The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-30

was opened. One ohunk or pure gold sold
for $3.50, and several millions soon rolled in
golden stream into Mr.. Tabor's pockets.
A lucky tenderfoot came out here from the
backwoods OF Illinois and went prospecting
III the mountains, and in three months
started for home with q bank account Of
SSSO,O00 to his credit. That was better than
raising corn at 10 cents a bushell
TWO KINDS OF MINES
A company is found at last to take hold
OF the various prospects, and with necessary
capital goes to work to turn the plains into
a mine and to erect the smelling works for
reducing the ore. There are, as is we'll
known, two kinds of mines, the placer and
the deep ore or lode mines. The placer
mines deal with free gold, found ON the
surface OF hills OF In the bed of streams,
where il has been washed down
from the hills, and all that is needed in
this kind of mining is sufficient water TO
carry down the clay or gravel containing
the mineral aud to wash out or "pan outn
the gold. Placer mines in Colorado do
abound, but are not as numerous nor as
rich as those Of California, although the
future may yet yield abundance of them.
But the main reliance in this state are
deep ore mines. Picture a hill-there are
thousands such-covered with prospectors
stakes indicating veins running in
one general direction. When capital
takes hold of that hill, then over every
claim or several Joined together, rise i'm
mense buildings containing engine power
to perform several necessary steps: ~ To
drive down the drill to bore the holes,
wherein the mining powder slowly blows
out the rocks, and the shaft begins TO grow
downward; ~ to run the pumps that clear
the mine OF water; 81 to lift up the bodies
of ores from the various levels; ~ to carry
up and down the miners' cage with the
miners and their provisions for mining.
All this the steam power does, To-
Gated over the mouth of the shaft.
The surface Of such a hill, dotted
with these hundreds Of buildings, with their
smokestacks, burning by night and by day,
looks as IL the bowels of the earth were
belching forth innumerabIe volcanoes
"hlccoughing up SMOKE" one has well ex-
pressed it. Now prepare to descend one of
these shafts Ia the contracted cage There
are several shafts to each property, descend
ing to the depth Of a thousand feet and over.
The famous Comstock lode has a shaft 8, 900
feet down, where are cooling rooms Co
which the miners have to resort every
two hours In order TO seek relief
from the great heat which is
encountered in the depths of the mine But
it is not every lode that is rich enough to
afford the luxury of a 5000 foot shaft into
the bowels OF the earth. One thousand feet
is more than the average in Colorado. Buck
ling on our lamps and our courage we de-
scend in the elevator pardon the bull to
the various leves--at l00 at 2U0, at 400, at
600, and at 800 feet we strike tunnels, like
the stories in hotel, which run off at
various angles to the main shaft,
and sometimes an Investigating
drift takes slant from surface
to bottom through the whole property,
and this informs the owner about the nature
of his entire claim. BY means of the in
formation thus gathered map is made aud
hangs upstairs, SO to speak. in the office,
showing every section marked: "First, rich
ore" second rich ore level, "poor grade
ORE "lean ground" worked outn etc
Railroad tracks run down every level and
rude cars bring the ore to the shaft, are
then hoisted by machinery, dump their
precious contents by breaking In the center,
one part of the car backward, one part for
ward, into the stamping mills. Conservative
miners leave gigantic pillows of the precious
ore standing, and develop ahead into the I'M
known earth faster than they clean up be-
hind them. When the miner cuts with his
pickaxe from the level above his head it Is
called Overhead sloplng," and when from
the level beneath his feet cumberland
sloping" After walking through the vari-
Gus tunnels and drifts, and seeing exposed
an amount of ore, which we were Informed
contained millions of the precious metal,
although to the eye 1t showed no outward
sign of its inward splendor, for 1t is charac-
teristc of the richest ore that its silver
and gold are barely visible, and
it in no way appears to differ from the "lean
ore, - we were quite ready TO ascend once
more to the light of upper day. Down in
the depths OF these mines it is impossible to
escape the sensation that the walls and
levels, in spite of their timbering will cave
in upon the Investigators head So, up
IN 20 MOI rua int tho laval
after level. with the miners at work on the
rude cars, bringing their incessant loads to
the exit until there was a sudden rattle Of
chains, and our cage door was thrown open.
AS we stepped out there we're great dump
heaps" of cheap-grade ore on every
SIDE like some growing hill. Out of these
were made the Concentrates" that is, several
"c5rds" about seven tons) of the dumps
were converted or Concentrated" into one
Of more valuable material, thus saving the
cost of ira nsporting immense bodies of ore
while saving most of the valuable part Of
the heap. Some dump hills, when carefully
assorted, pay all the expenses Of running a
mine. These expenses are enormous. Sink
ing a shaft costs from $15 to $40 a foot;
miners wages from 81 80 to So per day;
''sloping" $25 TO S2S per rathom; asserting
ore So per cord; milling expense els per
cord.
THE STAMPING MILLS
But we left the rich ore being dumped
from the cars into the stamping mills--let
us follow il until it comes out bullion.
There are are several processes in vogue in
Colorado for roobing the rock Of its pre-
cious metal, according TO the character Of
the rock to be dealt with, but the most com
mon method Is by smelling. Smelling
works exist at all of the PRINCIPAL mines,
and then at Pueblo and Denver are such
enormous establishments as those of the
Argo comp any, and the Omaha AID Grant.
The first step In this method of reduction Ia
to crush the ore by means of stamps, the
mills holding any number of stamps, from
ten to one hundred. The stamp
mill consists OF solid framework,
heavy iron stamps and attachments. the
stamps rising and falling by means
of revolving shaft, and the stamps rise
and fall inside CT an iron mortar twenty
seven times a minute; the gold then being
swept on a copper table by stream OK
water, is caught aud held by the quicksil-
yer. In the case of silver ore, the crushing
machine operates like grinding coffee mill
When crushed, the silver ore is roasted to
get rid Of the sulphur, but if the ore is car
Donates and not sulphides, the roasting il
omitted, and the second step OF the process
Immediately follows. The crushed ore, with
layers of Limestone and layers Of charcoal,
is fed into huge furnaces. These furnaces
are constructed of sheet iron, and are
usually circular In shape aud Of much
,.raa 700 hi1hf than Afanatar horizontally