Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1893-01-14
THE DREDGE COMPANY.

The Carson River Placer Mining
and Dredging Company has COM
pleted all arrangements for new
plant for the successful working Of
It's seventeen mining claims on the
Carson river, and viii in a few days
let the contracts for the building of
a clam-shell Dire &c. While the
dredge is being built there will be
barge 30x30x6 feet building on
the bank of the river This barge
will be built out Of 10x12 timbers,
each timber being either 30 or 80
feet in length, and will be put to-
gether with II inch bolts, as it will
be necessary that the barge be very
stout and substantial to stand the
strain of the heavy machinery Of
the new dredge. This barge will
have, besides the dredge, the heavy
motive power consisting of boilers
and engines. The barge now being
used by the company will be used
for the mining machinery.
The plant, when completed, will
be the most perfect one that could
be used for river dredging and min
ing, the object Of the company be-
ing TO handle a vast amount Of ma
terial ct a minimum cost, and the
five years experience with different
machinery has enabled them to de-
eide upon this new, gigantic and
almost automatic plant.
a pen drawing of the whole plant
completed shows two barges, each
3OxS0x6 feet, lying side by side.
One Of the barges will contain two
large boilers and engines, pumps, a
clam-shell dredge of 1900 cubic
yards capacity per day. This
dredge will work to a depth of 40
feet, and is capable of so feet, and
cutting through any sand, gravel
or boulders. The bucket will be of
l ] cubic yards capacity. The other
barge will contain one large ANAL
gamator, which contains a huge re-
volving grizzley, four large revolv-
ing screens, seven feet in diameter
and seventeen feet in length, and
from four to six concentrators, also
two large pumps of the capacity of
$500 gallons per minute. As each
bucket is raised it will swing around
and dump its load into a hopper,
the hopper feeding it rapidly to the
large grizzley, which will separate
all the boulders, rocks and gravel
from the fine material. The coarse
gravel, etc, containing no value,
will be carried away, while the fine
material goes into the amalgamator
which is lined with amalgamating
plates, there thoroughly agitated,
and all free gold, silver and quick
silver will be caught. From the
amalgamator the material will be
conveyed to three large revolving
screens of fine mesh, separating all
the coarse and barren sand, which
will pass off, leaving the fine which
contains the sulphurets. This fine
material will then be conveyed to
one or two more revolving screens
of extraordinary fine mesh, making
a still much finer separation and
preparing it for the concentrators
for final concentration, thus reduc-
ing about 5000 tons down to very
few tons containing a high percent
age of the average of the whole ma
terial. The overflow from screen
tanks and concentrators will be
taken up and conveyed through a
series of settling tanks This is
done to catch and settle all fine
sulphurets that are held in suspen-
sion in the water and do not have
time to settle passing through the
continuous process.
The lowest grade material in the
river assays ~ per ton, and runs
as high as $11S. By the above
method the company will be able
to concentrate from 40 per cent.
upwards, and will also save large
percentage of the quicksilver. The
cost per ton of handling by the
above method is estimated at not