OCR Text |
Show HOW SILVER ORE IS SOLD. The business of buying and selling ores in a camp like this, when the output of the miners is so immense and the value of dollars so great, has been reduced to a science, and is by no means, as many have supposed, dependent upon the fair dealing and honesty of the mill men, who generally are the purchasers. The large mining corporations and wealthy individual owners of productive properties have their own assayers, as well as their own scales at the mines. So far as practicable similar ores from the different pay streaks are piled together for shipment, under the distinguishing titles of hard carbonates, iron, dark sand, grey sand, and many other varieties of ore. The assayer makes frequent assays for the purpose of keeping a general knowledge of these separate kinds of ore, yet such assays are not the basis upon which sales are made, owing to the fact that such samples may either be too high or too low for the bulk of such lots, and the correct sampling must be arrived at by the process customary at the sampling works of reserving so many pounds at regular intervals out of a given weight of ore as it is being crushed. This system gives approximately the true value of the bulk of ore, to ascertain which is equally to the interest of buyer and seller. Samples from these bulk samples are assayed by the mill men and by the owners, and if the ounces closely tally, the price to be paid is arrived at. If too great variation occur, the assays are made over again until they do agree. The owner of ore, knowing the cost of milling and marketing ore, is as well able to determine what the mill men can afford to pay as the mill man himself, and this there is full and complete satisfaction and confidence existing between the sellers and buyers of ore in this camp. The weight of each ton of ore is made to tally almost to a pound by allowing for the unavoidable light waste in hauling, and it is very seldom that disputes arise on this point. <br><br> Leadville (Col. [Colorado]) Reveille. |