NEW Haven Paper - Notes on the Treatment of Mercury in North California

The ores of mercury of North California are composed of metallic mercury and cinnabar. They are found in serpentine, and are very often associated with chalcedony, in masses more or less irregular, often concentrated enough, however, to furnish ores yielding from three to ten per cent., and sometimes richer. This deposit makes its appearance in Vallejo where it has been worked. North of here the mines are more developed. Most of the quicksilver mines, however, are situated in Sonoma and Napa Counties. On its outcrop the serpentine rocks have become decomposed, and have often been washed away to a considerable depth, so that in many cases in their neighborhood, what is apparently nothing but ordinary dirt, will frequently contain from two to three per cent. of metallic mercury, with but a trace of cinnabar, in which case, as at the Sonoma mine, it is made up into adobes and distilled. Such material does not require to be mixed with dirt to be made into adobes. Very often, also, the outcrop of the rock, where it is not decomposed, is filled with metallic mercury, so that by striking a pick into it, as at the Rattlesnake mine, a pound or more of mercury at a time will sometimes spurt out. Such rock as this is found in several localities in every stage of impregnation, and usually makes very rich ore. There is generally, however, very little of it, and it is found only in the first workings; the ore in depth is always cinnabar. At the Rattlesnake mine near Pine Flat, where large quantities of metallic mercury are found, the rock contains so much petroleum that it has been necessary to make special arrangements to burn the carbides of hydrogen, since the distillation of the petroleum causes an extra quantity of poor soot to be formed in the condensation-chambers. At the Geysers the ore is associated with large quantities of sulphur and gypsum, so that in a hand specimen there is often more sulphur than cinnabar, which is a serious impediment to working, especially for the modern style of furnace with iron condensers, and causes so much soot to be formed that it has been known to penetrate as far as the blower, and to so completely clog it as to prevent its revolution. The ore coming from the mine is more or less hand-picked. In one or two cases attempts have been made to treat the poorest, and especially the very fine ores, mechanically as at the California works.