The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-04
DEEP BORINGS

DEEP BORINGS
The method by witch an attempt will
be made to locate these deposits is ex-
actly the same as that which has been
employed to locate the extent of the
geld deposits of South Africa. That is,
to make deep borings, in systematic
fashion, at regular intervals, by means
of the diamond drill. In South Africa
these borings have been carried to a
depth of two and three thousand feet,
and are the basis of what are known
as the deep Level mines.
1t is not probable that any such
depth must be pierced in the fields of
Idaho and California, since for the
most part the everything lava has been
eroded and scupped out SO as to ap-
preached within some workable dis
tance of the gold beds. To lay these
deposits bare a large amount of capt.
tai will be required, and it will be
necessary to conduct the prospecting
upon a scale and under the same
scientific methods as have been en-
ployed so successfully in South Africa.
But it is to be noted that the revival
Of gold mining is due not so much to
the discovery of new fields, although
many great discoveries have been made
On this continent, as to the wonderful
cheapening and improvement of every
department of mining. Even within
the last five years it is estimated that
the cost of obtaining gold in many Of
the Western states has been cut in
half.
Since the days of the famous Comstock
Lode, it has been cut down to a fourth or
fifth of what 1t was. The introduction of the
diamond drill, of the compressed air rock
drill, of high explosives, of improved ma
chinery and of new and more perfect meth
DDS of extraction has made it possible now
to mine low grade ore at large profit which
but a few years ago would have been thrown
away.
A WONDERFUL CHANGE.
This. of course, is true not only of gold
mining, but of silver and copper mining as
well. Thus, the Anaconda mine, in Montana,
the control of which was recently purchased
by a German syndicate, is today the largest
silver producer in the United States, and one
of the greatest in the world. Yet but a few
years ago it was simply a copper mine, and
the silver that was found in the ore along
because the cost of separation from the cop
per was greater than the value of the silver
itself. A single invention-that of electrolytic
extraction-has wrought this wonderful
change.
All in all. it is probable that but for the
improvements mentioned and the ehcapening
of the cost of supplies and Transportation
the gold product of the wCIi would not he
one-half what it is to-day. To take q single
conspicuous example-but for the process of
gold extraction by cyanide. South Africa
would hardly have been heard of. Until this
process was introduced its mines were a
failure.
These facts are noted to Indicate tbe rCa-
son of the renewed activity in gold mining,
and also to indicate that the possibilities Of
an enormous increase of the gold supply
from our western states and from the Bflt-
ish possessions are not a mere guess. but
based upon scientific possibilities. While
everything that goes to the production Of a
gold dollar has been enormously chea3ened.
so that fifteen or twenty cents viii do as
much as would a dollar twenty-five years
ago, the bullion value of gold remains the
same as it has been for half a century. The
effect of this is not calculable.
ALASKAN FIELDS.
Although the fact is trite enough, yet not
many people are particularly aware of the
fact that extending from Arizona and New
Mexico to the frozen fields of Alaska is the
world. What is known as the Mother Lode
in California Is the greatest gold-bearing
quartz vein on earth. In all probability under
the lava beds of Idaho and California are the
greatest placer fields ever known.
1t is only in recent years, indeed, within q
very few years, that great combinations OF
capital have been found to systematically
exploit and develop gold mines, and but little
Of this has been done in this country.
Putting all these facts together, 1t is safe
to say the day is not far distant when this
country will be producing as much gold as
a few years ago it produced of gold and sill
yer put together. The bearing Of this on the
money question is that il free coinage of gold
is continued-and there is no very great pros
pect of its being stopped-the mere increase
the same monetary expansion that the adher-
ents of free silver and of populism proclaim
is the crying need Of the day.