302 Bcientific Froceedings, Royal Dublin Society, 



XXYIII— NOTES ON THE RECO VEEY OF COPPER FROM ITS 

 SOLUTION IN MINE DRAINAGE WITH SPECIAL REFE- 

 RENCE TO THE WICKLOW MINES. By PHILIP ARGALL 

 AND GERRARD A. KIN AH AN. Plates XXII and XXIII. 



[Eead, June ] 9th, 1882.] 



Introduction. 



In these notes it was originally intended simply to describe some 

 of the more interesting points in connexion with cementation, or 

 the precipitation of copper, as practised at the Copper Mines of 

 Cronebane, Co. Wicklow ; but on considering the matter further 

 it appeared that more general interest might be attached to them 

 if the subject were treated somewhat differently, and some notice 

 given of the methods of precipitation and general working adopted 

 at other mines and metallurgical works. 



The following pages are therefore devoted to the Ovoca Minos, 

 with a condensed summary of the principal points in some of the 

 processes adopted at other places, references are given in most cases 

 to those works where more detailed information in each case may 

 be obtained. 



Cementation of Mine Waters. 



The phenomenon of cementation, or the precipitation of copper 

 from solution in water on metallic iron, appears to have been 

 noticed at a very early period, for Agricola, who wrote in 1546, 

 mentions it in connexion with the waters of SchmOUnitz. 



When and where it was first turned to practical account it is 

 difficult to determine, but the ordinary process seems to have been 

 in operation in Spain (Rio Tinto) since IH6I, and Dr. Edward 

 Brown, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1670, describes the 

 process as practised at the Ziment Springs, Herrengrund. At 

 Agordo in the Venetian Alps, it was introduced in 1692, from 

 Germany, by Frederic Wegberg, a Prussian engineer. 



It is recorded that the phenomenon was noticed in 1728, at the 

 Chace water mine, near Redruth, Cornwall, but it was not turned 

 to practical account there till 1854. The first practical application 

 of it in the British Islands, seems to have been at the Cronebane 



