The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1896-07-02
| Rocky Mount Argonaut.l !

tRocky Mount Argonaut
That there is a much greater va
rlety of minerals and metals in North
Carolina than probably any other
portion of the globe of the same area,
is generally conceded. We will,
however, in this article speak of gold
alone.
For over a century the gold mines
of North Carolina have been turning
out gold, but we venture to say that
there has been more real mining in
the "New Eldorado," Cripple Creek,
Colorado, in the two or three brief
years of its existence than has been
done in over a century's desultory
mining for gold in North Carolina.
Ii this IS the fact-and we think
there Is no doubt but it is-the gold
mines of North Carolina have pro-
duced two dollars for every one that
has been taken out of the famous Grip
pie Creek mines for the amount of
labor expended and much more for
money expended, as the cost of labor
and material is one third less in
North Carolina than in Colorado
The natural sequence of this is that if
the North Carolina gold mines were
pushed with the same vim, energy and
practical experience, backed by the
same amount of capital as the Cripple
Creek mines, they would be paying
better to-day, and that the product
of the yellow metal from North Caro-
lima would be greater to-day than
is furnished by the golden State of
Colorado.
Strange as this may seem the facts
and figures bear US out. Where can
Colorado show gold nugget like the
gold monster weighing 25A pounds
| recently found in the Reed mine in
Cabarrus county? Where can it show
a IS pound gold nugget like the one
found on the same property years
ago? followed by nuggets weighing
from "a to I6 pounds making a total
of rs pounds found in nuggets on
this property before the last great
| find, and this from what can be term
ed mere surface scratching. Then we
will quote the 10 pound, 81 pound
and numerous smaller nuggets lately
taken out of the Crawford mine; the
pound, pound and other large
nuggets found in the Sam Christian
mine; the 9 pound, 81 pound and
numerous smaller ones at the Parker.
In our immediate neighborhood the
Ports has furnished one I,Ioo penny
weight nugget and one of 100. But
it will be said s'nuggets are very good
to blow about, but do not count SO
much in actual results" In this we
fully concur; the steady daily produc-
ton is what is needed in legitimate,
profitable enterprises, and this is ex-
actly what North Carolina gold mines
| can furnish. Investments in immense
deposits of low grade ores are much
more legitimate and safer than put
ting money into small veins Of high
grade ore. This statement is borne
out by the record of gold mining at
the present time. In our own Coun
try we find the celebrated Homestake
! mine which has turned its millions
| into the financial channels of the
| world runs less than four dollars per
ton an average. The Treadwell mine
in far-away Alaska averages only three
dollars and forty cents per ton, and
| although most of its ore Is taken from
beneath the waters of the Pacific
ocean, whose waves roll over the heads
of the working miners, still yields a
yearly half a million of dollars. In
Africa and Australia we find the same
state OF affairs existing, VIZ: the low
grade mines the surest and largest
producers.
North Carolina has many mining
properties with practically inexhaustl
ble quantities of free milling ore, aver
aging fully as high, if not higher, than
the mines mentioned above, and, when
it is taken into consideration that the
cost of producing the ore cannot pos
sibly be one half in this State as it IS
| in our Western states or of Africa
and Australia, the advantages this
State offers to legitimate practical gold
minining enterprises are hard to over
estimate.
The ore thrown away in some of
the Western mining camps could be
worked to an immense profit in this
State. This is but reasonable when
the cost of mining and milling in the
different localities is estimated.
In different parts of the State there
are many large bodies of low grade
ores running from two to five dollars
per ton, which can be mined and
milled for less than one dollar ton,
leaving a profit of from one to four
dollars. Of course these mines re-
qure to be mined ard mllled on a
large scale to make hem profitable.
But in the low grade propositions OF
this State we find many other large
deposits of ore running from five to
twenty dollars per ton. In this class
we find property of the Argo Mining
Company, in Nash county, and the
Ports, in Nash and Franklin. In the