Here's a hike report that might be of interest:
On the return, we took an alternate ridge which brought us down a different canyon. Old mine tailings and debris, pre-1900 were present at the bottom of the canyon. We came upon the remains of an arrastre. Andy Z told us that the Mormons were among the first to mine the Panamints and used the burro-driven arrastre (a device developed in Mexico) to grind down rocks containing gold ores. The grinding marks were still visible in the stones paving the center and sides of the arrastre.
LINK: http://desertpeaks.org/archives/dps02963.htm