Any person, corporation, or association, or the agent of any person, corporation, or association, engaged in the milling, sampling, concentrating, reducing, shipping, or purchasing of ores in this state who in any manner knowingly alters or changes the true value of any ores delivered to him, so as to deprive the seller of the result of the correct value of the same, or who substitutes other ores for those delivered to him, or who issues any bill of sale or certificate of purchase that does not exactly and truthfully state the actual weight, assay value, and total amount paid for any lot of ore purchased, or who, by any secret understanding or agreement with another, issues a bill of sale or certificate of purchase that does not truthfully and correctly set forth the weight, assay value, and total amount paid for any lot of ore purchased by him is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars nor less than one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.