Arizona weekly citizen., 1882-02-19
Mining in LeadVille.


 The mines in the vicinity of Leadvllle have all been vigorously worked during the month of January. In most cases the prosecution of a large amount of explOr- atOry work, and in many cases consider able attention has been paid to the i'm prOvement Uf surface works and the ar rangement of underground workings with the view of handling the ore al small cost. Matters such as the above may seem very simple and hardly worth noticing, nevertheless, from day to day we see and hear that mines have col lapsed or worked out. On the subject of the working out of mines much has been written, bringing up many exam ples in Out-Of-the-way localities where facilities for working have not been abundant. We VIII say that unless some system Is adopted in the mining of carbonate deposits, the end of a mine is near at hand. Most of our mine man. agers are fully aware of this fact, and In consequence the mines are being thor Oughly explored and opened with the best advantage possible, so as to get ont of a mine all she is worth. We also Ob- serve many mines in this neighborhOOd are now suffering from the inexperienced management they have received at the hands of former owners, at the present time causing a vast expense to put a mine into good working Order-a matter that IS even more costly than Opelssa d dozen new miues and even sinking new shafts. The irregularity of the carbon ate deposits make 1t necessary that the most rigid system of prospecting should be adopted in every mine, and the larger portion of the miners employed in this prospecting. m most cases only for the future benefit of the mine We do not say that a mine should only be ex- plOrei, but a JudIcIOus combination Is what we wish tO impress. The relative proportions, of course. vary in every mine. For no law can be laid down, but the axiom We have given is sufficient to show the importance of constantly keeping up large number of exploratory headings. It Is frequently remarked tbat such and such mine is making an enormous output, but let us look into the case. We but too often find that a certain number Ot levels and crossdrifts have been dr,ven, and now the ore Is being removed as rapidly as possible at the expense of the future of the mine; dividends are declared and the mine and its product consumed. The crisis comes, she is worked out the fact really being that the end Of an ore shoot may have been arrived at, or tempOrari- fly, the pay ore may have narrowed out, giving the appearance of a worked ont mine. while, had some of the money been reserved and put into exploration work, m all probability the mine would never have been shut down. Mines thus aban- doned have often been reopened and worked to better advantage. and yielded even larger returns than at any time pre- viOusly in the history of the mine. The past month has been productive of rich fruits from the system of prospecting that has been carried on in many of the mines, more especially the mines of Car bOnate and Fryer hills. While we strongly believe in thoroughly exploring a mine, We do not believe in following very thin strings of ore very long dist ances round limited space and ulti- mately return tO the place where the stringer of ore started, working much to the detnment of the health of the miner and also to the finance of the mine. Such exploration work in a carbonate deposit
 
 we strongly advocate prospecting a mine and opening mp her resources We much apprehend seeing the prospecting drifts earned forward in the bOldest manner possible. It k very seldom an ore body is so small when struck that it requires to be terribly rich before it would pay to go back aud open up the prospect work which as before mentioned Is perhaps the most runious operation in mining i; on the contrary, the ore body, if worth anything iu carbonate deposits arc usu- ally of large dimensions, and therefore it seldom does otherwise than pay tO run the prospecting levels and drifts with a view to the future working of the mine so as not to require TemOdelling, much of which has recently been done in the mines of Leadville.-. Leadville Demo- crat.