The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-11-25
CUSTOM ASSAYER GIVES
Sailing EXPERIENCES
INTENTIONAL AND ACCIDENTAL
cRooKS-PRELlMlNARY
EXAMINATION.

f. c. ID. Marriage Phoebe, New. il
Engineering and Mining Journal.
Fifteen years continuous operation
of custom assay office in Nevada
has demonstrated to me the import.
anee of exercising the utmost care il
the preliminary examination and pre-
paration of samples submitted for as
say. Errors will creep in despite all
efforts to avoid them; and it is bv the
successful elimination of these errors
that business is built up and the ne
cessary confidence of the community
secured and held. often. in such ems
tom assay offices too little Importance
is attached to this work Samples
are tagged as received, and turned
over. to an assistant. A quartz sam
pie, possibly brought in by a pros
pector from new district, is passed
through the crushing plant following
rich sample, with the result. some
times that the really barren quartz
is found to contain several ounces of
silver To the ton, and the prospector
undertakes a long trip back to his
discovery only to find, on checking.
time and money are wasted owing to
the negligence of the assayer in whom
the prospector places his trust
Promoter Puzzled.
few years ago several samples of
gold quartz were brought into my Of
flee by local mining promoter, which
was requested to assay for gold
The promoter explained to me that
they were low in grade but represent
ed big tonnage and asked that /
save them for future checking and
for possible mill tests AS was busy
weighing my days pulps 1 turned the /
samples over to my assistant for pre-
paration after quickly examining the
character of the quartz in the top of |
the sacks, which bore out the pro-
moter's description. being hard.
CLASSY and apparently very low in
grade. Later in the day the promoter
returned for the results. AS I watch
ed the cupels which were finishing in
the muffle / could see very plainly
that the results were going to be sur
prisingly high. Subsequent weighing
indicated gold values of which the
lowest was $500 per ton and the high
est over $4,000. The promoter was
dumfounded. He assured me of his
extreme care in sampling and watch
ing the samples when taken and evil
IDENTIFY felt that my work was at
fault. I suggested an examination of II
the quarterings. and together we
quickly picked out a number of small {
pieces of apparently rich ore. Re-
sampling, which necessitated over
100 miles of night travelling in which {
myself assisted. gave the true re- i
suits of from 80 to SIC in gold per ton, c
but the loss of confidence resulted in I
killing the prospective deal. I
The exact method employed by the v
salter in tampering with samples and /
inserting the rich ore was never dis t
covered. though his identity was G
known to me. He had previously re- t
quested me to melt a quantity of rich t
telluride ore from Colorado, the re- r.
sultant gold being of a beautiful Q
greenish color which compared ex- $
actly with the big button obtained f.
when I assayed the saltings found on il
examining the original samples
Attempt That Failed. e
Later in the same year an owner a
Of a group of mining claims who was G.
andeavoring to sell his property To- s.
rally made an abortive attempt to
raise the grade of the prospective pur-
3haser's sample right before my eyes. Il
that I was alone in the as a
no I in Ion
sion of the samples, he came into my Il
office just as I was about to finish II
)ulping them. Engaging me in con- m
'ersation about some work he in u
ended to give me. he followed me pl
nto the bucking room. Just as we W
entered my telephone bell rang. Elk de
using myself, I started toward the &C
rOnt office On second thought, how as
ver I turned quickly at the door and
eentered the bucking room. catching la
ny friend right in the act of adding \
quantity of rich argentiferous ga II
ena to one of the pulps in which he is
vas interested. Caught red handed. &C
le tried to bride me to increase the M
Essays and, failing in that, to buy in
ny silence. Subsequent assay of the al
uarterings which I had kept showed of
cry low values. The whole matter III
vas dropped and my friend hence 81
orth pursued his mining career in to
ther fields eS
In my opinion it is much easier to tn
eject intentional sailing than that a
which sometimes takes place in a ar
avs run. In instances of the latter TO
md. a sample that apparently should an
ssay a trace is found sometimes to 70
ontain fair values and all the Ordin- su
ry sources of possible error are trac- an
down without the mystery being sa
olved. ha
Sailed the FIux. hi
For a number of years I had been