Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-01-14
The RIeh Mines of Altar.

The rich Altar silver mines located
 near Oquitoa in Sonora, Mexico. have
 been reopened by draining the lowest
 level of the Carmen shaft and has ex- ! posed silver bonanza left there. The
 work has been directed to show the con
 dition of the mines to an expert sent from Boston, the particulars of which, as ' furnls ed by a gentleman recently re- turned from Altar, are that the mines [ are located on the lode known as the Santa Gertrudls de Oquitoa, and show bold outcroppings for distance of over ' one mile and beyond over a succession ! of low hills from West tO East, clearly ' exposing its formidable character in | approaching the first or Carmin hill | from the the west; here the lode divides itself, the main portion winding around 1 the north, and the other portion passing
 on the south side of the hill, the south ern beiug called Carmen vein. to which the principal work of development has been confined and where great strikes of almost virgin silver were made. Remnants of very rich ore assaying
 thousands of dollars per ton yet exist III the shafts and drifts opei-ed, connecting
 with each other for a length Of nearly
 two hundred feet and to e depth within
 a few feet OI the water level. the extent
 of the old Spanish workings. The en-
 tIre hill between the veins above the
 water line being disturbed by
 dislocatiOns of hard masses of rock
 which at point near the water lIne al-
 most cut of or pinch the vein, below
 which, however, the Assure resppeared
 m full strength as shown in water line
 tunnel at depth of l35 feet from sur
 lace, at winch point the vein assumes an almost vertical dip- commencing very
 narrow, increasing in width at the rate of about two inches per foot. The new vein has become richer with the depth showing at the lowest part visible m stump at commencement of the tunnel the richest ore containing black sulph- ! urets of silver, horn silver, chloride and ] rich carbona:es, while the vein indicates l all along the tunnel of about 3G feet in l length the coming in of similar ores, the l vein being well mineralized giving ID !, part high assays, the character of the ore | corresponding to that found a few feet i lower ID sump made for drainage of the 1 tunnel. The most formidable of the vein | K, however, shown on the north side of . Carmen hill where quartz body of about . twelve feet rests upon a reddish, yellow mass of vein matter charged with horn silver visible to the naked eve, and from this vein matter the silver is taken by washing in the ordinary miners pan, and large finds of virgin silver and gold have been made by the old Mexicans n sinking and drifting in the hill this part of the vein tends towards the southern vein and un- will unite with the same at a depth of about two hundred feet. The real old Santa Gertrudis mine is about fifteen hundred feet east from Carmen hill where the vein at depth of about forty feet Is four feet wide, giving high assays. This mine has not been worked since it's abandon ment by the Nexicans some forty years ago, but the search for rich silver deposits n the upper excavation, has continued from time Co time. From Santa Gertrudis hill the vein continues its eastern course for another mile the higher hills beyond. show ing at various points rich croppings proving the lode in its whole length sontinons ore body. The entire prop srty IS owned by Mir. Otto F. Gehrcke, vho has recently bonded Carmen Hill nine to a Boston company, who no ioubt now that a competent expert has approved of the property, will con- hence active operations in a short time,