CALIFORNIA.
Gold.—In
1922 the deep mines of California produced $9,170,491 in gold (an
increase of $1,620,493), of which gold-quartz ores yielded 98.3 per
cent. California placers in 1922 produced $5,499,855 in gold, or
$2,654,969 less than in 1921. Of the placer production $4,999,215 was
recovered by dredging. The total dredge production from 1896 to the end
of 1922 has been $129,999,199, and the production by dredges in 1922
was equal to 34 per cent of the total gold for 1922. The Yuba County
dredges, 10 in number, made the largest output, the value being
$2,485,405, a decrease of $2,237,159. Sacramento County, with 7 dredges
working, made an output of $1,349,413, a decrease of $338,233. In Butte
County (including Oroville and other districts) 4 dredges produced
$454,294 in gold, or $34,277 more than in 1921. Dredges were also
operated in Calaveras, Amador, Stanislaus, Placer, Shasta, and Trinity
counties.
Six
of the 31 counties reporting mine production of gold each had a yield
of more than $1,000,000 in 1922. Of these Yuba and Sacramento counties
obtained most of their gold by dredging, Amador and Calaveras counties
are on the Mother Lode, Nevada County produced mainly from siliceous
ores of the Grass Valley district, and Sierra County from siliceous
ores. The five Mother Lode counties—Amador, Calaveras, Eldorado,
Mariposa, and Tuolumne—whose output is mainly gold milling ores,
produced $2,812,336 in gold from mill bullion and $876,572 from
concentrates in 1922, against $2,820,455 from mill bullion and $863,102
from concentrates in 1921.
Silver.—The
mine production of silver in California in 1922 was 3,100,065 fine
ounces, a decrease of 529,158 ounces. Siliceous ores yielded 2,472,489
ounces, copper ores 320,977 ounces, lead ores 263,681 ounces, zinc ores
15,390 ounces, copper-lead ores 7,915 ounces, and placers the
remainder. The only counties producing more than 100,000 ounces of
silver in 1922 were Inyo, Plumas, and San Bernardino. About 62 per cent
of the silver was recovered from crude ores sent to smelters.
COLORADO.
Gold.—The
total mine production of gold in Colorado in 1922 was $6,373,419, a
decrease of $461,909, following decreases of $740,991 in 1921,
$2,310,308 in 1920, $2,865,091 in 1919, $2,977,506 in 1918, and
$3,424,597 in 1917. The Cripple Creek district, with a decrease of
$254,301, produced $4,037,582 in gold, or 63 per cent of the State
output from all sources.
The
San Juan region, in Dolores, La Plata, Ouray, San Juan, and San Miguel
counties, produced $1,263,779; and Lake County produced $413,058, an
increase of $103,914. Siliceous and dry ores, 92 per cent of all the
ore sold or treated, yielded 93 per cent of the total output of gold; a
little more than 1.27 per cent came from lead ore, 5.6 per cent from
placers, and the remainder from ore of other classes. The gold
recovered by amalgamation from 259,536 tons of ore amounted to 91,495
fine ounces, and that recovered by cyanidation from 432,653 tons of ore
to 126,054 fine ounces.
The
placer production in 1922 was $356,403, an increase of $11,763. Dredges
in Summit County produced more than 69 per cent of the placer gold.
