108 president's address — SECTION B. 



that even under present conditions of cost, the expense of producing 

 blister copper would be increased by not more than one-sixth, an 

 increment well outweighed by the other benefits. 



The Metal Losses. — The most important industrial point about 

 any metallurgical process is that of the unavoidable metal losses which 

 it entails. The custom of seriously controlling these is, however, 

 only a very recent product of modern commercial and scientific thrift, 

 scarcely half a century old. The deplorable wastes incurred in the 

 endless re-treatments to which metals were subjected in the past were 

 suffered for want of something better, and a deeper interest in losses 

 was obliterated by the inability to avoid them. In the copper in- 

 dustry, too, the general tractability of the metal induced a spirit of 

 reliance on its invulnerability which engendered a negligence of its 

 own, and copper metallurgists have been notoriously supine in the 

 matter of metal losses. The volcanically intense activity of the con- 

 verter, however, early led to serious apprehensions in this connection, 

 and the subject was at least cursorily investigated at once, fortunately 

 with practically gratifying results in all cases where the scheme of work 

 was truly large. Absolutely systematic investigations still remain to 

 be made. Some attempts at such, unfortunately on a cramped working 

 scale, or else mere laboratory experiments, have yielded disparaging 

 results, which would long ago have killed the method if they were 

 anywhere near true. 



The question of losses is, of course, of most importance in connec- 

 tion with the precious metals. As regards copper itself even a serious 

 scorification could be tolerated with equanimity, because the slags can 

 be re-treated, and the volatilisation of copper would be slight at the 

 "worst ; but in the case of gold and silver a heavy volatilisation loss 

 would be an enormous drawback. With regard to these two metals 

 the copper industry shows a decided change of front during the last 

 quarter century. The first third of the last century was practically 

 still ignorant of the economic importance of the collecting power of 

 small amounts of copper for the precious metals, and continued to 

 prefer much lead instead. The growing dearth of this metal in many 

 districts, however, has forced the use of copper as a vehicle into greater 

 prominence, and, since the perfection and widespread introduction 

 of the electrolytic process of copper-refining, it may be said that copper 

 as a collector is quantitatively fairly rivalling the older metal. This 

 is especially so in America. In this, the adopted and vaster home 

 of the pneumatic process, the latter naturally soon came in for its 

 share of anxiety as regards the precious metal losses. The very first 

 investigations, however, antedate the present argentiferous days, 

 so that, in the beginning, only the copper waste was considered, and 

 taken philosophically in view of the re-smelting of all middle products, 

 slags, &c. In those early days when, in America for instance, besides 

 the other charges, the refiner did not pay for silver unless it ran 35ozs. 

 to the ton of matte, and most of the latter was poorer, the crude 

 estimates and surmises entertained as to the silver losses were scarcely 

 reliable, and afforded a good opportunity for a severe adverse criticism 



