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GOLD AND SILVER,                                             697
2 per cent came from lead ore, 4 per cent from placers, and about 1 per cent from copper ore, and the remainder from other classes of ore. The placer production in 1916 was $712,924, an increase of $19,614. Summit County produced nearly 81 per cent and Lake County 17 per cent of the placer gold. More than 99 per cent of the placer gold from these two comities was recovered by dredges.
Silver.—The mine production of silver in Colorado in 1916 was 7,656,544 fine ounces, an increase of 628,572 ounces. Lake County, principally Leadvule, produced 2,931,281 ounces, an increase of 360,279 ounces. San Miguel County produced 812,041 ounces, a decrease of 284,600. There was a considerably larger production of silver from Ouray and Pitkin counties and decreased outputs from Chaffee, Dolores, San Miguel, and La Plata counties. Sdiceous and dry ores yielded 73 per cent of of the silver received, lead ores 15 per cent, lead-zinc ores 7 per cent, and copper ores 3 per cent. The remainder came from placers, zinc ores, and copper-lead ores.
IDAHO.
Gold.—The mine production of gold in Idaho in 1916 was $1,115,810, a decrease of $63,921. The total production of gold from Idaho from the discovery of placer gold in 1863 to the end of 1916 is esti­mated at $130,106,160 by C. N. Gerry.1
Boise and Elmore counties were the largest producers of gold, yielding about 60 per cent of the total output. The lode mines pro­duced gold valued at $666,717. The placer mines produced $449,093 in gold in 1916, of which $327,696, or 73 per cent, was won by dredg­ing. The total output of gold recovered by dredges from 1897 to the end of 1916 has been $3,722,056. Of the total gold in 1916 about 40 per cent came from placers, 47 per cent from siliceous ores, 7 per cent from copper ores, and the remainder from lead and lead-zinc ores.
Silver.—The mine production of sdver in Idaho in 1916 was 12,300,873 fine ounces, or 531,745 ounces more than in 1915. The total yield of silver from Idaho for the period 1863 to 1916, inclusive, is 212,676,617 fine ounces.1
There was an increase of 4 per cent in the silver output from Sho­shone County, which yielded 95 per cent of the total quantity of silver in 1915 and in 1916, against 98 per cent in 1914. Lead ores contained 66.5 per cent of the output of silver and lead-zinc ores 30 per cent. Crude ore shipped, which averaged 16.22 ounces of silver a ton, supplied nearly 32 per cent of the silver, and concentrates, which averaged 21.53 ounces of silver a ton, contained more than 67 per cent of the total silver. Inability to handle and smelt all the ores mined had the effect of curtading the production of silver.
MAEYLAND, PENNSYLVANIA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT.
There was only a small production of silver reported by copper mines in Frederick County, Md., in 1916, although work was done on prospects in Montgomery County, Md., and copper-bearing con­centrates continued to be shipped from the Cornwall magnetite mines at Lebanon, Pa.
1 U. S. Geol. Survey Mineral Resources, 1916, pt. 1, p. 565,1917.