The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1877-09-22
From lEese Yo,,h; Mining Record. ~ IT,
Aztec District Mines.

Aztec District Mines. Z
The Syndicate of mines of Aztec
district, are now putting some Of
their mines into operation. The
Aztec company was incorporated
May 10Th, 1877, and the price of
the first 5000 shares of working
capital stock 10000 shares having
heen set aside for that purpose)
was fixed at $3.50 per share, and
this before a pick had been struck
into the ledge. Work was begun
June 18th, and on July 9th, the
owners and trustees of the mine,
upon the reports of Prof. Ih0s.
Davis, superintendent, Maj. John
E. Magee manager, and Gov. "a.
p. X. Stafford, one OF the directors,
and a member Of the Syndicate,
declared the stock of the Aztec
company unassessable; and on
July 18th the developments at the
mine caused the board of direc
tors to raise the price of the next
issue of shares of the working cap
ital stock to five dollars per share
with only a limited amount to be
sold at that price. The lowest as
say of groupings on the Aztec was
S72.56 and the highest, 1913. So.
Work commenced by driving a
cut 7S feet long, s feet wide, and
20 feet deep, across the lode to de-
terinine the best point at. which
to sink-the shaft. Two shafts are
going doWn-the one at the north
end being in ore which assays in
silver from 5000 to 1850 TO the
ton. The lode on the Aztec be-
gins at the west end at As feet
wide, enlarges at centre to 27S feet,
and at east end is 301 feet in width
solid cropningS-the motherlode
of Arizona. 1t is located in the
heart of the extraordinary metal
liferous region of the Santa Rita
mountain and valley of the Santa
Cruz river in Southwestern AriZ0-
ia, where formerly the Jesuit
priests, with the Spanish inhabi-
tants and Indian neophytes mined
with rich results though scarcely
breaking ground, and having, as
the many remains attest, but the
fudest and most imperfect means
of smelling or converting the ore
into bulliOns The fame of the
"Bollos de Plata" (balls of silver
of Arizona in the beginning Of the
last century was such at the City
of Mexico and finally in Spain,
that royal ordinance issued from
Madrid, declared the district of
Arizona to be royal property as a
Criadero de Plata: that is to say,
a place where silver was formed
in the processes of nature. There
is also in existence royal paper
of Philip V. of May 1741, charging
among other embellishments OF
royal mineral property in Arizona,
that of a mas of virgin or pure
silver weighing 2, 200 pounds. But
to return to the Aztec mine locality,
lode is exposed nearly 800 feet
wide, with out-croppings of the
richest, yellow chlorides and
green and black sulphurets of sill
yer. Assays of these ores show
a minimum of S72, and up to 1913
to the ton. As the company for
working thfg3roperty is of recent
formation, the shaft upon the lode
is but shallow one-iess than 100
feet in depth, BUTT has developed
very rich ores, and wire Or virgin
silver, with assays of such richness
that we do not care to state them,
though not greater than have, on
occasion, been found when mines
went into bonanza in Mexico in
times past. Some of the neigh
boring lodes to the Aztec had evil
IDENTITY been worked by the Spanish
Jesuils and their neOphytes but
not SO the Aztec. 1t is favorable
to the mines of the Santa: Rita
mountains, that the region is in
the rain belt, in close neighbor-
hood to an abundance of grass and
arabic land, with an abundance of
timber. 1t is to be hoped, that a
mining enterprise which in the
outset would seem to start with
every favoring circumstance, will
lack nothing TO enable its mana
gers, to push, it upon, 3, scale which
has come TO characterize and win
success for Nevada mining, and
placed mining for the precious
metals in that quarter, upon very
much fhesame basis as the growth
of wheat elsewhere, good harvests
being the result of good blowing,
sowing and filth. ,- .~s
THE suit of Robert Orr eft al, VS..
A. Z. DlViS. which WAS decided