The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-29
Energy, Capital and Modern
Machinery Being Used to
Test 1t.
UNITY OF EFFORT REQUISITE
Other Claims and Prospects Could
Be Made to Pay by Proper
Methods.
Especial Correspondence of THE CALL

SAN ANDREAS, CAL, ept.25.-Between
San Andreas and Angels, distance OF
twelve miles, the Thorpe mine is the only
one actively and Systematically at work
on the mother lode. Prospecting is going
on at several points. but in haphazard
and superficial way. The work being done
at the Thorpe mine is of the utmost i'm
portance and is being watched with great
interest.
Should chute of good ore be developed
there it would encourage deep prospecting
for miles on either side, ultimately result
ing in the discovery of more bonanzas such
as the Utica now has. All along the
mother lode, at irregular intervals and at
varying depths, are chimneys of low-grade
ore that will pay well to mill, alternating
and blending with exceedingly rich
punches and stratas, usually termed
pockets, but often being the feeders and
leaders Of the larger pockets or chimneys.
after these rich stringers and punches
have extended to the surface, have been
traced to their source by following up the
float rock and placer gold, and worked to
the water level or to depth where ma
chinery became necessary for further de-
velopment. At this point usually they
were deserted for new and easier diggings,
the shafts and tunnels left to cave and
hide the real nature of the veins from
future explorers, and the old sheds and
buildings to go to decay and discourage the
uninitiated by conveying the impression of
accompanying or worked-out mine.
Many evidences of this nature exist
around San Andreas, and their effect seems
to be to discourage exploration, when IN
reality it is a good sign and should encour-
age systematic and determined prospecting
at greater depths. Many good ledge has
been condemned as a pocket vein, simply
because above the water level the atmos-
phere has decomposed the iron and liber-
ated the gold from the sulphurets, and the
free gold and the sulpheret gold combined
have constituted a pocket, readily obtained
by simple processes. 1t may have been
simply chimney of pay ore, of undeter-
mined and possible great depth.
Prospectors have, heretofore, paid but
little attention to sulphurets, probably in
a majority OF cases not even having an
assay made to determine their value.
Along the mother lode that sort of
prospecting will no longer answer. The
proportion and value of the sulphurets in
ore has become an important considera-
ton, in many cases the total net profit
depending on that factor. The methods of
saving and working sulphurets have been
so perfected that in many cases old tailings
where they were not separated pay better
to work than the ore originally paid.
superficial prospecting for free gold is more
in the nature of exploration than exploita-
ton. In that sense it is now and will al
ways remain useful. 1t is to the explorer
to indicate where gold exists, and for the
exploiter to determine its extent and avail
ability. The explorer is equipped with
pick and pan and shovel. The would-be
exploiter along the mother lode must
recognize the fact from the beginning that
only with machinery-and the latest and
best machinery-is he suitably equipped to
grappIe with the problem that confronts
him.
A hundred-foot shaft may show good
prospect, but it may require thousand
foot shaft to prove good mine.
Good machinery and deep sinking re-
Quire capital, and the man who owns the
hundred-foot prospect should be the first
to recognize this fact, and to encourage the
advent of capital along the mother lode by
reasonable prices and liberal concessions.
Past experience seems to justify the belief
that along the mother lode mines improve
at depth.
The man who risks his capital by accept
ing and acting upon this theory is entitled
TO every encouragement from those who
have no capital to risk, or having it, are
afraid to make the venture.
The revival in mining has brought to
the front hundreds of men owning claims
which they are not able to work and are
anxious to dispose of. Many of these
claims have not had sufficient work done
on them to indicate any value, and some
of them have not even a vein in sight, but
are possibly in line with vein that crops
at some more or less remote distance. The
price asked for the claim sin the air. is
sometimes higher than for a good pros
pect.
have run across several of this kind.
Claim holders make great mistake in
this. Their claims are worth now Just
what they would have been glad to accept
for years past-$10, $50 or $50 an acre-and
lust what they would be glad to accept
wears hence Some, from their location,
have a reasonably enhanced speculative
value; but sensible men, when they reflect
how few of the many hundreds of claims
will really become valuable mines, will be
glad to get fair price at the first oppor-
tunity.
Another mistake which many miners
make, and which is deserving of severe
condemnation, is the habit of running
down a neighbours property in trying to
dispose of their own. Such course rarely
sccomplishes the desired object and its
only effect is generally to disgust the Gus
Toner with the individual resorting to such
methods. Most mines nowadays are
bought upon the recommendation of sci
entific experts or men of large practical ex-
eperience in mining. and such men are lit
tie Influenced IN their judgment by good
Or bad opinions expressed by anybody.
They pursue en- established and method
lcal system of investigation which enables
them usually to arrive at just conclusions,
if they be competent and honorable men.
Every manwao has only prospect lives
in glass mouse, and can't AFFORD to throw
,tones. The blanks in the lottery OF min
Ing are 50 many that no man and no COM
munity can afford to discourage: capital
seeking investment in that field by petty
Or selfish tattle or SANDER.
The Thorpe mine is one OF the class
spoken of as having been worked to the
water level IN early days and then de-
serted. The gulch leading up to it was
cich in free gold, and when the big vein
was encountered investigation proved 1t
to be the source of the placer. A mill was
erected and the pay chute worked down
100 feet, when it was abandoned rather
han incur the expense of pumping and
,tfier machinery. The mine laid idle until
asst April, when the present company took