The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-10-29


Is cents an ounce, selling in the mar
ket for S25 an ounce. In 1S4S General
w. T. Sherman, then a captain sta
toned at Monterey, Cal, wrote to his
brother, the honorable senator from
Ohio (this letter appeared in the New
York Tribune on April Z, 1892, in which
he said: This gold is found in the
beds of streams, in dry quarries, in
fact, mingled with the earth over
large extent of country. Men
are now getting from their individual
labor from $1,000 to $4,000 a month.
This is not fiction, it is the truth.
went with Governor Mason and saw
the evidence myself" What better evil
dence do we need to prove the local
interest of gold mining? Yet has
anyone ever heard the epithet Gold
Baron" applied to the gold miner.
GOLD QUARTZ MINING.
The cost of a gold quartz mill is from
$1,000 to $4,000.
Gold quartz mining may be consid-
cred less local in its interest, from the
fact of the employment of machinery,
such as hosting works, pumps, water
columns, rails and cars. timber and
cages. drills and hammers, powder,
fuse and caps, and a quartz mill for
the reduction of the ore, using sup
plies to replace the wear and tear,
thereby giving employment to great
number of people outside of the mining
camp 1t must be borne in mind, how
ever, that the reduction of gold ores
is simple process when compared
with silver ores The reduction is done
by crushing the ore to a pulveriZed dust
by dropping a series of stamps upon 1t.
These stamps are known as the bat
terry. The battery consists of five or
ten stamps, made of three-inch iron
bars of wrought iron. shod with cast
iron shoes six inches in diameter; and
about three inches long. A large collet
is fastened on the wrought iron bar
in such a position ash will receive a
cam attached to a revolving shaft.
The action of this cam raises the
stamps about eighteen inches, which,
dropping from the point of the cam,
brushes the ore to a fine dust. To ia
cilitate the work, a constant flow of
water passes into the battery. The
stamps dropping crush the ore and
splash the pulverized ore and water
against the screen. That which is fine
enough, passes through the screen to a
table that is covered with copper
plates silver plated, and charged with
quicksilver. This table has a rocking
motion, which, with the gentle flow of
rock matter, while the affinity of quick
silver for the gold causes it to be col
lected on the surface of the plates, and
it is now known as gold amalgam
When these plates are as heavily
charged with gold as the quicksilver
will take up they are then scraped off.
and recharged with quicksilver. and the
gold amalgam il retorted down. The
retorting is the process of evaporating
10 ILL -tI
quicksilver fumes are conducted into
a trough of cold water. and thereby
condensed back to quicksilver. to be
used over again. This gold retort is
now melted into a brick, and is known
as gold bullion. The cost of mining
and milling gold quartz ores varies,
according to the hardness and refrac-
tory nature of the ore. The cost of
reducing the ores of the Black Hills,
Dakota, is about $3.50 per ton. That of
Alaska about $2.25 per ton; and in
the Rand district of South Africa,
about 81 per ton; while some ore may
cost from S. to S. per ton to reduce,
still this is very rarely the case. The
Mayfiower gold mine of Montana, re-
Gently bought by the Hon. w A Clark,
and managed by Donald ellis, esq.
gold quartz mine. is paying about $500
d day to the man.
THE CYANIDE PROCESS.
In Cripple Creek, Colo, and Mer-
cur, Utah, they are reducing gold ore
by what is known as the cyanide pro-
cess-a chemical process after crushing
the ore TO small particles. By this
method it cos'-s from S1.77 to $3.50 per
ton to reduce, according to the refrac-
tory nature of the ore: but mostly the
ur1-t, INF f- -os1 y cold fc
produced at Cripple Creek and Lead
vile, Colo, for % cents an ounce;
also at Mercur at about the same price,
and yet nothing is said about robbing
the people when a product that costs
abouT % cents to produce, is converted
at the mint into $40 for the benefit of
the owner of the gold mine Gold MAIN
tains its high value in spite of the
cheapness of its production, because it
is admitted to the minis for coinage
free. Its market is the minis of the
world and its stamp indicates the meas
IRE of value. 1t everywhere enjoys gov
eminent patronage and protection with
out yielding anything like the general
benefit that would come from the free
coinage of silver to the entire world,
in the interest of labor
SILVER MINING.
To verify this statement. let me out
line silver mining, and the reduction
Of ore TO metallic silver. The country
is misled by every false statement the
ingenuity of selfish interest and avar-
ice can invent or distort, to deceive
the mass of the people. 1t is urged that
silver mining is solely for the interest
of the silver baron, or is only local in
its benefits. Let us look into the re-
ports of the Alice Gold and Silver Min
ing company of Butte, Mont. and see
how far this charge IL borne out. as
this viii most likely represent q fair
average of the cost Of operating most
of the successful silver mines. This one
is most ably managed by owners who
have grown UP with the silver mining
industry, and are familiar with the
details of AL operations necessary to
make It q success.
1T is very important in the benefit
of the country that the people be
given some idea of the vast interest
this industry is in the employment Of
labor. Here is the great dividing line
of interest over gold production-ern-
ployment to honest toll. In the first
place, silver mining. to be profitable,
must be carried on on a large scale.
Deep shafts have to be sunk. and
they must be large; cross-cutting
through barren rock to the veins of
ore. then drifting along the vein with
long levels to open Up the mine for
STOPPING out the ore. Heavy machinery
is required, hosting engines and
pumps, large water columns and ca
bles, cages. cars and rails, picks. shev-
els. drills and drilling machinery, can
dlee powder fuse and caps. tons of