heard through
a telephone are distinctly more audible than
they are at a similar distance when there is
no moist return circuit. Deflections of the
compass, due to the passing of earth-currents
along the natural lines of conductivity in the
soil or the rocks, are so frequently noticed as
to be a source of calculation to the scientific
surveyor and astronomer. It can thus be
shown not only that definite lines of least
electrical resistance exist in the earth, but also
that natural currents of greater or less strength
are almost constantly passing along these lines.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></SPAN></span>
Some of the curious and puzzling empirical
rules gained from the life-long experience of
miners in regard to the varying richness and
poorness of mineral lodes, according to the
directions in which they strike—whether north,
south, east or west—may very probably be
explained, and to some extent justified, by the
fuller light which science may throw upon
the conditions determining the action of earth-currents
in producing results similar to those
of electro deposition. If, in a given region of
a mineral-bearing country, the geological formation
is such as to lend itself to the easy
conduction of currents in one direction rather
than in another, the phenomenon referred to
may perhaps be partially explained. But, on
the other hand, the origin of the generating
force which sets the currents in motion must
first be studied before the true conditions determining
their direction can be understood.
In other words, much that is now obscure,
including the true origin of the earth's magnetism,
must be to some extent cleared up before
the reasons for the seemingly erratic strike of
earth-currents and of richness in mineral lodes
can be fully explained.</p>
<p>Practice, however, may here get some distance
ahead of science, and may indeed lend
some assistance to the latter by providing
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></SPAN></span>
empirical data upon which it may proceed.
When once it is clearly seen that by delicate
electrical instruments, such as the telephone,
the microphone and the coherer as used in
wireless telegraphy, the line of least resistance
on any given area of the earth's surface or any
given piece of its crust may be determined,
the bearing of that fact in showing the best
lines of moisture and therefore the likeliest
lines for mineral lodes will soon be recognised
in a very practical manner.</p>
<p>No class of men is keener or more enterprising
in its applications of the latest practical
science to the getting of money than mining
speculators. Nor have they at all missed
the significance of moist bands occurring in
any underground workings as a very favourable
augury for the close approach of highly
mineralised lodes. If, then, moisture be favourable,
first to the presence of mineral-bearing
country and secondly to the conductivity of
electrical lines, it is obvious that there is a
hopeful field for the exercise of ingenuity in
bringing the one into a practical relation to
the other.</p>
<p>The occult scientific reasons for the connection
may not be understood; but it is sufficient
for practical purposes to know that, in a
certain line from the surface outcropping of a
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></SPAN></span>
mineral lode, there has been given a demonstration
of less electrical resistance along that
line than is experienced in any other direction;
also to know that such a line of least resistance
is proved to have been, in almost innumerable
instances, coincident with the best line of
mineral-bearing country. The case is similar
to that of the rotation of crops in its relation
to scientific microbiology. The art of mining
may get ahead of the science of physiography
in respect of earth-currents and lines of least
resistance, as showing where mineral lodes may
be expected. Yet there is no doubt whatever
that science will not in the one case lag so far
behind as it has done in the other.</p>
<p>The first notable service rendered by systems
of the kind indicated will no doubt be in connection
with the rediscovery of very valuable
lodes which have been followed up for certain
distances and then lost. In an instance of
this description much fruitless exploration
drives, winzes and "jump-ups" may have been
carried out in the surrounding country rock
near the place where the lode last "cut out";
but, in the absence of anything to guide the
mine manager and surveyor as to the direction
which the search should take, nothing but
loss has been involved in the quest. Several
properties in the same neighbourhood have,
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></SPAN></span>
perhaps, been abandoned or suspended in
operation owing to very similar causes.</p>
<p>The whole group may perhaps have then
been bought by an exploration company whose
<i>modus operandi</i> will be as follows: The terminal
of the electrical exploration plant is fixed
at the end of the lode where it gave out, or
else immersed in the water of the shaft which
is in connection with the lode system; and
another similar terminal is fixed by turns in
each shaft of the contiguous group. The electrical
resistances offered to the return currents,
or to the wireless vibrations, are then carefully
measured; and the direction of the lost lode
is taken to be that which shows the least resistance
in proportion to the distance traversed.
The work of carrying out such an investigation
must of necessity be somewhat elaborate,
because it may be necessary to connect in
turn each shaft, as a centre, with every one of
the others as subsidiaries. But the guidance
afforded even of a negative character, resulting
in the avoidance of useless cutting and blasting
through heavy country, will prove invaluable.</p>
<p>Many matters will require attention, in following
out such a line of practical investigation,
which are to some extent foreign to the usual
work of the mining engineer. For example,
the conditions which determine the "short-circuiting"
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></SPAN></span>
of an earth-current require to be
carefully noted, because it would be fallacious
to reason that because the line of least resistance
lay in a certain direction, therefore an
almost continuous lode would be found. Moreover,
the electrical method must only be relied
upon as a guide when carefully checked by
other considerations. Other kinds of moist
formations, both metalliferous and non-metalliferous,
may influence the lines of least electrical
resistance, besides those containing the
particular metal which is being sought for.</p>
<p>The water difficulty has enforced the abandonment
of very many valuable mines in which
the positions of the lodes are still well known.
Sunken riches lying beneath the sea in old
Spanish galleons have excited the cupidity
and the ingenuity of speculators and engineers;
but the total amount of wealth thus hidden
away from view is a mere insignificant fraction
of the value of the rich metalliferous lodes
which lie below the water level in flooded
mines.</p>
<p>The point in depth at which the accumulation
of the water renders further following of
the lode impracticable may vary in different
countries. In China, throughout whole provinces,
there is hardly a mine to be found in
which the efforts of the miners have not been
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></SPAN></span>
absolutely paralyzed directly the water-level
was reached. But in Western lands, as well
as in South Africa and Australia, the immense
capacity of the pumps employed for keeping
down the water has enabled comparatively
wet ground to be worked to a very considerable
depth.</p>
<p>The limit, nevertheless, has been reached in
many rich mining districts. Pumps of the
most approved type, and driven by the largest
and most economical steam-engines, have done
their best in the struggle against the difficulty;
and yet the water has beaten them. Rich as
are the lodes which lie beneath the water, the
mining engineer is compelled to confess that
the metal value which they contain would not
leave, after extraction, a sufficient margin to
pay for the enormous cost of draining the
shafts. In some instances, indeed, it remains
exceedingly doubtful whether pumps of the
largest capacity ever attained in any part of
the world would cope with the task entailed
in draining the abandoned shafts. The underground
workings have practically tapped subterranean
rivers which, to all intents and
purposes, are inexhaustible. Or it may be
that the mine has penetrated into some hollow
basin of impermeable strata filled only with
porous material which is kept constantly saturated.
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></SPAN></span>
To drain such a piece of country would
mean practically the emptying of a lake.</p>
<p>Subaqueous mining is therefore one of the
big problems which the mining engineer of
the twentieth century must tackle. To a certain
extent he will receive guidance in his difficult
task from the experiences of those who have
virtually undertaken submarine mining when
in search of treasure lost in sunken ships. The
two methods of pumping and of subaqueous
mining will in some places be carried out
conjointly.</p>
<p>In such instances the work assigned to the
pumping machinery will be to keep free of
water those drives in which good bodies of
ore were exposed when last profitable work
was being carried on. All below that level
will be permitted to fill with water, and the
work of boring by means of compressed air, of
blasting out the rock and of filling the trucks,
will all be performed under the surface. For
the shallower depths large tanks, open at the
top, will be constructed and slung upon trucks
run on rails along the lowest drives. Practically
this arrangement means that an iron
shaft, closed at the sides and bottom, and
movable on rails laid above the surface, will
be employed to keep the water out. Somewhat
similar appliances have been found very
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></SPAN></span>
useful in the operations for laying the foundations
of bridges.</p>
<p>The details requiring to be worked out for
the successful working of subaqueous systems
of mining are numerous and important. Chief
among these must be the needful provision for
enabling the miner to see through strong glass
windows near the bottom of the iron shaft, by
the aid of electric lights slung in the water outside,
and thus to estimate the correct positions
at which to place his drills and his explosives.
For this reason the work of the day must be
systematically divided so that at stated intervals
the clay and other materials held in suspension
by the disturbed water may be allowed to settle
and the water be made comparatively clear.</p>
<p>Specially constructed strainers for the
mechanical filtration of the water near the ore
face, and probably, also, chemical and other
precipitates, will be largely resorted to for
facilitating this important operation. Beside
each window will be provided strong flexible
sleeves, terminating in gloves into which the
miner can place his hands for the purpose of
adjusting the various pieces of machinery required.
Beyond this, of course, every possible
application of mechanical power operated from
above will be resorted to, not only for drilling,
but also for gripping and removing the
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></SPAN></span>
shattered pieces of rock and ore resulting
from the blasting operations.</p>
<p>From the unwatered drive or tunnel downwards,
the method of working as just described
may be characterised as an underground application
of the "open-cut system". No elaborate
honeycombing of the country below the water-level
will be economically possible as it is when
working in dry rock. But then, again, it is becoming
plain to many experts in mining that, in
working downwards from the surface itself, the
future of their industry offers a wide field for
the extension of the open-cut system. In
proportion as power becomes cheaper, the expense
attendant upon the removal of clay, sand,
and rock for the purpose of laying bare the
cap of a lode at a moderate depth becomes
less formidable when balanced against the
economy introduced by methods which admit
of the miner working in the open air, although
at the bottom of a kind of deep quarry. While
the system of close mining will hold its own
in a very large number of localities, still there
are other places where the increasing cheapness
of power for working an open-cut and
the coincident increase in the scarcity and
cost of timber for supporting the ground, will
gradually shift the balance of advantage on to
the side of the open method.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></SPAN></span>
At the same time great improvements are
now foreshadowed in regard to the modes of
working mines by shafts and drives. Some
shafts will in future be worked practically as
the vertical portions of tramways, having endless
wire ropes to convey the trucks direct
from the face or the stope to the reduction
works, and thus an immense saving will be
effected in the costs incidental to mining.
From the neighbourhood of the place at which
it has been won, the ore will be drawn in
trucks, attached to the endless wire rope, first
along the drive on the horizontal, and then up
an incline increasing in sharpness till the shaft
is reached, where the direction of motion becomes
vertical. Near the surface, again, there
is an incline, gradually leading to the level of
the ground, or rather of the elevated tramway
from which the stuff is to be tipped into the
mill, or, if it be mullock, on to the waste heap.
The return of each truck is effected along the
reverse side of the endless wire-rope cable.</p>
<p>Ventilation is an incidental work of much
importance which it becomes more practicable
to carry out in a satisfactory manner when an
endless system of truck conveyance has been
provided, reaching from the ore-face to the mill,
and thence back again. The reason is mainly
that the same routes which have been prepared
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></SPAN></span>
for this traffic are available for the supply of
air and for the return current which must carry
off the accumulated bad gases from the underground
workings. Fans, operated by the cable
at various places along the line of communication,
keep up a brisk exchange of air, and the
coming and going of the trucks themselves
help to maintain a good, healthy atmosphere,
even in the most remote parts of the mine.
In very deep mines, where the heat becomes
unbearable after a few minutes unless a strong
wind be kept going underground, the forward
and backward courses for traffic and ventilation
together are specially advantageous.</p>
<p>Prices during the twentieth century will
depend more definitely upon the cost of gold-mining
than they have ever done at any former
time in the world's history. In spite of all the
opposition which fanaticism and ignorance
could offer to the natural trend of events in
the commercial and financial life of the world,
the gold standard now rests on an impregnable
base; and every year witnesses some new
triumph for those who accept it as the foundation
of the civilised monetary system. This
being the case, it is obvious that the conditions
affecting the production of gold must possess
a very peculiar interest even for those who
have never lived within hundreds of miles of
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></SPAN></span>
any gold mine. To all intents and purposes
the habit of every man is to measure daily and
even hourly the value of his efforts at producing
what the economist calls "utilities," against
those of the gold miner.</p>
<p>If, therefore, the latter successfully calls to
his aid mechanical giants who render his work
easier and who enable him to throw into the
world's markets a larger proportion of gold
for a given amount of effort, the result must
be that the price of gold must fall, or, in other
words, the prices of general commodities must
rise. If, on the other hand, all other industries
have been subjected to the like improved conditions
of working, the effect must be to that
extent to balance the rise and keep prices
comparatively steady.</p>
<p>From this point of view it will be seen that
the interests of all those who desire to see a
rise in general prices are to a large extent
bound up in the improvement of methods for
the extraction of gold. The question of cheap
power does not by any means monopolise the
data upon which such a problem can be provisionally
decided; and yet it may be broadly
stated that in the main the increased output
of gold in the future depends upon the more
economical production and application of
power. Measured against other commodities
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></SPAN></span>
which also depend mainly upon the same
factor, gold will probably remain very steady;
while, in contrast with those things which
require for the production taste and skill rather
than mere brute force or mechanical power,
gold will fall in value. In other words, the
classes of articles and services depending upon
the exercise of man's higher faculties of skill,
taste, and mental power will rise in price.</p>
<p>Getting gold practically means, in modern
times, crushing stone. This statement is subject
to fewer and fewer exceptions from one
decade to another, according as the alluvial
deposits in the various gold-producing countries
become more or less completely worked out.
A partial revival of alluvial mining has been
brought about through the application of the
giant dredger to cheapening the process of
extracting exceedingly small quantities of
gold from alluvial drift and dirt. Yet on the
whole it will be found that the gold-mining
industry, almost all the world over, is getting
down to the bed-rock of ore-treatment by
crushing and by simple methods of separation.
Thus practically we may say that the cost of
gold is the cost of power in those usually secluded
localities where the precious metal is
found in quantities sufficient to tempt the
investment of capital.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></SPAN></span>
From this it may be inferred that the cheap
transmission of power by the electric current
will effect a more profound revolution in the
gold-mining industry than in almost any other.
The main deterrent to the investing of money
in opening up a new gold mine consists in the
fact that a very large and certain expense is
involved in the conveyance of heavy machinery
to the locality, while the results are very largely
in the nature of a lottery. When, however,
the power is supplied from a central station,
and when economical types of crusher are
more fully introduced, this deterrent will, to
a large extent, disappear. The cables which
radiate from the central electric power-house
in all directions can be very readily devoted to
the furnishing of power to new mines as soon
as it is found that the older ones have been
proved unprofitable.</p>
<p>No one will think of carrying ore to the
power when it is far more economical and
profitable to carry power to the ore. In this
connection the principle of the division of
labour becomes very important. In its bearing
upon the mining industry generally, whether
in its application to the precious metals or to
those which are termed the baser, and even in
the work of raising coal and other non-metalliferous
minerals, the fact that nearly all mines
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></SPAN></span>
occur in groups will greatly aid in determining
the separation of the work of supplying
power, as a distinct industry from that of
mining.</p>
<p>Ore-dressing is an art which was in a very
rudimentary state at the middle of the nineteenth
century, when the great discoveries of
gold, silver and other metals began to influence
the world's markets in so striking a manner.
The ancients used the jigger in the form of a
wicker basket filled with crushed ore and
jerked by hand up and down in water for the
purpose of causing the lighter parts to rise to
the top, while the more valuable portions made
their way to the bottom. In this way the
copper mines of Spain were worked in the
days of the Roman Empire, and probably the
system had existed from time immemorial.</p>
<p>Fifty or sixty years ago the miner had got
so far as to hitch his jigging basket or sieve on
to some part of his machinery, generally his
pumping engine, and thus to avoid the wearing
muscular effort involved in moving it in the
water by hand. It was not until the obvious
mistake of using a machine which permitted
the finest, and sometimes the richest, parts of
the ore to escape had been for many years
ineffectually admitted, that the "vanner," or
moving endless band with a stream of water
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></SPAN></span>
running on it, was invented with the special
object of treating the finer stuff.</p>
<p>Jiggers and vanners form the staple of the
miner's ore-dressing machinery at the present
day. The efficiency of the latter class of
separating machines, working on certain kinds
of finely crushed ore, is already so great that
it may be said without exaggeration that it
could hardly be much improved upon, so far
as percentage of extraction is concerned; and
yet the waste of power which is involved is
something outrageous. For the treatment of
a thin layer of slimes, perhaps no thicker than
a sixpence, it is necessary to violently agitate,
with a reciprocating movement, a large and
heavy framework. Sometimes the quantity
of stuff put through as the result of one horse-power
working for an hour is not more than
about a hundredweight. The consequence
is that in large mines the nests of vanners
comprise scores or even hundreds of machines.
When shaking tables are used, without the
addition of the endless moving bands, good
work can also be done; but the waste of power
is still excessive.</p>
<p>The vanning spade and shallow washing
dish are the prototypes of this kind of ore-dressing
machinery. Let any one place a line
of finely-crushed wet ore on a flat spade and
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></SPAN></span>
draw the latter quickly through still water, at
the same time shaking it, and the result on
inspection, if the speed has not been so great
as to sweep all the fine grains off the surface,
will be that the heavier parts of the
ore will be found to have ranged themselves
on the side towards which the spade was propelled
in its progress through the water. A
sheet of glass serves for the purpose of this
experiment even better than a metal implement;
but the spade is the time-honoured appliance
among miners for testing some kinds
of finely crushed ore by mechanical separation.</p>
<p>It is to be observed that, besides the shaking
motion imparted to the apparatus, the only
active agency in the distribution of the particles
is the sidelong movement of the spade relatively
to the water. But it makes little or no difference
whether the water moves sidelong on
the spade or the latter progresses through the
liquid; the ore will range itself accurately
all the same. Consequently, if a circular tank
be used, and if the water be set in rotary
motion, the ore on a sheet of glass, held steady,
will arrange itself in the same way. If the
ore be fed in small streams of water down the
inclined surfaces of sloping glass, or other
smooth shelves set close to and parallel with
one another near the periphery of such a vessel
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></SPAN></span>
of moving water, the resultant motions of the
heavy and of the light particles respectively,
in passing down these shelves, will be found
to be so different that the good stuff can be
caught by a receptacle placed at one part, while
the tailings fall into another receiver which is
differently situated at the place where the
lighter grains fall.</p>
<p>The main essential in this particular application
of the art of vanning is simply that the
water should move or drift transversely to
lines of ore passing, while held in suspension
with water, down a smooth sloping surface.
In dealing with some very light classes of ore,
and especially such as may naturally crush
very fine—that is to say, with a large proportion
of impalpable "slimes"—there is a decided
advantage in causing the water to drift sidelong
on the smooth shelf by other means than
the motion in a circular tank.</p>
<p>Adopting nearly the form of the "side delivery
manner," in which the moving band is
canted to the side and the stuff runs off sideways,
the sloping smooth shelf can be worked
for ore separation with merely the streams of
water holding the fine sand in suspension
running down at fixed intervals. A glass
covering is placed very close to this surface
on which the streams run; and between the
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></SPAN></span>
two is driven laterally a strong current of wind
by means of a blast-fan, which causes each
stream of water to drift a little sidewards,
carrying with it the lighter particles, but leaving
on its windward side a line of nearly pure ore.
These small runlets can be multiplied, on a
shelf measuring six or eight feet in length, to
such an extent that the machine can put
through as much ore as a dozen vanners, consuming
only a mere fraction of the power
necessary to drive one machine of the older
type.</p>
<p>Cyanide solution, instead of water, is very
advantageously employed for this kind of
operation in the case of extracting gold from
crushed ore. The method is to pump the
liquid from the tanks in which it is stored
and to allow it to flow back by way of the
vanning apparatus, thus providing not only for
catching the grains of gold by the concentrating
machine, but also for the dissolving of the fine
impalpable gold dust, or natural precipitate,
by the action of the cyanide of potassium.</p>
<p>Upon the use of this latter chemical will be
based the main improvements in the gold-mining
industry during the twentieth century;
and, conversely, the applications of the old
system of amalgamating with mercury, in order
to catch the golden particles, will be gradually
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></SPAN></span>
restricted. Fine concentrators, worked with
cyanide solution, perform three operations at
once, namely, first, the catching of the free
gold grains; second, the production of a rich
concentrate of minerals having gold in association
and intended for smelting; and, third,
the dissolving of the finest particles by the
continual action of the chemical.</p>
<p>In fact it is in the treatment of complex and
very refractory ores generally, whether of the
precious or of the baser metals, that the finer
applications of the art of the ore-dresser will
receive their first great impetus. The vanner,
as well as the jigger, will become an instrument
of precision; and in combination with rushing
appliances operated by cheap power in almost
unlimited quantities it will materially assist
in multiplying the world's supply of metals.
This again will aid in promoting the further
extension of machinery. Gold will be produced
in greater abundance for what is called the
machinery of commerce; and the base metals,
particularly the new alloys of steel and also
copper and aluminium, will be more largely produced
for engineering and electrical purposes.</p>
<p>The importation—particularly to England and
Scotland—of large quantities of highly-concentrated iron ore
will cause one of the first notable developments in the mining and
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></SPAN></span>
ore-treatment of the twentieth century so far as the United Kingdom is
concerned. The urgent necessity for an extension in the manufacture of
Bessemer steel, and of the new and remarkable alloys in which very
small quantities of other metals are employed in order to impart
altogether exceptional qualities to iron, must accentuate the demand
for those kinds of ore which lend themselves most readily to the
special requirements of the works on hand. Hence the question of the
transport of special kinds of iron ore over longer distances will have
to be faced (as it has been already to a limited degree), and not only
in reference to ores containing a low percentage of phosphorus and
therefore exceptionally suitable for the Bessemerising process, but
also in regard to ores which are amenable to magnetic separation.</p>
<p>Magnetite, indeed, must bulk more largely
in the future as a source of iron, particularly
because it is susceptible of magnetic separation,
a process which as yet is only in its infancy.
Containing, as it does, a larger percentage of
iron than any other source from which the
metal is commercially extracted, its employment
as an ore results in great economy of
fuel, as well as a reduction in the proportionate
costs of transport. When ores of iron require
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></SPAN></span>
to be brought from oversea places, it is obvious
that those which will concentrate to the purest
product possible, and which are in other respects
specially applicable to the production
of grades of steel of exceptional tensile strength,
will have the preference.</p>
<p>Magnetic concentration, or the separation of
an ore from the waste gangue by the attraction
of powerful electro-magnets, must therefore
occupy a much more prominent place in the
metallurgy of the future than it has in that of
the past. Not only may ironstone containing
magnetite be separated from other material,
but several important minerals acquire the property
of becoming magnetic when subjected to
the operation of roasting, sometimes through a
sulphide being converted into a magnetic oxide.</p>
<p>By the use of powerful electro-magnets, the
poles of which are brought to a point or to a
nearly sharp knife-edge, the intensity of the
magnetic field can be so enormously increased
that even minerals which are only feebly magnetic
can readily be separated by being lifted
away from the non-magnetic material. In
some systems the crushed ore is simply permitted
to fall in a continuous stream through
a strong magnetic field, and the magnetic
particles are diverted out of the vertical in
their descent by the operation of the magnets.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></SPAN></span>
Nor is it only those minerals that actually
become themselves magnetic on being roasted
which can be so differentiated from the material
with which they are associated as to be amenable
to magnetic separation. Even differences
in hygroscopic properties—that is to say, in
the degree of avidity with which a mineral
takes up moisture from the atmosphere—may
be made available for the purpose of effecting
a commercially valuable separation. This is
especially the case with some complex ores in
which one constituent, on being roasted, acquires
a much greater hygroscopic power than
the others, the grains of the crushed and roasted
ore becoming damp and sticky while those
of the other minerals remain comparatively
dry. By mixing with an ore of this kind—after
it has been allowed to "weather" for a
short time—some finely-powdered magnetite
the strongly hygroscopic constituents can be
made practically magnetic, because the magnetic
impalpable dust adheres to them, while
it remains separate from the grains of the
other minerals.</p>
<p>Hardness—as well as magnetic attraction—is
a property of ore which has as yet been
made available to only a very slight extent
as the basis of a system of separation. If a
quantity of mixed fragments of glass and
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></SPAN></span>
plumbago be pounded together in a mortar
with only a moderate degree of pressure, so as
to avoid, as far as possible, the breaking of the
glass, there will soon come a stage at which
the softer material can be separated from the
harder simply by means of a fine sieve. There
are many naturally-existing mineral mixtures
in the crushing of which a similar result occurs
in a very marked degree; and, indeed, there
are none which do not show the peculiarity
more or less, because the constituents of an
ore are never of exactly the same degree of
hardness. When the worthless parts are the
softer and therefore have the greater tendency
to "slime," the ore is very readily dressed to
a high percentage by means of water.</p>
<p>But when the reverse is the case, and the
valuable constituents through their softness
get reduced to a fine pulp long before the
other parts, the ordinary operations of the
ore-dresser become much more difficult to carry
out. Most elaborate ore-reduction plants are
constructed with the view to causing the crushing
surfaces, whether of rolls or of jaws, to
merely tap each piece of stone so as to break
it in bits without creating much dust. This
operation is repeated over and over again; but
the stuff which is fine enough to go to the
concentrator is removed by sieving after each
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></SPAN></span>
operation of the kind; and the successive
rolls or other crushers are set to a finer and
finer gauge, so that there is a progressive
approach to the conditions of coarse sand,
which is that specially desired by the ore-dresser.</p>
<p>Much of this elaboration will be seen to be
needless, and, moreover, better commercial
results will be obtained when it is more
clearly perceived that the recovery of a valuable
ore in the form of a fine slime may be
economically effected by the action of grinders
specially constructed for the purpose of permitting
the hard constituents of the ore to
remain in comparatively large grains, while the
other and softer minerals are reduced to fine
slimes or dust. In other words, a grinding
plant, purposely designed to carry out its work
in exactly the opposite way to that which has
been described as the system aimed at in
ordinary crushing machinery, has its place in
the future of metallurgy. Light mullers are
employed to pound, or to press together, the
crushed grains for a given length of time, and
then sieving machinery completes the operation
by taking out the dust from the more
palpable grains.</p>
<p>In some cases it will be found that an improvement
can be effected by bringing about
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></SPAN></span>
the separation of a finer grade of dust than
could be taken out by any kind of sieve which
is commercially practicable on the large scale.
This is more particularly the case in regard
to sulphide ores containing very friable constituents
carrying silver. A fine dry dust-separator
may then be employed constructed on
the principle of a vibrating sloping shelf which
moves rhythmically, either in a horizontal circle
or with a reciprocal motion, and which at the
same time alters its degree of inclination to
the horizontal. When the shelf is nearly level
its vibration drives the coarser particles off;
but the very finest dust does not leave it until
it assumes nearly a vertical position. A large
nest of similar shelves, set close to, and parallel
with, one another, can separate out a great
quantity of well-dried slimes in a very short
space of time.</p>
<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></SPAN></span></p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />