Existing comment:
After marking and registering his claim, the prospector headed for the nearest custom assay office. The assayer analyzed the ore for its gold content, usually by a highly refined smelting operation.
Hard rock mines often employed resident assayers to analyze ore samples daily and sometimes more frequently. The assayers' findings would determine if the told was running too thin in a lode to mine profitably -- or how much gold was in a new lode -- or where next to begin digging and blasting. |