126 MINERALS YEARBOOK

 Yuba County, with five bullion buyers at Marysvffle, Smartsville, and Strawberry,
handled gold from various points in Yuba, Sierra, and Plumas Counties amounting
to 1,068.44 fine ounces, valued at $22,087. This represents the output of
711 individuals, who averaged $25.27 a lot or $31.06 for the season.
 Gold was recovered from beach sands near Santa Cruz and Monterey.
 Several districts, formerly old producers in San Diego and Tm-. penal Counties,
and all the old diggings, worked, before .the ' 49 discovery, in Los Angeles
County were. again productive, especially near Saugus and Azusa and in the
San Gabriel and San Francisquito Canyons.
 Silver.—The production of silver in California is largely a byproduct
of gold mining, although silver ores and lead-silver ores have been mined
fOr silver alone in Tnyo, Mono, Napa, and San Bernardino Cotrnties. The output
of silver in 1932 was approximately 486,000 fine ounces valued at $137,052.
The average price was 28.2 cents a fine ounce compared with 29 cents in 1931.
San Bernardino County had the largest ' yield of silver, due to operations
' at the Kelly Rand silver property, discovered in 1918 and a large producer
during succeeding years. The county was the only one with an output of over
100,000 ounces in 1932. Nevada County, second in output, derives its silver
from gold-bearing ores mined in the Grass Valley-Nevada City district.
 In Tnyo County, the Estelle and Cerro Gordo properties, operated as one
tinit by the' American Smelting & Refining Co., have long been important
silver-lead producers, and in 1932 these properties and the Santa Rosa property
in the same region .contributed largely to the silver output of the State.
Due to the low prices of silver and lead, shipments of small lots of lead-silver
ore from mines in Tnyo and ' San Bernardino Counties decreased. The yield
of silver in Plumas County was chiefly from copper ore, but due to curtailed
mining operations the output fell below 50,000 ounces in 1932. Silver ore
from the Comanche group in the Blind Springs Hifi district, Mono County,
was shipped to a smelter in Utah. The Treadwell Yukon Co. did much exploratory
work in the Bodie district for about 2 years but withdrew from the field
late in 1931, and the district, except for leasing operations, was practically
dormant. Nevada and Tnyo were the only counties with a yield of silver between
50,000 and 100,000 ounces; Plumas was the only county with a yield between
20,000 and 50,000 ounces. Four counties, Mono, Shasta, Amador, and Kern,
named in Order of production, produced between 10,000 and 20,000 ounces,
and the other producing counties fell below 5,000 ounces each.
 (Jopper.—The production of copper in California in 1932 was approximately
1,360,000 pounds, valued at $71,568. This is a decided decrease in both quantity
and value compared with 1931, when 12,931,995 pounds, valued at $1,176,812,
was recorded. The average price of copper in 1932 was 6.3 cents a pound compared
with 9.1 cents in 1931 and 17.6 cents in 1929 when the production was 33,218,994
pounds. Although Plumas, Shasta, Trinity, and Calaveras Counties have been
large producers of copper only one mine in Plumas County, that of the Walker
Mining Co., continued production .in 1932. The company, however, closed its
mine and mill the end of February, retaining a small force to make repairs
and improvements. According