The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1891-11-05


ments in the county and the different
mines as they will hereinafter be re.
ported, the RECORD has carefully
gathered and selected the following
data.
The local, historical, geological, and
some mining developments will be taken
from the report of that careful and trust.
worthy mining expert, Prof George W.
Maynard:
LOCATION.
Phoebe is situated in Ely mining dis.
trict, Lincoln county, Nevada The
town is reached from Salt Lake via the
Utah Southern railway, a branch of the
Union Pacific railway to Milford, the
present terminus, and thence by the
Perry 4 Austin stage line, distance of
lis miles. The distance by the proposed
Union Pacific extension from Milford
will be about l45 miles. The grading
and tunneling has been completed, but
all further development seems to be at
standstill until new life and new energy
shall have forced resumption. While the
road will eventually be carried through
to California, the main incentive to its
construction is the business which can
be obtained in Phoebe.
1t will be perfectly apparent that
great chcapening of the cost of supplies,
coupled with the means of getting in
coke and machinery, and the getting out
of ore and bullion, will result-in other
words, it will endow with life a district
which for many years has lain fallow.
HISTORICAL.
1t is difficult to comprehend why u
camp which has already producee S20,-
600, 900, with the mines still in bonanza,
should suddenly be closed, The rivalry
between the officials of the two com.
panies, then working here, is given as
the reason for the wrecking of these
great properties.
The two principal mines were known
as the Raymond & Ely and the Meadow
Valley, the workings of each company
being connected so that the pump of the
Raymond x Ely drained the Meadow
Valley property. The Meadow Valley
company had already begun to
provide pumping plant when the Ray.
monk & Ely mine pump was stopped,
and the lower workings were flooded.
The water level is at depth of 200
feet; the workings on the Raymond and
Ely property had been carried to u depth
of 800.
With the increase in depth the ores
| had become more and more untitled for
treatment by the milling process then in
use at Bullionville, twelve miles from
Phoebe, so that, without the adoption of a
process suited to the changed character
of the ores, the output of bullion would
in time have become greatly reduced.
That vast quantities Of ore were passed
through the mills which ought to have
been otherwise treated, is shown by the
high value of the large bodies of tailings
lying at Bullionville, from which several
hundred thousands dollars have already
been extracted by smelling.
The mines were discovered in 1854,
and were worked up to 1850. The re,
ported bullion product ranges from l6
600, 900 to 10000, 600 of dollars, with re-
ported dividends of 4, 800, 900 to 5000
600 dollars The relatively small per
centage of profit was due to the necess
arlly high cost of working, on account Of
distance from supplies and high wages
coupled with most cxtravagant and il
many instances unminerlke manage
ment.
GEOLOGY.
The country is quartzytc, the strait
having uniform dip of about IS to 20
except where thrown or iaulted by dixie
of porphyry, There is one great dyk
which measures % to So feet at the sur
face, and in places measures as much a
60 to 20 feet in the lower workings.
The great lodes of the district are con
tiguous to this porphyry dyke TIL,
veins have general east and west cours
with a southerly dip from so to so, an,
are practically perpendicular to the di
of the quart2yte,
The great main assures are easily fol
lowed, and have as rule well.deilne
, walls, or partngs, between the vein fill
ing and the country rock
Where the vein is entirely in porphyI
as in the ease of the Middle Vein on tn
Nuba, the vein mass is decomposed @
kaolinized poryhyry, Where it is on tn
contact between porphyry and quartzyit
the veinfilling becomes more siiceou.
and where the vein is entirely in quart
zyte, silica predominates,
One of the marked characteristics ,
the district is the occurrence of mangar
csc and hydrated iron oxides, frequentl
forming almost the entire vein. filing, 0
in the case of the Zero mine. The mar
ganese does not always carry silver bea,
ing ores in paying quantities
In general terms the ores of lead al
carriers OF silver. Where the oxidizin
influences have been at work the minera
are plumhic ochre tprotoxide of lead