284 RESOURCES GF CALIFORNIA. 
§ 212. Sulpherets—Many auriferous quartz veins contain 
considerable quantities of sulphurets or pyrites of iron, cop- 
per and lead, and their presence prevents amalgamation, and 
thus causes a great loss of gold. It is said that on some ovca- 
sions in good mills, not more than twenty or thirty dollars 
have been obtained from a ton of vein-stone which had seven 
or eight hundred dollars of gold in every ton. The best 
method of treating the quartz containing pyrites, is to roast it, 
and thus drive off the sulphur, but this process is so expensive 
that it is seldom used; and the common, practice is to crush 
and amalgamate the rock, and save the concentrated tailings for 
some future time, when there may be a sale for them, or when 
it will be cheaper to reduce them. The pulverized sulphurets 
are decomposed by exposure to the air, and after the tailings 
have been preserved for a time, they may pay better at the 
second amalgamation than at the first. A mixture of common 
salt assists the decomposition of the pyrites. 
§ 213. Chief Quarte-Mills—The most productive quartz 
mill in the state is the Benton mill, on Fremont’s Ranch, in 
Mariposa county. It is also the largest, having forty-eight 
stamps. There are four mills on the estate, with ninety-one 
stamps in all, and their average yield per month is sixty thou- 
sand dollars. A railroad four miles long conveys the quartz 
from the lode to the mills. The Allison quartz mine in Nevada 
county produces forty thousand dollars per month. The Sierra 
Buttes quartz-mill, twelve miles from Downieville, yields about 
fifteen thousand dollars per month. These last mills run 
night and day, and crush and amalgamate ten thousand tons 
of rock a year or twenty-eight tons per day. Forty men are 
employed, twenty-five to quarry the rock, five in the mill to 
“attend to the stamps and amalgamation, one to do carpentry, 
one for blacksmithing, and eight for getting out timber, trans- 
porting quartz, and so forth. The cost of quarrying, crush- 
ing, and amalgamating a ton of rock is six dollars. The wages 
of the men are from fifty to seventy dollars per month with 
boarding. The average wages is sixty dollars. About ten 
