New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1848-09-18
VOL. WIZ. NO. 49,

done on loc alton only from one TO two thousand
except under peculiar circumstances, can be de-
voted TO mining but at length if the work IS
prosecuted the shaft has obtained depth Of forty
b sixty feet, at which is commenced drgt-a
horizontal gallery excavation in the rock follow
ing the course OF the vein usually both ways rom
the shaft and from six 20 seven ieethigh, ana lour
10 six feet wide. The rock is not merely 70 be
blasted out but raised 10 the surface by such rude
machinery as may be at command with prooao
q hundred lifts Of water 10 one Of rock. The rare
executions are the cases like that OF the Gin ID
which the vein is discovered at the base or IN the
side of a steep activity, into which may be run
upon il " out sinking drift which shall also be
an adit dispensing from the first with all necessity
for raising either minerals, rock or water In
ninety-ninc Of every hundred cases the process IS
very different from this.
But the shaft being sunk aud driit or adit run
for fifty to two hundred feet, and if the product
answer or exceed expectation, your VEN IS toie-
rably proycd-but you have as yet obtained very
little mineral. All you will obtain in sinking even
on the richest vein, will pay but small share OF
the cost in drifting you do little better-and
but little You want two shafts sunk, and one
Of them down a hundred feet So with your second
drift opened for some distance at the bottom, and
now If the vein be a good one and you have
practicable road and other iixlngs you may begin
to stopc or blast down the forty or fifty feet OF VEN
over head of each drift in which only you can hope
for profit six miners will take out more mineral
in this manner than sixty in sinking and drifting
Very few companies have yet reached tins point.
consider $4,000 a moderate estimate for the cost
of opening mine in this region, counting from the
location TO the moment at which the mine will pay
its way, and including the cost Of land. The Chm
expended over 500 900, but its managers ineyta-
Div bought some experience which others may
now borrow.
When a mine has been fairly opened and proved
it will not do to work it only with view TO lmme-
date profit by Stopping out all the backs SO lar as
YOU have gone down. If that course be taken, you
will soon have no place to work-no mineral to
take out You must keep sinking deeper and
deeper and working your drifts longer and longer
the vein probably extending as you go down
New shafts from the surface will also be required,
in order to purify the cir in the NINE and afford
room for hosting ont the mineral rock, &c If this
"
ployed may be steadily increased, with cores
ponding increase OF product. There will also be
an increasing demand for more perfect and expen-
sve machinery as the distance to be overcome
and the amount to be raised increases. The Gin
Mine must already have at least $4,000 worth OF
machinery, fixtures, &c which 1t is rapidly IN
creasing. The space about the mouth Oithe Mine
looks like a combination of ship yard and steam
engine mandatory.
quantity of the rock and vein having been
thrown down, the Copper Masses 1t contains, and
the masses of rock as well, severally are here
erappled by giant machinery, dragged to the most
convenient spot, and lifted to the surface where
they are placed on railway trucks and promptly
wheeled their several ways. If copper mass
is thrown down too heavy to be thus handled or
too large to 20 up shaft it is at once set upon by
cutters, one holding a hardened chlsel, another
striking heavy blows upon it with sledge, and
thus wrought upon until it is cut into two or more
pieces the largest weighing not more than two
tons though a ton and half is the preferred max
imum. These are dragged out and up, wheeled
oil to the place deposit and are soon on their way
to the Lake, thence taking the Propeller to the
served masses that have thus been cut on three
sides indicating original bulk OF ten tons or
over but such are not common, though observed
one mass in the mine which must weigh MY tons
This however will doubtless, when taken down,
exhibit assures and indentations which will
seriously tighten the labor Of cutting it. ! be
isve the average cost Of cutting up the large
masses is not far from ten dollars per ton, all
things considered, though rather less than that
sum. If any Yankee can invent means OF cut
ting up these masses at a dash by steam or light
ming his fortune is made.
The masses being disposed OF, the vein-stone is
next in order. This is likewise hoisted out into
daylight, whereof its first experience IS roasting
for twelve to twenty hours on fire of logs, after
which the rock is easily knocked to pieces with
sedge aud the larger junks of copper thrown aside
for balTelng. The residue, in pieces OF one to two
inches in diameter, is now ready for Stamping
To this end it is passed through hopper and,
along with a stream of water under a set OF steam
moved trip hammers, pile-drivers, or what you
please with iron faces coming down alternately
on their iron bed with tremendous power, and
grinding the calcined rock to powder. The Cop
per hardly condescends to be rubbed bright by this
ordeal but il comes out free and clear of rock and
is found in a trough below, whence it is taken to
be barreled for market ready to be coined into
cents il required These stamps, SIX in number
are kept steadily going and turn out several bar
rels of Copper daily but the mine gains upon
them, and the speedy extension of this part of the
machinery is inevitable.
No in this letter. The main working
points this season are near Eagle River, Eagle
Harbor, Lac la Belle, on Isle Royal and at the
Ontonagon At the last named, the prospects
have signally frightened this season. Isle Royal
aud L &C la Belle have hardly justified, as yet, the
sangunc expectations at first formed by their ex
plorers, bu, they seem to be improving. II. c.
FROM U.PRINcE.-We have received
hles OF the FeuiRe dn Commerce, up to the eth ult
President soulouque arrived at the city on the Goth
from toY in the South and greeted with an illu
minsiion, tiumphd arches and other tokens OF re-
joieing We find ntelli gence from other parts OF
the island.
FROM HoNDuRAs.-By a recent arrival we have