THE MIXING AND QUARRY INDUSTRY I909 1J 



stituent of the sands ; but several other minerals occur in small 

 amount, such as garnet, magnetite, pyroxene and hornblende which 

 are common in the Adirondack rocks. Xo minerals have been 

 found in the sands that are foreign to the region. The view ex- 

 pressed as to their derivation from the local rocks is, therefore, well 

 established. 



Gold quartz veins are not known in the Adirondacks or anywhere 

 within the immediate region. Common white or milky quartz is 

 rather plentiful, but it lacks the rusty, honeycombed appearance of 

 gold quartz as well as the iron and copper sulphides with which the 

 precious metals are associated in veins that have not undergone sur- 

 face alteration. It is very likely that careful analysis would show 

 a trace of gold in the Adirondack veins, but they are not mineralized 

 in the usual sense of the term. 



To explain the presence of gold in the sands in any appreciable 

 amount we must perforce look for its source in the ordinary country 

 rocks — the deep seated igneous masses and the gneisses and schists. 

 That gold should be generally distributed through rocks of this char- 

 acter to the value of even $i a ton is certainly an exceptional, if 

 not unique, phenomenon. And yet the basis of present and past 

 mining operations in the region is the claim that the sands, from 

 almost any section, apparently, will yield to proper treatment as 

 much as $4 or $5 and even as high as $40 a ton. 



There is a very wide discrepancy between these claims and the 

 results obtained by reputable assayers. This is said to be due to 

 the fact that the gold exists in a peculiar condition owing to which 

 the ordinary methods of fire or wet assay are inapplicable to its 

 recovery. Without inquiry further into that matter at present, we 

 give here some determinations made by disinterested commercial 

 chemists. 



In an investigation for the State Museum of the so called " Sut- 

 phcn " process which was in vogue during the earlier period of 

 experimentation with these sands, J. N. Nevius collected samples 

 from deposits at Hadley that were said to yield $7.50 a ton by that 

 process. The following statements are extracted from his report : 



A sample of sand collected from the spot from which the mill's 

 ripply is obtained was assayed for the Museum, and the value 

 was reported to be a " trace " of gold to the ton, which means a 

 value of less than 20 cents a ton. No value of silver was ob- 

 tained. Another sample of the same sand was tested by Dr E. T. 

 Wheeler, of Albany, for the presence of bromin, but no trace of 



