Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1920-07-10
BOOSTING THE LIMIT
 OF THE TROY OUNCE

Certain newspapers publish re- port from a Tonopah correspondent which is somewhat exaggerated" It is stated that small boulders as saying 22,000 ounces of silver to the ton have been encountered in the sul phide deposit on the fifth level of the Tonopah Divide mine. Absolutely pure silver sulphide, argentite, con- tains S7.1 per cent silver, or 20,900,- 900 ounces per ton. One ton equals 24,000,000 troy ounces. *- The Financial Review, N. Y.
 Isn't it remarkable that .men who
 should know go out of their way to
 expose their ignorance. Just think of a poor miner having to furnish a
 ton of ore to the shelter weighing
 24,000,000 troy ounces for which he
 gets the measley sum of 22,000 ounces in silver, or approximately that many
 dollars, and the actual tonnage de- livered being about S90. It is possi-
 ble that eastern fellows have been thinking so much in millions and bil-
 lions lately that they have become i'm
 bued with the idea that there are more ounces in the ordinary ton than formerly. While we are not alto gether familiar with the troy and
 avoirdupois ounce we have the inn pression that a pound avoirdupois contains approximately 14.6818 ounc- es troy, the troy ounce containing about 4S0 grains and the avoirdupois ounce about 4371a grains. The pound is as far as the troy ounce goes in
 the matter of weights, everything weighing more than that amount, whether in precious or base metals being predecated on the avoirdupois system of weights. This is especial ly true of the weights in the United
 States, although the old world uses the metric system that is somewhat interlocked with both of our weighing systems. Just how the writer got his figures jumbled is not apparent, as not one of them is correct. The Re- view is usually dependable along if nancial and other lines, but it's writ CTS probably were too anxious to take a slap at Tonopah Divide to look into the subject and get the dope correct. ly.
 Silver ore has been produced in Ari- zona that contained 9O96 of the pure metal. We do not mean to say that there was large tonnages of the met al, but the native silver of the old Silver King was known to contain full ly that percentage, and the old Rural and Buckeye mines also produced sil- yer ore equally as rich. A nugget of. silver from the Cupel mine, at Stockton Hill gave better than 22,OOO ounces silver u the ton, and silver from the Wild Irishman claim near Cerbat ran better than 1S,0OO and was so pure that it was melted into bull lion as it came from the mine. Ever, taking the figures of the Financial Review writer and it will be found, that argentite might run above 25;- poo ounces silver, although it is i'm probable. The silver mines of Kerr Lake, Canada, have produced silver ore that contained as high as 9O9o, assays of the metal having been made
 in a Kingman assay office, being brought here from Haileyville. While no large tonnages of this high grade ore has ever been taken from a mine, he old Molly Gibson mine, at Aspen, Colorado, is said to have dropped one piece of ore in stope that contained more than three tons of better than 'O%o metal. The first ores gathered 'n the surface of the mines at Tough on, Michigan, contained nuggets of better than 80@o silver, ore, and some 'f these nuggets were so pure that hey went to the hints without refin- ng. It is really out of place to state hat a correspondent is drawing on lis imagination, when he makes a statement that brought, forth the crit cism of the Financial Review. A newspaper man, especially one who is interested to some extent in the min ng game, ought to have at hand or be equipped with knowledge of mineral values before he calls down ridicule on anyone.