The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-07-21
That is What Pollock Says OF
rIercur.
RICHES OF THE DISTRICT.
SOMETHING AS TO THE FORMA-
TI0N AND ORE BODIES.
Output of the Camp Last Year Was
Half II Million and Indications
Are That it VIII Be More Than
Doubled This Year-New Mills
Going Up and Several in Pros
pect-yVhat Experts Say.


nesburg," James A. Pollock yesterday
issued splendid pamphlet on the
Camp Floyd district, the great gold
field located in the heart of Utah. Mr..
Pollock says:
An American reproduction of the
famous cyanide gold fields of johann
nesburg. South Africa. exists in the
heart Of Utah, about fifty miles south
and west Of Salt Lake city.
1t is known as the AIercur or Camp
Floyd district, and is being extensively
mined, to the immense financial emolu-
ment of the several companies who
have got their properties into a pro-
ducing condition. The ores are cheaply
mined and milled, and extraordinarily
uniform in their yield of gold.
Three dollars per ton will take the
rock from the mountain and separate
and prepare the metal for the refinery.
Ten to eighteen dollars will be the
average return for every ton treated,
The chances of loss and failure have
! been demonstrated to be more limited
than in any known mining region in
America.
y continuous vein of gold-bearing
rock stretches like blanket immedi-
ately beneath the surface of the noun
Nc-AAo anu 4OllOWlL5 lliGlI COilOuI over
an area demonstrated to cover ten
miles square. Scientific theory has not
yet established the nature of its ori-
gin, having TO content itself with the
mere statement that the ore body con-
s1Sts of decompoSed quartz and mag
netic iron oxide carrying fine gold, vel
low quartz sand and fine silt, with
/ traces of cinnabar, considerable ar
/ Sen1c in places which have escaped
oxidizing, but no silver, copper or
lead. The hanging and foot walls al
4 ternate between hard shaie and blue
limestone Evidence is patent every
where that the region in which the vein
lies was once submerged beneath the
waters of old Lake Bonneville, the
lake.
The Mercur district has been known
as a gold producer for less than three
years, yet it is turning out no less
than three hundred tons of ore per day,
the average yield of which in gold
amounts to nearly $3.50 One of the
companies operating in the district
counts its income at $50, 900 per month
ae-oi'-~- ~ evnan7i+r7ra Of Ell mn
Probably not foot of the entire ten
miles square Of continuous ore-bearing
vein has been left uncovered by min
eral claimants, but with few excep-
tons the latter have been men of linn
tied means, incapable of developing
their properties on the grand scale
tn tho 0~r-- VS. rn~0llroe- ,.,.o ~
Since the first of the current year.
when Mercur began to attract the uni
VerSal attention of the people of the
territory and of the mining world at
large, several new companies, largely
endowed with capital, have gone into
the field and commenced developments
on an extensive scale. Captain J. r.
IT &c
of one of the companies. The result of
his work and that of other capitalists
will begin to show before the present
year comes to a close. Several Salt
Lake and outside capitalists, appre-
chatting the virtually inexhaustible re-
sources of Mercur, have recently in
vested $4,000 in the construction of
pipeline to carry walter over a noun
tain elevation of 1900 feet to supply
the camp, which otherwise would find
it impossible to operate very widely
The pipeline is now nearly completed
Its construction has been a marked
piece of skill in hydraulic engineering
To those who are not familiar with
the cyanide process of treating ores,
it may be proper to define it as a sep
aration of otherwise invisible gold
from the vein rock by means of a So
luton of cyanide of potassium, and
the precipitation of the dissolved met |
ais ON zinc Shavings. Until very re- |
Gently the gold was transmitted to the |
refneries without being separated |
from the zinc. but during May, the |
Mercur Gold Mining and Milling COM
pany, the pioneer and the largest COM |
pany operating in the field, introduced |
a plant for the reduction of the metal |
to the form Of bullion, and the plant |
is being used by them and by all the |
other producers in the district.
An expenditure Of more tnIl $75,cHl |
is represented by completely |
equipped line of railroad running from
the connecting station On the Union
twelve miles distant, dire5tly to the
camp. The latter was originally con-
structed for the sole purp Use of hand
ling the output of the Mercur company.
but so rapid has been The growth of
the entire camp that it. has been found
necessary to equip the line with full
passenger service. ard with cars for
handling all the freight traffic of the
mines and Mercur village. Business
has increased until the road is paying
the owners handsomely.
1T is safe TO say that Nercur has a
splendid future before It or at least
fifty years to come. The great ore
body in which the workings are being
prosecuted averages ten feet in thick
l
cubic feet, and frequently expands to
4. thickness of seventy-five to ninety
feet. In the vast area which it covers,
the only Interruptions to its continuity
ever encountered have been occasional
lime walls, beyond which
The vein has always been found on
ne same level as before the Interrupt
ion.
Experts esifmate the total possible
output Of one set of claims only, at
40, 600 900. Inasmuch as that set Of
claims covers less than one-fortieth of
he entire vein area, the possibilities
If the Mercur district easily appear to
De greater than that of any known
sold field in America. and comparable
,nly to the huge fields Of Johannes
burg, South Africa.
Last years output of the camp
amounted to about 100000. At the
present rate of development, the year
S95 will run the total up to 81, $50 600
While the next year, unless all indica-
ions fail, will make the aggregate
ully 100000 This estimate is based !
Upon substantial and veritable pros {
'ects now obvious to any observer. .