THE RUSSELL PROCESS IN AUSTRALIA. 307 
No. 5.—THE RUSSELL PROCESS (OF SILVER 
LIXIVIATION) IN AUSTRALIA. 
By EpeGar Hat, and Epwarp 8. Simpson, B.E. 
(Read Saturday, January 8, 1898S.) 
Part I.—By Epcar Hatt. 
THE improvements in the treatment of silver ores by the hypo- 
sulphite lixiviation method, introduced by E. H. Russell in 1884, 
and known as ‘“ The Russell Process,” gave rise to hopes, not only 
in the minds of the inventor and his associates, but also in the 
mind of nearly every chemist who ever performed any preliminary 
tests of ore by Russell’s methods, that it would prove of wide- 
spread usefulness. Those hopes have not been realised, and to-day 
the process is at work in only two large establishments, where, 
however, it is an unqualified success. 
During the interval since its introduction many papers have 
been written on the subject ; one treatise has been published with 
special reference to it; and an enormous number of comparative 
experiments bearing upon its various features have been performed 
and published. The process has been practically applied in many 
places where large-works, now silent, have been erected, by which 
many thousands of tons of ore have been treated successfully. 
Probably no metallurgical process has ever been placed before the 
public so openly and frankly, and with such a wealth of data of 
all kinds. The reasons why the early hopes for the widespread 
future usefulness of the process have not been realised, in spite of 
its undoubted merits, are interesting. At bottom they are due to 
the immense advances which have been made in metallurgical 
science and practice, whereby the precious metals have been 
brought within the smelter’s scope, and their extraction from 
alloys and mixed products rendered cheap and easy. 
In the first place the Russell process was introduced as an 
improvement upon the amalgamation methods, and its advantages 
were all advantages as compared with amalgamation. Russell was 
chemist at an amalgamation mill when he worked out his process 
Ores suitable for amalgamation were those suitable for lixiviation. 
and but few ores unsuited for the former can be treated by any 
wet method. Both systems require ores but slightly mineralised 
by other than precious metals, they must be oxidised or contain 
but a small amount of sulphur, and they both need a preliminary 
roasting with salt to chloridize the silver. Such ores are of com- 
parative scarcity in large quantities, and when found are rapidly 
