US806145A - Mining-mill. - Google Patents

Description

N0. 806,145. PATENTED DEG. 5, 1905.

i". J. HOYT.

MINING MILL. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 9, 1902.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

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110. 806,145 PATENTED DEC; 5, 1905.

PI Jl v MINING MILL. APPLIdAT-IOH TILED JUNE 9, 1902.

Wihauoeo 6mm up No. 806,145. PATENTED no.5, 1905.

. J. HOYT.

MINING MILL- APPLICATION FILED JUNE 9, 1902.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

i g No. 806,145.

' T at whom it may concern: I

1 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

'FREDERICK J. HoYrioF-cHIcAeo, ILLINOIS.

MINING-IVIILL,

Be it known that I, Fn DERIcK J. -HOYT, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Chis I cago, in the. county of Cook and State of Illi' nois, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Mining-Mills, of which the fol lowing is ajspecification, referenc'e'being had therein to. the accompanying drawings.

I My invention relates to an improvement in. placer-mining and to that class 'of placer. mines wherein th gold is'fou'nd coarse,- fine,

and floured and whereinalso the gold from various causes hasbecome oxidized, rusty, or otherwise by nature placed ina condition not,

to be'promptly absorbed and taken upby quicksilver orwhen it is in too fine andflouredv acondition to gravitate and come in contact with the quicksilver or has by its condition no affinity for quicksilver, and therefore cannot be saved with.

if it does come in contact there- It is a wellknown fact that the goldin a placer-bed has only therein a certain percentage that is cleanand bright, free-from allo zi ids and rust, and which is attracted by quicksilver. gold, which can 'be caught in an ordinary sluiceway with rifiles therein, that class-of first, to place the gold in a.-clean bright congold is only a small percentage of the'values that can besaved if the finer gold 'can be cleansed and the oxidation and "rust removed, quicksilver used, and the fine' flour-gold caught which is toofine and light t'Ogravitate. In other words, a placer-bedthatvby hydraulicsluicing would yield in value from twenty cents to seventy-five cents per cubic yard mayyif' all the values therein "are saved,

yield-from five dollars'up per-cubic yard". The

two important factors necessary. to save all values in either placer or, quartz mining are,

dition, so that its affinity for quicksilverwill be free to act, and, second, to pass the pulpthrough a millin which the gold inthe pulp shall by mechanical devices be forced to come in contact with quicksilver.

tainty of saving all the values is obtained; Another necessary adjunct is the ability to handle through this apparatus a large amount of material at a' nominal cost per ton or yard.

The objects of my inventionare, first, to handle a large amount of gold-bearing sand and grave] in such a way that the cost of operation may be small.

' the material in a continuous flow from the While this is immaterial-astocoarse- -When these two essential points are gained, an absolute cer This I accomplish by running Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed June 9, 1902. Serial No 110,813.

1 brightened. I

mechanism, and'Fig. 3 a

Patented Dec. 5, 1905.

feeding at the bank on to the head of the sluice to the tail-race without any delay or detention, and, second, to extract and save all the I gold during its progress in'its run 'over the.

apparatus. To accomplish theseobjects, I

use a combination'of a chemical sluiceway and a quicksilver device, in which sluiceway the,

chemical'actionof dissolving and scouring oc,

curs and in which the quicksilver-machine mating device. I

Referring to the drawings, A is a shaking screen resting on a framework a, so constructed as to give the screen an inclined position, an'd directly beneath is placed sluicei way A=and a'rifi1e-sluice A The screen is 'operated by eccentric a and rod a The vscreen runs across-sluiceway A, and thelatf termay be of anydesired length or width;

'1 but preferably itjis about two hundred feet from their united head to the amalgamating device and five feet wide. The sand and gravel carrying the gold are elevated by buckets or belt up to and discharged onto the screen A. The coarse gravel is discharged E over the screen onto the sluice A provided 2 with riifies and over Whichthe gravel is carried by force of water. On shaftoa is aheader overwhich bucketsare discharged; a, the elevating-buckets; d, the pulleys for driving- .-buckets, and (r -the header over which the buckets areturned.

At the head of the screen A and the sluice-- way A) is located a tank 0, which carries a chemical solution Fromthis tank leads a l connects with a perforated pipe 0, extending across the head of the sluiceway-A and adapt- -face1of the latter. preferred chemical solvent, which maybe ed to spread the solution over the entire sur- (Jyanid of potassiumis the weak or strong, as the circumstances demand.

B is an amalgamating device which in the form shown constitutes the principal subject of my Patent No. 686,300 of November 12,

1901, and need not, therefore, be described'now with great particularity. It issufficient to saythat it consists chiefly-of'a series of inclined copper plates 5' for conducting a flow pipe =0 controlled by a cock at and which of ore, said plates interspersed with half-cylinder troughs 6 each holding a body of live quicksilver, smooth copper cylinders revolving in said quicksilver in the direction of the flow of the ore and over which plates and cylinders the pulp and solution pass from the sluiceway A, and a final half-cylinder I), having revolving fingers thereon to prevent any loss of quicksilver, said fingers and rotating cylinders driven by a common gearing I).

H is the end revolving screen. It is made of wire, preferably one-hundred-mesh fine or finer, if desired, preferably five feet wide and in the form of an endless belt. It is rotated by a series of front sprocket-wheels it, fastened on its under side to sprocket-chains 7& and is carried over and around a tank K of suitable size.- At the corners, on both sides of the tank K, are placed grooved rollers 6, on which the sprocket-chains run and by which the screen is supported and guided. The end of the sluiceway A projects over the top of the screen H a foot or more, as desired. Fig. 2 is a general view of said tail-screen, representing any width, showing but two sprockets and chains for convenience, one on each end, such as would be used on the narrower widths.

A tank K is placed underneath the screen H and catches the solution from sluiceway A, the screen revolving around the tank. Straight pipes 0 carry the solution back from the tank Kto tank D, from which it is pumped up to tank C and run over again. Pipes d carry part of the solution down from tank K to zinc boxes 9, into which the dissolved gold is precipitated as the solution percolates up through the same, and from these boxes the solution thus stripped of the gold is led from box to box and finally back to tanks E, where it is regenerated and used again. A pipe L on the nose of the screen and perforated pipe M have functions hereinafter described.

The shaking of the screen A cuts off the coarse gravel and allows only the fine sand and gravelsay from one-half inch in size down-to pass through it into the chemical sluiceway A, the coarse material running down this inclined shaking-screen and falling off into the outside sluice A where water floats it down over rifiies placed in said outside sluice. The riffles catch and save any nuggets of one-half inch or larger of gold that may be in the placer-bed. The material from one-half inch in size to finer sizes passes through the screen and falls ontothe sluiceway A. The solution discharged from the perforated pipe 0 picks up and carries forward the sand and gravel as fast as it falls through the shaking-screen A. The cyanid solution as fast as it comes in contact with any gold there may be in the pulp attacks it at once, and if very fine or floured the gold is dissolved before it reaches the quicksilvermill. During its passage down the two hundred feet of sluiceway A any gold contained in the sand that is too coarse to have been fully dissolved has been sufiiciently attacked by the cyanid of potassium or other chemical solution used to remove all rust or oxidation therefrom and is then in the very best condition to be almalgamated by the quicksilver apparatus, to which it is carried by the downward flow of the solution. The gold having been cleansed by the chemical solution and now having an unobstructed attraction for the quicksilver is readily caught on this machine, as contact therewith is absolutely certain while the pulp is passing over the revolving cylinders. The pulp or sand and gravel after passing over the quicksilvermachine goes forward over a continuation of the slui'cewaysay ten or fifteen feet-and onto the revolving screen H. The sand, gravel, and the solution after the heavy gold has been extracted and saved by the quicksilver-mill travel forward onto this revolving screen, through which the solution carrying the dissolved gold passes into the tank underneath. The remaining sand and gravel are carried forward by the revolving screen to the point where the latter turns over the sprocketwheels It, when the pulp is automatically dumped onto the tail-race A. it is then carried forward by water fed from an elevated tank F, placed at this point and having a perforated pipe L discharging the water directly onto the nose of the screen and which washes all sand and gravel off the screen onto the tail-race and carries it forward to any point desired for dumping. From this same tank F is run a small half-inch pipe M, crossing the screen at a point one or more feet back of the sprocket-wheels, which pipe is perforated and throws a spray onto the sand and gravel and washes off and into the tank underneath the screen any of the chemical solution carrying the dissolved gold that may adhere to the same after the main solution leaves it. All the pipes herein referred to are provided with stop-cocks, so that the flow of water and of the solution can be regulated or entirely cut off. It is clear that with the buckets or belt dumping onto the head of the sluice ten or fifteen pounds of sand and gravel at a time, which is at once carried forward with two or three gallons of the cyanid solution from the tank C through the perforated pipe 0, this solution has a chance to work only upon the gold which may be in this small amount of sand and gravel and continues with it until it reaches the revolving screen H, when it falls into the tank K below. Consequently the solution will not exhaust itself, not take up but a small percentage of the gold it has the ca pacity of taking up. Instead, therefore, at

this time trying to precipitate the solution with a reagent the tank K under the revolving screen is allowed to fill up with the solution to near its capacity, which precipitates to the v solution'supplies, an amalgamating apparatus forming a part of the same structure and red bottom'any fine sand'that may hav'epassed zinc boxes through pipes Z into forward tank.-

with "it through the screen. The solution fromthe tank-K is then'carried by gravity back beneath the .sluice'to thehead of the same anddischarged in a'tan k D, fromwhich it is pumped to the upper'tank C and then run overthe sluice again. 'Thusthis' solution may 1 be run ten or fifteen or more times until it has shown thatits strength has been greatly diminished by the amountof gold it has dis' solved. Then'the upper continuouspipe ois closed and the pipesol below are opened. The solution then passes down and throughthe Zinc boxes 9 from one to the other and in eachof which gold may be precipitated. The weakened solution passes back from the above and used again. V

I donot wish to. be confined to any particular chemical, as there areseveralthat may be used in this way, nor do'I wish'to be'con fined to this particular form of amalgar'nator E and issettled, regenerated, and pumped up or to the use of any am'algarnator so far as the coarse gold is concerned after the fine and floured gold has been dissolved, which'may be caught on rifiies in the sluiceway. p g. i

It will be seen that my invention is adapted to treat other ores than gold.

What Iclaim is' v 1. In a miningapparatus, the combination in onesti'uctu re of a shaking-screengachemical sluiceway, 'bothinclined, the latter placed directly underthe said screen, and both joined at their heads at the point ofore a'nd'cheniit'zalceiving the run both from the said screen and the 'sluiceway, saidv sluicewayhaving an extension beyond the'amalgamator, a revolving tail-screen at the end of said extension, a tailtank' for receiving the solution, over which the screen revolves, receiving-tanks under the head'of the machine, return-pipes from saidtail-tank to the head-tankszinc vats on the lineof said pipes in which the solution is precipitated on its wayiback tothe head, and l pumping means to *pump thesolution from said headtank or tanks back to the original supply tank, whereby a continuous constant operation of the mill and a continuing circu:

lation of the solution around the mill. are obtained, substantiallyas described.

' 2.--Thecombination of a screen and chemical sluicew'ay having'its head beneath the screen,'with an amalgamatingdevice on which the'said sluiceway' discharges, an extension of the sluiceway beyondthe amalgamating devlce, arevolving screen at end of said extension, a rece vlng-tank for the solution under said screen, a water-tank above saidscreen, and pipes leading onto said screen from the tank above. to wash the screen free from the Solution and to carry the tailings beyond said screen to placeot discharge, substantially as described: y I r '3. The combination of an inclined shaking supply, a tank for a chemical solution for dissolving the ore at the head of said screen and head screen and a sluiceway having its head beneath the screen, both leading from the oresluiceway, a distributing, perforated pipe for spreading the solution over'said sluiceway, andat the opposite end of said sluiceway a receiving-tank for the solution, a revolving screen for'the tailings, a pipe system from said receiving-tank to end tanks under the head of the shaking-screen and the sluiceway, saidendta'nks, and pumping means to pump the solution backup to the said chemical tank, substantially as described.

4; In a mining apparatus the combination be treated is first th rown, of aninclined sluice,- way receiving the material from said screen at its'head, a tank of cleansing and dissolving solution placed at the head of said sluiceway, *means for feeding the same to the 'sluiceway simultaneously'with the ore, a tank placed at the lower end of said sluiceway to receive the said solution and the dissolved and cleansed ore, a third regenerating-tank, and'a pipe leading direct from said second tank to said regenerating tank, substantially as described;

at its head, atank of cleansing and'dis solving solution placed at the head of-saidsluiceway with a'shaking-screenon which the material to 5. Ina mining apparatus the combination Q with a shaking-screen on which the material g to be treated is received, of an inclined sluice- -Way to receive the material from said screen i and means for feeding the same to the sluice way simultaneously with the ore, a revolving screen and a tank placed at the lower'end' of said sluiceway, a third tank .for regenerating placed under the first tank at the head of the machine, and apipe connection from said secondtank to the third tanks, substantially as described.

6. In a mining-mill, a main sluice and an auxiliary sluice, means for feeding ore to said,

sluices adapted to distribute fine ore to the formerand coarsejoreto' the latter, means for'distribut-ing over the fine ore a chemical solution adapted to cleanse and dissolve the same, means for distributing water over the coarse ore, an amalgamator adapted to catch IIO the cleansed fine ore, riffies adapted to catch nuggets from the coarse ore, means for sepa- I rating the saturated solution from the tail ings and for disposing ofsaid tailings, a tank for receiving said solution, means'for 'rede-* livering the solution 'freed from metal, and

means for connecting the receiving-tank with either of sa d redellverlng means,su bstantlally as described. r l

7. In amining-mill the combination of a sluice, a screen at the head of said sluice, I

means for feeding ore through the screen to the sluice, means for deposlting on the sluice simultaneously With the ore a chemical solution adapted to scour and dissolve said ore, an amalgamator adapted to catch the cleansed ore, a tank to receive said solution, means for redelivering the solution freed from metal, and means for connecting the receiv- A. M. HoY'r, WILL H. MOORE.

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