Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-08-18
DIGGING FOR TIN.
Some Facts About the New
Mining Industry.
THE PROSPECTS AT HARVEY PEAK.

A Member of the Company Who Thinks
the Enterprise VIII Pay How the
Business Is Carried on-The Richest
Ore I'm the World Found-Capacity of
the Plant That Will BE Put Up to Work
the Black Hills Deposit-Yield of Oxide
to the Ton of Rock.
CHICAGO, Aug 1S-Henry c. Wicker.
of the Harvey Peak Tin Mining and Mill
ing company. of Hill City, S. D., dropped
In at the Wellington hotel yesterday on
his way to visit his birthplace in the
Green Mountain state. He was for sew
eral years connected with the Northwest
.ern railroad, but is now devoting his time
to developing tin mines in Hill City. MY
company owns about 1000 claims on a
long range of land in the shape of horse.
shoe that stretches around Harvey peak.
This horseshoe tract is from twenty-five
to thirty miles long and from two to four
miles wide said Mr.. Wicker. I'VE have
already sunk shaft 800 feet deep, but we
will go 1000 feet any way.
Hard and Costly Work.
ave have already purchased machinery
sufficient to have plant running by next
February that will crush $50 tons of tin
rock a day. Tin mining is carried on in
just the same manner as gold and silver
mininR-we sink shafts to a certain depth,
run out levels. and do Stopping, the same
as in other mining. There is just as much
hard work and the same expense in tin as
In gold or silver mining"
as it yet established beyond doubt that
hea ,iy1iv Z . IN, L., l. l,
made to pay"
We'll, II is matter of experiment in
some respects so far. l am confident,
however, that we can find enough tin
right in the Black hills to supply the en-
tire trade in the United States
Looks Like p Paying Investment.
The tin ore is found in a species of
granite. 1t appears in the form of
black oxide of tin and is seen in small
crystals, about the size of grain of
wheat generally. Now the tin rock up
there yields from 2 to ; per cent of black
oxide of tin. That means yield of from
forty to 100 pounds of oxide of tin 10 a ton
of rock This black oxide of tin contains
"a per cent. of metallic tin. When our
25O-ton mill gets in operation we can. on a
calculation that the rock will contain
per cent OF black oxide of tin, turn out
tin day on an average This will sell at
500. So, You see, it looks now like a
paying investment.
Two Things That Are Settled.
There are two things now definitely
settled: The richest tin-bearing rock in
the World IS found, around Harvey Peak;
second, the tin is of superior quality. The
assays show that some of the black oxide
OF tin, when melted yields 99&4 per cent.
OF pure meta, But with ~ these bright
prospects before us the question we are
yet trying to solve is, Can tin be found IN
commercial quantities in the Black Hillsy'
We have not yet gone down deep enough
to tell whether we are going to find the
tin in quantities large enough to pay a
good dividend on the investment in the
plant. But l am confident we will find
plenty of tin. And the tin we have found
Is the finest in the world
The Worlds Product of Tin.
"The straits of Nalacca is the place
where the largest amount of tin is now
produced in the world But that is placer
tin, the mines being worked in the same
manner as placer .gold mines. 1t is infe-
rior to the Black Hills tin. There We're
$4,000 tons OF metallic tin produced in the
whole world last year, and the United
States imported half of that product,
either in pig or in tin plates. The plates,
however, contain only 2 TO per cent. of
pure tin. We have machinery winch.
when put in, can easily double our capac-
ity of 25O tons, and by spring we expect to
be getting out 500 tons of tin rock day"