The Irish standard., 1896-10-03

a man could stick the handle OF the can
4 die into the earth In some places men
|were drilling, and in others they were
1 getting ready to blast with dynamite.
/ & In all the tunnels and in every room
1.-THE gold bearing rock was pointed out to
u.s. sAs$we looked we could see how easily
4 and how cheaply 1t could be gotten out.
In some places the strata is Ike clay, and
lyou can scratch It Oft with your fingers.
/ took out my penknife and dug out the
soil containing the ore Think Of min
ling gold with your tingernails. Still,
that ia what might be actually done in
some parts of this mine. In other places
the gold is part of the gravel or crushed
quartz. You could easily dig 1t down
with a pick. Again it is found in solid
quartz mixed With deposits Of arsenic and
sulphur, The asenic Is pure. You could
| commit suicide at almost every step if
! you wanted to, and the sulphur Is SO
strong In places that with your candle
you can burn it and fill the caverns about
you with flames of birthstone. In other
| places the gold is found in a black rock
which looks for all the world like slate.
and other where it appears IN solid rock
| 1t is not found In nuggets, or grains, or
! pockets, but it seems TO be consistent
part Of the clay and rock, distributed IN
infinitesmal particles at the rate of a
quarter of an ounce and upward to the
ton of rock. A quarter of an ounce to the
ton would be about as much as one part
in sc, 900, and If you will take $4,000 shot
and imagine one Of them to be ground UP
and it's dust to be distributed equally
through al the others you will have
some idea of how gold runs through ton
Of this rock.
The average last year was only $12 to
the ton, or just a little more than half
an ounce to the ton, or about one part
in $4,000. Still, it is out of these low-grade
ores that much of the product of the
worlds gold is coming today. The ore of
this region IS so easily gotten out that
it can be mined at great profit. The rock
of the Golden Gate mines is said to be
much richer than that of the Mercur but
it is mixed with arsenic to such an ex-
tent that a great loss occurs in reduction.
All Of the large mills about Mercur have
their chemical laboratories, and at the
Golden Gate there is an experimental
mill in which the most expert chemists
and metalurgists that money can COM
mand are at work trying 10 find the most
economical and best methods for getting
out the gold. The Mercur as we'll as the
Golden Gate and all the other mines here
ia run on business principles. No money
is spared to cheaper the cost OF produc-
ten, and the cents are as carefully saved
as in the Wall street counting house,
where the broker saves the envelopes
of his correspondence to figure on. AS it
is, however, the Mercur still loses II per
cent of its gold 1t has mountains of re-
fuse about it's cyanide mill, and every ton
of these mountains contains from $3.50
to 81 worth Of gold. In the future some
one may discover process by which this
refuse may be worked at profit.
3 Think of riding down through silvery
mountains On "a bed of gold. 1t was in
this way that we came from Mercur to-
the Utah valley. Our party consisted OF
Mr.. John Dean, the millionaire of Mercur;
Mr.. Heintz, of the Rio Grande railroad;
Mr., Hanson, the city editor of the Deseret
News, and myself. Squatting on rock
pile of gold-bearing dirt and rock worth
at least $500 holding on to the Jagged
stones for dear life. we flew round and
round and in and out on our way down
over one of the most remarkable railroads
of the world It was built in 1894 at cost
Of $3.50 900. 1t is only four miles In
straight line from the point where it be-
gins to the point where it ends, but 1t
takes more than eleven miles of winding
curves to make the journey. 1t begins at
a little over 5000 feet above the sea, and
in, this distance it carries you upward an
altitude of almost half mile. have
soi
which takes you from the plains Of India
to Darieling in the Himalaya mountains
It is only two feet wide, and Its cars are
not much larger than store boxes. The
Mercur and Salt Lake railroad liz OF the
standard gauge, and It has curves so
short that standing on the rear OF the
train we could at times almost touch the
engine as It, flew around them. Now the
engine seemed to be climbing an inclined
plane and we were pitched almost
straight down to the level below. We
could see the line running In parallel
tracks down the mountain and 1t seemed
as though we could easily have jumped
from one track to the other, thus cutting
off the distance which by curves required
several miles. AS we went down we hung
in places, as it were, on the sides OF the
mountain. We could see the great Utah
valley stretched out below us, the Utah
lake shining like silver in the horizon,
and beyond it, ON the other side, a wall
Of mountains, the Wasatch range, whose
silvery peaks with their ragged edges
cut the azure sky. And SO we went on and
on, winding in and out like a snake, now
travelling toward the east, now to the
west, now to the south and again to the
north in making the curves. until we
came to the foot of the mountain. Here
we stopped before large frame build
ing. Our cars carried us up on a trestie
work, and we stood on the track and
watched the ore dumped into the crushers
of the Mercur cyanide mill. We were
shown the various processes OF reduc-
ton, and then taking the train found our
selves In little more than an hour back
home in Salt Lake City.
STRUGGLES OF TAY PAY. /