3D Laser Scan: Cossack 20-Stamp Ore Mill

This is an animation of the scan data.
Cossack 20-Stamp Ore Mill
Superstition Mountain Museum
Apache Junction, AZ.

The large wooden structure on the hill overlooking the museum building is the 1914 Cossak 20-stamp ore mill, a critical piece of mining equipment that was state-of-the-art from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s.

A stamp mill is a large mechanical device, essentially a monster mortar and pestle. It uses lift-and-fall motion of heavy steel stamps to reduce the size of the ore (rock containing valuable metals) it is fed, to a fine sand which is transported out of the mortar box as a slurry through screens. The milling exposes the valuable metal (usually gold or silver) allowing its recovery by amalgamation with mercury or dissolution with cyanide as was done at the Cossak mill.

The Cossak operates in season from November to April, generally on Thursdays and the weekends.