Washington Paper - Note on the Plate-Amalgamation of Gold and Silver

As I promised, in a former paper on the Bryan Mill,* to give further data regarding the plates from four battery-aprons, I now submit the following: These aprons were 4.5 feet wide by 16 feet long; the first two plates of each apron were 4.5 by 4.5 feet, and the remainder of varying sizes, as can be seen by their relative weights, as shown in the table; but all were 54 inches wide. They were in use 4 years and 9 months, and about 15,265 tons of ore passed over each. The ore was quartz, carrying about the same weight in silver as in gold; showing some copper, and highly impregnated with ferric oxide. The tailings show about 0.6 per cent., and the bullion about 10 per cent., of copper. The silver was present mostly as sulphide; and the copper was also present as sulphide, with some carbonate. The ore treated ill 1898 was a fair average of the whole run; so I take it as an example from which to make a few deductions.