Telegram-herald., 1891-08-15
BLACK Hills TIN ORR.
What an Old-Time Miner HaS to
Say Of the Deposits
IT Is 4 GREAT COMING INDUSTRY
AreAsgsnsass Bsing Made fer the RsAue-
sisa Of the Ore ~ he Dump-Ths
Richest ris BELT In the W Grid
Facts and Figures

Chicago, Aug. l4.-.Inside OF three
years the United States will be able
TO supply the world with tin" Thus
said Jeff" MeDermott, a man who
has been a miner FOR thirty years. who
has drilled for all metals, and who
Is known throughout the entire North
west as a man Of unfailing judgment
In all matters pertaining to minerals.
He is registered at the Saratoga.
THE tin belt in the Black Hills"
he continued, lis the richest In the
world. and when the reduction plants
which are now being built are In full
operation there Will be kept In this
country the $50, ,O0O, 900 or S35 .OoO,-
900 which the United States annually
pays TO Great Britain for her tin. The
Black Hills tin ore is vastly superior
TO that produced in Wales. 1t yields
8 per cent. Of pure tin. while that OF
Wales never runs above 1-2 per cent.
'When about five years ago it was
first announced that the Black Hills
contained an inexhaustible store Of
tin the mining capitalists OF the coun-
try were incredulous. After great diff
flculty. however, the discoverers of
the mines induced a party of capital
lists to take al interest in the matter.
There was nobody in America at that
time who knew anything about tin,
and the capitalists had eight or ten
experts in tin from the Cornish mines
come 10 this country to pronounce
upon the value of the metal Their
judgment was so favorable that a
large company, composed OF English
and Americans, was at once organized.
This company alone has now over
So .0o0. 900 invested, and over 1000
mines have been sunk. on all OF which
the assessment work Ii regularly done,
and for many OF which patents have
been taken out. Seven or eight of
these mines have been sunk TO depth
OF 800 feet. and thr most promising
ones will be drilled to a depth of from
600 to 700 feet. 1t costs 500 foot
to drill the shafts. but the value and
richness Of the ore increases with every
foot drilled. Tin is very deep metal.
The mines are all within a radius of
twenty 10 twenty-five miles rom Har
ney's Peak. one OF the highest OF the
Black Hills.
The company Of which 1 have
spoken Is building large plant for
the reduction. separation and concen-
tration of the ore. There are already
over 100000 tons OF ore on the dumps,
which will be rapidly reduced to pig
and block tin when the plant is COM
pleted. A ton of tin is worth about
$400, and to every ton OF ore there
are about 100 pounds OF tin. The
plant that ds now in course OF con-
struction will handle over 500 tons
OF ore day.
Manufactured tin will become
vastly cheaper in this country when
these mines are thoroughly developed.
The increased cost of labor in this
country over that OF Wales will be
overwhelmed by the superior richness
OF the ore. The tin producers of Wales
will have to find markets outside of
the United States when the duty on
tin ore is levied in 1898, and even IL
no such duty were to be levied l am
sure that the foreign tin producers
will soon be totally unable to COM
pete with the American producers.
They are. however. making the most
OF the time left them and are glutting
the American market with their pro-
duct.
1.-The various companies establishing
plants for the production OF tin in the
Black hills will contribute toward the
erection OF large structure ut the
Worlds Fair. made entirely OF Amer
lean block tin"