Gould & Curry Mill, Virginia City, Nevada
Gould and Curry Mill, Virginia City, Nevada, in 1868 photo by Timothy OSullivan. By the 1870s, precious metal ores were crushed and processed to extract the silver and gold in various amalgamation processes. The most common 19th century method did not work on the Comstock silver sulfide ores. Instead, it required an old Spanish process, in which crushed ore was mixed with salt, water, copper sulfate, and mercury. The was then given additional grinding, during which the silver sulfides oxidized. The silver could then be recovered with the common amalgamation process using mercury
Picture No
13125920
Media ID
45376774
Size
3000px x 2238px
(1.6MB)
Credit
Mary Evans / The Everett Collection
Source
Courtesy Everett Collection
