The Georgetown news., 1856-02-14

IMPORTANT DIsCovERY-A New Pro
CESS FOR SAVING GoLD.-The Sacramento
Union of Tuesday publishes letter to
gentleman Of that city, written by two
gentlemen whom the Union endorses as dis
tinguished chemists and mineralogists de-
failing the results efexperimentS on tailings
from quartz mills by new process invented
bv the gentlemen referred to. If the state
ments contained in the letter are correct
and they bear the impress Of truth-quartz
mining is destined to undergo complete
revolution, and is susceptible of being made
the most highly remunerative of all classes
mining The Union says:
These gentlemen have spent weeks in
Amador county, and so far as we can learn
their experiments satisfied all those who
took the pains to examine the results, Of
the reality as well as the great value Of the
discovery. We have seen specimens Of the
dust extracted from fine black sand, and
from that more coarse, or what is termed
"hydrate Of IRON The process, Of course,
is only known to those gentlemen, who claim
to be the discoveries. The chemicals are
not costly, can be made by themselves and,
as before remarked, if future experiments,
on a more extended field exhibit results
one quarter as great as those Shown by the
assays made on limited scale, the road to
wealth may be said to be open before them.
But in thus accommodating wealth, as the
reward of long scientific research, they must
confer lasting benefit not alone upon the
miner, for the world will be included. It
will cost comparativey Y but triile to put
up the works necessary to test this process
! thoroughly, and we are glad to learn that
the incipient steps have been taken in Am
ado to fully determine its value practically
as gold saving agent. The plan Of opera
ting, as we understand it, will be for the
company, which has already been formed,
/ to put up works for assaying on an extend
/ ed scale, these to be located in proper po-
sition, and then assay talings, black sand,
| &c. &C.. as they may be brought in from
! the surrounding mills and mines-the com
/ pany to assay for q certain portion, or pay
! a given price for the sand or tailings to the
owner.
1t is known that millions have been was
/ ted in this State for lack of the necessary
knowledge to enable the owners of quartz
ledges and mills to save the gold after the
rock was crushed. Hundreds Of expert
mentS have been made with amalgamating
machines which proved failures, and, if
models of all these machines could be gath
cred into one room, they would form real
cabinet of curiosities in the shape of inven-
tions to save gold.
The letter gives the result of eight differ
ent assays of tailings which yielded from s.
to S720 per ton, and goes on to say:
Now the average yield of the crude
quartz rock at the mills I'VE are informedl
is about 500 per ton, which compared with
the yield of the tailings of the same, shows
a loss Of from 100 to 800 per cent. of gold
thrown away by the present operation.
Here then, is the cause Of the disrepute
into which quartz mining has fallen-here
is the cause of the loss of all the immense
/ capital engulphed in it. Since 1851, quartz
has been and is every day extracted from
where the munifcent had of Natures God
has placed it, to be strewn in the beds of
the surrounding creeks, where it lays almost
in its virgin state of richness, having
/ scarcely remunerated the labor of She men
who brought it to light. The evil known
to us we have worked unproiitaby for years
to remedy. To prove its existence earlier
and not to be able to cure it, would have
done no good, but we feel happy and proud
to-day to say that it can be done practically
and cheaply.