The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-10-12
THE MINES.

Mining operations throughout the distric
curing the past month have been of q very
satisfactory and encouraging nature. At no
Time IN the previous history Of the camp have
SO many men been employed or SO much ore
extracted. 1t is a mistake to suppose that the
bullion shipments per U. P. Express Com
pany, which average perhaps $3.50, 900 month
~, represent the entire metal product of tile
camp, and equally erroneous to presume that
the various reduction works are provided
will a capacity sufficient to treat the ores of
the district as fast as they can be produced.
The large weekly shipments from the Bell
nine, one OF the richest properties in this or
any other country, never figure in the bull
lion returns, as the ore is lent east in crude
form. The same is true of the bulk of the
richer ores of the Gagnon and many other
copper-silver mines. The Montana Copper
Company has shipped east during the present
season in the neIghborhood of 5000 tons of
ore, and numerous other properties might be
mentioned to prove that the bullion ship
ments are no criterion by which to judge of
ehS PAouuStAfCllCco VI tuC DutLC luC i uC
metal product of all the ore reduced at the
Colorado works, which are, and have been, in
constant and successful operation for several
years is shipped by slow freight, to the value
Of many thousand dollars monthly, from all
Of which it appears that those who would ia
miliarize themselves with the real resources
of the district must not rest under the suppo-
sition that the $4,000 or $4,000 which pass
es through the express Office each week is the
sum total of the metal production of the
camp.
As to the truth of our statement that the
reducing facilities of the district, extensive as
they are, are inadequate to the task of handl-
ing all the ore which can be extracted, any
one who will take the trouble to inform him.
self can easily become satisfied. Two of the
largest and most productive lodges in the dis
trict, the Buffalo and Pacific, owned by the
Silver Bow Company, have been lying idle
for months, not because the ore rs lacking
either in abundance Or richness, but because
the 20 stamps of the Silver Bow mill are kept
constantly busy on ore from the Grey Rock
and even the Grey Rock is producing faster
than the mill can treat the product. In the
Burnett mine, a single stope has, during the
entire Summer, kt pt two mills in almost con-
slant operatisn-the Dexter and Centennial
and not until within the past few days has
it been necessary to resume explorations fol
a further supply Of ore. A single level in the
Lexington mine has supplied the ffteer
stamps of Judge Davis mill for three years
has produced a half a million Of dollars, ant
still has, by actual measurement, 10000 tom
of ore in sight. The 3OO-foot shaft now bein!
sunk may be expected to open mp a body 0
ore which will render the capacity ofthe mil
so ridiculously inadequate hat some NOR
stamps will be added at an early day, though
the probability is stronger that a new mil
will be built.
In the Alice it is true that the majority O
the drifts on all the levels are being forward
ed, but the amount of ore extracted in thi
work is so far in excess of the stamp capacit,
of the mill that thousands of tons are piled OF
the dump and elsewhere, and yet no attemp
is being made to extract any more of tn
ledge than is absolutely necessary in con
Quoting the work of exploration, immense re
serves being left on both sides of the levels
In the Magma Charta a body OF ore ha
been opened up by a tunnel for a length c
1900 feet which, though of a somewhat 10y
grade, is quite rich enough to pay for work
ing, and will doubtless be opened up in grea'
er richness on the completion of the doubl
compartment Shaft now being put down.
To carry the enumeration any further
though an easy matter, is unnecessary, as W
have shown to those who may not have give
the subject a proper amount of consideration
first, that the published bullion shipments pc
express form less than half of the camps lie
al output. and second, that the reducing faci
tiles at present employed might be double
without any fear Of exhalSting the supply
ore.