Californians were fortunate in that most of their gold ores were what is known as "free-milling"; that is, after the rock had been crushed so as to free the gold, the latter would amalgamate readily with quicksilver. There were some exceptions. Mill men discovered that a small percentage of the gold was enclosed within various forms of metallic sulphide colloquially known as sulphuret. Mercury could not come into contact with the gold so long as the ore was locked within the sulphide. To the men of that day it seemed that mere mechanical treatment of the ore was not sufficient to release the gold, and that therefore chemistry and metallurgy would have to be used before progress could be achieved. This was too complex a problem for the average California mill operator of the 1850s and since the loss through sulphuret was relatively small, he was able to thrust it out of his mind for the time being. To view the full post,please visit: http://www.california-gold-rush-miner.us/gold-nugget-specimens.htm

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