The San Francisco call., 1897-06-27

The famous Randsburg and ad jacent gold
fields of the Mojsve Desert have just been ex-
plored by J. II. Means, field assistant of the
Slate Mining Bureau who is back from a two
mon tbs stay amid the sagebrush rattle
suakes, heat and golden hills of this desert
region.
His report will be the first impartial and
competent one coming from this much
talked-of district, the information pub
lished up TO date having consisted largely
of wild paper tales coming from
stray prospectoTs or boomers, or occa-
sional superficial talks with miners who
have made brief trips there He went
there to study the geology, mIneralogy and
mining development Of the region, and his
technical information he reserves for his Off
cisl report. Yesterday he gave his observa-
tions in a general and conservative way as
follows:
al did most of my work in the Rand dis
trict, which is ten miles square, in the Rade-
maker district, fifteen miles north, and in the
range about Garlock and Koehn Springs - the
east The Rand district, of which Randsburg
is nearly the center, is in thrifty condition.
The real estate boom is rather quiet now but
there is steady development going on in the
mines 1t is not rapid or large but steady.
You know there are 400 claims in the dis
trict. 1t is plasteIed with them, and many
are simply Yalueless locations, stsked out by
people who rushed in early.
THE actual produ chon of the district is
now about $4,000 month. A large part of
the ore goes 10 the Selby Smelling Works.
and the Test is worked at the eight custom
mills in that region now. Six are at Garlock,
running two to ten stamps each; one is at
Cuddyback Lake, twelve miles east OF RandS-
burg ana one of the ten stamps is at KOehn
Springs, twenty miles fr ON Randsburg. One
OF these mills is run by gasoline engine, and
the rest by steam power. All sorts of fuel is
used-sage brush, oil, coal and wood.
"MCst of the production comes from mines
worked small scale near the surface by
owners, VINO ship few sacks of ore regularly
and so keep their development work going
A great many mines worked in this way with
out much capital have milled only five or ten
tons SO far. A number OF the larger mines are
doing development work only-sinking shafts
and running tunnels-without making any
effort at producing yet If these operations
were productive the output would be largely
increased.
at is impossible to give any competent esti-
mate of the value and richness of the district
now. In general the mines are In the wind
lass and whim stage of development. Not
more than ten twelve shafts have reached a
depth OF over 100 reet The deepest is the
edge mine, 315 feet, which is mining and
milling. The King So.OmOn is well developed.
1ney are SINKING ana drifting, out not milling.
In the Rand group, over which litigation
among Patrick Reddy and his partners is in
progress they are developing good many
drifts, tunnels and open cuts Many mines
have been opened to a depth of about 30 feet,
but on the large majority only assessment
work has been done.
al can't sCy anything as to the richness of
the ores. 1t is not my business to report on
that, and all l know is by common report
which is nearly vaIueless. These reports OF
rich ores that run hundreds to the ton mean
nothing. man may pick out q little piece of
ore as big as his hand that will run $1,000 to
the ton, and there may be no more like it in
the whole vein. The only assay reports OF
value those showing the average OF the
whole vein. 1 have been asked many times
for my opinion TO the richness OF the led ges,
but 1 have never made definite statement
The development has moi reached a S uff en-
depth to afford indications of the permanence
OF the values, and the assay reports are not
worth aging attention to. 1 will simply say
| this: That those who are going down are
getting rich ore and are not discouraged It
| is the general opinion there that the values
OF many mines will be fairly permanent with
| depth, and that it will be a permanent camp.
| One may have opinions, but you see that any
! thing beyond what have said must be faith
and speculation at this time.
THE geology of all this region is interest
ing; but l will discuss that in my report