Morning journal and courier., 1888-12-12
MINING IN CALIFORNIA.

J. r. PHILLIPS,
 MINING IN CALIFORNIA.
 MT. D. T. MalIett's Interesting Des-
 crfptfon of the Calico Mining District
 -LOcat1ng and Developing Claim
 Profits from the Ventures-The Min |
 CTS and How They L1ve-CIimate and |
 Scenery of the Country.
 CALICO, Cal, Dec. 1. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 A five mile ride across the Mohsve desert from the railroad brought me to the Calico mining district, which has within few years come into prominence a mining ! field. I spent several days in riding the burros over the trails and looking at the claims. The necessary measures to secure new claim are few, and consist of recording your intention with the land office and mark ing the boundary lines of the claim (which must be six hundred by fifteen hundred feet with pile of stones, wooden posts, at the corners; and also doing one hundred dollars worth of work upon the claim within enc year from the following first of January. A failure to do this amount of development either in operation or preparation makes the title void and liable to be Bumped" or re- located by anyone. To patent these claims it is necessary to do five hundred dollars worth of work in any one year, and to se- cure the deeds, surveys, etc., costs about two hundred dollars. After patent is se- cured the title is perfect and future opera tions are at the option of the owner. One of the largest mines here is the Waterloo, l which operates sixty stamp mill, requiring l one hundred and twenty tons of ore daily. 1 This claim is valued at about two (2) mil | lion dollars, and is about to be sold to an English syndicate. I went into this mine 1 through six hundred foot tunnel, and as- l cended several ladders and went through any l number of timbered passages, and looked down into the black depths of the shafts l which connected the different levels of the mine. The process of securing the ore is to run tunnel from shaft under the ore (the 1 direction being determined by the croppings | on the surface), thus making gravitstion do | the work of bringing the ore to the level. 1 The mine is operated day and night, and | the blsstings take place just before meal hours at noon and evening. The interval, l while the men are eating, allows the smoke | of the powder to dissipate. The detached | ore is then shunted through wooden shafts l to a common level, where It falls into hand cars holding about half ton, which are l pushed on 8 narrow track to the entrance of | the tunnel and dumped iuto a large bin, l which has sliding doors on the opposite side. l A trestle is built up to this bin and larger | cars are run under the sliding doors. The | ore is in turn dropped into these cars, which | are operated with cable. The incline car ries them down one track, while their weight
 brings up another car on the other track. When the loaded cars reach the level of the
 desert dummy engine is attached, and quickly carries the cars across to the mill, l about four miles distant, where it is run l nv1a a law xvif fha rd of the mill. The track. runs on to this floor,
 and the ore falls through an opening in the
 bottom of the car on to iron girders, which
 are pieces of heavy cast iron bars set on edge and about three inches apart.
 The portion of ore which is too large to
 pass between these griders is showed into a
 stone crusher, and the whole mass is fed to
 the stamps. The stamps are round bars of
 iron working vertically, and with about three
 feet fall These rods have fastened on to
 the bottom a very heavy shoe of steel, which
 in falling crushes the ore with several tons
 pressure between itself and the steel box or
 anvil beneath. These stamps are made up l in sets of five, which constitute what is
 known as battery" and the entire up-
 ward and downward motion is undulating
 The stamps slowly revolve as they fall.
 There were sixty of these stamps in this
 mill and the noise was deafening. There is
 perforated metal screen in front of the l box, and when the ore is reduced to com l paratively fine condition it passes through
 this sieve by the pressure above, and with l the aid of water is carried through four
 inch pipe to the grinders" These are huge
 iron tubs about ten feet in diameter and six
 feet high. There is a revolving grinder in- side which reduces the ore grain and water l to the consistency of paste, when it flows l through a smaller pipe to an iron pan, where 1t is treated with blue stone, salt and other
 chemicals, and an addition of quicksilver, I which precipitates the pure silver. This 1 part of the operation requires considerable
 skill The further operations consist of melting and pouring, and the final result, in
 the shape of silver bars weighing from one 1 to two hundred pounds, are shipped without
 cover by Wells, Fargo 6 Co.'s Express to
 the San Francisco, Metal Brokers or the } United States mint. The bankers also &C., cept the bars in the same manner as money deposits, and credit their value, less com
 mission,' on the bank account of the mining
 company.
 The burro which I rode among the hills | | was an intelligent animal, and although it
 was extremely difficult to indnce him to go
 faster than walk. his step was certain, and as the trails in some places were steep, the
 sure-footedness of these native climbers was the only safeguard, the relling stones and crumbling edge of the trails rendering the climb in some places dangerous. At one place where the descent was sharp the scinch
 of the saddle became loosened, and the sad dIe slid up on to the burro's neck and 5 head, throwing me to the ground, but ss , the patient animal stood perfectly still no . serious harm was done. Many of the min ing claims here pack the ore either on bur 8 ros over the trails or in ore wagons to the , mills. The Barber Mining and Milling n company own and control several valuable claims, and run ten Q0) stamp mill on | their own ore and do custom work for the :. operators of claims who have no milling I facilities The art of discerning the pres | .,& ell in %ho ss Inc Ia
 and the result of long patience in examin g ing the numberless formations of sand B chalk rock, etc. When miner has decided 6 to work upon claim he examines the sur . face of the ground for croppings, or indica tions of silver-bearing ore, and if he succeeds > in finding these he takes samples from differ g ent parts to the assay office at the mill, ant l. upon the payment of one dollar receives :. certificate from the assayer showing tn ? number of ounces of silver per ton whicl 'r the ore will yield if worked. The charge fo a milling being about ten to twelve dollars