Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-02-25
AN OPEN LETTER
To to Miners and Prospectors Of the
Southern Hills.

Presuming upon your former courtesy
come again to ask you TO grant me
space in your columns to say . few
words to our miners and prospectors OF
the Southern Hills. What / have TO
say 10 nothing new. but am constrain-
ed to rsiterate with greater emphasis
what have been urging upon our
miners for several years. to-wit: Hyou
want to sell your mines you must pro-
duce. What mean by this is thai an
assay test is not satisfactory on ourores
in the Southern Hills. The demand OF
capital now 10 before they invest ~ a
mine. that you produce on commcsf q
fscaie. Instead Of an assayers rels.pt
| they want to SEQ the certified returns
| from the reduction works in ton or car
load lots. This rsquisition makes IL a
little more binding on us, who have
waited an long for the advent Of capital,
that many of us have hardly the means
10 pay for common fire assay, much
less to get out car load of ore and send
treatment. Bnt this demand is un-
relenting, and will become more and
more the established rule as the years
roll by.
This condition Of things has been
brought about by the improved methods
of transportation which has come to us
The demands that are now made would
haye been considered unreasonable if
made a few years ago, when the Bull
train" was our only conveyance for
heavy freight, and our nearest reduction
works was FIVE hundred miles away.
Now we have railroads passing around
and through the entire mineral belt Of
the Black Hills, and in the northern
portion they have built, or are building,
a switch to every producing mine Of
established prominence. That is, mines
! that ara not free milling. but whose ores
require smelling or other modes Of treat
ment.
We hear of great many sales Of
mines in the vicinity of Deadsood, Lead
City and Bald Mountain, and many
wonder why We are not enjoying some
thing Of the boom, as we regard it. The
answer is plain. Every one of the
mines in that section which have been
sold during the last year have been sold
| upon the strength OF the returns from car
load lots shipped TO reduction works. As
said before, it is little binding on us.
but caAnot say that l am sorry for il.
/ cannot say that / am sorry to see
capital cautious, for that insures success,
and one success calls for two, and two
calls for four, and so it goes. While one
| purchase Of mine which can never'le
brought TO pay would give our country
q set back from which it would not re
cover for years.
And now this being the case what ar .
we going to do about it? Iconfsss see
but one way to proceed that will be
effective and lead to success, and that is
for the prospectors to unite for singly
you can do nothing). Enough of you
must get together, four or five perhaps,
and together select a mine no matter
who it belongs to, sink it down, if it is
not deep enough, gel down 10 iron. AL
of our veins are vertical and run into
iron pyrites when water level is reached.
Take car load or two and ship to a
smelter or chlorination works and get
yonr returns. If it shows a margin Of
profit on that basis the mine is as good
as sold, and no higgling about the price,
providing the vein is large enough to
justify it. And further. the shipments
will 60 right on, and the returns will be
constant advertisement of our re-
sources, and a constant refutation of the
statement your ores will not pay"
cannot say how many times / have
caused my friends in the Northern Hills
to stare at me, when in conversation
about mines have remarked in quiet
way, "The highest grade ores are in the
Southern Hills" Yet, having prospect
ed and examined the mines Of both
sections am prepared TO stand by that
statement and in this connection l have
another statement to make, and that 10
that common fire assay as mode of
ascertaining the amount of gold con-
tanned in the ore from some Of our
mines affords no information or satis-
faction whatever. This may sound like
a singular statement from me, but what
more or less can a man say when he
sends samples of the same ore to FIVE
different assayers, and receiving re-
turns ranging all the way from two dol
lars to fifteen hundred dollars to tiss,
ton. am speaking Of mine of my
own, but you have most all met with
similar experience. speak of this TO
impress upon you the importance Of
getting together and making yeur tests
on grander scale.
Tc DO shis yes muat sink all personal
prejudice and jealousy out of sight
Don't think that your own mine is the
only mine that will pay, and insist that
that is the only one which ought to be
sunk down. but get togethe. and select
. number of claims aud take q vote on
il and 60 to work on the one receiving
the highest number Of votes. II will
not cost nuch outside OF your labor.
.hink the railroad company will give
very low rates on experimental lots Of
thia hind tudca ~, f~o,v, tha f-.t that
I have noticed . very liberal spirit on
THAR part towards any enterprise which
promises to Improve and build up the
country through which their road runs,
and especially any which tend to in
crease the mineral output along their
lins. Talk this matter over and let us
see II something can not be done to
start the car. Yours,
c. w. ReBExR
OongPoog Homorial.od