The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-01-13

For several months work has been
going on in the running of a drift from
the main tunnel on the Niagara prop
erty at Bingham, and for several days
past everything has indicated the
near presence of ore. Last week the
face of the drift run up against what
was then supposed to be a porphyry
dyke, but more recent developments
dispeued the theory. as the porphyry
horse soon gave way to iron-stained
quartz, and Saturday night the men
encountered a four-inch vein Of solid
lead ore that crossed the entire face Of
the drift diag0nally.
Word soon spread all over the camp
regarding the new discovery, and last
night q telephone message was re-
peived that the people of Bingham
were wild with JOY over the opening up
of new ore bodies il the Niagara prop
erty.
Captain William Davidson. superin-
tendent of the Niagara mine. came in
last night for the express purpose of
conveying the glad intelligence to
the Niagara Mining company, and
Herald representative who called at
the colonePs residence, found these two
gentlemen exchanging congratulations
and shaking hands over the bright out
look for the future of the mine.
Captain Davidson brought some of
the ore in with him, and upon examin-
alton it proved TO be the genuine
stuff and identical, in general char
acteristics. to the ore taken out of the
mine from its old workings. It is a
solid lead ore. and its existence at that
depth refutes the opinion Of experts
that the ore body did not extend down
to the level on which the Niagara tun-
mel is being driven. Without doubt
this solid body of lead ore will widen
out as work progresses, and as the
drift will soon be under the old work
ings of the Spanish mine. which is in
GUIDED in the Niagara group. the fu-
ture Of this property as a paying mine
IS almost assured.
The Spanish mine. in years gone by
was a wonderful producer, until the
workings got below the water level
The water could not be drained off and
existed in quantities that prohibited
the use of pumps Work was there
fore discontinued, and the only mining
carried on for sometime past has been
done by small leaSers and chloriders.
a few years ago, however, the big
Niagara tunnel was commenced. The
promoters Of the enterprise met with
but little sympathy from mining ex-
perts, and it was predicted that the
whole scheme would end in a fizzle.
The tunnel is a magnificent piece of
workmanship. and the drift that has
been run from the tunnel to get under
and drain the Spanish mine can be de-
Scribed in the same terms. This drift
encountered the ore after having been
driven distance of 140 feet The drift
and the tunnel VIII serve to drain the
mine and also as an avenue for the de-
velopment of the property and the ex-
traction Of the ore.
The running of this drift which has
terminated 50 happily. viii open up the
mine several hundred feet below its
deepest workings. thus giving large
area of rich and virgin ground to work
upon, and it viii not be long now be-
fore the Niagara will again be listed
as a regular and heavy shipper of
high-grade ore.
Before striking the pOrphyry horse a
large quantity Of water was encoun-
tered, but now the face of the drift is
dry and work is now being pushed in
good working ground.
The successful completion of this an
terprise means much for Bingham
and also for the whole country as II
proves the permanence of the great ore
bodies Of that locality.