USA > California > Nevada County > History of Nevada County, California; with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and manufactories > Part 45
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To meet this required condition of outlet or fall, a tunnel must be driven in through the bed roek, till it is beneath the body of gravel to be attacked, starting from some conveniently located ravine, at a point low enough to furnish the desired grade iu the distance nceessary to reach the most remote por- tion of the deposit to be worked. The sluice boxes being laid in the tunnel, with their appliances for catchiug and retaining the gold, the stream of water, with its burdeu of gravel and rocks, passes through it, and is finally discharged into the ravine. In the beginning of hydraulie miniug only that portion of the bank was worked that was the most easily accessible, but of late years it has become necessary to drive long and expensive tunnels iu order to reach the bottom of the channel at more remote points.
The following table of the cost. and dimensions of some of the tunnels on the ridge between the Middle and South Yuba rivers is given to show the nature and expense of this branch of hydraulic mining :---
NAME.
LOCALITY.
LENGTH FEET.
GRADE PER 100 FT.
COST.
Boston .
Woolsey's Flat. .
1,600
71 feet.
$40,000
North Bloomfield Humbug Cañon.
8,000
4.3
498,000
American. . .
. Sebastopol
3,900
148,000
Manzanita . .
... . Sweetland.
1,740 .
41
62,000
Sweetland Creek.
2,200
44
=
90,000
Bed Rock. ... ... Birchville.
2,600
51
80,000
French Corral .. . Freuch Corral ..
3,500
42
165,000
Among the improvements that have been made in the last few years in hydraulic mining are the tail sluice and under- eurrents, both of which are very successful in catching gold that sueceeds in passing the sluiecs in the tunuels. It is gen- erally estimated that less than two-thirds of the gold is saved by the hydraulic process, the balance passing of with the " tailings," in the shape of extremely fine particles, which, borne along by the strength of the current, elude both the riftles and quicksilver placed to catch them in the sluices. These particles can only be caught wheu the current is more sluggish, and the distance they have to travel is increased, giving the particles a better chance to settle. For this purpose the tail sluice has been introduced aud has proved to be very successful. For this purpose a cañon or ravine is selected, through which extensive hydraulic mines discharge their " tailings." Along this a broad sluice, varying in width from six to twenty fect, is laid down, being generally constructed in two compartments, that cne may be kept iu use while the other is being cleaned up. These sluices vary in length from a few hundred feet to several miles, according to the advantages offered by the localities in which they are constructed. As the " tailings" from a hydraulic mine, after passing from the grounds and control of the owner, are free to whomsoever may desire to use them, the sluices frequently belong to men uninterested in the mines. Beyond the cost of construction and necessary repairs of the sluice, the owner has but little expense, aud considerable profit is made from enterprises of this kind.
The last appliance for this purpose is a system of uuder- currents, introduced and controlled by the owners of the mines themselves, and are used in connection with the Hume, which extends about half a mile from the outlet of the tuunel. These under-currents are side-floors or platforms of tight boards, sloping from the eenter like the ridge of a baru at right angles with the main flume. The bottom of the main Hume has heavy iron bars fastened across it, about an iuch apart. The rocks and most of the water go over, but the heavier particles are carried out with sufficient water to fill a small thume extending along the ridge, from which the water flows in two wide shallow streams towards either side, falling over bars and creviees in which quicksilver is lodged. The undercurrent is to take out the lower inch of water in the main flume. So powerful is the stream 'that the irou bars of which we have spoken, although four inches wide and one inch thick, are worn fairly in two, and bent or broken, in a few weeks, by the boulders continually rolling across. This undercurrent process is repeated several times, the percentage obtained being less each time, until it does not pay for the expeuse, and then the thick muddy stream is allowed to find its own way down without hindrance.
To illustrate the value of these appliances the following
statement of the gold secured in the Manzanita mine of the Milton Mining and Water Co., for the year 1878, is given :-
Tunnel, 2,300 feet long. . . $106,038.48
fail Sluice, 4,214 feet long. 52,178.53
Ten Uuder-currents 15,566.78
Total . $173,783.79
CEMENT MINING.
The blue cement that has been spoken of as occupying the few feet next above the bedrock in some of the anriferous deposits of the ancient water courses, is in some cases so com- pact and firin that it has to be worked in cement mills, somne- what after the method of working quartz. Exposure to the aetion of the elements will in time disintegrate this conglomer- ate, and it used to be customary for ininers to run it through a sluice, and then let it lie to be acted upon by the sun, rain an.l frost, after which it was again passed through the sluice. This process was repeated several times, from two to three years being required to thoroughly dissolve the cement. Although this process was continued by the Chinaman. and is claimed to be the most economieal, it was entirely too slow for American enterprise, and the method of crushing was adopted.
The most stubboru of this cement is found in Little York township, and in the greatest quantities, and it was there that the cement mill was first introduce 1 by the Massassauga Com- pany, in 1857. This mill had no screens, but the cement wa- thrown into the battery, where the stamps were kept running. and carried off into the sluices by a stream of water. Much of the cement did not become pulveriza ]. but the "tailings " from the sluice were allowed to undergo the process of decomposition for a year, and were then run through the sluice again. viel !- ing as much as before. Mills were soon erectel at Little York. Red Dog. Hunt's Hill and You Bet. greatly improving upon the first atteuipt. Screens were introduced. uearly as tine as those used in quartz mills, and it was ascertainel that the tin r the cement was pulverized the more gold was obtained.
In 1867 there were twenty-two of these mills in the county, with one hundred and eighty-five stamps. In Litt' York township there were sixteen with one hundred and thirty six , stamps; two in Washington township with eight stamps Me in Eureka with eight stamps, one in Brileyport with cis : stamps, one in Nevada with tifteen stamps, anl ae in Grass Valley with eight stamps. The majority of these will have been abandoned and fallen into decay, an I vement erns og > used but little at the present time, save as an adjunct hydranlie mining.
QUARTZ MINING.
No better definition. in a few words, can be found cf a on than the following, which was written for the infornata
VIEW OF BIRDS EYE CAÑON
YOU BE- A
in
PUBLISH BY THOMPSON & WEST.
1. LOCATION OF YOU BET. 2. HYDRAULIC MINES. 3. RESIDENCE OF C. H. HANKINS . 4. MOUTH OF TUNNEL. 5. TAILING FLUMES. 6. DANS. 7. CARPENTER SHOP & BLADE
-
13
13
ANION JOSQUIRREL PT. 11 STEEP HOLLOW CREEK. 12. COLD SPRING MT. 13 CENTRAL PACIFIC R. R. LENGTH OF FLUME FROM TUNNEL TO STEEP HOLLOW. CREEK 5000 FEET.
PROPERTY OF C. H. HANKINS,
DA CO CAL.
VIG GO D TAILINGS.
5
181
HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
that large class of people who are constantly speaking of dis- covering a mine: "A mine is a hole or holes in the ground, made for the purpose of taking out ore from a ledge, lode or lead. Mines are made, and not found or discovered, while a lead, ledge or lode may be discovered or found. To find a mine is proof that somebody has been there before, and at work, but to find a ledge is pretty good proof that nobody has been there before."
The following, from Hittel's Resources of California, is a concise description of quartz mining and methods :---
Auriferous quartz lodes are often found by accident. Not unfrequently it happens that a rich streak of pay-dirt in a placer claim is followed up to the quartz elaim from which it came. While miners are out walking or hunting, they will occasionally come upon lodes in which the gold is seen spark- ling. Some good leads have been found by mnen employed in making roads and cutting ditches. The quartz might be cov- ered with soil, but the pick and shovel revealed its position and wealth. In Tuolumne county, in 1858, a hunter shot a grizzly bear on the side of a steep cañon, and the animal tumbling down, was caught by a projecting point of rock. The hunter followed his game, and while skinning the animal, discovered that the point of rock was auriferous quartz. In Mariposa county, in 1855, a miner was attacked by a robber, and the formuer saw a sparkle behind his assailant at a spot where a bullet struck a wall of rock. He killed the robber, and found that the rock was gold bearing quartz. In Nevada county, several years ago, a couple of unfortunate miners who had pre- pared to leave California, and were out on a drunken frolic, started a large boulder down a steep hill. On its way down it struck a brown rock and broke a portion of it off-exposing a vein of white quartz which proved to be auriferous, induced the disappointed miners to remain some months longer in the State, and paid them well for remaining, Science and experience do not appear to give inueh assistance in prospecting for quartz lodes. Chemists, geologists, mineralogists, and old miners have not done better than ignorant men and new-comers. Most of the best veins bave been discovered by poor and ignorant men. Not one has been found by a man of high education as a miner or geologist. No doubt geological knowledge is valuable to a ininer. and it should assist him in prospecting; but it has never yet enabled anybody to find a valuable claim.
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It is useless to prospect for auriferous quartz in a country where no placer gold has been found. If the metal exists in the rock, some of it will also be found in the alluvium, and it can by discovered there more readily than in the vein. After the placers have been found, then search should be made for the quartz. The following rules are serviceable:
1. If a ravine is rich in gold to a certain point and barren
above, look for a quartz vein in the hill-sides just above the place where the richness ceases.
2. A line of pieces of quartz rock observed in a hill-side, probably indicates the course of a quartz vein.
3. If a ravine crosses a quartz vein, fragments of the rock will be found in its bed below.
4. A large quartz vein will often show its presence in the topography of the country, by forming hills in those spots where tbe rock happens to be very hard.
5. Quartz can be found and the veins traced with compara- tively little labor in the steep banks of cauons, where the rock is basc or is covered with but little soil.
6. If a quartz vein contains gold, some of the metal may be perceptible to the naked eye.
The extraction of auriferous quartz after it has been found, does not differ in any important material from the extraction of other ores in narrow veins. The rules for running tunnels and drifts for stoping, draining, ventilating and timbering, are precisely the same. Extraction, however, requires much expe- rience and judgment for proper management. The dip, thick- ness and material of the vein, the horizontal length and the dip of the pay-chute, the character of the walls, the supply of water, and the situation of the mill, must be taken into con- sideration. Access must be had to the lower works by a hori- zontal tunnel, or vertical shaft, or an incline running down on the dip of the lode. . There are, however, very few auriferous quartz mines in which the lower works can be reached profita- bly by a tunnel. Ordinarily an incline is preferred, it goes down in the vein-stone, which sometimes, but rarely, pays for the work of taking it out. After the shaft or incline is down, levels or drifts are run off horizontally as far as the pay-rock extends, at intervals usually of a hundred feet, and the levels are numbered from the surface; so when we read that they have found good rock in a certain mine at the eighth level, we presume that it is eight hundred feet below the surface. The rock between two levels is broken down or stoped out, and it falls to the drift or level below, where it is loaded in a car and hanled to the shaft, in which it is carried up.
Nearly all the quartz of California is crushed by stamps or iron hammers, ten inches in diameter, and weighing 500 pouuds. The stamp is fastened to a verticle iron stem about six feet long, and near the top is a projection by which a cam or a revolving shaft lifts the stamp a foot high and then lets it fall. Five stamps are placed side by side in a battery, andl they fall successively, each making about forty blows in a min- ute. The quartz is shoveled in on the upper side, aud when pulverized sufficiently, it is carried away through a wire serceu on the lower side by a stream of water, which pours into the battery steadily.
The arrastra is the simplest instrument for grinding aurifer-
-
ous quartz. It is a circular bed of stone, from eight to twenty feet in diameter, on which the quartz is ground by a large stone draged round and round by horse or mule power. There are two kinds of arrastras. the rude and improved. The rude arrastra is made with a pavement of unhewn flat stones, which are usually laid down in clay. The pavement of the improved arrastra is made of hewn stone, ent very accurately and laid down in cement. In the center of the bed of the arrastra is an upright post, which turns on a pivot, and running through the post is a horizontal bar, projecting on each side to the outer edge of the pavement. On each arm of this bar is attached by a chain a large flat stone or muller, weighing from three hundred to five hundred pounds. It is so hung that the for- ward end is about an inch above the bed, and the hind end drags on the bed and crushes the quartz.
The pulverized auriferous quartz, as it comes from the stamps, consists of fine particles of rock and gold mixed together, and the objects of the miner are to separate them, save the metal, and let the other material escape. Here again a small sluice, similar in principle to that used in placer mining, is used; but instead of riffle-bars, the bottom of tbe sluice is copper, covered with quicksilver, or is a rough blanket, in which the gold and heaviest sands are caught. In many suills quicksilver is placed in the battery, two ounces of quicksilver for one of gold; and about two-thirds of the gold is caught thus. Next the battery is the apron, a copper plate covered with quicksilver, on which a good share of the gold is caught.
Below the aprons different devices for catching the gold are used in different quills. The blanket is the most common. It is a coarse blanket, laid at the bottom of a sluice through which the palp from the battery runs, and the gold, black sanl, and sulphurets are caught in the wool, while the lighter muaterial runs off. The blanket is washed out in a tub at intervals of half an hour or an hour.
In some mines nearly half of the gold is mixed with pyrites and refuses to be caught by quicksilver. In such case a sluice may be used to separate the sulphurets, which may form three per cent. of the pulverized rock. This separation is called con- centration, and the material obtained is concentrated tailings. The sulphurets are five times as heavy as water, and twice as heavy as quartz, so the separation is not dittienlt when the >up- ply of water is abundant.
In roasting for chlorination we have, first, to oxydize the iron, and next, by introduction of salt, to chloridize certain other substances which vary with the locality from which the. ore is obtained. When this is rightly done we have usually formed either oxydes or oxychlorides of all the base metals ir : the ore treated, leaving gold as the only free metal to absorb the chlorine gas. In order to be successful in roasting the ore. attention must be given to the construction of the furnace, It
182
HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
the arch over the hearth is too high, the ore will not be oxydized; so also if the flues are too large, or the damper is opened too wide, as the excess of cold air or draft cools the ore. Then again, if the arch is too low, or Hlues too small, the air will fail to yieldl its oxygen to desulphurize and oxydize the ore. Cold air must always flow into the furnace through the work- holes, but it must be in proper quantities-and the work-holes must be in proportion to the chimney-flues. The main princi- ple of chlorination is, that the metallic gold is dissolved by chlorine gas, while metallic oxydes are left untouched. The ore is first roasted in a furnace of proper construction, and theu enclosed in a covered vat, into which chlorine gas is introduced, until all the gold is converted into chloride of gold; and then the vat is opened and filled with water, which dissolves the | they considered uncertain.
gold as sugar is dissolved under similar circumstances. The solution is drawn off, and the metallic gold precipitated from it by the introduction of the proto-sulphate of iron. The cost of the entire process does not exceed $20 per ton; and in some locations, where wood is cheap and freights moderate, it may be worked as low as $12 per ton of sulphurets. The roasting ! is the most difficult step in the entire process, but every part must be correctly performed.
Many fine fortunes have been lost in gold-quartz mining, and it is proper to give warning to the ignorant against the dangers that beset the business. Here are a few remarks for the con- sideration of iuexperienced persons solicited to take an interest in quartz mines.
1. Gold quartz mming is one of the most uncertain of all occupations.
2. No amount of experience, seientifie knowledge, and pru- denee, will secure the investor against loss in it.
3. Many of the men engaged in it are very bold, and their statements inust not be accepted without great caution, even when there is proof of their sincerity.
4. No one should risk more in gold quartz than he can afford to lose without serious inconvenience.
5. The presence of large lumps of gold in a vein, is no evidence of a profitable mine. Most of the best mines have had little rich rock; and the finest specimens have come from mines that are not now worked. It is the large supply of paying quartz, and not the extraordinary richuess of small pieecs, that makes the great mine.
6. There is no occupation in which it is easier to waste money by inexperience, carelessness, or folly.
7. No business has greater need of the presence and con- stant attention of an economical, attentive, and capable manager, directly interested in the business.
8. For persous of small ineans, the only safe way to work a quartz mine is to make it pay as it goes along, and to abandon it whenever the outgo exceeds the income.
9. Many of the best quartz mines in the State were rich at the surface, and have yielded more than enough from the beginning to pay for all the work expended on them.
10. Not one in five of the mines which did not pay at the surface, and has been worked to a depth of one hundred fect, has ever paid.
11. The richness of a vein at one point is no evidence of its riehness at another.
12. Not one quartz miner in a thousand has made a mod- crate fortune.
13. Nearly all the owners of the rich quartz mines of Cali- fornia are capitalists, who made money in other business, aud then could afford to risk considerable sums in ventures which
14. Do not build your mill till you have opened your mine, aud got enough pay-rock in sight to pay for it.
15. The following remarks of Wm. Ashburner, mining engineer, are as worthy of attention as when they were written ten years sinee :-
" In 1858, there were upwards of 280 quartz mills in Cali- foruia, each one of which was supplied with quartz from one or more veins. The uumber of stamps in these mills was 2,610, and the total cost of the whole mill property of this nature in the State execcded $3,000,000. In the summer of 1861, while I was attached to the Geological Survey, I made a careful and thorough examination of all the quartz mills and mines of the State, and could only find some forty or fifty mills in successful operation, several of which were at that time leading a very precarious existenee."
16. A good quartz mine, well managed, is the most profita- ble and satisfactory kind of property to be found in California. The following history of the quartz mining laws of Nevada county is given in Bean's Directory :-
" 'The quartz miners of Nevada county were the first to per- eeive the necessity of some general regulations to govern the location and holding of ledges, different from those that had been adopted by the placer and river miners. For this pur- pose, a convention of the quartz miners of the county was called, which inet at Nevada early in the fall of 1852, and was attended by parties interested from all parts of the county. At. this meeting, a full discussion and interchange of opinion was had, as to character of regulations needed, and a committee was appointed to draft the laws, with instructions as to the size of the elaims, the amount of work to be done to hold them, etc. The convention then adjourned to meet on the 20th of Decem. ; ber following, and invited all the quartz miners of the county to attend. At the adjourned meeting the committee presented their report, and the appended laws were adopted. These have proved eminently satisfactory, never having been changed or abrogated, and have been respected and enforced by the courts
of the State. It was the first attempt, so far as we are aware, to lay the foundation of a code of quartz mining laws; and although they do not, and were never intended to, provide for every case that may arise in practice, they are the basis of the quartz mining custoins that have obtained the force of law on this coast.
ARTICLE 1. The jurisdiction of the following laws shall ex- tend over all quartz mines and quartz mining property within the county of Nevada.
ART. 2. Each proprietor of a quartz elaim shall hereafter be entitled to one hundred feet on a quartz ledge or vein; and the discoverer shall be allowed one hundred feet additional. Each elaim shall include all the dips, angles and variations of the vem.
ART. 3. On the diseovery of a vein of quartz, three days shall be allowed to mark and stake off the same, in such man- ner, by name of the owner and number of the claim, or other- wise, as shall properly and fully identify snch elaims. Parties having claims may cause a map or plan to be made, and a copy filed with the Recorder, if deemed requisite, to more particularly fix the locality.
ART. 4. Work to the extent of one hundred dollars in value or twenty days faithful labor, shall be performed by each con- pany holding elaims, within thirty days from the date of recor 1- ing the same, as provided for in Artiele sixth of these laws; and the duly authorized representative of a company making oath that such labor has been performed, shall be entitled to a certini- cate from a County Recorder or Deputy, gnarantreing undis- puted possession of said claim for the term of one year; and for a like sum of money or amount of labor expended or performe ! within the first twenty days of each succeeding year, duly acknowledged as herein named, shall entitle the claimants or company, from year to year, to further certificates of undispn- ted proprietorship and possession; and a company having a mill contracted for in good faith, to the amount of five thous- and dollars, for the working of its elaim or claims, the proper representative of the company making oath of the same sha" be entitled to receive from said County Recorder a title deel to said claim or claims, guaranteeing to the claimants or company their successors and assigns, undisduted possession an l pn prie- torship forever under these laws: providel. that nothing in this Article shall be, at any time, inconsistent with the laws of the United States.
ART. 3. Whenever the requisite amount of labor, as provi ledl for in Article fourth, has not been expended within thirty days from the adoption of these laws, the claim or e aims thurs neglected shall be considered abandoned, and subject to be re-located by any other party or parties
ART. 6. Any person, a citizen of the United States, or any person having taken the necessary steps to become a citizen of
183
HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
the United States, shall be entitled to hold one quartz claim as provided for in Article first, and as many more as may be purchashed in good faith, for a valnable consideration, for which certificates of proprictorship shall be issued by the County Recorder.
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