Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-04-26
Giia City Placer Mines.

lew moments at my leisure, VIII | try and give you brief description Of | the placer mines Tn this country | that may be of interest to some, If not many, of your readers. The | placer mines of which l speak are | situated in Arizona Territory and California, along the Colorado and Gila rivers, about twelve miles above l Yuma. The Colorado river is a large | steam flowing from the Rocky noun tains and is navigable for 300 miles above Yuma. The Gila Is a tributary, and is a large stream furnishing any amount of water for hydraulic mining the year around The climate is also very favorable, as scarcely any rain falls in this country, the average be- ing about three inches in twelve months, with no frOsts or snow the heat is not oppressive in summer, and the winters are delightful. Oper- ations in mining may be carried on without Interruption every day Tn the year. The mining claims that l have been most iavorably impressed with are the Gila City mines at Gila City and along the Gila river, about twelve miles from Yuma. The South ern Pacific R. R. runs through them and they are most favorably situated for hydraulic mining, being right on the river, and not having to pump water more than one-fourth of mile to reach paying dirt. The gold found is very fine in quality, assaying $l9.50 to the ounce, and Is very coarse, and many nuggets are found from four to ten dollars, the largest taken out being $130. The only mining operations carried on heretofore have been by the dry washing process, and on small scale. The gold is found in gravel beds, made up of decom- posed reddish rock, quartz and red clay containing oxide of iron and al kaline salts, which readily dissolve in water. The face of the country is very broken, lying in undulating hills, traversed by deep gulches. The un derlying stratum or bed rock is hard cement formation and varies in depth from the surface from one to one hundred feet, the highest land that pays being not over two hundred feet above the river and the richest dirt being from one to ten feet from bed rock. No difficulty will be experienc- ed rom the tailings from hydraulic ing, as they can he dumped in the gulches or river and the whole claim containing l6O acres lays in such a shape that every foot of it can be washed down to bed rock. There has been considerable dry washing going on for number of years by private parties, with good results, men going into the hills and concentrating the dirt with a goldpan and packing it down to the river on their backs, washing it out, making from $2 to $S per day, and if such results can be obtained from a single mans labor with but gold pan for a reducer and his own back and a sack for convey CT, what may be accomplished by 1 by hydraulic works with a pumping capacity say from 300 to 1000 gal Ions per minute with proper sluices, etc, which 1 will try to show further on, from estimates made from my own personal experience and in tests made by myself on different parts of my claim for the last year in banning out or dry washing. A miners pan is supposed to hold one quarter of q cubic foot of dirt and will pan out from two to four cents to the pan ; and l have obtained as high as thirty five cents in fine gold from single pan of dirt, not counting nuggets, and from careful estimates made from different parts of the claim would put the average at two cents per pan. i Now q cubic yard would contain 27 cubic feet or l08 pans of dirt at two cents per pan would be $216 per GU bic yard. Now to get at the fabulous wealth that lays buried in these hills and is possible to obtain by proper management and little capital to put it through, let us keep on com putting and we will arrive at result 1 that would dazzle the eyes of a king. There are 4,840 square yards in an acre, and we will put the average of ! the pay dirt at six feet, or two yards 1 deep. There would be 9,680 cubic | yards of dirt per acre, and at the low estimate of $2 per yard would be $l9,- 360 per acre, The company owning these claims are contemplating put ting up plant in few months and commencing operations on large scale. A good plant will cost from 1000 to $10,000 put up in working order Wood for fuel is plentiful all along the river, Labor is cheap common labor from S125 to $1.50 per day; skilled labor $500 to $350 per day; and there is afsplendid open ing here for capital, not only on this claim, but adjoining claims also. That will surely bring in princely revenue from but moderate outlay and judicicus management. More anon.
 Yours truly,
 AN OLD MINER.