The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-01-26

away or passed because it contained
hardly more than microscopic shadow
of gold is used, and this has added to
the gold production Of the earth by
quite one-half, as that production has
averaged in this generation. The out
put for the year is larger by twenty
four millions than in 1894; larger by
fifty millions than in 1898, and almost
double that Of seven years ago.
Yet If six or eight years ago there
had been an economist or a statistician
bold enough to predict that by 1895 the
gold supply of the world would be
doubled his reputation would have been
ruined. Gold mining was then on de-
cline. II had gone down steadily since
1870, and there seemed nothing to him
der q further decline. Just at The mo-
mont there was a 'boom" in silver
mining, and so great and sudden was
the increase in the output in that metal
that there seemed no longer a possibil-
tty Of maintaining tho long-standing
ratio between silver and gold. The one
was going up, the other falling.
It was out of these conditions that
there came a worldwide movement to
close the minis of the chief commercial
nations against silver, and at the same
time there seemed In prospect uni
Versal scramble for gold. Then came
such vast and rapid increase in the
output Of the yellow metal as has been
known but once before in the history
of the world. In seven years the gold
supply has risen from a little over $780,
100000 to S209, 100000 The highest point
ever before attained was in 1890, when
the virgin fields of California and Aus
tralia put forth S155, 600. 600,
GOLD PRODUCTION CHEAPENED
BY SCIENCE.
Between the gold boom of 80 and
what may be likewise described as the
gold boom of 1SSS-'96, there lies this
striking difference: The one was due
10 the accidents of discovery, the other
10 science and invention. The great
gold yield Of the years following the
discovery of the rich allUvial fields OF
California and Australia was due sim
Dly and solely to the finding of enor-
nous areas of unworked ground. To
win the gold then required little effort,
small capital and no scientific knOWl-
edge. 1t required little machinery.
What was needed was simple and COM
paratIvely cheap. The production Of
these latter days has been in the face
of failing and exhausted fields, in spite
of uhe requirements Of immense CAPT
iai. costly and ingenious machinery
and the most thorough-going technical
knowledge
If is estimated that from 1S48,
throughout an entire generation and
down as late as 1875, nearly nine-tenths
of the entire output of gold came from
gold bearing alluVium. Today proba-
flv not one-third is derived from this
source. Gold mining has changed from
the short and easy process Of washing
gold from the hills to that of delving
for It. often at vast depths, where ii lies
sr the shape Of quartz and eonglomer-
ates.
A quarter of a century has wrought
a complete revolution in gold mining.
Not only has placer mining largely
given way to lode mining, but in the
latter the methods in vogue bear little
resemblance 10 those of no farther back
than. say, 1870. It was about this time
that the production Of gold began to
decline and thereafter the fall was
steady, year by year And year by year
scientific knowledge and inventive gen
ms have been at work fighting the par
sinaony of nature.
The signal items in The way of pro-
rress have been the introduction of
high explosives and improved drills. In
1870 dynamite was unknown. So was
the compressed air drill AT that time
II cost something like S14 or SIS, in this
country at least, to drift foot in or
binary rock and ore. Today it costs
less than SIS. twenty-five years ago the
average expense of stopping" that is.
of getting out the ore after it had been
reached by a tunnel or shaft, was about
81. 80 a foot Today it is in the neigh
borhood of 65 cents.
The management of a gold mine in
this day is little short Of an exact
science, applied with rigid economy.
with the old wasteful and expensive
methods, it is safe to say that half
the mines now in operation would not
be IN existence.
HOW MINERS SUPPLIES HAVE
GONE DOWN.
Along with improved methods has
come a steady fan in the price of every
thing that enters into the working of a
mine. There are few great producers
al the present time which do not have