The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-12-28
FORMATION THEORIES
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able metal is gold instead of copper: that
the metal bearing beds are more numer-
| Gus; that While the Lake Superior beds
are more uniform in angle of dip and
less broken by faults or bikes, there is
/ no definite evidence of basin structure
| The other rim of the basin, if it exists,
! lying beneath the waters OF the lake.
| turIhermore, biologists have proved that
| the copper was introduced in 10 the Lake
! Superior conglomerateS after they had
been deposited and consolidated into
rock, whereas, many have maintained in
| regard TO the blankets of the kand
that they are fossil placers resulting from
/ Ine concentrat ton, yy ocean waves, of
y detritus from a shore of older rocks which
contained abundant gold-bearing quartz
VEINS. This consideration introduces an
other question which has an important
bearing upon the future of the Rand.
| Ii the deposits are old placers, it is nat
ural TO expect that the gold will be found
IN them only IN belt of limited width
along the ancient shore, whereas, if it was
introduced subsequently by chemical ac-
! lion.a theory which, according to Mr..
f1dlcn, now nndS most favor among the
! biologists of the region-the limitation to
! the extent of the gold-bearing deposits
Would have no relation whatever to the
distance from the ancient shore or the
! depth at which they now exist. This ques-
! tlon, even more than the others, is one
/ 10 Which a final answer can be obtained
! only by practical work. AT present the
! conSlomerate beds have been explored by
| drifts and by drills for a distance down
/ the dip of about 5000 feet from the out
/ crop, which may represent approximately
/ the ancient shore line, and in this distance
! there is no evidence of any regular de-
crease in the richness of the conglomer-
ateS; lnded, the evidence, as far as it
/ is furnished by the few points penetrated
! by drills, is rather the other way.
The average depth at which the outcrop
| mines are working is given at 500 to 800
! feet on the slope of the reefs. The work
/ lngs of some Of the deep-leVel mines, or
/ those which, like the Tamarack of Lake
| Superior. do not own the outcrop, are
down over 1000 feet on the slope In this
! Of eleven and half miles occupied by the
mines of the central district of the Rand,
| the tenor of the conglomerates in gold,
! though varying from point to point and
! from bed to bed, appears to be unusually
uniform as compared with other great
metalliferouS deposits. The seventy-eight
mines in this portion of the district had
produced, according to Mr.. Hatch'S tables
from 1887 to the middle of 1885, gold
worth over twenty-four and a half mil
lion pounds sterling. The thirty-Seven
dividend-paying mines in this group had
paid in the same time over five and half
million pounds in dividends, while the div
ldend for the current year QS95) is eSti-
mated at over f20O0,000, or $4,000 600. In
diVldual mines have paid dividends in
several cases. amounting to two and a
half times, and in a few, to more than
five times their capital stock. With such
facts as a basis for calculation, it is not
to be wondered at that mems magma
tons were easily worked upon, and that
when once speculation in mine shares was
fairly started, it went beyond bounds.
From Mr.. Hatch S tables, we learn that,
of 101 mines quoted on the Johannesburg
Exchange, the par value of whose issued
stock was under nineteen million pounds,
the market price of their shares had risen
in June, 1895. to nearly eighty-two million
pounds. This does not include all the
mines quoted in the London Stock E.X
change which are classed under the gen.
eral head of ''kaffirs,' nor does it repre-
sent adequately the proportionate increase
! in market valuation of the latter, which,
from newspaper accounts, would appear
to have discounted the product of the
region for the next fifty years-the prob
able duration accorded it by the present
authors. II is a pity that so unhealthy an
excitement should have been aroused. and
still more that, as report says quite
worthless properties have been capitalized
ami foisted upon a confiding and ignorant
public, where there is so much ground for
legitimate and substantial investments.
But while the reaction which must neces-
sarily follow the pricking of these bub-
bleS may temporarily retard legitimate
mining in the Transval it must be
menlbered that it has successfully passed
through one such reaction in 1SS9-91, when
much less was known about its resources.
In considering the effect which the pro-
duct of the TransVaal VIII have upon the
worlds finances, it must be remembered
first, that the productive area is about
100 times as large as that OF the most
prominent precious-metal districts of
Notwithstanding. Butte or Cripple
Creek; further, that its product is not
ephemeral, like that of the placer de-
posts of California and Australia, which
so violently disturbed values in the fiftieS.
But while increasing less rapidly, it is
likely not TO decrease again, but to- go
steadily EDWARDS The worlds product
of gold was 500 millions of dollars in the
RI ia Gil n I
in $4,000. For the current decade ii may
well be 2.0CO millions. and it is likely to
increase for many decades to come.
In the report on mineral resources of
the United States for 1892, Mr.. S. F. En-
mons, reviewing the progress of the pre-
cious-metal industry from a. geological
worlds annual gold production from
$50 million dollars in 1891 to 200 million
dollars before the close of the decade,
and a decrease in the silver production
from Ia millions Coming value) in 1891
until it should become less than that of
gold: thinking it probable that when the
coinage value of the gold product should
exceed that Of the silver product, the
price of the later metal would experience
a substantial increase. The Increase in
the gold product has been even more
rapid than the American geologist estio
mated. and seems likely to reach the 200
million mark in 1895. While the silver
product of the United States has de-
creased in the same period from 81 to
experienced a slight increase. owing to
unusual developments in Mexico and
South America From what we learn of
the present volume, however, it seems
probable that another year will see the
worlds gold product again greater in
coinage value than that of silver, as it
was before 1880, and though it is likely
thereafter to increase more rapidly than
does the silver product, it is hardly likely
that the relative proportion in the value of
If silver as was the case from 1850 to 1870.