232 MINING INDUSTEY. 



SECTION III. 

 COSTS AKD EESULTS OF MILLING OPEBATIONS. 



Cost of Labor and Materials. — The number of men employed in a 

 well-managed mill of twenty-four stamps and ten Greeley or large Wheeler 

 pans, having a total capacity for treatment of about 60 or 55 tons of ore per 

 day of twenty-four hours, is as follows : Two, breaking rock and supplying 

 the feeders, both by day ; two feeders supplying the stamps, one by day and 

 one by night ; three tankmen discharging the tanks and supplying the pans, 

 each working eight hours ; two amalgamators ; two helpers ; two engineers, 

 one each by dny, and one each by night ; one foreman and one mechanic — in 

 all fifteen men. 



The price of labor varies from $3 50 to $6 per day, averaging, perhaps 

 ^4 50 per day for the several classes employed in the mill. The cost of labor 

 per ton of rock treated, would, however, reach a somewhat higher figure in 

 the course of a year than is indicated by the foregoing list of employes, 

 owing to unavoidable loss of time for repairs or other hinderances, which 

 diminish the actual capacity of the mill. The average cost of labor, per ton of 

 ore, is from $2 to $3. The other chief elements of cost in the operation of a 

 mill are iron, consumed in wear of castings for stamps and pans, averaging about 

 $i per ton ; quicksilver, consumed or lost in the amalgamating process, of which 

 the amount is rarely less than one pound and frequently one pound and a-half 

 per ton, costing about $1 ; fuel, the cost of which varies from $6 to $1 6 or 

 $18 per cord, according to the distance of the mill from the source of supply, 

 and varying therefore from $1 to $3 per ton ; water, when purchased from the 

 Virginia and Gold Hill Watfer Company, at about $100 per inch, costing from 

 30 to 40 cents per ton of rock,^ in mills of fair average duty; other materials 

 and incidental expenses making in the aggregate an important item ; and 

 finally, transportation of the ore from the mine to the mill, varying from $1 to 

 $4 per ton, which, if not properly an item of milling expense, enters into the 

 account as an offset to cheap fuel or water-power, which can only be had at a 

 considerable distance from the mines. 



^The Petaluma mill uses five inclies of water, for which it pays $500 per month, 

 treating 1,650 tons of ore; equal to a cost of thirty cents per ton of ore for water. 



