Valdez daily prospector., 1917-02-19
Neptune's University.


 pector, and together with W. H. Washburn's report in the Mining and Scientific Press Magazine year ago. issued February 26, 1916, page 297, treats of the mistakes of millmen and If you are interest ed in gold quartz mining get that magazine and read that interesting article which the Valdez Prospectcr printed February 2, 1917, page 3, column 3, and you see what it says there about amalgamating plates like in a mill. It is the fault of the Com panies themselves, because they do not employ the right kind of men with the right sort of knowledge. To select good men as first amalgam- aters, it is beach miners, students of Neptune's University, who can show several years assay returns as recom- mendation that they or he knows how to work on plates, and the gold he has been saving by working with rocker or Hong tom," and not in riff fife boxes. These are the men who know more about amalgamating than the men who are working at present in the mills north and south. Even men who have worked in the mills for the last ten or twelve years don't know more today than they knew the first day, when they began to work in gold quartz mills and attend to the apron plates as amalgamater. First, because they did not have the training they should have, as this is not a trade to learn from books, but comes from hard practical exre- rience, as it takes time to get the real knowledge of how to do it right and make pay for their work. I see in one of the mills in this vicinity that the amalgam was coming out of the mortar black, and the plates were black with copper oxide, except some places where the gold was settling most on the plate, and the gold vas sliding down to the bottom plate. There is a way to stop the gold from sliding down and keep the amalgam in. the mortar bright, when man knows how to do that. First, the apron tables in many mills must be improved. according to my estimation, by a little carpenters mechanism, to keep the gold from sliding down, as the grades of the apron tables where set up correct, except the plates don't hold the gold in place, as they have been spoiled by acid making them hard and glassy. And in the mortar the amalgam can be kept clean by feeding the hammers on the same system as some mills are fed with cyanide of potassium; but it takes ex- perience, and I am not going to ex- pose my methods to the public. It is a secret of mine. It cost me good many seasons work to become maste:' of that trade. There is lots to learn: how to attend plates properly, espe- cially mille plates, The first anal gamater is the right hand of tho company. He must be man of large experience. He must have learned his lessons from the place where the golden sands are, not from books. , If a man has no judgment the plates will be soiled with acids soOn- CT or later, and there is the ore feed CT to regulate, or the amount of wa ter to be used, as there is no way to acquire these things by mathematics but by practical judgment and ex- perience. Then again, last summer. I heard talked about Mineral Creek that a man came from another mill and worked under the foreman for q while and then became amalgamater. with practically no knowledge of the business only what he learned him. self. So he has been doing the best I he knows, saving little of the precious metal and losing more, by overfeed- ing the apron plates or using too much or too little water because he did not know the difference.
 Mill men should have license the same as marine engineers or other skilled mechanics. To be a skilled ,amalgamater take trip to one of these Neptune Universities and see for yourself what you can do. The first and second week you will prob ably be discouraged and ready to throw the pick and shovel into the sea and leave school, but a couple, of seasons at the work will soon give you the knowledge of how to amal- gamate.
 KRISTAP LAHZ.
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 Why not a vICTROLA9 We have them from $15 up. Valdez Drug