Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-02-20
HYDRAULIC MINING
Arrangements for Putting it in Prac-
tlce at Pilot Knob.

tlce at Pilot Knob.
1t Is a matter of but few days when the
big blast furnaces of the Jupiter iron work:
In Carondelet will be blown, in and besides
some of those now idle at the Vulcan viii
follow soon. A meeting of the directors Of
the company was held yesterday in the Of
fee of the secretary, Mr.. o. L. Garrison, to
set date, but owing to the report that ii
would require still few days. work by the
boiler makers to complete preparations the
date making was postponed few days.
One of the furnaces is now in blast and the
addition will employ some 200 men. The
Jupiter has not been running to the full eX-
tent since it burned down on July 8, 1888, a
few days before the Western Steel Co. gave
up the ghost, for which company the Jupiter
had been Transforming ore into pig iron for
conversion into steel rails. After the fire
the Jupiter was entirely remodeled.
This is but the beginning, however. The
St. Louis Ore and Steel Co., which owns he
extensive Vulcan plant, besides Pilot Knob
and coal mines at Carbonate and Murphys-
boro, H., has found these properties of
eiephantine proportions during the late de-
preston in the iron trade. Worse than this,
TO the public it seemed as though the Caron-
delet steel plant and The Pilot Knob were
yalueless, owing to the fact that the ore vein
had disappeared. In fact, some months
since, it looked as if the company had aban-
doned the "Knob,n for they began hauling
out the valuable mining and crushing ma
chinery. This was done quietly and some
what mysteriously, which gave still more
weight to the popular belief.
The st. Louis Ore and Steel Co. did not
seem to care fig what the public thought.
1t now transpires that their ways, like those
OF Providence, are inscrutable. They had
been drilling and prospecting here and there
and everywhere, but no finite mind outside
of the company could learn anything about
the result of these prospectings until Re
pu6hc representative secured some inside
Information yesterday. This Information
was that the president of the company, Mr..
Henry Hitchcock, had just returned from
the Knob, where he has been spending
few days giving orders and instructions for
the establishment of an immense hydraulic
mining plant. The Information is from reli-
able authority-a stakeholder, in fact. 1t
puts an entirely different phase on the situ-
alton. For years low grade ores had been
dumped about the Knob, and last spring it
was found that there were
HEAVY DEPOSITS OF ORES
on the north and northeast sides of the foot
hill 40 feet thick in spots. But this was a
sort of loose nugget deposit, which could be
mined with a pick and shovel, but not in
highly profitable quantities by that method.
1t was believed that this amounted to little
by everybody outside the company. 1t
was not taken into consideration that the
Iron Mountain, some six miles away, had
once seemed as exhausted as ever Pilot
Knob did until the company found that
hey could wash from the seemingly worth
less bits Of iron with which the mountain
was impregnated the valuable ore in use.
They turned an enormous pressure of water
on the mountain side through immense
nozzles, and, as some 200 feet of the noun
-ain's summit melted away, rich currents of
cash flowed INTO the company's Golfers from
he supposedly worthless pebbles, and are
still flowing in, for not only is the wash ore
solution of the mountain top disclosed rich
Seins.
These results have been so satisfactory
that the Ore and Steel Co. will follow the
example set. any of the stockholders are
confident of meeting the same success as
they wash away the historic old hill that
The previous company did.
This new move explains the removal of
The dry mining machinery from the acres of
caverns away up near the top of the hill,
which rises abruptly $50 feet above the val
ey below. The pumping machinery ana
the six batteries of boilers that, at the base
Of the hill, supplied compressed air for the
drills a: the top have not been disturbed,
and will suffice for pumping water into the |
necessary for hydraulic mining. |
just how long it will require to complete
he arrangements is not known, but mean
line some iron Will be "quarried" rather
han mined. The officials from whom the |
Information ought to come will give none.
But from various sources it is quite certain |
hat deal is going on which, if successful, |
will result in opening the Carondelet steel
plant very shortly.-Republic.