New York Paper - Remarks on the Extraction of Bismuth from Certain Ores

I HAVE lately had occasion to examine sulphuretted ores of bismuth' both from Tudor, Ontario, and Latete, New Brunswick. The former consisted chiefly of bismuth-glance, carbonated at the outcrop, and within associated with some metallic bismuth, iron-pyrites and graphite, in a quartz gangue. In the second locality, where it appears to be present in considerable quantity, the veinstone is also quartz, but the associates of the bismuth-glance are chalcopyrite and galena. The treatment of such mixed ores in the furnace for the extraction of the bismuth could yield only a very impure product, and in view of the high price of the metal I tried with success a wet method for the treatment of the ore, which is based on well-known chemical reactions, and may, in some cases, be advantageously used. The pulverized ore is dissolved by heat in commercial nitric acid, and the remaining gangue washed by displacement, first with a little strong acid (which is used to attack a fresh portion of ore) and then with a moderate quantity of water, which is added to the first solution. This, if the excess of acid be considerable, may be partially