Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1853-08-10
Gold Mines in Buckingham.


the county, and have consequently beer
much more extensively developed. They
have recently been purchased by veal
thy English company, who are making
very considerable additional outlay upor
them. Machinery has been erected of th'
most extensive and efficient character, fo
reducing and washing the ore, for pumping
water from the subterranean galleries, ant
for raising the ore. Two steam engines
each of thirty horse power are now con
stantly at work, and to these is soon to bt
added another ofsixty horse, with all which
it is intended to drive forty stamps. "(mor
tars for pounding the ore into powder, )and
one or two of Cochrane's celebrated crush
ers, a powerful machine recently invented
for the same purposes.
This Company's mines embrace tract
of some thirteen hundred acres, and con
tains several veins which have been "prov
ed" in different places, by probably as ma
ny as fifty cuts, tunnels and shafts for dis
tance of half mile.
At the point in the property at which ma.
chinery is located, and at which the opera
tions are conducted, shafts have been sunk
upon the principal vein, which is of quartz
one hundred and Ten feet. at which depth
the vein is fifteen feet in thickness. In
most of the ore taking from it the gold is
invisible, but when reduced, yields $15
and upwards per ton say an average of $40
to $25 per ton. But in many portions OF
the vein the ore appears IN visible Jumps,
in native pure state. These portions call
ed specimens" are selected and kept to-
gether in specimen room" and when
reduced, yield, often, several thousand dol
lars per ton. In some Of these specimens
the gold is so pure that 1t can be bent, or
broken off with the finger.
The mining operations of the company
embrace five shafts, sunk to an average
depth Of hundred feet. One of these is
an old one, containing a comfortable STAIR
way leading down to the coolest region we
have explored for a month. Two other
shafts are used as ventilators, and two 9TH
ers for hosting the ore and pumping up the
water, of which d sufficient quantity is de-
rived from beneath to supply the engines,
and employ the Imagination which work
the metal. Two of these shafts have been
sunk within few months past, are situa-
ted Immediately upon the principal vein,
and have supplied the large quantity OF
specimens containing visible gold before re-
ferred to. This principal vein is nearly
perpendicular, and has been tested for a
half mile, at various points upon its course,
by four or five other trial shafts varying
from 80 to so feet in depth. Thus, there
is ore sin sight" as the miners say, suff.
cient to employ operations, on the most ex-
tended scale, for many years. So great is
the richness of the vein in the lower por-
ton of it now reached, land it becomes rich-
er the deeper it is penetrated,) that a reg
ular system ofpolice is established to watch
the mouths of the shafts, as the ore comes
up, and to search the miners as they are
relieved from duty. Between II o'clock
on Saturday night and 12 o'clock on Sun.
day night, the period Of Suspension of ope.
rations, the mouths of the shafts are closed
by lock and key, and guards mounted Over
the hatches.
Underground, there are galleries oi SOME
$50 feet in extent, which form cummu
nicatlOn between the shafts. Slope work
ings along these galleries have been made
with the same profitable results as IN per-
fotating the vein perpendiculatly.
Besides good staff of engineers abou
10 negroes are EMPLOYED by the company
who are hired from the people Of the coun
ty. The company are now sending ou
from England clever supply Of ptactica
miners, in addition to those already EN-
ployed. Besides the specimens" men
toned as deposited in the"speclmen room,
immense piles Of ore lie above the surface
amounting to many hundreds oftons, which
are daily receiving large accessiohs ffon
the operations below. Though the gold il
these piles Of ore is invisible, they are 81
lch as 10 require constant day and nigh
watch over them, to guard them from dep
redators who, when successful, calcine tn
quartz, separate the gold and sell 1t to tn
hucksters furtlvely located about the coun
try,
The settlement has the appearance of al
active thriving village, and presents seem
eninently worthy of special visit from
those who fell an interest in the advance
and prosperity ofthe mining interest of Vir
glnia.
Three other mines in the county, th
Wiseman, the Eldridge, and the Morton o
Hobson mines; lie upon the same aurifer
Gus belt of country in the same north-eas
and northwest coutse, aud probably upol
the same vein as the Garnet and Nose
| ly." They have always been worked will
profit; but when they shall have been a
fully and elaborately developed, and as ex
tensitely worked, as the Garnett and Nose
ly, there is reason to believe, they too vii
prove far more productive and valuabl
than ever. A paragraph has recently gon
the rounds of the press that the two first @
these mines have been recently sold t
English capitalists, which we understan
is the fact. If so, large working none,
capital will at once be employed upon them
adequate to their complete and thoroug
development, which is the only policy tha
can succeed in the INNING operations Of thi
or any other country.
1t has only been since sufficient capita
has been invested and experienced miner
employed in the mineral regions of the U
nited States, that the mining interests c
the Union have been anywhere at all suc
cessful, Notwithstanding the richness of ou
ores. Without these necessary condition.
richness of ore is in general of no avail, c,
cept to keep up meagre, sickly and bare
ly profitable system of operations.
1t is greatly to be desired that foreig
mining capital and skill having thus foun
footing In Virginia, will soon discover til
numerous other MINERALS and localities o
fering profitable employment, with whic