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170
MINERAL RESOURCES.
silver or 0.1589 ounces per ton of "ore. Only 3,595 ounces of silver came from "pickings" or metallic lumps saved in the stamp bat­teries from the concentration of 561,866 tons of ore. The whole silver production was derived from amygdaloid ores.
Missouri.—A small quantity of silver is annually recovered from the lead of southeast Missouri. The silver content is only from 1 ounce to 1-3/4 ounces per ton of lead. In 1908 there were 49,131 ounces obtained, against 25,692 ounces in 1907.
Montana.—The gold production of Montana in 1908 amounted to $3,057,640, a decrease of $228,572, as compared with the output of 1907. Most of the counties showed slightly lessened output, except Fergus, Beaverhead, and Broadwater counties. No single countv produced $1,000,000, the greatest production, $761,096, being re­ported from Fergus County, chiefly from siliceous milling ores, and the next production being from Silverbow County, $661,619, chiefly from copper ores. Madison County contributed $172,643 from deep mines and $414,939 from placer operations. Chouteau County yielded $264,910, mainly from the milling ores of the districts in the Little Rocky Mountains. Jefferson, Broadwater, and Lewis and Clark counties yielded gold mainly from smelting ores of various kinds, the amounts varying from $137,000 to $220,000. The placer gold of the State amounted to $549,995, an increase of $201,328 over 1907; most of this came from dredging operations in Madison County.
The yield of silver was 10,356,199 fine ounces, an increase of 1,038,594 ounces, as compared with 1907. This increase is almost wholly due to a larger production of silver-bearing copper in Silverbow County." In 1908 the silver from that county was 8,500,729 ounces. Jefferson County added 1,047,157 ounces, chiefly from smelting ores in the Elkhorn, Cataract, and Colorado districts. The output of Granite County, 450,068 ounces, does not materially differ from that of 1907, and was mainly produced from smelting ores. Lewis and Clark County produced 108,121 ounces from smelting ores. None of the other counties attained a production of 100,000 ounces.
Nevada.—The mines of Nevada yielded $11,362,941 in gold, a de­crease of $736,514, as compared with the production of 1907. As usual, the larger part of this output was derived from siliceous gold and gold-silver ores from the Goldfield, Tonopah, and other districts in Esmeralda and Nye counties. Esmeralda Countv produced $5,985,070, of which Goldfield yielded $4,880,251, nearly 43 per cent of the total gold production of the State. The remainder was divided among many camps. After many years of preparation, the Silver Peak mines have begun production on a large scale. Rawhide dis­trict yielded $125,475 in gold. Nye County produced $3,074,586 in gold, of which $1,624,491 came from the Tonopah district, $645,457 from Bullfrog, and the remainder from Round Mountain and Man­hattan districts. The output of Lincoln County, in which the De Lamar district is of first importance, was $518,306 in 1907. The Comstock, considered equivalent to Storey County in production, yielded $599,670, more than doubling the output of 1907. The new county of Clark produced $280,166 in gold, Searchlight being the most important district. Humboldt County greatly increased its pro­duction, which was $273,227, mainly from operation in the Chafey and Seven Troughs districts. Elko County vielded $184,419, Eureka County $172,396.