Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-20
DAKOTA RICH IN TIN.
Enough in the Black Hills to Supply
All the United States.
EXPERIENCES OF A VERMONTER.
The Richest Ore in the World in the Vicin-
ity Of Harney Peak.
MINED JUST, LIKE GOLD AND SILVER

CHICAGO, Aug. 19-Henry C. Wicker,
of the Harney 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 several years
connected with the Northwestern Railroad,
but is now devoting his time to developing
tin mines at Hill City.
"N1y company owns about 1000 claims on
long range of land in the shape of horse
| shoe that stretches around Harney Peak.
This horseshoe track is from 25 to 80 miles
long and from two to four miles wide" said
Mr.. Wicker. eve have already sunk a
shaft 300 feet deep, but we will go 1, 900 feet
any way. We have already purchased
machinery sufficient to have plant rum
ming by next February that will crush $50
tons of tin rock a day. Tin mining is car
ried on in just the same manner as gold and
silver mining-we sink shafts to 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"
STILL AN EXPERIMENT.
IT'S it vet established beyond doubt that
the mining of tin in the Black Hills can be
made to pay?"
"Well, it is matter of experiment in
some respects so far. / am confident, how
ever, that we can find enough tin in the
Black Hills to supply the entire trade in the
United States. The tin ore is found in a
species OF granite. It appears in
the form OF black oxide of tin and
In in prx Ctolc obf,t1t fhn All of
grain of wheat generally. Now, the tin rock
up there yields from to per cent OF black
oxide of tin. That means yield of from 40
to 100 pounds of oxide of tin to ton of rock.
This black oxide of tin contains "a per cent
of metallic tin. When our 250-ton
mill gets in operation we can, on
contain only 2 per cent of black oxide of
tin, turn out three and three-quarters tons
of metallic tin a day on an average. This
will sell for $500. So, you see, it looks now
things now definitely settled: The richest
tin bearing rock in the world is found
around Harney Peak; second, the tin
that some of the black oxide of tin, when
melted, yields 99A per cent of pure metal.
But with all these bright prospects before
us, the question we are yet trying to solve
is: Can tin be found in commercial quanti-
ties in the Black Hills?'
TIN PLENTY AND GOOD.
1--WE have not yet gone down deep enough
to tell whether we are going to find the tin
in quantities large enough to pay good
dividend on the Investment in the plant.
But am confident we will find plenty of
tin. And the tin we have found is the
finest in the world. The Straits of NAL
acca is the place where the largest
world. But that is placer tin, the
mines being worked in the same manner
as placer gold mines. 1t is inferior to the
Black Hills tin. There were 60,000 tons of
metallic tin produced in the whole world
last year. and the United States imported
half of that product, either in pig tin or in
tin plates. The plates, however, contain
only 2 to per cent of pure tin. We have
machinery which, when put in, can easily
double our capacity of $50 tons, and by
spring we expect to be getting out 500 tons
of tin rock q day."
Mr.. Wicker says that big strike in silver
has been made by some prospectors on
Squaw creek, about IA miles west of Hill
City, and that there is a furor of excite
ment over the find. A month ago there
weren't dozen men in that valley, and
to-day there are 200 or $50 and more are
pouring in daily. Mr. Wicker believes that
the silver mines around Galena, s. D.,
are in the same condition that those of
Leadville, Col, were in before capitalists
went there and developed that country.
Galena is being worked by small miners,
who are poor, and the only thing required
to make a boom is for capitalists to go in
and work the mines to their utmost capac-
ity. These small miners are already re-
ceiving profit of 500 carload OH the pro-
duct they are shipping to Denver.