The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-23

ming of 1894 were not less than $500, 900.
This has proved the most profitable
gem-miniug in the United States
THE MOST PRODUCTIVE EMER-
AID MINES.
The most productive emerald mines.
affordfng the finest gems, are near
Muzo, an Andean village, in the state
of Boyaca, United States of Colombia,
about eighty miles northwest Of Boge-
Ia. These mines lie in a deep round
valley, and have been worked for
many centuries before the advent OF
the Spaniards- They are now the pro-
perty of the government, which rents
them to a. company 1t was emeralds
from these mines that the Spaniards
brought from Peru, and took to Spain,
where they. were sold within a short
time to Father India The mine itself
is an excavation. about six hundred
feet wide, at the base of an abrupt
cliff Of bituminous limestone. This
company employs five or six overseers.
and three hundred to four hundred
native workmen, who are lodged and
fed on the premises, and paid 20 to 40
cents day. The work is done simply
by tearing off with crowbarS frag
ments of the rock from the side of the
mine, which is cut into narrow ter
races, like a gigantic staircase, and
throwing them into q trough at the
bottom. When a. certain quantity has
been tumbled down, a heavy rush of
water from a reservoir is sent through.
breaking up and carrying away all the
light rock, and disengagin the emer-
aid crystals; these. being heavy, sink
10 the bottom of the sluices and are
caught by the riff1er. This is simply
the operation of sluices, we'll known to
placer miners for gold. The enneralds
occur in cavities and among the loose
black powder which fills many of the
veins. The sluice-boxes are watched
very carefully; but. as elsewhere. a
large proportion of the stones are
stolen and surreptitiously sold by the
workTnen. All the emerdlds saved are
at once sent to Paris to be cut The
product is worth about 100000 a year.
The most recent discovery of emerald
is at the Emmaville mines in the
northern part Of New South Wales.
The emeralds occur in a granite rock,
and are generally crystallized out as
implanted crystals. Although forty
thousand carats of these stones have
been found, they are generally very
pale in color, and no really fine gems
have been obtained.
Magnificent emeralds have come
from the rich and varied gem-deposits
on the Siberian side of the UraI noun
tains. For nearly two centuries the
UralS have been noted for their re-
markable productions of beryl, ener-
aid, amethyst, topaz, both blue and
sherry-eolor, tourmaline, alexandria.
phenacite and other minerals and
gems that for beauty and quantity
have given this region a foremost
place in the meteorological collections
of the world. The mines are mainly
open excavations. They were worked
only by peasants of the Ural noun
tains when they were not busy in the
fields. never by proper machinery, yet
they are a source Of revenue to the
Russian crown. The emerald mines Of
Takowaja, near Ekatherinburg, were
leased for many years to company
at an annual rental of $4,000 rubles.
but have not been worked since 1850
when the company could not afford to
pay the rental; and until some one
pays it, emeralds will not be mined in
Russia again. Many fine gems were
found here, as we'll as the alexandria
and phenacite. The magnificent beryls
of Russia were found about sixty miles
north Of here and in Siberia.
EMERALD MINING IN THE UNIT
ED STATES.
Emerald mining in the United States
is of recent development; at Stony
Point in Alexander county, North
Carolina, in 1880, beautiful light
colored specimens were found, but not
in profitable quantities or Of good
quality. They occur in a red gravelly
clay, and in the gneissoid rock Of the
Blue Ridge; the former a. decomposi-
ton of the latter. AS crystals they are
magnificent, but they have little gem
value. All those obtained by the
Emerald and Hiddenite Mining COM
pany. in a dozen years of working at
these mines, have not exceeded $4,000
in value Some fifty miles west Of
Stony Point, in Mitchell county, a new
locality was discovered in 1894, but
none of the material afforded gems.
Fine beryls occur at Stoneham, Ne,
and on Mt. Antero, Col, at an altitude
of L., 900 feet; and at a mica mine near
New Milford, Conn.,, where $15,0 900 worth
were found between 1886 and 1889.
It is in granite rocks that the finest
yellow topaz is found, at Minas Geras.
Brazil, as well as the blue. green and
white topazes are found in Perm in the
UraI, in Siberia. Japan, NADIA gascar.
New Zealand, and in 1889 at Bald noun
tain, near Chatham, n. H, in Colorado,
Texas, and in fgneOuS rocks in ColOra-
do, Mexico Australia. Straits Settle
ment, etc.
Garnet IS q widely 0lSJrIDuLeQ gem
occurring in many varieties in almost
all mountain ranges composed of crys-
taline rocks, and under very diverse
geological conditions. From the gold
washings at Sysserk, in the UraI noun
tains, come green garnets Of high value
enormously called Divine; while the
Pegu mines, in the Rangoon district
of British Burma, and Jeypur, India,
furnish the purple almandines of
great beauty in unlimited quantities.
Ceylon produces the honey-red essonite
which closely resembles the honey-red
spessarite of Amelia c. H, Virginia,
that has recently been found as a. by
product in mining for mica. Wine col
ored garnets Of value also come from
the TyroI; while at several American
localities, especially along the Column
bia river, large quantities of purple
almandite have been found in the form
of rolling pebbles. The finest red gar
net, however, is the blood-red pyrope,
produced in Bohemia, South America,
and the United States. In Bohemia
nearly all the garnets are in an allu-
vtum equivalent to our glacial deposits.
and associated with a variety Of fos-
sile; also with sapphire, zircon, etc.