Separation.—After pulverization comes the separation of the gold from the rocky portion of the powder. The means of separation are mechanical or chemical. The chemical process is amalgamation; the mechanical are those wherein the gold is caught on a rough surface with the aid of its specific gravity. The chief reliance is upon amalgamation, and in some large quartz-mills mechanical appliances are not used at all for catching the particles of gold, but only for catching amalgam.
The mechanical appliances used in quartz-mills in separating the gold from the pulverized rock, are the blanket, the sluice, and the raw hide.
The blanket is a coarse, rough, gray blanket, which is laid down in a trough sixteen inches wide and six feet long. The pulverized quartz is carried over this by a stream of water, and the particles of gold are caught in the wool. The blanket is taken up and washed, at intervals depending upon the amount of gold deposited. In some mills where a large amount of rock is crushed, and where the powder is taken over the blanket before trying any other process of separation, the washing takes place every half hour. In mills where the pulverized quartz is exposed to amalgamation first, the blanket may be washed three or four times a day. The washing is done in a vat, kept for that especial purpose.
The sluice used in quartz-mills is similar to the placer board-sluice, but the amount of matter to be washed is less, and there is no dirt to be dissolved, and there are no larger stones, and therefore the sluice is not so large, so strong, or so steep in grade, as the placer-sluice, and the riffle-bars are not so deep. In some quartz-mill sluices there are transverse riffle-bars. If the quartz has much iron or copper pyrites, the sluice is used to collect this material and save it for separation at some future time. The pyrites ordinarily contains, or is accompanied by much gold, which it protects from amalgamation. This separation of the pyrites from the pulverized rock is called "concentrating the tailings," and the material collected is called "concentrated tailings." In the sluices of some quartz-mills cast iron riffle-bars are used; cast in sections about fifteen inches square, and about an inch deep. Much study has been devoted to the subject of making these riffle-bars in such a manner that the dirt will not pack in them, but will always remain loose, and keep in constant motion under the influence of the water running over them; but the object has never been fully attained. Quicksilver is used in nearly all quartz-mill sluices.
The raw hide used in separating gold from the pulverized quartz is a common cow hide, laid down in a trough with the hairy side up, and the grain of the hair against the course of the water. The gold is then caught in the hair. Sheep hides have been used in the same manner, recalling to mind the Golden Fleece. The hides, however, are inferior to the blankets for this purpose, and are never used in the best mills.
The methods of amalgamating are numerous. Among them are amalgamation in the battery, amalgamation with the copper plate, amalgamating bowls, and patent amalgamation of many kinds.
In many mills quicksilver is placed in the battery, two ounces of quicksilver for one of gold; and about two-thirds of the gold is caught thus. The copper plate in quartz-mills is made in the same manner as in placer-sluices, under which head a description of the plate may be found. Some amalgamating bowls or basins are little Chilean mills and arastras, made of cast iron. One plan of amalgamation is to use a cast iron bowl about four feet in diameter and a foot deep. Near the bottom are horizontal iron arms, which revolve and stir the quicksilver and pulverized quartz together. Four or five of these bowls sit in a row but at different levels: the bottom of the first bowl being level with the top of the second, and so on. The pulverized quartz passes through them all. Under each bowl a fire is kept up, because heat forms the action of amalgamation. If there be any pyrites in the quartz, some common salt is thrown in to assist in releasing the gold from the embraces of the sulphurates, and preparing it to be seized by the mercury. Another amalgamating bowl revolves on an axis that stands at an angle of about seventy-five degrees to the horizon, so that the material in the bowl is continually moving; and the bottom is divided by little compartments, which make a constant riffle. In other bowls the pulverized quartz is forced with water through the mercury. The methods of amalgamation differ very much, and a book might be filled with a description and discussion of the processes used at different quartz-mills in California.
Sulphurets.—Many auriferous quartz veins contain considerable quantities of sulphurets or pyrites of iron, copper and lead, and their presence prevents amalgamation, and thus causes a great loss of gold. It is said that on some occasions 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.