Goldfield, Arizona,  Vacation,  October 1, 1999     page 3 / 7

As we wandered around, we came upon a five-stamp mill, shown below. A belt turned the wheel on the top left side of the mill, thus turning a cam. The cam lifted each 1400 pound stamp about 18 inches, then allowed it to drop onto the ore below. The ore was fed by conveyor under the stamps. In its day, the stamp was a very efficient process for extracting gold from the ore. The malleability of the gold made much of it stick to the stamp, while the remaining waste continued on. On occasion the mill would be shut down allowing its operator to chisel the gold off of the stamp.