The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-03
MINED BY KING soIomoy.
An Englneer's Romantic story of the Rio
 Tinto Mines in Spuin.
LFrom the San Francisco Examlner,l


 Tinto Mines in Spuin.
 tFrom the San Francisco Examinerl
 Alexander HIu, of London, Lisbon and Cordova, consulting engineer of the rich and ancient Rio Tinto copper mines of Spain, and who is identified with mining the world over, is at the Palace. He has been examining and reporting on the Iron Mountain mine in Shasta county, the sale of which has just taken place,
 MT, Hill is full of information re- garding the unique and strange in min ing, One thing brought out by his conversation was that the Iron Noun tain would be worked principally for It's copper and not for its gold and sil- yer, the minerals that have given 1t its highest rank heretofore. This will sound strange to California. Mir Hill explained 1t yesterday in this way:
 '1t was all made clear to me by the Rio Tinto mine, the property worked two thousand years B, c. by the Phoe- niclans, and from which King Solomon is supposed to have obtained the cop per for the temple The Rio Tinto is an immense body of sulphide of iron, running two and one-half per cent. in copper. Well, the Iron Mountain Is the nearest thing like 1t have ever seen, though have examined mines in near ly all parts of the globe. But, besides this, 1t was considerably higher than the Rio Tinto in copper, and also has some silver and gold,
 ''This ancient Spanish mine near Cor dova has developed marvellous things. In 1t are found from time to time wa ter-wheels of oak, completely covered with sulphate of copper, and by it per, fectly preserved. The copper covers the wheels in some instances an inch thick. These wheels were used for raising the water from the depths be- low by series of tanks, one tank being placed above another till the surface was reached.
 In the mine, to this day, are found clay lamps used by the Romans centu- ries ago to light the gloom when they were toiling away, in the ground. The clay lamps were filled with oil and were placed about in the interstices of the rocks.
 And anyone who thinks they did not understand mining in those early times would be astonished to see how their tunnels, drifts and stopes were run. The Phoenicians were magnificent en- gineers, as good as any we have at the present day, and carried on their work on the most scientific principles. Their | tunnels and other workings were, how ever, a little narrower than those of our time. Some of the timbers are yet preserved in the Rio Tinto, There was no shoddy work, can assure you. Tt is particularly interesting to note how those oak wheels are preserved by | the copper sulphate. When the sul- phate is taken off they are found per feet We are now working 12,000 men in the Rio Tinto, and one hundred mill lion dollars worth of ore has been blocked out by diamond drills in the snine. About thirty million dollars has 1 been taken out in the last seven or eight years. About the old mine, which has seen so many nations come e'iid S0 eeN' o ihie'iiS uS 'iehs'tic9 iloC ehANt fall, has been built up town of thirty thousand people. Through this queer mine is so old, it is even now but four hundred feet deep below the surface" MT. Hill Is also consulting engineer of | the ancient Spanish mine, the Tartar, l of several of the great mines of South | America and other countries. He is represented as a very cautious and careful engineer.