The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-20

The gravel banks piles of ore ana
that dust is worth SIS a ton as IL hes out
there under the sky. Back and TO the lelt
of the Golden Gate is the great Marion
mine whose mill has been grinding up nfty
tons of rock a day since 1898, and when
has three miles of tunnels through solid ore
with 200 600 tons of gold bearing rock in
sight. Further on is the Geyser mine, which
is now producing fifty tons of ore day at
a cost of SLIT ton, and adjoining them Is
the Backyard shaft houses. called be-
cause the mines connected with them are
under the site of an old brick yard. Facing
the Golden Gate mine behind you. several
miles down the canyon, are the great sun
shine works. where the golden blankets are
said to be seventy feet thick, and where
the miners work right into the ore from
the start In these mines 800 900 tons of ore
blocked out and some parts of the
gold-bearing rock can be produced for less
than dollar ton. Near this is the Over
land property, which is largely owned by
ex-Congressman George w. Dorsey, who
by the way, is one of the shrewd investors
here; and to the right of you, away up on
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 pro-
Queer of all in the camp to-day. Out or 1t
has already been taken more than million
dollars worth of gold, and 1t has paid It's
stockholders more than $500 900 in dividends.
HOW MILLIONS WE'RE MADE.
The story of the Mercur is as romantic
as that of the treasures of Monte Cristo.
Six years ago its chief owners were COM
paratively poor men in the little town of
Fremont. Neb. It's president, Mr.. John
Dern, about a score of years ago was driv-
in 1,1y,1h r6 n a
poor German, but he saved his money, and
at the time he ventured in this mine he
was, I venture, worth not more than $4,000
or $4,000 To-day his income runs into the
thousands a month, and L doubt whether
he would sell his interest in this mine alone
for million. 1t was with him that l went
through the mine and from him 1 got the
story of its development. One Of the Free
mont men knew that this Mercur rock con-
tanned gold. lie got up a company or Ne
braskans and they bought the property for
about $4,000 They worked 1T with expert
enced miners, but although the assayers
told them there was gold n the rock they
could not get it out. They wasted thou
sands of dollars in trying to reduces the ore
by quicksilver, but failed. Then they tried
the cyanide process and again failed The
rock when reduced to flour became pa&ty
and doughlike and the solution of cyanide
and water would not percolate through it.
At last as an experiment instead of crush
ing the rock to flour they put it into the
pans in Jumps of about the size of a pea,
and in this shape run 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 it. Such of it as is
| ground into powder looks not much diff
| ferent from the dust of a limestone road,
| and after it has gone through the cyanide
| solution the gold which is taken out is
mixed up with lot of dust, which looks
for all the world like the scrapings Of soap
| stone, After going through the mill / was
shown "a lot of this golden dust. If the
same material was in your backyard and
you did not know what it was you would
probably want to sell it for ashes. 1t looks
not unlike ashes 1t is, however the
| heaviest dust in the world. and when 1 was
/ given a long-handled shovel and asked to
! lift a shovelful l anticipated trouble.
| I drove the shovel easily into the dust, but
lifting it like lifting so much lead
| 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 worth of gold in that which
raised from the ground. The ore is so re-
duced and this dust is then sent to the
| refining furnaces to be turned into pure
| gold.
| CATACOMBS OF THE MERCUR
| The Mercur Mining Company owns 100
acres of land the side of the mountain
| above the town, and it is believed that
| there is gold under the whole 160-acre
| farm. Think of a quarter-section of land
underlaid with three blankets of gold-bear-
| ing rock lying one on top of the other Let
| each blanket run from five to thirty feet
| in thickness and let there be a blanket of
| shale limestone between the golden
| blankets and you have some idea of the
Mercur mine. So far, wherever the ground
| has been pierced it has struck the gold and
| this is the same with nearly every other
| piece of mining property in the eight-mile
| stretch which / have described. The up
| per blanket is not quite so thick nor does
| it average quite as much gold as the two
| below and still it carries about 81 worth
| of gold TO the ton. In one place they have
| gone through the blanket lengthwise four
| thousand feet, and at others they have run
out into the blanket at right angles a dis
| lance of one thousand feet / was shown
| places in which the gold crops out in the
side OF the mountain and / walked into a
| tunnel which had begun thus at the sur
! face, and which went down. down down
| for one thousand feet. The blankets of ore
dip at an angle of sixty degrees and thew
| spread out in wavy shape over the ter
| ritory.
| The tunnel which we entered was high
ana wide. 1t was cut, as 1 have said. rignt
out of the ore, and we went down into
the earth we found each side of us
great chambers reached by other tunnels
the whole making me think o. the cata
| combs near Rome. Some of these cham
| bers were so large that you might nut the
| Capitol at Washington inside of them
Some have many stories, the floors being
upheld by great timbeBs, the structure he
| ing built upward the gold ore is taken
| out. The tunnels so wide that we
| could walk through them without STOPPING
and so high that we appeared at times
to be passing through vaulted corridors.
Every few yards passed openings
where other tunnels quite as wide jutted
off, and in many places there We're spouts
or chutes down which the ore was rolled