144 EECENT COPPER-EXTKACTIXG PROCESSES. 



economical and more suitaWc than the old-fashioned smelting 

 process. Pew people, however, have the slightest idea of the 

 difficulties that beset the owners of copper-smelting works, 

 especially in a new country ; the inefficiency of furnace -builders 

 and smelters ; the difficulty of procuring refractory clays, and 

 making bricks that will stand ; the want of sufficient knowledge 

 of the chemistry of smelting, and the way of making suitable 

 fluxing mixtures, the impossibility in some parts of getting coal 

 or good wood ; and, lastly, the enormous expense of erecting and 

 maintaining a copper works. This pa2)er is written for the use of 

 those who have no such advantage (I mean the advantage of a 

 well-appointed and well-officered smelting works, with plenty of 

 work to keep it going, and other favourable conditions) ; and 

 most particularly addressed to those who possess large bodies 

 of ore, too poor to pay by the ordinary smelting process, or 

 possessing some element of value that could not be rendered 

 iavailable by that process. 



To have given this subject a proper value it would have been 

 well to have endeavoured as far as possible to show the cost of 

 applying each of the processes described. Such was my original 

 intention, but several difficulties presented themselves, the princi- 

 pal of which was that in almost every case the materials used 

 and labour employed varied in such a degree as to preclude the 

 possibility of even an apj^roximation ; while any comparison of 

 the kind would be open to challenge by the advocates of the 

 rival systems. I must, therefore, content myself by stating 

 generally that the smelting of copper ores, averaging 10 to 15 per 

 cent., and of such character as to aiford suitable fluxing mixtures, 

 will cost for smelting with coal, at 2s. 6d. to 8s. per ton, about 

 £15 to £16 per ton of refined coj^per produced ; and with good 

 wood, such as box, ironbark, and blue gum, readily procurable, 

 about £20 to £25. It is not possible, however, to state what will 

 be the cost of lime, iron, salt, chemicals, fireclay, or even fuel or 

 labour, in any particular part of Australia, every individual case 

 demanding separate study ; and in the fact that different pro- 

 cesses are adapted to different conditions lies what I conceive to 

 be the whole value, if any, of this paper. If all conditions were 

 alike, we could compare the value of the different processes, and 

 elect which in our opinion possessed the greatest merit ; but the 

 fact is that they each possess independent merit ; and where one 

 would be a complete success under certain conditions, it would 

 fail if these conditions were different. Precisely for these 

 reasons the ingenuity of the chemist has been brought to bear to 

 adapt processes wliere none previously l^nown were available ; 

 and the necessity of the case has been the means of bringing a 

 new process into being. Hitherto progress in copper-mining 

 ijiduBtry has been greatly retarded in this Colony, owing to that 



