MINING ITEMS FROM AMERICA.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1863, 21 September 1874, Page 3

MINING ITEMS FROM AMERICA.

THE MINING- FKONTIEK. Only a few years ago some miners were killed by the adherents of Jonquin Jim in the while mountain range. Others wore driven from their claims, and have never, returned to resume their work. Then the mountains in the vicinity of Columbus aud to the southward, were beginning to be explored. Now and -then a miner, more adventurous than the others, would go forth into the arid wastes of the southeast and return no more. This was then .the border beyond which it was deemed unsafe to venture. Nbw the boundary is extended a hundred miles further to-' ward the Colorado; but it has been done since 1867, at which time a detachment of soldiers wero sent to Fish lake valley to keep in check the Shoshones, who were committing murder in . the vicinity o£ lied mouutain, and running off and killing stock in the neighbourhood of Now Sylvania, Aiida, and Gold mountain, still beyond tho. former, boundaries, constitute the, frontier oh the southeast, and verge on tho outskirts 'of Death valley, basin,. Beyond this it is not safe for a single person to venture, with the determination qfprospecting and mining. Now aud then some try it. They are warned to leave and go abouttheir business.' They may be treated kindly, their horses. taken care of over night, if they happen to fall into an Indian camp, but in the •morning they must go on—it might be unpleasant to remain. In the region of Black cannon there is said to be a band, of desperadoes-Indians of the worst, typeij into whose hands it is dangerous to. fall. But the region will be prospected. A line of labour and civilization is on the march. Prom Utah, on the East, through Lincoln and Estneralda,' into California; from Pioeho and Paranagat to Gold moun« ; tain, and from there to' Paniimint aud the mountains of' San Bernardino there are thousands of camp fires which light thehills and.mark the line of march of the pioneer.. Tents > are pitched, claims discovered, .districts: organized, ■ townships formed, and government established. Veins of rich ore abound in many of these border districts, which require n moderate : expenditure of capital for developing the mines and erecting mills and furnaces for reducing the ores.—Borax Miner, PBOSPECIING EOS AND ASSAYING QUICKSHYER. Mr. 11. G. Hanks writes to the Alta in regard to prospecting for quicksilver as follows The best practical test, especially for the prospector, is to use tho horn spoon, and treat the pulverized rock as, for gold, If the rock contains eiunabar an intensely red powder, fringing tho residue, will be obtained for a.' prospect.' If in a metallic state, minute globules will bo the result. After-a few trials the prospector will feel tho utmost confidence in his assays, and will decido at a glance whether his ore contains mercury, and approximately tho quantity. Tho best vessel for this assay is the batea, on conical wooden bowl. Should the reader desire to obtain mercury in a state of purity, ho will find no difficulty in doing so by observing the following directions. The impure mercury must be distilled from an iron retort. : A haudful of small nails must be put into tho retort before putting on tho cover.- When all the mercury has come over, it must be dried as thoroughly as possible with 1 blottingpaper, after being repeatedly washed with clean water. The distilled mercury must then be placed in a clean earthen dish and. heated to a poiut not exceeding that of boiling water, and until every particle'of moisture has been driven off.. A filter of clean writing paper is then prepared, and .fitted into a clean glass funuel, at the point of which a pin-hole has bceu made. Into this' filter the mercury is • carefully poured. It will pass through the-pin-hole iu a thin stream, leaving any mechanical impurity m the filter. In some cases this operation may require to be repeated. If filtered into a perfectly clean bottle, the mercury will bo pure. Tho metallurgy of mercury is more' simple than that of any other metal. What has been said of the assay by sublimation, applies also to the : recovery of mercury from its ores in a largo way, oxcept that generally no re-ifgent is added to decompose the sulphide of mercury. In the great furnaces 'employed, the sulphur burns away. To explaiu the process more fully,it maybe said that the sulphur, which is combined with tho metal, oxidizes when subjected to great heat, and the sulphurous acid so formed passes off, leaving tho mercurial vapor to condense in the capacious chambers. The presont high price of mercury, caused by the increased domand for metallurgical purposes, is a serious drawback-to the mining interests'of the Pacific Coast, and. a loss to the world. As there is ni> certainty that the production of mtrcury will be greatly increased, the miners should consider how to mako the best use of what they can got. A moment's thought wilt convince ' the ; intelligent; reader that if there was no mechanical loss, the same mercury could be used over and over again, until the end of time, and it is well known that this loss is enormous. In all the canons leading down from the Corns tick mine, the ground is permeated with quicksilver, which has been lost, not to-say thrown away, in working tho ores. If a specimen of tho ordinary milling ore from the Comstock mines be examined microscopically, it will be found to consist of certain silver minerals dispersed through a large quantity of quartz. , The proportion of quartz or silica in two samples analyzed by Mr Arnold Hague, was respectively,' Si and 91 per cent. By the present process this largo proportion of worthlessmatter'must be saturated—so to speak— with mercury, to extract tho silver, from the small silver-bearing portion.' Experiments have fully shown - that, owing to tho greater specific gravity of tho . sulphurets, they may cheaply be separated from the quartz. : . Would the metallurgists of : Washoe substitute a propor treatment, based onthiageneralidea, and amalgamate the concentrations only,: tho saving in; mercury would be very great. -; ■ ■