Treating of Turquoise

A man-made wonder.

Today's typical large copper mine in Arizona is just as much an engineering marvel as the Golden Gate Bridge, the towering World Trade Center building, a nuclear submarine, or any other man-made wonder.

Developing a modern mine requires the highest degree of technological and engineering skills, vast amounts of manpower and capital and something else. It takes plain old-fashioned ingenuity to win over half the nation's newly mined copper from Arizona's low grade ores. This is an achievement of which all Arizonans may well be proud.

Processing 0.6% low grade ore into 99.99% pure copper.

A mammoth crusher breaks huge chunks of ore from the mine into pieces about the size of a softball.

Two tons of waste rock must be discarded to get one ton of ore at the crusher.

In additional stages involving massive crushing and grinding machines these pieces of ore are progressively reduced to a powdery sludge.

Air is blown into the tank, forming an oily froth of bubbles carrying the copper minerals. These overflow into the troughs beside the tank. The concentrated copper minerals are filtered out, becoming a cake of the powder containing from 15% to 30% copper.

The sludge is diluted with water, small amounts of chemicals and frothing oil, and piped to flotation separators. There the chemicals selectively coat the tiny particles of copper compounds but not those of waste rock.

Separator floats off approximately 45 pounds of copper concentrate, and discards about 1,955 pounds of waste in the form of tailings.

In the smelter the 45 pounds of copper concentrate are reduced to approximately 10 pounds of copper. The rest is discarded in the form of slag.

In a roaring reverberatory furnace, the concentrate is melted and many of the impurities are removed, yielding molten "matte" containing variously from 20% to 45% copper, 25% sulfur and the balance iron.

In converter and anode furnaces the matte is still further purified for removal of iron and sulfur to produce first "blister" and then "fire-refined" copper.

In an electrolytic refinery the anodes are hung in tanks of a dilute solution of sulfuric acid and copper sulfate. An electrical current is run into the anodes and through the solution depositing the copper as pure cathodes. Most of the remaining impurities (including gold and silver) fall to the bottom of the tank as a sludge.

The finished cathodes are in many cases 99.99% copper, pure enough for the most exacting requirements.

Glossary of mining terms.

Acid plant The plant at the smelter site that recovers sulfur dioxide and manufactures from it sulfuric acid.

Anode Fire-refined copper cast at the smelter into slabs weighing 600 to 1200 pounds of about 99.5% purity; shipped to an electrolytic refinery for final purification process.

Ball mill A rotating horizontal steel cylinder loaded with steel balls which grind the ore to a fine powder consistency.

beneficiation Concentrating the copper content of the ore; the crushing, screening and grinding of ore and removal of copper-bearing minerals by a flotation process prior to smelting the copper concentrates.

blister copper - Copper 96% to 99% pure, having a blistered surface after casting due to gases generated during solidification; normally is further refined at the smelter into a fire-refined copper and cast into anodes.

block caving - A form of underground mining wherein a block of ore is removed by undercutting it, causing it to fall by gravity through previously driven raises and is loaded through chutes into mine cars, hauled to the shaft and lifted to the surface.

cathode - Refined from anodes in the electrolytic refinery into plates of 99.99% pure copper; these are shipped to factories to be melted and cast into shapes ready for rolling, drawing or extruding into finished products.

concentrate - Copper-bearing material from the flotation process; contains 15% to 30% copper plus various quantities of sulfur, iron and other impurities.

converter A brick-lined cylindrical vessel in the smelter for processing molten copper matte from the reverberatory furnace; the impurities, principally iron and sulfur, are removed by blowing air through the molten bath; the result is blister copper, about 99% pure.

crusher Apparatus in which ore is broken into progressively smaller pieces.

development The process of preparing an ore body for mining; sinking a shaft and driving haulage tunnels for an underground mine, or removing the overburden for an open pit mine; installing crushers, concentrators, transportation, power and water lines, offices, shops, warehouses, etc.

Dump The site for disposal of waste rock from the mine, or slag from the smelter; may be extremely low grade or where dump leaching takes place.

electrolytic refinery - The process in which fire-refined copper anodes are immersed in an acid solution with pure copper cathode starter sheets. An electric current passed between them deposits 99.99% pure copper on the cathodes.

electrowinning - Electrolytic winning process, wherein copper from copper sulfate (leach) solution is electroplated onto cathodes, ready for market.

Exploration The process of locating and proving that a mineral occurrence is indeed an ore body; that is, determining that it is large enough, contains enough copper to be mined profitably.

fire refining Last step in a smelter wherein molten blister copper from the converter is deposited in the refining (or casting) furnace and gas blown through it to remove more of the impurities, principally oxygen. Also, general term for pyrometallurgical refining or smelting.

Flotation The process of mixing powdered ore with water and chemical reagents to separate the metallic particles from the waste rock; the metallic particles are collected and dried and this concentrate is sent to the smelter for fire refining.

Gangue Undesired minerals associated with ore; that portion of the ore rejected as tailing in the flotation process.

Leaching A process of using a weak sulfuric acid solution to dissolve copper from low-grade oxide ores; may take place in vats, heaps, dumps or in situ (in place).

Matte A mixture of sulfur, iron and copper, containing approximately 20% to 45% copper, tapped from reverberatory furnace in the smelter.

Mill The facility containing rod mills (if used), ball mills and flotation cells where the ore is ground and copper concentrate extracted. Also called the concentrator.

Open pit mining A surface mining method in which overlying rock and soil are removed to expose the ore body, which is then drilled, blasted and loaded into trucks or railroad cars for haulage from the pit.

Ore Rock containing enough mineral value to warrant the expense of mining it.

oxide ore Ore containing copper minerals which have been altered by oxidation or weathering process.

Prospecting The process of searching for new mineral deposits.

reverberatory furnace In the smelter, the furnace in which copper concentrates are melted, slag drawn off, and molten copper-bearing matte tapped for further processing.

rod mill A rotating horizontal steel cylinder in which steel rods initially grind the crushed ore.

slag Waste rock from the smelter. The black lava-like material is primarily iron and silica.

smelter The plant in which fire refining takes place.

sulfide ore Ore composed of copper, sulfur and usually iron along with the various other minerals making up the host rock.

tailings The finely-ground residue or waste materials contained in the ore remaining after floating off the copperbearing concentrate.

Underground mining - Extraction of ore through vertical shafts from the surface, or horizontal tunnels, drifts or crosscuts driven into the ore body.

THE BEAUTY BENEATH IT ALL

by Robert W. Jones Man has always been attracted by the beauty and color of nature's rock formations. Our greatest natural wonders are colorful geologic structures preserved for their beauty. Take any child into the desert and he searches the washes for colorful pebbles. Man's eye for natural beauty was his first prospecting tool and it still gives us our prime contact with nature.

Nature has obliged our interest, especially here in Arizona. Our state is garnished with many geologic formations and mineral deposits with brightly colored rocks of red and yellow, purple and tan, blue and green. She has constructed odd and unusual geologic formations in addition to using color to catch the eye. These have served as clear and undisguised signals of hidden wealth to early prospectors since the dawn of time.

Visit any mining area of this state and your first and most lasting impression will be the unusual geology and colorful rock formations you see there. Everyone can recall the stark white undulating layers of limestone high in the cliffs above the rich silver and copper deposits near Superior. Southwest of that town is the equally attractive formation called Picket Post Mountain, an unusual stepped pyramid of igneous rock.

The hills that hold the copper deposits near Ray have odd, grotesquely eroded pinnacles near the deposits. Visit Bisbee and you are immediately impressed by the shattered bands of ancient limestone in the Mule Mountains and the brilliant yellow and red iron staining on the slopes overlooking the highway and open pit mine.

To get a glimpse of nature's paint palette, stand at the overlooking viewpoint of any open pit copper mine. The benched walls are awash with the red and yellow staining of iron minerals, the black of manganese, and the blues and greens of copper minerals. These colors signal the presence of hidden treasure, an even more colorful mineral assortment beneath the surface.

The grotesque formations of rock are no accident. The colors are no mistake. They are the signs nature has placed for man to follow and are clues to the geology and mineralogy of a region. Such signs made early prospectors tingle with excitement and caused a quickening of the heart. Trenching of slopes and frantic tunneling often followed. With little more than an eye for color and contrast, and the age-old knowledge that odd, igneous (fire-formed) rock formations often accompany ore deposits, prospectors were remarkably successful. They managed to turn many an isolated region into a bonanza camp which provided sustenance for a young nation's economic growth.

The original copper-bearing minerals surged toward the surface of the earth, under tremendous pressure from huge molten masses of magma from deep within. As a hot mass of magma approaches to within a few miles of the surface, it slowly cools. This could have formed one of the low grade copper porphyry ore bodies so important today. Minerals remaining in the volatile fluids continued their journey toward the surface, ascending by natural channels and cracks to invade the overlying barren rock.

Recent sub-oceanic explorations have suggested a close relationship exists between crustal movement, magma emergence, and circulating sea waters in concentrating rich ores. No direct evidence exists of this action having taken place with Arizona's copper ore bodies, but the prospects are exciting and hold immense potential for future geologic research and exploration. The final answer isn't in, but it is clear that the walls of cracks and channels, forming natural pipes in the rock formations, became heavily coated and filled with metalrich compounds. It is these circulating fluids which form the richest ore bodies. Some colutions, more chemically active, attack the surrounding rock, which is often limestone, and create an array of colorful copper-rich ores. In some places the reactions are so complete that most rock is completely altered or carried away to be replaced by huge blanket-like deposits of ore. At Bisbee immense masses of ore, hundreds of feet thick, were found. At Superior, blankets of ore, called mantos, may be a hundred feet thick and several hundred feet across. Sometimes millions of pounds of copper can be recovered from these masses. There are often significant amounts of zinc, silver, or other metals retrieved as well, depending on the ore body. These ores are often colorful mixtures of brassy yellow, purple, green, blue, bronze, and so on depending on chemical form.

Kingman, Arizona circa 1890. "From Across The Tracks" by Don Van Der Linden.

In and around these rich deposits, openings may occur in the rock and it is here that nature creates her rarest flowers, the mineral crystals which grow from solutions and vapors. Colorful, geometrically shaped crystals, alone or in decorative groups, line the walls of these openings. Some are so fragile that the simple movement of air will break them. Others can be immense in size, restricted only by the walls of the enclosing rock. These are the most cherished of nature's handiwork and form a very rare fraction of the entire ore body. More frequently, the spaces fill with mineral layers and these, too, can be of rare beauty. As the solutions enter, mineral layers are deposited; much like hard water deposits minerals inside the plumbing of your home. The layers build up, changing color and composition as conditions change in the solutions. There is a mixing, swirling, building process resulting in fantastic patterns and layers of angular, orbicular, or parallel form. Later solutions may enter and change the entire form. Ground movement may occur and shatter the entire crystal growth or layering. But some survive to bear witness to nature's creative genius!

The vivid colors which often mark a copper deposit result from nature's restlessness. Never satisfied with her creations, change is inevitable. Once deposited, minerals are subjected immediately to erosion, weathering, and chemical change. This action breaks down the more stubborn and drab minerals to be left behind as colorful stainings or, more importantly, car-ried below to be deposited again. The result is what mining men call secondary ores, and it is these ores which are often the most colorful and well-crystallized minerals in the ore body.

If the overlying rock happens to provide a small measure of phosphate to go with the copper, turquoise may form. Filling seams and forming nuggets, this gem stone is found in a number of copper deposits. Doubtless the public is wearing what might be termed staggering amounts of the copper gem today and much of it comes from operating copper mines in Arizona. In some cases, where the deposit is of considerable note, the mining companies have allowed private contractors to mine the turquoise to satisfy the great demand for this gorgeous stone. No single mineral has done more to bring attention to the earth's minerals than has turquoise in recent years. At one Arizona deposit, and not the largest, over four hundred pounds of the blue gem may be extracted in one day. It is culled by hand from the broken rock after bulldozers and skip loaders have done the job of bringing it to light.

Other minerals occur according to the chemistry of the ore deposit. The Miami-Globe area is world famous for the beautiful gem chrysocolla it produces. This is formed when colorless silica is joined by blue chrysocolla. The marriage is

"CEREMONY OF THE SNAKE - 9th DAY" 20" x 40" oil painting by John Falter Artist John Falter whose paintings have portrayed American life in general on more than 175 covers of the Saturday Evening Post has documented one of the great events in the life of the Hopi. Mrs. Katherine Smith Miller, philanthropistart collector of Corpus Christi, Texas, purchased the painting during a special exhibition of artist Falter's works at Husberg's Fine Art Gallery, Sedona, Arizona. While in Arizona Mrs. Miller added several new paintings to her important Western Americana collection.

Please turn page for explanation of the Antelope-Snake Ceremony 9th Day.

SNAKE DANCE SKETCHES BY PAUL COZE FROM ARIZONA HIGHWAYS MAGAZINE, 1966 RAIN SONG

Text from the southwestern classic BOOK OF THE HOPI by Frank Waters, first published in 1963 by The Viking Press.

It had been a summer of drought and despair. Niman Kachina brought no rain; for some reason the ceremony was improperly performed in some villages; in others another dance was substituted for the Home Dance. Nor did the Flute ceremony bring rain. The corn is stunted in the fields. Old Chief Tawákwaptiwa died in April, and a successor is not yet appointed. An undercurrent of strife and evil runs through all the villages. This Snake-Antelope ceremony is the last hope, and it always brings rain. So, above as below, the sky reflects this battle between good and evil. And while the crowd, now shivering with cold, becomes restless with the long wait, the Hopis patiently watch the increasing tempo of the battle. There comes a driving blast of sparse raindrops, each hard brown and black. The appearance of the Snake chief strikes the keynote of the somber scene. There is something neolithic about his heavy, powerful build, his long arms, his loose black hair hanging to his massive shoulders. At the end of the line trudges a small boy. Silently they encircle the plaza four times a strange silence accentuated by the slight rattle of gourds and seashells. As each passes in front of the kisi he bends forward and with the right foot stomps powerfully upon the pochta, the sounding board over the sipápuni. In the thick, somber silence the dull, resonant stamp sounds like a faint rumble from underground, echoed a moment later, like thunder from the distant storm clouds.

This is the supreme moment of mystery in the Snake Dance, the thaumaturgical climax of the whole Snake-Antelope ceremony. Never elsewhere does one hear such a sound, so deep and powerful it is. It assures those below that those above are dutifully carrying on the ceremony. It awakens the vibratory centers deep within the earth to resound along the world axis the same vibration. And to the four corners it carries to the long-lost white brother the message that he is not forgotten and that he must come. There is no mistaking its esoteric summons. For this is the mandatory call to the creative life force And cold as a pellet of ice. White Bear patiently squeezes out from the packed rows of Navajos, climbs down the ladder, and goes to the car. Down in a narrow street one can see him listening to a group of older Hopis. All are looking upward. The black storm clouds are being driven northward past the village. The rain does not come. Instead, the sky gets blacker, the air colder. White Bear returns with a coat to wrap around my thin shirt. The Navajos begin to smell, so closely we are packed together. Still we sit wordlessly watching the storm clouds turn west across the desert.

Then suddenly they file into the plaza - two rows of twelve men each, like a pair of prayer sticks for each of the six directions, the Antelopes ash-gray and white, the Snakes reddish-known elsewhere as Kundalini, latently coiled like a serpent in the lowest centers of the dual bodies of earth and man, to awaken and ascend to the throne of her Lord for the final consummation of their mystic marriage.

The power does come up. You can see it in the Antelopes standing now in one long line extending from the kísi. They are swaying slightly to the left and right like snakes, singing softly and shaking their antelope-testicle-skin-covered gourds as the power makes its slow ascent. Then their bodies straighten, their voices rise.

The Snake chief at the same moment stoops in front of the kisi, then straightens up with a snake in his mouth. He holds it gently but firmly between his teeth, just below thehead. With his left hand he holds the upper part of the snake's body level with his chest, and with the right hand the lower length of the snake level with his waist. This is said to be the proper manner of handling a snake during the dance. Immediately a second Snake priest steps up with a kwáwiki or feathered snake whip in his right hand, with which to stroke the snake. He is commonly known as the guide, for his duty is to conduct the dancer in a circle around the plaza. As they move away from the kisi another dancer and his guide pause to pick out a snake, and so on, until even the small boy at the end is dancing with a snake in his mouth for the first time. It is a large rattlesnake, its flat bird-like head flattened against his cheek. All show the same easy familiarity with the snakes as they had with the squash vines the day before.After dancing around the plaza the dancer removes the snake from his mouth and places it gently on the ground. Then he and his guide stop at the kísi for another snake. A third man, the snake-gatherer, now approaches the loose snake. It has coiled and is ready to strike. The gatherer watches it carefully, making no move until it uncoils and begins to wriggle quickly across the plaza. Then he dexterously picks it up, holds it aloft to show that it has not escaped into the crowd, and come with the Snake Dance. For this is the consummation of the union of the two universal polarities, the release of that mystic rain which recharges all the psychic centers of the body and renews the whole stream of life in man and earth alike.

It is dusk now. The battle between the elements is over, and the sky is covered by low-hanging clouds. Out of them fall a few drops of rain. It is enough. The last of the snakes has been danced with a group of women are making a circle of cornmeal beside the kisi. All the Antelopes bring their armloads of snakes to deposit within the circle. Then quickly the Snake members grab up as many snakes as they can carry and take them out on the desert, some each to the west, the south, the east, the north. Here they are blessed again and released to carry to the four corners of the earth the message of the renewal of all life, as it is known that snakes migrate back and forth across the land.

When the men come back each drinks a bowl of strong emetic called nanáyö'ya. The men then stand on the edge of the cliff to retch. Otherwise their bellies would swell up with the power like clouds and burst. The women help them clean off the paint on their bodies, after which they return to the kiva for purification.

hands it to one of the Antelopes singing in the long line. The Antelope, smoothing its undulating body with his right hand, continues singing.

So it goes on in a kind of mesmeric enchantment in the darkening afternoon. There is nothing exciting about these men dancing with snakes in their mouths only a queer dignity that reveals how deeply they are immersed in the mystery, and a strange sense of power that seems to envelope them. The seashells with their slight, odd sound are calling to their mother water to come and replenish the earth. The song of the Antelopes is describing the clouds coming from the four directions, describing the rain falling. All the Hopis know that if it does not rain during the Home Dance of Niman Kachina rain will The Snake-Antelope ceremony is the last major ceremony in the annual cycle which began with Wúwuchim, Soyál, and Powamu and carried through Niman Kachina and the Flute ceremony. It is a great ceremony and a subtle one. For if the first three symbolize the three phases of Creation and the next two carry through in some manner the evolutionary progress on the Road of Life, the Snake-Antelope ceremony cuts through the past to the ever-living now, and its stage is not the externalized universe but the subjective cosmos of man's own psyche. Whatever its meanings, and they are many to many students, it shows how the interplay of universal forces within man can be controlled and made manifest in the physical world. That this is accomplished within the framework of what is commonly regarded as a primitive and animistic rite is a great achievement.

One of the most prestigious and important happenings of the century, in the world of art, will take place at the new Adams Hotel, in Phoenix, in November, when the world-famed Sotheby Parke-Bernet conducts the auction of the C. G. Wallace Collection. Harmer Johnson and Robert Woolley will be the auctioneers. Meticulously collected by Mr. Wallace during his more than half a century of working with the Indians, over a thousand pieces of the most original and superb native American art may be previewed by the public at the Adams Hotel on November 12, 13, and 14 between the hours of 10:00 A.M. and 5:00 Ρ.Μ.

The auction will be held on November 14, 15, and 16. The first session on Friday will begin at 7:00 P.M.; first session on Saturday will begin at 10:00 A.M.; second session at 2:30 P.M.; first session on Sunday will begin at 10:00 A.M., second session at 2:30 Ρ.Μ.

"Conditions of sale" are listed in the catalogue, which is now available at the Heard Museum, 22 East Monte Vista Road, Phoenix, Arizona 85004, or at the Adams Hotel during the preview and auction.

One of the last and most successful of the Indian Traders of the Old West, C. G. Wallace began his colorful career in northwestern New Mexico in 1918. He established a rapport and brothership with the Zuni and Navajo that few other men have ever achieved, and devoted most of his life to the encour-agement and education of the Indians.

Except for paintings and pottery, it is rare for an American Indian to sign his work. However, C. G. Wallace's scrupulously kept archives, have made it possible to date most of the pieces in the collection, and also to identify the specific artist.

The August, 1974, issue of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS magazine featured the life story of C. G. Wallace, and many four-color pictures of some of his magnificent Indian jewelry collection. Until that time, Mr. Wallace, an intensely private man, had refused to allow any publicity about his accomplishments.

Exhibition and sale under the management of SOTHEBY PARKE BERNET INC. THE C. G. WALLACE COLLECTION OF AMERICAN INDIAN ART EXHIBITION AND SALE AT THE ADAMS HOTEL, PHOENIX EXHIBITION AND SALE AT THE ADAMS HOTEL, PHOENIX

200 page illustrated catalogue $15.00 in person $18.00 if ordered by mail from the Heard Museum 22 East Monte Vista Road Phoenix, Arizona 85004

BENEATH IT ALL from page 39

A good one with the color of chrysocolla and the hardness of the silica quartz combining to advantage. Several of the open pit copper mines produce arborescent sprays of copper, but none equals those from Ray. Some of the sprays are coated with bright red crystals of cuprite. Others show a rare form of twinning, an occurrence where two crystals join in a mathematically precise arrangement, according to nature's laws. From the Clifton-Morenci area has come a marvelous array of minerals, the finest being small stalactites of dark blue azurite, velvet green malachite, and grass green chrysocolla. The minerals were deposited in bands so when the stalactites were sliced across, amazing concentric rings of color showed. Many experts consider this material to be the finest massive gem material ever found in the world. It is Bisbee, however, that reigns supreme as Arizona's greatest producer of colorful copper minerals. The deposit is a hundred years old and still producing! Even in the old tunnels, nature is rebuilding her mineral realm, coating the man-made openings with colorful minerals. Bisbee has provided vast quantities of colorful mineral specimens to museums, colleges and universities, and private collectors the world over since it opened. It ranks as one of the top three mineral specimen deposits in the world and is the most colorful of these. Today, sophisticated methods must be employed to unearth hidden ore while preserving the environment. Aerial mapping can be done using three dimensional photography. Sensitive magnetometers are carried aloft to detect slight variations in the earth's magnetic field, caused by the underlying rock structures. Under experiment today is the even more sophisticated Earth Resource Technical Satellite program which will determine the mineral make-up of the earth. Evidence from underground is necessary as well. This is first done by giving Mother Earth a good shake from a small blast to create an artificial earthquake. Its vibrations can be "read" by geologists with a seismograph to "see" into the earth without tearing away the hillsides. Only after this "hands off" approach is complete are test borings made to gather more data. This mass of technical information may then be fed into a computer which not only predicts the possibilities of the ore deposit, but even draws a map of the underground as well! Now the miner can bring in his fantastic array of mining equipment. Costing millions, these gargantuan mechanical marvels expose the deposit and begin extracting the necessary metal ores from beneath the earth's surface. This is when the vibrant color array and symmetrical beauty of rock formations are exposed for all to see. This is when the important metals are recovered for our economic life. This is when the rarest treasures of the earth are exposed, nature's mineral crystals. The next time you stand before a display of these amazing and colorful crystals, pause in wonder over nature's ability to create them and marvel at man's ability to seek and recover them!