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Saltpeter Mine Ruins in Mammoth Cave. The process involved burial of excrements (human or animal) in the fields prepared for that purpose beside the nitraries, watering them and waiting until the leaching process did its job; after a certain time, operators gathered the saltpeter that "came out" to the ground surface by efflorescence.
The process involved burial of excrements (human or animal) in a field beside the nitraries, watering them and waiting until leaching allowed saltpeter to migrate to the surface by efflorescence. Operators then gathered the resulting powder and transported it to be concentrated by ebullition in the boiler plant.
This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Chile saltpeter (large deposits of which were historically mined in Chile) [4] [5] to distinguish it from ordinary saltpeter, potassium nitrate. The mineral form is also known as nitratine, nitratite or soda niter. Sodium nitrate is a white deliquescent solid very soluble in water.
New technological advances in the mid-1800s transformed the saltpeter process. Tanks that were used as part of the saltpeter production process. Michael Runkel/robertharding/Getty Images.
In 1913 Santa Laura halted its production until the Shanks extraction process was introduced, which enhanced productivity. However the economic model collapsed during the Great Depression of 1929 because of the development of the synthesis of ammonia by the Germans Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch , which led to the industrial production of fertilizers.
Although saltpeter from new Prussian-style putrefaction works had not been produced yet (the process taking about 18 months), in only a year France had gunpowder to export. A chief beneficiary of this surplus was the American Revolution.
Leaching is a process widely used in extractive metallurgy where ore is treated with chemicals to convert the valuable metals within the ore, into soluble salts while the impurity remains insoluble. These can then be washed out and processed to give the pure metal; the materials left over are commonly known as tailings .
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