The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1891-09-01
MINING NUGGETS.

abandoned that camp four years ago,
and left their costly mill structure and
other splendid Improvements under the
care of watchmaD, we have heard the
Flint property talked of as having great
quantities of low grade ore which could
only be worked by costly chlorination
process, and were consequently never
sufficiently interested to examine the
mines. The last great mill erected there
was equipped with rolls and Golden
Gate concentrators The rolls would not
crush the ore fine enough for the con-
centrators to work and the result of
spending nearly half million dollars
on the property was a signal failure.
This was signal 'black eye" to the
property, and, coupled with previous
failures to work the ore, made it look as
if that camp was dead letter.
Some two years ago Mr.. M. F. Leech
bought the Last Chance mine, one mile
north of Flint, and since then has been
devising a method to work the ores.
Last fall he leased the mill from the Ne
braska owners, at the same time secur-
ing an option on the entire Flint prop
erty, for 100000, and began expert
menting to save the value in the rock.
He put in battery of ten stamps and
number of small jig concentrators, and
has experimental for several months.
The results have been sufficiently salts
factory to warrant him to decide to take
the property on his option and to pro-
ceed to make permanent Improvements
on the mill. All of the old machinery,
except the power, has been taken out of
the mill and discarded, the battery, at
first put up on the ground floor, has
been removed to the floor where the
rolls were formerly located, and the
mill arranged for adding forty more
stamps fer which Dumber there is am
pie room. The ore from the crIsher
runs into a bin from whence it drops
to the battery. 1t is discharged from
the battery through sixty mesh screens,
placed eight inches above the dies, onto
the jig tables. The tailings from the
jigs run over an incline table, covered
with canvass where portion of the re-
maiDining value is saved, thence on a
second table and so on indefinitely until
the loss in the tailings is reduced to a
minimum. AT the present time only
two tables are used, but two more will
be added. The loss now in the tailings,
working thirtY-dollar ore, is about eight
dollars, accruing chiefly from percen-
tage of rosin zinc which the ore carries.
The present cost of milling the ore is
less than two dollars per ton;
but with five times as many stamps at
work and the machinery perfected, Mr..
Seely, who has charge of the mill, esti-
mates the cost can be reduced to about
eighty cents per ton.
Twenty-six tons of ore are now re-
duced TO one ton of concentrates.
It will be seen from the foregoing that
very low grade ore of this character,
where it can be cheaply mined, can be
made to pay. 1t is revolution, or rath-
er resurrection, for an extensive
mining distric. which has been pro-
nounced played out.
In regard to the amount of ore in I
sight on the Flint property, the NUG-
GET expert almost fears to risk his well
earned reputation for truthfulHess by
giving his opinion on this subject, but
it is a very safe estimate to place on
the amount of ore now on the dumps,
which will assay twenty-five dollars, at
twenty-five thousand tons and to esti
mate the ore of the same grade in sight
in the mines at seveny- five thousand
tons. How this vast amount of ore came
TO be left on the dumps and in the op-
ened drifts, is only explainable by the
fact that there was much richer ore in
the mines and they were exploited for
the rich shoots when even forty-dollar
ore did not pay the expenses of work
ing by the processes formerly employed.
The effect of finding a very cheap pro-
cess of working the ores of the Flint
district will be almost incalculable in
It's benefits to 0wyhee county. There
are a number of valuable claims and
properties in that vicinity which have
already come into prominence. A pro-
luctive camp has been added to the
,ounty's already prosperous mining in
lustries. But this is MOI all. Stand on
my eminence near Flint, look at South
and think of the immense de-