The Irish standard., 1896-10-03

y United States. The mountains are al
gray and silvery ae the hills Of Greece
The sage brush on their sides seems to be
Il covered with frost and the hills are dotted
b with flowers Of all colors Above us shines
% sky as clear as that of Italy, and all
about us rise the great shaft houses Of the
working mines. In the nest or valley
winding about in the shape of a horse
shoe, is the town of Msrcur. 1t contains
1000 people, and it consists of shanties
running along the one street which skirts
the gully. This street is filled with men
the most of whom have their pants IN
their boots and wear no coats, their fan
mel shirts being stuck into their trousers
At first you think they are lazy, but you
soon learn that they are miners, and that
the mines work day and night, In eight
hour shifts, so there are always men of
duty waiting for. their turn to work.
About Mercur the mines are to be seen on
all sides. A one end of the horseshoe
are the Golden Gate mines. These cruoe,
factory-like buildings with what seem to
, be gravel banks beside them are they.
The gravel banks are piles of GRE, and
the dust is worth SIS ton as it lies out
there under the sky. Back and to the left
Of the Golden Gate is the great Marion
mine, whose mill has been grinding up
fifty tons of rock a day since 1893, and
winch has three miles Of tunnels through
solid ore, with 100000 tons of gold-beat-
ing rock in sight. Further on is the Gey-
ser mine, which is now producing fifty
tons of ore day at a. cost OF SLIT ton,
and adjoining them is the Brickyard
shaft houses, so called because the mines
connected with them are under the site
of an old brickyard. Facing the Golden
Gate mine behind you, several miles down
the canon are the great Sunshine works,
where the golden blankets are said to
b be seventy feet thick, and where the
miners work right into the orc from the
start. In these mines 900 tons of ore
are blocked out, and some parts Of the
gold-bearing rock can be reduced for less
than dollar ton. Near this is the over
land property, which is largely owned by
ex-Congrassman George w. Dorsey, who,
by the way, is one of the shrewd investors
here; and to the right of you, way up the
side OF the mountain, you see the shaft
houses and dumps Of the great Mercur.
mine, one of the first gold mines which
was opened up, and probably the largest
producer Of all in the campt today. Out
or it has already been taken more than
Il million dollars worth of gold, and 1t
has paid its stockholders more than $780,
900 In dividends.
The story of the Mercur is as romantic
as that Of the treasures of Monte Cristo.
Six years ago it's chief owners were COM
paratively poor men in the little town Of
Fremont, Neb. It's president, John Dern,
about score Of years ago, was driving
team in a lumber yard. He was a poor
German, but he saved money, and at the
time he invested in this mine he was,
venture, worth not more than $4,000 or
$50, 900 Today his income runs into the
thousands q month, and doubt whether
he would sell his interest in this mine
alone for million. 1t was with him that
I went through the mine, and from him
I got the story of it's development. One
of the Fremont men knew that this Mer-
cur rock contained gold. He got up
company OF Nebraskans and they bought
the property for about $4,000. They
worked it with experienced miners, but
though the assayers told them there was
gold in the rock, they could not get it.
They wasted thousands of dollars trying
to reduce the ore by quicksilver, but
failed. Then they tried the cyanide pro-
cess and again failed. The rock when re-
duoed to -four became pasty and dough-
like and the solution of cyanide and water
would. not percolate through 1t. AT last
as am experiment, instead OF crushing the
rock to flour they put it into the pans In
Jumps of about the size of pea and in
this shape ran the cyanide solution
over it. This solved the problem. The
cyanide solution soaked into the crushed
gravel and carried away the gold. They
have now here one of the biggest cyanide
mills in existence, and though they still
lose about II per cent of the gold they
get enough out of the rock to give them
an enormous profit.
The ore as it is taken from the earth
has no sign of gold about 1t. Such of it
as is ground into powder looks not much
$ different from the dust OF limestone
road, and after it has gone through the
cyanide solution the gold which is taken
out is mixed up with a lot Of dust, which
looks for all the void like the scrapings
of soapstone. After going through the
mill was shown a lot Of this golden dust.
II the same material was in your back
yard and you did not know what it was
you would probably want to sell 1t for
ashes. 1t is, however, the heaviest dust
in the world, and when I was given a
lCng-handled ShOVel ana ASKED 10 llIt a
shovelful anticipated no trouble. drove
the shovel easily into the dust, but lifting
it was like lifting SO much lead. I found
that there were twenty pounds Of weight
at the other end of the handle, and upon
asking, was told that there were about
$3.50 dollars worth of gold in that which
/ raised from the ground. The ore is SO
reduced, and this dust is then sent to the
refining furnaces to be turned into pure
gold. @
The Mercur Mining company owns 100
acres Of land on the side of the mountain
above the town, and it is believed that
there is gold under the whole 16O acre
farm. Think of a quarter section of land
,1nderlaid with three blankets of gold
bearing rock lying one on top of the other.
Let each blanket run from five to thirty
faet in thickness and Get there be blank
ct of shale or limestone between the gold
en- blankets and you have some idea OF
the Mercur mine. So far, wherever the
ground has been. pierced 1t has struck the
gold, and this is the same with nearly ev-
cry piece Of mining property in the eight
h. ~.