Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1900 — WASHING GOLD IN SALT WATER [ARTICLE]

WASHING GOLD IN SALT WATER

How Alaska’s Black Band May Be Made to Yield Its Wealth. “There’s millions of gold in black sand,” said H. A. Frederick, a Seattle man of experience in the Klondike, “and I believe 1 have hit upon a plan to get it out. You know this black sand is about as heavy as the gold, and in panning, as ordinarily done with' cold water, the gold and the sand either go out of the pan together and are lost, or they stay in the bottom, and are of no more use than if they were lost. On a claim I had in the Yukon country we only got $32 out of the black sand for a whole season, and I knew that we were losing a whole lot, and that there ought to be some way of getting at it So I experimented with hot water, which was not unusual, but 1 added some salt to it, and found an improvement. 1 took an iron bucket holding two gallons, filled it about onethird full of sand, put in a double handful of salt, filled it with water, and set it on the fire to boil. As it boiled I stirred ft, like you would stir apple butter, or as we stir 'dog the Klondike, and then poured it off into the pans. I don’t know what effect the salt had, but when I put a little quicksilver into the pans I'll be blamed If I didn’t get every particle of gold there was. "Then I went nt H on a large scale, and with the sand that was before practically valueless, I got fifty-two ounces for one day's work by three men. This gold was worth about SBSO. or, say sl6 an ounce. I'm going to Cape Nome in the spring, where there are tons and tons of this black sand that cannot be or has not been worked, and, I'm going to utilize the salt seawater, and get rich. You see if I don’t.”