Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-04-13

from their Ores-ths Truo Mafrtx-6foiu
In Chemical Combination with Sulphu-
rets, etc.
America Is blessed beyond precedent
in the immensely Of her stores Of mineral
wealth, and in having such intelligent,
industrious, hardy, indomitable mon to
discover and drag out her latent treas
ures to tho light Of day, and. pour them
into the lap of the Nation; yet SO short
O time has elapsed since the discovery
in California of gold-and still less since
anything like system in the working Of
either our gold or silver deposits, was
adopted-that our nation is yet in the
infancy Of mining. So also in metal
lurgy. And although it is Of great i'm
portance that the size, variety and struc-
ture Of these deposits shall be speedily
as possible determined by development
and otherwise, 80 that we may awake to
q proper appreciation of these resources,
yet there is a subject Of wen greater
Importance to us than this. We know
we have the gold and silver in the rock,
but hop to get il all out, is one Of the
greatest questions of the day. We all
know that silver is found in q pure or
"free" condition, and also in chemical
combination with other minerals, when
it is called sulphuret, bromide, chloride,
etc., Of silver. We know, too, that
Stree gold" is found in large quantities
in quartz ore, and other rock, and also
in iron pyrites or sulphurets. Scientific
men, whose attention has been long con
Sentrated upon the subject, are now ap-
preaching another conclusion, viz: that
gold also crisis in chemical combination
NTH the sulphur. This has not yet been
actually determined, but las will be seen
by perusal of a series Of papers on sThe
Desulphurization Of Gold and Silver
Ores" written by a distinguished chem
list for the Journal Of Mining, and which
will shortly APPEAR it is considered
probable, from the fact that two metals
livery similar to gold in their afinities,
and hitherto only found in their metal
lie state" have recently been discovered
in chemical combination with sulphur.
Assuming, then, that this probability
may soon become q demonstrated fact,
the question resolves itself into these :
How to extract
First-All the free gold and silver
from the rock.
Second-All the free gold from aurif-
erous s%ulphurets. 81
Third-All the gold in chemical COM
bination with sulphur. ..ns
Fourth-All the silver in combination
with its various afinities.
These are questions of the greatest
possible interest to the miner, the mill
man, the m%etallurgist, and indeed the
Nation at large-inasmuch rs, by in.
creasing the yield of precious metals, we
increase our capacity for paying of the
National Debt, because we augment the
value of property in proportion to the
additional production or supply Of pre-
cious metals, and q mar can better At
ford to pay a five per cent. tax upon
property worth $4,000, than a ten per
cent. tax upon property worth but So
600. Aye, and it is safe to assert, that
few would object to continue the spay-
ment of ever the ten per cent. Tax on
property that has doubled in value,
Hence the satisfactory solution Of these
questions would be a largo item, either
in lessening the annual burden Of taxa
ton, OIL in bringing nearer the day when
the debt shall have been swept away.
Thousands of active brains are now in
this and other countries e~ndeavoring to
solve these problems, and so much labor
in this direction must, before long, bere-
warded with adequate success. Hundreds
of millions Of gold and silver have al
ready been added to the circulation Of
the country, and hundreds OF millions
have already been utterly lost. For
tunately, however, many of the quartz
miners Of the Far West came to the con-
clusion some years ago that the sulphur
cts are worth saving, and have concen-
trated and piled them away, waiting for
the coming process that shall enable
them to secure the hidden gold-and in
the meantime, perchance, exposure to
the atmosphere will reduce to docility
some of these rebellious pyrites. Re-
cent discoveries in various parts of the
Far West, of great lodges or true veins
las well as masses and disseminated
psrticles) of auriterous sulphurets Of
iron-veins composed almost entirely Of
pyrites, with hardly any quartz-eItra-
ordinarily rich in gold, are likely to give
fresh impetus to the Investigations Of
both scientists and such as claim to be
simply practical men, into the best
methods Of disintegration and desul-
phurizing, and have given prominence
and force to the new theory, that the
true matri1 of gold, and perhaps silver,
is the sulphuret.-Ameriedn Journd! Of
Mining.