Reclamation And Treatment Of The Ophir Hill Tailings Deposit

ALTHOUGH the metallurgical treatment for the Ophir Hill tailings was developed more than 20 years ago and in the interim a vast amount of experimental work was done with later-developed flotation reagents, it was found necessary to revert to the original oil reagents and their combinations with specific chemical reagents in order to obtain results of economic value. This is of especial interest because in present ore-treatment investigations later-developed flotation reagents are used almost exclusively and the coal-tar derivatives, except in certain patented reagents, are virtually neglected. These coal-tar oils and derivatives still have a definite field of application, especially in the treatment of some oxidized ores when modified sulphidization is desirable. The Ophir Hill tailings deposit is in Ophir Canyon, Tooele County, Utah, about 55 miles southwest of Salt Lake City and 25 miles south of the Tooele smelter of the International Smelting and Refining Co. A road good for trucks leads directly from the Ophir mill to the smelter. TAILINGS These tailings were produced in the old Ophir Hill gravity concentrator previous to 1921. The original mill ore was a heavy lead-zinc-copper-silver-iron sulphide ore formed by limestone replacement. The gangue is a highly siliceous lime. An assay of the original milling ore would approximate 1.0 per cent Cu, 6 to 8 per cent Pb, 6 to 8 per cent Zn, 8 to 12 oz. Ag, 18 to 25 per cent Fe, 2.0 per cent CaO, 20 to 5o per cent insoluble. The gold content was 0.005 oz. or less. Tailing was impounded in a fairly wide area in a canyon about ½ mile below the mill. A number of dirt embankments were thrown up to form settling ponds and the tailing was allowed to flow through them in series. Coarser sand deposited at the upper end of the ponds and the finer slimes settled gradually as they passed through the successive settling ponds. As soon as the coarser tailings filled a pond, the tailings were by-passed to the next pond and teams and scrapers were used to haul the deposited sand onto the banks to make them higher. The final dump was approximately 2500 ft. long and 250 ft. wide at the bottoms, with banks sloping up at 45°. The coarser sands predominated at the upper ends and sides of the ponds while the proportion of slimes increased steadily at the lower ends. The lower end of the pond contained over 50,000 tons of slime tailings, 90 per cent of which passed through a 200mesh screen. SAMPLING The entire tailings deposit was sampled by drilling vertical holes so placed as to give data concerning size segregation and the contour of the underlying ground as well as to secure an assay sample. Different types of auger and post-hole drills were tried. None was found satisfactory because the stratified layers of