The Portland daily press., 1879-10-31
The Acton Silver Mine.


The PRESS the other morning gave list OF
the officers of the new Acton Mining Compa-
nv, lately elected in this city, and today pre-
sents its readers with an abstract from the re-
port of Mr.. f. L. Bartlett, the State Assayer,
on the condition of the mine.
The Acton Silver Mining Company is locat-
ed in a belt in the town of Acton and Leba-
non 40 miles from Portland, by the Rochester
railroad. The belt is at least 3, possibly
miles long. Ore was first discovered here in
the soil as float, all the way up andIdown the
brook, running parallel with the veins, which
were soon after discovered in place The
mica schists, and states inelosed on each side
by irregular patches of granite, and also
capped by the same on the hills, but having
great length, apparently some twenty miles
The strike is southeast-south ten Degrees and
the dip thirty-two degrees, towards The south
west Numerous parallel bands i'll veins of
quartz, many of them metalliferous, run
through the belt. The uniformity of the
strike and dip is something remarkable.
Scarcely break or disocation occurs within
the mineral portion Of the belt. The width of
the metallic portions Of the belt is not far
from 1900 feet.
The ore veins first show themselves at the
edge of marsh at the upper end of the belt;
here they divide and run parallel, about seven
ty feet apart, the entire length of the belt
and half of the belt but finally becoming
lost in the drift and soil at the lower end.
Numerous cross cuts and prospecting shafts
have been put down along on the veins, and in
no case is the thickness of the quartz less than
four feet, and from that to twelve feet, and in
every case more or less ore is found. Narrow
veins of trap run along the eastern side of both
these veins, and commonly form the foot walls.
There is no apparent reason why these are not
true fssure yeinS, and [ am more decided on
Al; i,iD niri0o baf
down some eighty feet, as this fully presents
all the characteristic marks of a fissure. 1t is
well known fact that .fSSuTe GEMS are usual
ly as deep as long" this being the case, there
need be no fear of ever exhausting these lodes.
The ores consist mainly of argentiferOuS
galenas, both fine and coarse grained; some
zinc arsencal iron and copper are also present
in the surface ores, but not to any great ex-
tent One notable fact is that the arsenical
iron is d'yentJegous, often containing silver in
the proportion of twenty ounces to the ton. In
some places in the veins are found decomposed
ores, oxides and carbonates Of lead; these run
in some cases very high in silver. The gangue
of the ore is pure quartz, there is no admlXture
whatever of any lime or alumina minerals;thls
is a great advantage in concentrating the ores,
since it renders the operation one OF great sim
plicity; almost any good form of jig, buddle or
table, after the ores are crushed and screened,
will answer for concentrating and the product
cannot fail to be very rich, and will command
a high price in the market
The Acton company mine has the best loca-
ton because of location in regard to surface
operations as well as underground
work. This takes into consideration the
drainage, nearness to the road, and all other
matters. The ore VEINS as here exposed by
prospecting shafts. are eight feet in thickness.
The proportion of ore is about one to twelve,
on the surface, of the vein matter. Taking
the Dirigo shaft as medium of comparison,
this amount will increase in depth. This re-
fers only to the west vein;the east vein on your
property has not yet been developed, but
the probabilities are that there will not be
much difference between the two.