Did smelters skim?

[maipenrai]

Just wondering if during the Cal gold rush days, did the smelters do any skimming, like "one for me one for you"? What kind of control was there to prevent smelters from taking more than their share?

 

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[stefen]

Thats about 165 years ago...?

Its all supposition at best whatever they did then or today.

 

[rivets]

This would have bean dependent upon the honesty of the smelter's at the smeltery

 

[Millz90]

Good way to get shot but I'm sure they still did it, like some dishonest people would today.

Where ever there is money to be made there will be crooks trying to get a piece of it

 

[Hoser John]

Gold Fever...aka thieves, high graders and claim jumpers have been around since day one. Lost Dutchman was the most infamous thief of them all and fired from the mine when caught.-John

 

[bill-costa rica]

I used to buy a lot of silver that came from the sunshine mine, this was 40 years ago. what I bought was called splash.. pour into the molds would sometime get bit on the floor. that is what I would buy under spot. I am sure the head office didn't know it was going out the door. somebody was skimming. I would buy it 10 or 20 pounds at a time. wish I still had it......

 

[arizau]

Just wondering if during the Cal gold rush days, did the smelters do any skimming, like "one for me one for you"? What kind of control was there to prevent smelters from taking more than their share?

Raw placer gold was probably purchased (paid in full up front) from the miners by smelter agents and later smelted. The amount paid was based on the weight less a certain percentage which accounted for the buyers profit, impurities in the gold (attached quartz, alloyed metals other than gold, etc.) and the cost to smelt and refine. This is still done today. The miners may have been taken advantage of by inaccurate scales or price gouging in these transactions but if the miner was hard up enough he agreed to the price.

If the miners were selling ore or mill concentrates then the situation was different since gold quantities had to be determined after the fact so there had to be trust between the parties or, and this was often the case, the shippers had their own agents at the mill/smelter to look after their interests.

 

[ARC]

Miners were paid for raw flakes and nuggets.