The Assay Office

摘要

Mineral collecting often leads one down somewhat related, but divergent paths. For me, one of those paths is assaying. While I don't claim to be an assayer, I did have the privilege of taking a course in fire assay in college where I got the basics of the process. When I took mineralogy in college in the late 50's blowpipe analysis was still taught rounding out the basics needed for assaying. I think the importance of assaying in the development of the western mines is sometimes overlooked or undervalued. Every mining camp had an assayer, at least one. It was the assayer that made or broke the prospector-miner by detemiining the value of his samples. The assayer was a respected individual in the mining camp, one of great importance.