In regard to the yield of the silver-mines in Spain in ancient times little can now be ascertained. By many persons the Spanish peninsula is regarded as the Tarshish of old, and through such traditions as have come down to us it is quite certain that Solomon drew much of his wealth from the Spanish mines at the time it is said, “it was nothing accounted of, for the King made silver to be as stones in Jerusalem.”
Among the fabulous stories of the ancients in regard to the silver-mines of Spain is that of Diodorous, who relates that the shepherds of the Pyrenees set fire to the forests in the neighborhood of their camps, when by the burning of the fallen timber the minerals of the earth were fused and the molten silver ran upon the ground as water in a brook. Among the modern silver-mines of Spain are those of Sierra de Almagrera, which were discovered and opened in 1839, and which in 1845 gave employment to eight thousand miners. The most important silver-mines in Spain at the present time are those of Hiendelaencia, which were discovered about thirty years ago and which have been productive ever since—their average annual yield for twenty years was 31,577 pounds troy. The whole silver yield of Spain is at present about one hundred thousand pounds troy per annum.
In Germany, the silver-mines discovered in the Hartz mountains and at Frieberg, Saxony, in the tenth century are still being worked as vigorously as ever. Much of the silver-ore worked in Germany is of no better quality than is thrown away on the Comstock as “waste rock.” In Norway and Sweden silver-mines known before the discovery of America, are being worked. The mines of Sala, Westmania, which are yet being worked were known and worked over 500 years ago. The Cero de Pasco mines, Peru, discovered in 1630, from which no less than five million pounds of silver were taken out in forty-three years, are still productive. The famous mines of Potosi (Cerro de Potosi), Bolivia, formerly included in the territory of Peru, discovered in 1544, are said to have yielded $1,200,000,000. The total annual yield of Bolivia at present is about 450,000 pounds.
The Zacatecas mines, in Mexico, were opened in 1548, and the mines of Guanajuata in 1558. The principal mines of Mexico are those of Guanajuata, Catorce, Zacatecas, and Real del Monte. The yield of the Mexican mines since the conquest of the country by the Spaniards, up to 1860, amounted to $2,039,100,000. The following is the yield of some of the older silver-mines of Mexico and South America: Sierra Madre mines, $800,000,000, Veta Madre, $235,934,636; Rio Grande, $650,000,000; Royas, $85,421,015; Valencia, $31,813,486; Santa Anna, $21,347,210; Biscania, $16,341,000. These are, in most instances, not single veins, but mining districts in which there are numerous veins of various sizes and degrees of richness. They are groups of parallel veins. The Veta Madre, of Mexico, is however, situated much the same as the Comstock lode of Nevada. It fills a similar fissure and is in a similar formation. Although other mines in Mexico contain much richer ores, the Veta Madre (Mother Vein), has been more extensively worked than any other mine in that country. It has been steadily worked for over three hundred years, yet during the three centuries there has been taken from it but little more silver than has been taken from the Comstock during sixteen years.
Humboldt says the silver sent to Europe from Mexico and South America, from the discovery of the New World by Columbus to 1809, would make a solid ball eighty-three and seven-tenths Paris feet in diameter; at the present rate of production the Comstock lode alone should roll up a tolerably large ball, as in sixteen years it is estimated the yield of the vein has been $220,000,000, or an average annual yield of $13,750,000. This is a good showing when we consider that our people did not know what the silver-ore was when they found it, and that during the first two or three years after they began working the ores much time was spent in trying experiments with all kinds of processes, and with machinery of an inferior character.
In 1874 the yield of the Comstock mines was $21,940,123,96; in 1874, it was $22,242,274,95; and for 1875 it will be much greater.
According to recent estimates the total silver product of the world from 1850 to 1875 was $1,025,000,000 and the Comstock mines are now yielding one-tenth of the entire amount produced in the world. The latest estimates of German and American authorities give the total product of all the gold and silver-mines in the world, from the year 1500 to 1874, as follows: Pounds of silver—364,000,000, valued at $8,175,000,000. Pounds of gold—17,000,000, valued at $6,450,000,000. Total pounds of gold and silver—381,600,000; valued at $14,625,000,000. These figures are probably not very exact. It is a hard matter to get the exact yield of even such mines as are worked by regularly organized companies, and almost impossible to get figures at all where gold is being mined from placers.
It would not be of general interest to trace the progress of mining events on the Comstock year by year from the discovery of silver up to the present writing. It is sufficient to say that in 1862-3, up to which time operations on the lode have been pretty fully described, there began to be an abundance of tolerably efficient mills, and hoisting-works that were sufficiently powerful to do the work at the depth to which the shafts of the principal companies had then been sunk. Even as late as 1866 the greatest depth which had been attained in any mine on the Comstock lode was 923 feet. This was in the Chollor-Potosi mine. The Gould & Curry were then working at a depth of 900 feet, Belcher, 850; Bullion, 800; Hale & Norcross, 783; Savage, 614; Ophir, 547, and other leading companies at a depth of from 500 to 600 feet. Ever since the setting up of the first steam-hoisting and pumping machinery on the lode, and ever since the starting of the first mills for the reduction of the ores extracted, improvements have been made and still continue to be made. The mills and hoisting-works at present in operation would astound the miner and millman of 1862-3, though he doubtless flattered himself that the mills and hoisting-works of that day had attained a degree of perfection beyond which there was little room for improvement.
During these years there were numerous changes in the fortunes of the companies along the lode. Some that had rich ore upon the surface had worked down to the bottom of their deposit and had found themselves in clay or barren porphyry, while others who had started in with no ore on the surface, as the Hale & Norcross and some others, found themselves in “bonanza” at the depth of six or seven hundred feet; and when ore began to grow thin with these last the first companies, by drafting east from the point where their pay pinched out in clay and porphyry, had again found ore and in larger and richer bodies than at first. Thus the bonanza and luck shift, and will probably so continue to shift as long as the mines are worked. It never but once happened—which was in 1865—that so many mines were at once in barren as to depress business and cause a feeling of distress in regard to the permanence of the mines.
No sooner had some of the more timid taken their departure, however, and raised the cry that the country was “played out,” than longer and richer bodies of ore began to be found than ever before. Those who had run away then came back, bitterly regretting the want of faith which had caused them to leave just at a time when a fortune might have been had for a mere song. In 1862, the Reese River mines, 150 or 200 miles east of Virginia City, were discovered, a rush to these occurred, and the town of Austin was built up; then came the White Pine excitement, and the towns of Hamilton and Treasure City were built; afterwards Eureka and Pioche were built by the discovery of rich mines in their neighborhood. The camps named still flourish, though they have their “ups and downs”—are sometimes in “bonanza” and sometimes in “borrasca.”