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GOLD AND SILVER.                                             123
ounces. The State of Nevada is likely to produce somewhat more silver in 1908 than in 1907. A difference exists here, too, in the figures of the mint report and of the mines report. The former gives for 1907, 8,280,500 ounces of silver for Nevada, while the mines report only has 7,083,603 ounces, an excess of the mint report of approxi­mately 1,200,000 ounces. This is probably accounted for by the fact that many smelters were well stocked with Nevada ores at the end of 1907 and kept running for a considerable time after the mines had been temporarily closed.
New Mexico.—The gold produced by the New Mexico mines was valued at $329,982, an increase of $36,963. Grant County led as usual, owing to the gold produced at the mines of Pinos Altos, but the county is now closely followed by Socorro, the mines in the Mogollon having largely increased their yield. No other county reached a production of $100,000, Lincoln County reporting the highest production, $41,417. The total placer production was only about $20,000. Most of this came from Colfax County, the pro­duction of which has, however, greatly decreased in the last few years. The siliceous ores yielded about $240,000, the copper ores approximately $46,000.
The production of silver amounted to 705,544 fine ounces, an in- ' crease of 214,417 ounces. The leading counties were Socorro, Grant, and Dona Ana. The mines of the Mogollon district nearly doubled their production. The greatly increased production of copper had little influence on the yield of silver. From siliceous ores 542,252 ounces were obtained, chiefly from Socorro and Grant counties. From the production of copper ores 115,323 ounces were obtained, to which Grant, Santa Fe, and Socorro contributed the largest portion.
New Hampshire.—A small production of silver was reported from lead ores mined .in New Hampshire.
Oregon.—The production of gold in Oregon amounted to $1,129,261, a decrease of $237,639. Of this amount $396,478 came from south­western Oregon, and $732,783 from the districts in the northeastern part of the State. The total yield of the placers was $331,406. To this amount the southwestern placers contributed $239,942 and those of the northeastern district $91,464. Compared with the pro­duction of 1906 the southwestern placers showed a decrease of over one-third, while the placer production in the northeast nearly doubled. Baker County was the largest producer of gold from siliceous ores; Josephine County had the largest output of placer gold.
The yield of silver was small in 1907, as usual, and amounted to 86,718 fine ounces. To this Baker County contributed 69,589 ounces.
South Dakota.—The mines of the Black Hills decreased their output by $2,703,280, the amount produced being $4,138,189. The year was an unfortunate one for the mining interests owing to a disastrous mine fire at the Homestake property and to strikes at other mines in the beginning of 1907. The larger part of the decrease was due to the interruption of work at the Homestake mine. No smelter was in operation in the Black Hills in 1907. The 350-ton cyanide plant of the Mogul mine was remodeled. A large increase in production is probable for 1908.
The total production of silver was 93,895 fine ounces.