The Coconino weekly sun., 1896-10-08

Damm's rapid rise to the distinction or the Croesus of Durango is the story or the Promontorio mine. That is proper ty of which the mining market never heard. It is known to Durango people because they see the OK carts and mule wagons come creaking in with 60O tons of ore monthly. The mine is 100 miles north of the city, and the ore must be hauled that distance in carts and wagons, The ore is .ua.r!z, and all that is thus transported is of gTase which yields 15O ounces to the ton. The monthly 6 sh,p, aIpc ment from the Promchtoi.o .s 9o.Wn ounces of silver, .n a year this amounts to 100000 ounces. It is worth in Mexican money $1 100000 and in Amer. ican money S65O,0OO. But this shipment of ore at the rate of GOO tons is not all of Mir. Damm's product. From his own works at the mine he makes every day a bar of silver weighing 1000 ounces. bar of silver worth S1290 in Mexican money and half of that in American mon ey is not very formidable in appearance. It is only 16 inches long by inches in breadth and thickness. Every day one of these bars is turned out at, the mine, brought down to Durango and added to the stack of treasure in Maximilinnoo Damms warehouse. The mint officials or the United States will have an opportuni.
  free coinage becomes the law.
 The present product of the Promontorlo is ,3DO.OOO Ounces,a year, worth Sl, I4o.- 400 in Mexican money, and to be worth that in American money if Is to l pre- vaiis. This is one mans mine. That IS, perhaps. the reason so little has been heard of it.
 About ten years ago. when silver be- gan to go down, the Promontorio began to uncover its richness. With his rep utation established as the richest man in Durango, Mir. Damn does not admit that he has done any mining. He has simply been developing what there is in the PromOntorio, blocking out the masses of ore to be removed when he gets down to the real business of mining. But while doing development work MT. Damn is taking out incidentally ore which yields him 1.360,000 ounces of silver yearly. 4 Assure vein which gives him this ore carrying 150 ounces of silver | to the ton is from IS inches to . feet | wide, While developing his property. | Mir Damn has taken out n third-class of ore which has not been shipped to the smelter or treated at the mine. He now has dump containing 50O00 tons of | such ore which, he says. will average 60 | ounces to the ton. That means 3,OoO,- 0OO ounces more. to be worth S3,S2O,- 900 when the United States declares for unlimited silver.
 MaXimliano Damn can furnish all of the silver the hints of the United States win be able to coin into dollars during five weeks of opera ton al their present full capacity.
 Open Mnts Cheaper Silver.
 "Why is it that in a silver country. ! with unlimited coinage. bullion does not | go to the Mexican hints to be coined into dollars. but is shipped out to be sold in another country where it has a ! iluctuating value and where so much of it as would make dollar in your hints is worth now only half n dollar?'
 This was submitted. during the rest in the saddle of Las Mitras, to the owner | of the mines below, from which the Mex. jeans were trotting forth in never-cndins file with their sacks of ore. The mine owner chucked n pebble over the preci. pice, and shook his head. as if the qucs. tion was too much for him.
 Well, why do you send your own bullion to the United States 10 he sold at bullion value under the gold standard instead of having it minted into dollars which are worth 100 cents on the silver l basis"
 The mine owner got ont his pencil and figured. He took the exchange. the cost of transportation. the BY grains of in, silver in the Mexican dollar, the g grains in the American dollar. the ounc, value, and made elaborate calculations | At length his face brightpned
 "Silver," he said. ''yields today cent, m ounce more when sold in the state as bullion. after paying freight charges and brokerage commissions, than i would if taken to the Mexican hints ant coined into dollars"