The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-18
MISREPRESENTATION
HOW THE METAL is BEING HOARD
ED IN ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD.
Forms i'm which Gold In
African and Australian
Dimes-We nIth of Indian Rajahs.

DENVER, Col. Oct. 15.-I met here the
chief American agent of the cyanide pro-
cess for reducing gold. The process is pat
ented, and the agents of the Scotch firm
who own the patents are now to be found
in all the gold regions of the world put
ting up mills. The American agent told me
that he had recently contracted for mills
in Montana and Nevada. and that a num-.
Der were going up in Utah. Colorado and
Arizona In Juab county. Utah. the old
dumps of gold mines are now being
worked over by means of cyanide, and the
same is to be done with many of the aban-
doned gold mires OF Mexico. I am sur
prised at stories 1 daily hear as to the
new Developments of our gold territory.
The old districts are being reprospected,
and from the results it is safe to say that
the best of our mining regions have not,
as yet. been touched. The great mountain
chain running from Alaska to Nicaragua
seems to be an almost unbroken mineral
bed. Gold and silver are found in the con-
tinuation of the chain in South America.
and miners are working to-day at inter-
walls all along the Western part of our
hemisphere from the Yukon river even to
Patagonia.
The most of the gold which has made
the world rich in the past has come from
nuggets and from veins so large that you
tOuiu Z lueIi- ne IOOU OI tic PRECIOUS
metals which is now beginning to deluge
the earth comes from infnitesimal parti-
cles, so scattered through the rock that
not a CLEAN nor a CLINT of them can be
detected by the naked eye. According to
some scientists this gold has been deposit
ted in the rock in the form of gas. Ages
ago, say they, there was an eruption in
the bowels of the earth, at which time this
gas, mixed with gold, rushed up through
the vertical assures with great force and
soaked it's way into the porous rock i'm
which the gold is now being found. 1t was
by this means that the little bits OF gold
were dropped throughout the rock, the
precious particles being so small that they
could not be detected. Many of the old
miners had no idea of their existence. and
their extraction now is only possible by
means of the cyanide process. There is
plenty of gold in salt water. Scientists say
that gold is generally diffused in the
waters of the ocean, and one eminent
chemist states that the sea water of tho
British coast contains one grain of gold TO
every ton of water. The proportion is much
larger in the Great Salt lake. and the rnan
who can invent a cheap process of getting
out such gold will have a fortune.
FORMS IN WHICH GOLD is FOUND
Few people have any idea of the queer
forms in which gold is found. Dame Ma
ture is the most wonderful of jewelers., and
she has decorated the bosom of old Mother
Earth with gold in a thousand different
shapes. l saw n box of gold nuggets and
crystals taken from the Little Johnnie
mine near Leadville. Many of them would
have made beautiful brooches without re-
decoration. Some appeared frosted, and
others had been torn from the rock in the
form of sheets and plates. A great deal OF
gold is found in crystals. Not long ago
there was brought to the Philadelphia
mint four thousand dollars worth of Aus
tralian gold. 1t was made up of little gold
crystals, ranging in size from that OF q
marrowfat pea to that of the head of a pin.
Gold is also found lin cubes and eight
sided crystals are common. Some of the
gold nuggets from the California mines
are shaped like moss. The Little Johnnie
has produced a great. deal Of wire gold. I
have seen bits of rock from Cripple
Creek Upon which, when subjected to an
intense heat, the gold would bubble out
and stand up like little gold pinheads upon
the dark stone. Gold, in its natural state,
is usually mixed with silver. The new Utah
gold deposits are associated with arsenic
In the Mercur mine you find the yellow
ore in connection with quicksilver, and in
South America it is sometimes mixed with
bismuth.
L have spent some time watching thg
placer miners in different parts of tho
West. Placer mining was the chief source
of gold production in the days of 1S49. It
is still carried on, but the output Is much
less than in the past. TIL chief placer
mines of to-day are in Siberia where the
earth has sometimes to be dug up in
a frozen state and melted before the gold
can be extracted. This is the case in some
parts of the Yukon river mines. The fao<
that there iS a gold nlapar ia an ayfdapca
that there is collaborating rock near by.
and miners pretend to tell from the char
acter of the gold of the placer as to the
nearness of the collaborating rock from
which it comes. If the gold dust is very
fine it is supposed TO have been carried a
long distance. If coarse it is thought that
the lead is not far off. Some of the first
mining of California was of gold scales.
which measured less than 1-16 of an inch
in length and one millimeter in diameter.
Placer miners usually find their biggest
nuggets in streams where the powders
are large. Where the streams are fine
gravel the gold is generally small and
scaly. The biggest nugget ever discovered
in this country was taken out of a mine at
Carson hill, in Calaveras county, Califor-
MIA 1T weighed 1875 pounds and was worth
more than $43,O 600. A number of other large
nuggets were found in this same region.
ranging I'm value from $1,000 upward. In
1855 a nugget of gold was discovered in
Sierra county, California worth SIC. 600, and
in 1850 a. mass of quartz and gold was
picked up in Tuolumne county, which was
worth $50, 1000. Outside OF California some
of the biggest Jumps of gold discovered in
the United States nave come from the
South. North Carolina has produced three
nuggets ranging in size from 1919 pounds
to thirty-seven pounds, and in Georgia a
number of big nuggets have been discov-
cred, the largest of which weighed T37 PEN
nyweights.
AFRICA AND AUSTRALIA.
Through the mining engineers whom T
have met here in the West and Information
which has recently come to the Director cf
the Mint at Washington, / am able TO give
some facts as to the mines of Africa. which
are making such n change in the gold
product OF the world. These gold mines
are "a surprise TO biologists. One famous
man said that he would have rather ex-
pected to find gold in the fens of Scotland
than in the Rand district of South Africa.
Mr.. VIM. Weston. a leading mining engin-
eer OF Cripple Greek. and a graduate of the
Royal School of Mines OF London. tells mo
that he believes that the South African