Arizona state miner., 1925-06-13
HIGHGRADING IN MEXICO
Great Cunning of the Miners

Highgrading is not peculiar to any
one race or nationality any more
than any other variety of theft.
Strictly speaking, the term highgrad-
ing refers to the purloining of ores
of precious metals carefully selected
or sorted down till the great value
is contained in the least bulk. But
in a general way, the term has been
stretched to cover the theft of con-
centrates and precipitates about mills.
And, where the temptation occurs to
help himself to gold or silver, the
miner or millman devises many in
genious ways to permit himself to
yield to temptation-with safety.
He usually gets caught in the long
run, but it seems an exciting game
while it lasts.
The Mexican miner is not more dis
honest than the white man but he
will frequently go to greater lengths
for smaller returns than will his light
er-skinned neighbor. At the mouth of
the manWay of many Mexican gold
and silver mines man is placed to
search the Workmen as they come up
from underground. Another search is
conducted rapidly at the gate of the
patio surrounding the surface work
ingS of the mine. And rich ore has
been discovered concealed in mouths,
ears and nostrils and other crannies
of the body. 1t has been found in
lunch baskets with cleverly woven
false bottoms; in the great straw hat
the Mexican wears, even under
ground, in an artfully woven double
crown. Ore has been taken from the
slits in sandals and knots in loin
cloths and shirts.
High grade ore has been tossed
over the patio wall, the tosser walk
ing through the gate with his search
er and picking up the pieces-all he
could find-once he was outside. One
lad made nice little stake standing
outside the wall and catching the
high grade as it was thrown over the
wall. But he was discovered and be-
came so unpopular among his erst-
| while friends he had to move to an
other camp.
Well organized crews have sent lit
tie bundles of high grade up on the
hosting rope from underground and
their partners on the surface would
remove it and take it out tied under
waste cars which passed out of the
patio to the dump without search
In precipitation house the clean
up boys would rub precipitate from
cyanide solution in their straight
black and luxuriant hair and wash it
out when they got home-slowly &C.
cumulating enough of the valuable
black mud to make selling worth
while Then the company they were
working for installed shower baths
at the exits from the precipitate room
and kept the precipitate in the mill
circulation.
One clever boy used to hang small
pieces of strip zinc in the darker sol
ution tanks, precipitating the gold on
it's surface and drawing up for clean.
ing as opportunity offered. And an.
other hammered him a little spoon
that passed through the quarter inch
mesh of the locked tops of concen.
trate boxes. He could accumulate a
nice little pile Of rich concentrate if
left alone for few hours at night
Another crew had favorite method
of getting high grade out of mine
They tied it to the under side #
chips and f1oated it out through the
barrel mouth of drainage tunnel
and confederate picked up the chips
downstream half a mile 1t worked
for several years before discovered