The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-08-29
A GOLD NINE IN NEW YORK CITY.
What two California Miners Found In the
Ruins OF a Burned Jeweiry Store.

What two California Miners Found In the
Ruins OF a Burned Jeweiry Store.
The Appleton building in Bond street,
then filled with jewelers. wares, was
burned on March 6, 1877. Nearly all Of
the immense property in gold and silver
ware and jewelry was total loss, the
precious metals having been melted in
the flames and scattered abotit among
the debris. The estimated loss in the
destruction of gold and silver ware,
watches, and iewelry alone was estimated
at more than 81, 10000 The property
and merchandise being heavily insured.
the loss fell heaviest probably upon the
insurance companies. These, therefore,
had the privilege of remunerating them
selves by cleaning from the debris the
precious metals that had been melted.
The first gleanings were an easy mat
ter, and great nuggets of melted gold
and silver were extracted, and large
gets were all extracted the insurance
companies retired, and then the owners
of the building, Messrs Roberts & Apple
ton, overturned all this mass, and SUBJ
jectingit to what they deemed thorough
washing, obtained many thousand dol
lars worth more.
The much-washed debris was then
allowed to rest undisturbed until about
three months ago, when it was deter
mined by other persons to give it another
and more thorough washing than it had
ever undergone before. These persons
were the miners, Peer & Roberts.
Peer began life early as a miner,
spent twenty-seven years in the bust
ness in the Pacific slope, and has
reduced mining to such science
that he believes he can extract every
particle of the precious metals from the
most refractory ores and tailings. One
day Roberts told his partner, Peer, who
had just returned from California, about
the gold mine in Bond street, and of the
many washings it had undergone. The
next day Peer was scraping about and
overlapping the remains of the worked
out Bond street gold mine. The conse-
quence was bargain with the owners of
the ruins, in which they agreed to pay
them ten per cent. of their net glean-
ings.
A gold washer, concentrators, fume
rifles, and small engine were quickly
put up, and the miners set to work with
as much energy as if they had made a
rich "find" in the gold regions of the
West. None but close observer would
imagine that the half dozen quiet work.
men and noiseless little engine in the
excavation below were the operators and
machinery of gold mine in full blast
The habit of secrecy is so gleat with the
old miner that but few people in the
city are aware of what rich. ''fiud" the
Bond street mine is.
The last cradleful of the debris Was
rocking in the washer, and therefore the
miners had no objection to telling how
much money they had made and the
process of mining. In the first place,
the debris is submitted to thorough
washing in fumes. These are long
boxes, twelve inches deep, fourteen
wide, and any length that may be de.
sired. There are one hundred feet of
fiume used in the Bond street mine.
The water used is pumped in by the
engine and then elevated to the washer,
after which the same water is again con-
Quoted to the fumes, thus economizing
it and catching the smallest particle Of
the precious metal.
tOipy Gouo poT udy VI Uno ueDrlS were
washed in the fumes, turning out one
ton of concentrations. This in turn was
submitted to the gold washer, and re-
duced to base metal, turning out three
hundred to five hundred pounds to the
ton. The base metal was then taken to
the refinery and reduced to fine bars,
$50 fine. From the refinery the bars
go to the mint, and are there turned into
bright gold pieces.
"How much have you made in your
two months of city mining ?" was asked.
"We have got about $50, ,OOO," Mr..
Roberts said. "Here are $3.50 in bright
twenty-dollar gold pieces that I have
just drawn, being the proceeds of 234
pounds of the base metal. We have on
hand forty or fifty sacks of the base
metal to go to the refinery. Each sack
weighs one hundred pounds. Besides
there are eight or ten tons of tailings,
old bits of rusted iron with particles of
precious metal sticking to them. These
are to undergo a process of picking,
and the precious metals separated from
the base. We expect to realize con-
siderable amount from these"
The expense has not been as much as
anticipated, and the net proceeds are
handsome.-NeaO York Sun.