The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-13
GREATER ECONOMY IN MINING.


Than Twenty-Five Years Ago.
Recent inventions have made great
changes in the mining world, and to
such an extent that mines that were
worked at a small profit twenty-five
years ago, and ore that was not worth
the treatment can now be handled at
profit.
Twenty-Five years ago all classes Of
ore had to be of very high grade to
pay, and ore that today is eagerly
sought for was then thrown over the
dump or left in the mine. If the out
put Of the mine was gold it was neces-
sary that it be free milling to pay,
and even then a large per cent. OF its
values was lost in the tailings on &C
count of the crudeness of the plant;
and it is a well known fact that
throughout the west there are many
dumps of low-grade ores, and failing
pits, that would today make small for
tunes if treated by up-to-date process
es of ore reduction.
In the olden days, before the inven-
ton of dynamite, and when everything
used in the mining business was very
high priced. mining was conducted in
a very crude manner, and the system
attic development Of mining properties,
such as is now the order of the day, was
not even thought of, and the main idea
was to- gouge, gopher and skim the sur
face, for deep mining could not be car
ried on under ordinary conditions. This
was an age of muscle, and not of sci
ence, as is shown by the abandoned
shafts and tunnels to be found in al
most every camp in the west, and in
the mountains in Utah many eviden-
ceS Of this r1rir1itiVa method of mining
are still to be found.
In Stockton. Ophir, Tintic, Beaver
and the Cottonwoods one often Stun
bles upon these gopher holes, where If
regular tunnels with their faces driven
to a point exhibit the fact that the
miner was short on even black powder
and his steel was dull.
A quarter of a century has wrought
a complete revolution in mining. Not
only has placer mining largely given
way to lode mining but in the latter
the methods in vogue bear little re-
semblance to those of no farther back
than, say, 1870 Two signal items in the
line of progress have been the intro
duction of high explosives and i'm
proved drills. In 1870 dynamite was
unknown SO was the compressed-air
drill. At that time it cost something
like $14 or SIS. in this country at least,
to drift foot in ordinary rock and ore.
Today it costs less than s.. Twenty
five years ago the average expense of
'stoping"-that is, of getting out the
ore after it had been reached by tun-
mel or shaft-was about $3.50 a foot.
Today it is in the neighborhood of 60
cents. The management of a gold mine
in this day is little short on an exact
science applied with rigid economy.
With the old wasteful and expensive
methods it is safe to say that half the
mines now in operation would not be
IN existence. Along with the improved
methods has come a steady fall in the
price of everything that enters into the
working of a mine. There are very few
great producers at the present time
which do not have ready access to the
railroads. with cheap transportation
good old days teaming was wont to
bring SIC a day; now it will not bring
over 81. Candles which used to cost
$40 box, now cost less than s.. Giant
powder, which used to sell at 81 a
pound now brings only u and IA cents.
The prices of fuses per thousand feet
has dropped from $50 to Sc, iron from
20 cents pound to 3 cents, steel from
20 cents to 9 cents, shovels and picks
from $3.50 and $3.75 to 81 each, and
smelling charges have been reduced
from $50 and S65 to from $40 to S14 In
Colorado oil is now largely used for
this purpose, and where it once cost So
a gallon it now brings only Is or 20
cents. The opening of the coal fields
of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and ether
western states has cheapened the price
of coal in almost equal degree. Aver
aging this striking fall in prices, a
western mining authority computes
that S27 will buy the same mining sup
plies which cost 500 in 1870. Meanwhile
an ounce of gold is worth in coin $20.67,
Just as it was % years ago, and for that
matter Just as it was more than half
century ago.
Cyanide, chlorination, bromination
and other similar processes have TAX
en- the place of the old and extrava-
gantly wasteful devices, and ores that
yielded IS or $40 a ton by amalgama-
ton now return double the amount,
while the expense of treatment is far
less.