Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1876-12-28
GOLD YIELD OF CALIFORNIA.
Statistics for the Present Year-An Az.
Eregate Of About Twenty Millions.

The ANa Californi0n supplies the follow
| ing: ''The gold yield OF California this year
will probably be about $50, ,00O, 600, or as
much as it was in 1875. OF this, two-,hirds
may come from placer claims, and the re-
mainder from quartz. The greater part of
the placer gold is obtained 10y hydraulic
claims in the channels of dead rivers, with
deposits Of auriferous gravel several hundred
feet deep and quarter Of a mile wide. Al
though many acres of deep gravel beds have
heen washed away TO the bedrock, large
areas remain, and promise to yield Il good
profit for many years to come, though the
product will doubtless decrease gradually
The placer mining camps which have no
hydraulic washngs are steadily declining, if
they have not already disappeared. or if they
have not some Other resource. The placer
workings of Tuba, Shasta, Tuolum me and
NlaripOSa counties amount now to little; in
Plumas they are nearly as productive as
ever
The gold-quartz mining industry Of Cali
fornia is stationary in its general character.
A large number of auriterous lodes, and
mines partly opened, are neglected because
the gross average yield per ton will not eX-
cced ten dollars, and that figure does not, in
most cases, leave, any profit, though in Aus
tralia, where labor costs half as much and
supplies are cheaper, many quartz mines are
kept going for a gross yield of five dollars
per ton. In the colony Of Vitoria, which has
for twenty-five years produced. and continues
to produce about as much gold as California,
two-thirds of the precious metal comes from
quartz and only one-third from placer mines;
while here the proportion is reversed. How
much quartz gold our State could produce ii
labor could be had at the same rates rs in
Australia is n matter OF conjecture. Some
intelligent miners say five times as much. Ii
quartz could be extracted and reduced for
five dollars per ton, work would soon be
commenced on hundreds of mines to find out
whether they could be made TO pay. For
every gold quartz mine now worked in Cali
fornia there are not less than twenty-per-
haps fifty-claims held in the hope that they
can be made profitable in the future.
The yield of the gold mines generally, un-
like that of the silver mines, is not published
regularly. The latter are owned by compa-
MES incorporated in San Francisco; reports
must be given to the numerous stockholders
through the press, and as the treasure is cast
into heavy bars, the transportation Of which
is notorious in the neighborhcod, there is no
motive for concealment. Many Of the gold
mines are worked on d small scale. some
times by two or three men. Few of them
are incorporated in San Francisco the stock
holders are usually few, and live at the mine;
they can get information by letter or orally,
and as the treasure is much more attractive
to robbers than silver, the managers try to
keep the amount of production and the times
of shipment secret. These are some Of the
reasons why less information is given in the
newspapers about gold mines in California
than about the silver mines of Nevada. In
reference to number of the most prOduc-
tive quartz mines Of California, it is impossi-
ble to get information for publication.
The Idaho, at Grass Valley, continues to
be worked with much profit, and has yielded
altogether more than 1000, 600. 1t is on the
pay chute. which paid very rich tribute to the
Eureka Company for years. About fifteen
years ogo the most profitable quartz mine in
the State was the Allison. near Grass Valley,
and wonders were told of the richness of the
rock and of the men deriving princely in
comes from it. They worked the pay chute
out to the end of the claim, and now, after
the vein has been unproductive for ten years,
the same pay chute has been found dipping
down into the adjacent claim of the Allison
Extension, and it will probably within year
or two be as good property as the original
Allison was.