Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-01-25
SM MELTING LEAD ORES.
n Higher Tariff Needed on This
Product.

George W. Shock, president of the
Graphic Carbonate Mining & Smelling
company, with headquarters in Philadel-
phia, which corporation purchased an ex-
tenslve lead mining property about four
years ago located near Kelly, in Socorro
county, has been in Santa Fe for several
weeks past on account of his wife's health,
which has been greatly improved by the
change. So we'll impressed is Mr.. Shock
with our salubrious climate, as a beneficial
agent in the matter of his wife's health,
that he has rented dwelling house and
decided to become a permanent resident.
In an interview yesterday with repre-.
sentative of the New MEXICAN, Mr.. Shock
talked Interestingly of the graphic mine
which his company owns at Kelly and the
outlook for the lead industry in New Mex
leo. The mine referred to was purchased
four years ago and operated by the COM
pany up to the first of last year, when the
property was leased to Capt. A. B. Fitch,
who now manages it. An eighty-ton
smelter was constructed and put in opera
tion last May, and is now being run to
its full capacity.
"The trouble with lead mining in New
Mexico," said Mr.. Shook, sis the low
tariff, which enables the Mexican product
to drive US out of the market, or what
amounts to the same thing. We are
shipping no ore at all at the present
time, or rather our lessee, Capt. A. B..
Fitch, is not, because of this fact. There
are several lead mines in the vicinity Of
Kelly which would resume operations If
the tariff could be made high enough to
allow reasonable profit. AS 1T is now,
there is no money in the business, and
the mining of lead-silver ores is practic-
ally at a stand still.
"The ore from our mine runs about
fourteen ounces of silver to the ton and
Is per cent of lead, with 81 per cent of
iron. At the present time, in connection
with the ore taken from the mine, we are
putting through the smelter an immense
dump, that will require at least five years
to work through. This runs four ounces
of silver and Is per cent of lead to the ton.
The proportion of ore is two-thirds from
this dump, and one-third from the mine.
Considerable development work has been
done during the past few months and the
mine and smelter are in excellent condi-
tion. This is one of the largest lead-sil-
yer mines in the territory and has been
worked for many years, yielding several
fortunes. There are fifteen men employ
ed in the mine and sixty about the smelt-
er, which averages eighty tons of ore
daily. Formerly we shipped our ore to
Ell Paso, Kansas City and Pueblo, Colo.
"There ls a splendie future for lead
mining in New Mexico, providing we can
get higher tariff, thus enabling US to
compete with the Mexican product. There
is another thing that initiates severely
against the lead mine owners of New
Mexico. 1 refer to what we call grab
sample assays by which car of ore is
graded according to sample taken from
the top of the pile. Assays from Mexi-
can ore are always made after this man
ner, which ia a bare. faced fraud and moth
ing else, The grab sample is applied
to all ore coming from the republic in
the south, and it works grave injustice
to the New Mexico mine owner, who is
forced to compete with low tariff and
fraudulent methods in assaying. What
we want is commercial assay of value"