64 



At Copper Cliff the Canadian Coppsr Company have spared neither 

 trouble nor expense in the construction and equipment of their roas^ 

 yard. The natural rough and uneven surface has been cleared and 

 levelled, and the whole given a gentle slope, which, with carefully made 

 drains, serve to remove at once any rain or surface water. These 

 precautions have to be taken to prevent loss of copper as soluble 

 sulphate of copper, which is liable to be washed out by the rain. 



At the Murray mine a large shed has been erected to roast ore 

 during the winter months, with openings in the roof to allow of the 

 escape of sulphurous fumes, but during last summer they had no regular 

 roast yard, and the few heaps burnt could only be placed where the 

 surface of the ground would permit. This was also the case at the 

 Blezard and Worthington mines, and the mechanical loss alone from 

 this carelessness must have been of considerable moment. The shaft 

 of the Copper Cliff mine, on an incline of 45°, has reached already 

 a depth of nearly 600 feet. It is provided with a double skip 

 road, the skips dumping automatically at the mouth of the breaker 

 in the top of the rock house. Here the ore is sledged to a proper size 

 for the 15x9 in. Blake crusher set to about i}^ inches, which has a 

 capacity of nearly 20 tons an hour. It is then passed through a 

 revolving screen where it is sized into three classes for the succeeding 

 operation of roasting. The coarse size passes a 4-inch ring, the medium 

 or ragging, a i^-inch ring, while the fines pass through one ^ of an 

 inch in diameter. Each of these sizes falls into a separate bin under 

 which a car runs. Thus the ore is loaded automatically into cars 

 holding 1)4 tons, whence it is transported to the upper story of 

 the ore shed. There it falls into a series of bins from which it is 

 loaded by means of inclined steel shutes into the cars and taken 

 up a rather steep grade to a high trestle which extends the whole length 

 of the roast yard. The only wood that can be obtained is dead pine, a 

 good deal of the surrounding district having been burnt over about 20 

 years ago. This can be procured very cheaply, and although it does 

 not roast the ores as thoroughly as hard wood, it makes very fair and 

 economical fuel, and serves on account of its short fierce heat to ignite 

 the pile, and this once started continues burning on account of its 

 sulphur contents. These piles are built as follows : — The place selected 



