CENTRAL AND EASTERN NEVADA. 313 



as those of the Comstock lode, and the method is consequently not so well 

 adapted to their proper treatment. The yield from the first crushing and 

 amalgamation is not believed to exceed 50 or, sometimes, 40 per cent, of the 

 assay value ; but the tailings are worked over, after standing a while, and a 

 fair proportion of their value is extracted by a simple repetition of the pan 

 process. The yield obtained from the raw ores during the past year has 

 usually varied between $25 and $35 per ton; while the taihngs, by rework- 

 ing, yield from $20 to $30, and are even treated repeatedly with profitable 

 results. 



The steam-mills here use sage brush as fuel during the summer, and 

 find it cheaper than cord wood. The latter costs $12 per cord in this neigh- 

 borhood. Chinese labor is employed in the mills in every department of the 

 work, excepting in driving the engines. The Chinamen give great satisfac- 

 tion. 



Detailed statements of the costs of mining and milling are not in posses- 

 sion of the writer. It is stated, however, that the product of the second-class 

 ore by the first crushing and amalgamation is sufficient to pay all the costs 

 of operation, leaving the first-class ore and tailings as profit. The Silver 

 Mining Company, according to the statement of its manager, made a profit of 

 $12,000 in the month of September, 1869. This latter company had been in 

 producing condition but four or five months. Up to the 1st of October, 1869, 

 the value of its bullion shipments, produced from second-class ores, amounted 

 to $51,433 27; while the first-class ore shipped up to that date had given 

 a net return of $27,352. 



The shipments of first-class ore by FaU and Temple from April 1 to 

 October, 1869, amounted to 89 tons, having an average assay value of $450, 

 coin, and yielding a net return of 75 per cent. The bullion shipments 

 derived from second-class ore amounted to about $150,000 in fourteen 

 months, ending October 1, 1869. 



The two companies whose operations have just been referred to have 



of late been the most productive in the county of Humboldt. In the summer 



of 1869 there was but httle work in progress in the immediate vicinity of 



Unionville, except that which was connected with their mines and mills. 



There was, however, some activity in prospecting or developing other veins. 

 40 



