Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-03-14
IMPROVEMENTS IN MINING.

IMPROVEMENTS IN MINING.
We are adopting more substantial and
nermanent system Of mining. Old and inef-
6cient contrivances are one by one falling
into disrepute and cast aside for something
more durable and of greater efficiency. When
the mines were first worked, notched poles
and the common windlass were used as
means for bringing the ores and dirt to the
surface from the bottom of the small circu-
Afterwards whims were introduced and
square-timbered shafts constructed, through
which BY means Of horse power the hosting
was done. Tunnels were, however, at this
period the favorite means of reaching ores
and developing mines, though when steam
hosting and pumping apparatus came to be
used tunnels were looked upon with less
favor, as being too slow and costly method
of development. Then again, when at length
4 tunnel had been driven in and after long
time and after great outlay of capital had
reached the vein, it was often found that 1t did
not tap the lead, at sufficient depth and time
and money were found to have been as good
as thrown away. Steam hoisting and pump
ing machinery, and particularly shafts, may
now in most situations be said to have super
seeded the once almost universal plan Of work
ing by means Of tunnels. Shafts are at
present and must ever remain the most pop
ular means for the extraction OF our ores
from their resting place, deep in the roots OF
the rugged hills Of the country. We admit
that there are a few situations in which tun-
rels are preferable to shafts. These are
where a short tunnel will tap lead at great
depth. In such cases ore may be probably
extracted through tunnels. The proper use
OF tunnel is as 4 means OF drainage. Then
instead Of 4 tunnel being driven to each
individual claim, at the expense of single
company, a large tunnel should be so run as
to tap 4 series of veins, or L whole dis
trict, at the greatest possible depth. All the
various companies to be benefited by the tun-
mel should bear just proportion OF the en-
pense of constructing it-though it might be
cut BY company owning no stock in the
mines, the mines paying a certain annual
amount for the privilege Of using the drain.
This is what will be needed in our mines in
a very few years; quite as soon as so great
work could be completed, foi the tunnel
should be fiye or six miles in length, at least,
before striking the Gold Hill veins. Such
a tunnel as we mean should be started on
Gold Canon, somewhere below Silver City,
and should be driven in direct line toward
the ComStock range, so as to strike 1t IN the
vicinity of the Overman, when the main tun-
mel should be driven along the lead under the
mines of this town and Virginia, and branch
could be continued toward the American
Flat mines. Such drain tunnel would pass
through mineral veins from its very mouth,
and would, besides draining all these, strike
many new and unknown leads. As it would
tap our mines nearly or quite 4 thousand
feet below where the ore at present is worked,
It would save an immense amount of pump
ing. The tunnel would create a new level
thousand feet below the present surface, and
in sinking below this level the water need
only be raised to the main drain, thus ena-
bling us 10 work our veins several hundred
feet deeper than we otherwise could. Should
a large amount of water be found, 4 sort Of
canal could be constructed in the bottom of
the tunnel, as in similar works in Europe,
and used for boating ores out from the mines
to mills at its mouth. This looks to us at
present like a work Of too much magnitude
TO be undertaken, but it must and will be
done. In Germany there are similar tun-
nels of even nearly twenty English miles in
length. In the timbering OF our mines, too
We are advancing. At first few crooked
poles were set as props at irregular distances
and at all angles, to support the walls of the
vein; now heavy square timbers, accurately
framed, are used. Shafts were at first tim
bered very indiferently, or not at all; now
they are beginning to be made as secure as
wood and iron can make them. Gradually
we are getting to work in proper manner.