The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-09-20
Tho Big Mill the Morning Company
Is Building to Handle All
Its Ora
Despite Recent Troubles the Mines
OF That Section Arc Pros
perlnG.
work On the Last Chance and Stem
windsr-A silver NH to Work
OkAnoran Orc.

two years ago, while ~ gave Sns Nuu'
d'Alens country : terrible financial shook
from which II has not yet recovered. provsc
The permanent value Of our mines whicf
no monetary disturbance could change.
says tho Csur d'Alsns Miner. Tn liabill-
lies Of the Hussey banks in the Cosu'
d'Alenes and the Spokane National reached
the nsiohborhood Of half = million dollars.
and the Morning mine Was the greatest OF
the assets. The sale Of the property was .
forced put. and With this great disadvan-
>ape II brought . sum alnost sufficient to
sover the entire indebtedness Of the banks.
The property was purohassd BY = Mil
waukee syndicate, a number OF whom were
already drawing dividends from mining In
vsstmsnts In this country. TIT work IN
the Morning had to a great extent been IN
the nature Of prospecting the ledge. and the
result was that Immense bodies OF ore had
been blocked out, showing an amount OF
ore hardly equaled by any mins in the
country. 1t was plain that to handle this
ore TO the greatest profit = large conoen-
traitor must be built and the bucket tram
way supplanted bv superior facilities Tor
carving the ore from the mine to the mill.
This meant an expenditure of a large sum
OF money in addition to the price already
paid for the. property. But the company
was not lacking in nerve. Plans we're do
cided upon early this year, and everything
was in readiness to begin work a. soon a.
the weather admitted in the spring. A. L.
Gross, one of the principal stockholders.
came out as manager for the company, and
D, b. Huntley. a mining man OF long and
-. vuoo =, III mn nc PIr oN6an
of the work.
II WAS the purpose of the company to put
mn a concentrator of 400 tons daily capac-
ity and connect it with the mine by q mar
row puape railroad. To get right of way
for the railroad was the beginning OF ttou.
bic, which caused the loss Of much valuable
time. But the right Of way was finally Sc
cured, and since then work has progressed
rapidly and without interruption.
Last Wednesday q representative OF the
Miner visited the mill and We here ack-
nowledgs u indebtedness to Supt. Hunt
ley for information which must be OF in
terest to our readers. The actual building
work now being done 10 framing for the
machinery. The mill will handle 400 IONS
of ore a day. II will, in fact, be two mills
under one roof. it being arranged to run
half of it wholly independent of the other.
The power to run this mill will be water,
and this will be obtained from Boulder n
Gold creeks, two small streams coming in
on tho south side Of the river. This water
will have a fall of 800 feet. II 10 estimated
that this will give not less than 225 horse
power in the wet season. It will require
l26 horse power for the mill, hence it 10
safe 10 figure on a surplus power at all
times. On the hill side, on q level with the
top story of the mill. about ninety feet dis
tant, is the great ore bin, almost completed,
which will hold l. 200 o n of ore. 1t will
require one man to transfer the ore from
the bin TO the mill In 9 car. The grade for
the railroad from the mill to the foot of the
tramway, 1900 feet below the lowest tunnel
of the mine, is completed and the track IL
now being laid. The grade is seven per
is made by four ~switchbacks; thence follow
ing the hillside BY uniform grade to the
mine. The actual distance from mill to
mine is two and a half miles; distance in
Guiding switchbacks, three and q quarter
miles.
About fifty men are now employed at the
Hunter mine at Mullan. the majority being
house is being built at the mine which will
be ready for occupancy by Oct. l.. The
bucket tramway ia being moved to q posi-
ton that will give it a much better grade
and considerably shorten 1t. Dennis Ryan.
of St. Paul. one of the principal ownsrs of
tu0 Properly, has UoOA - AUAAAn tA4D WcoA
and it ia TO- proposed to start up with a
large force on the first Of the month. About
twenty men under Martin Curran have
been at work in the mine for some time
past, getting the property in shape to tsrn
out q large amount of ore. Parties who
have visited the mine lately report it in fine
condition and the showing Of ore enormous.
The main drift IN the Last Chance run
ming west is now over ninety feet long In
ore that averages our in ono IS delivered
to the mill. the full width of the drift ia in
ore, and is being pushed ahead az fast a.
air drills and sight-hour shifts can do it.
The cross- cut going south has not encoun-
tered any pay ore yet; it is 245 feet across
the ledge, still in vein quartzite. There il
being delivered to the mill sixty tons daily,
mill running half time and making about
ten tons of concentrates daily, the average
value Of which was ten ounces in silver bet
ter than the upper level.
The Stemwinder company has now on it's
pay roll eighty men. the miue is being
worked steadily and the tramway, which
had not been used since Jan 10 last. 10 now
in running order and tho buckets are once
more seen carrying ore from the mine to
the mill. The Stemwinder will be ono Of
WArdner's best producers in the future.
Last week the men doing assessmept
work on the Independence claim. on ChIor-
ide hill. struck . fine body of galena and
carbonate ore, about seven feet wide. The
strike will probably lead to further work
on the claim. It is believed that the Ipds-
pendenoe lead is the same AZ the Morning,
1t is owned by b. 7. Pott, G. G. Eckert and
W. Clayton Miller.
ar ~ va = nv