Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-12-11
THE ORTIZ MINE GRANT.
Interesting and Instructive Inter
view with Receiver Elkins-Leases
VOid-OrtiZ Mine Operations
McGee Mill on Cunningham.

Mr.. S. H. Elkins, receiver of the Ortiz
Mine grant under 40 appointment made
by Judge Laughlin, was welcome visitor
at the New MEXICAN editorial room yes
terday afternoon.
In conversation with reporter he said
that the leases of parts and all of the
Ortiz Mine grant, reported in these COL
umns recently as having been made by
the New Mexico Mining company to
James W. Perry, of New York, we're null
and void because the Lessee had failed to
comply with the conditions thereof.
81 will add that have never been noti-
| fed. either as agent or receiver of the
New Mexico Mining company, of the ex.
istence of any such leases. The 99-year
lease of the Candelaria mine purports to
have been made on September 3, 1895,
when was acting as agent and custodian
of the grant, and the lease of the entire
grant for two years appears to have been
made in July, 1897, after my appointment
as receiver by the court. Certainly
should have been notified of such action.
But these are minor matters in view of
vital fact that, as / have already said,
Perry's leases are rendered nugauory by
his,failure to do the req uired work"
| Speaking of the work in progress on
the grant, Mr.. Elkins said that George E.
Begold, of St. Louis, lessee of the Ortiz
mine, was taking out enough ore from the
property to keep two Huntington mills in
constant operation, and had also shipped
some ora to outside smelters.
"As Mr.. Begold and his associates say
very lutte about their operations, and as
I have not recently availed myself of my
privilege as receiver of the grant to ex
anime the mine, am unable to give you
any details respecting the ssme," con-
tinued Mr.. Elkins, "but understand that
they are taking out much good milling
ore from the levels run from the 300 foot
shaft. Az they are required to make
semi-snnual reports of their operations
to me, shall possess full information
IN the premises when I receive their re-
port at the beginning of the new year. !"
Mr.. Elkins also holds a 99year lease
on the we'll known Cunningham mine on
the Ortiz Mine grant. Questioned as to
the experimental run of the new MCGEE
mill on ore from this mine, he said that
he could as yet add little to the informa-
tion he gave the NEW MEXICAN a week or
so ago.
"The niece people have fine plant,
with Huntington mill attached and
steam power enough to handle 100 tons
of ore per day." added the gentleman,
"and am now satisfied that they can free
and save the gold on small scale. The
only question to be settled is one OF
mechanical construction - whether the
process can proftably be applied in large
plants. l think it can.
$50 far about 20 tons of the so tons of
Cunningham ore, which [ sgreed to
furnish the McGee mill for experimental
purposes, have been crushed aud pulver-
lied, and about eight tons have been run
through the process, but no clean up has
been made.
1.-THE ore is first crushed, then is pull
verified, then is sent to the watts where
the gold is freed by chemicals, and tinally
it goes to the Huntington mill where the
gold is rescued by amalgamation on the
plates. At present the Huntington is fed
by hand, bus an automatic feeder will soon
be provided
Touching the Cunningham mine Mr..
Elkins said: Gas you know the entire
mountain upon which the mine is located
carries gold The 200-foot tunnel that
has been driven into the hill from the
southside, tapping the same 200 feet be-
low the apex, shows gold all the way,
with several rich pockets. From one of
these pockets I recently shipped 16R
tons of ore to the smelter at Pueblo,
which yielded over $50 in gold per ton.
This Shipment, after paying all expenses,
netted me 1886
"The ore is mainly decomposed quartz
and competent judges are convinced that
it is an overflow from big Chimney
somewhere in the hill. When this is
reached large body of rich gold ore will
doubtless be encountered.
II hope that the new Cerrillos smelter
will make a rate that will enable me to
ship to it. The Cunningham ore is rem
dered refractory by some kind of coat
ing that am unprepared to name, some
people pronounce it telluriuu, but it can-
not be very bad, as the Pueblo smelter
only charged me Sc for treatment and
wanted to contract for 100 tons more OF
the same ore."