Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1866-01-04
CORRESPONDENCE.
LETTER FROM COLORADO.
Correspondence of the Commercially

| Correspondence OF the Commercial
| CENTRAL CRY, Colorado, Dec. Il, 1865.
Gold mining. as practised in Colorado is of three
| varieties: Gulch Diggings, Patch Diggingg, and
| Quartz or Lode Mining.
| The two former are alike in the process employed
put while one IS carried on the bottoms of ravnes
the beds OF streams &C. the other is on the hill-tops
and hill-sides; In both cases the gold is found in
coarse particles, mixed with earth from which tba
miner separates It with the pan rocker or sluice The
whole operation is simple, requires little or no caD
tai particular skill and IN GOOD locotinns fre
quenty pays htteen or twenty dollars per day to each
Nearly all known diggings in the Ter,itorv have
been gone over, and some the second time when bv
using improved methods. more gold was secured than
Quartz or Lode Mining is entirely different aud
feq9Irfs large capital with much practical skill, both
10 work u mines properly, and to manipulate the
ores alter they are raised to the surface.
A lode is a seam in the main rock of the noun
tain or hill filled with material apparently forced I'D
the main or "wall-rock as il is termed and fiIeJ
the crevice thus formed. The wal-rock of this re-
glon appears to be a variety Of granite formation,
and gold bearing lodes are composed Of copper and
iron pyrlteS, galena and other minerals, Gold and
silver is distributed throughout the mass in
with other substances he visible to the unasssteT
eye. Ores OF surpa SSing richness show no external
appearance of the precious metals
This extreme minuteness and intimate com mbinstion
with other substances not well known or underst0od
renders it exceedingly difficult to separate and So,
cure the gold, and hitherto only small nercantsgo
say to exist in the ore. - ~
The process almost universally adoDted Is #, crusb
the ores IN stamp mill and pass tho crushed mate
rial over surface of quicksilver which BY its strong
affinity for gold, collects therartcles from the ioaie
ing mass u hen the quicksilver has taken M what
II Will mold 1t Is evapOrated retort the vauorizad
quicksilver Is condensed for further uss and the gold
ieIi IN mass IN the bottom Of the rstOrt In This
manner 1t IS apparent that only those particles of
gold are retained that actually come into contact
with tho quicksilver, while those particles ntimoteIv
combined with foreign minerals slide of and are lost
Ii IS rare that more than onc-fib the gold in ov orc
as determined by assay secured From ten to sixty
dollars per ton, only, is saved, whero fifty TO tbree
hundred dollars is knswn to exist D-
a great number OF OfiDventlons have been natontcd
whose OBJECT Is TO obtain n larger pr0nor.
tio3 eff the metal, and extraordinary res1lts ara
Claimed Tor some OF them but has yet secured
tne confidence OF practical miners to the degree ne
cessary to secure Its general adoption
Most oil the processes and machines used in mining
appear to be copied FROM or based upon The Nexca6
practice, while European methods seem to have been
OFerloOhed. within Il few months, one of the most
enterprsIns miners of the Territory has introduced
the saetlng process with success; saving it is
CLAIMED not only larger per cenaae of gold than by
any known amalgamatlnS method, but sufficient sill
Yer from some ores to nearly OF quite nav the e=nn
SeS OF reducing them. Many well-nfOrmed miners
oeleve that smelling will ultimately suuarscIe al.
70 be the one thing necdful in the Colorado gold re-
gion IS not vet proved, 1t requires a much hirIar
order OF practical skill than analgamating. and its
apPnances are more extensive and costly besides rc
curing large and continuous OUTLAWS for repairs
Some practical method to save all, or veTy nearly
an he SOt contained IN any variety of rich orc will
certainly be discovered and adopted. MANY inron-
9us men are labofug 10 devise the best process and
When ii can readily be proved by assayno that Gres
contain two three hundred dollars of gold nor Ton
our people will not rest satisfied until they have some
t'l'V'ic""le iiethoa oI securing It, EXPLORER.