Ch. 1: Gold and Silver in 1913

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	866	MINERAL RESOURCES, 1913—PART I.

	larly working placer ground. The unit, so far as possible, is, however, as for deep mines, not the operator, but the mining claim, or group of claims. Number of producing mines in 1913, by States and Territories.^a



	The table shows the number and distribution of mines producing gold and silver in the United States and Alaska. With the exception of (1) some of the Michigan copper mines, (2) all zinc mines in the Eastern and Central States and a few in the far West, and (3) all load mines of the Central States (except a few in Illinois and southeastern Missouri), practically all mines producing copper, lead, and zinc in the United States and Alaska yield gold and silver also. The table. therefore, with these exceptions, is a table of mines producing gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States. It also includes certain mines producing oxidized manganese-iron fluxing ores of Colorado, Utah, and elsewhere, whose ores contain small quantities of precious metals, especially silver, and are sold to western smelters as flux. Comparisons with the corresponding figures for 1912 show a net total decrease of 335 producing mines in 1913, following a decrease of 88 in 1912. The number of placers decreased by 270 (following a decrease of 102 in 1912), and the number of deep mines decrei by 65 (following an increase of 14 in 1912).

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