The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-11-07
which De Lamar is situated. is certainly

| in the lead
While there are scores of mining loca-
tons in the district, yet, as is generally
the case in most mining camps in the
west there are but two or three that can
be worked with any degree of profit. In
this case the paying mines are known, re-
mine, the April Fool and the Magnolia.
OF these. the first named is by fan the
richest and most extensively worked. This
mine was originally tapped by ten work
ing tunnels connected by miles upon
miles of drifts, slopes and adits in the in
terror of the mountain. The cavins in OF
some of the workings has reduced the
number of tunnels by half, yet enough
remains TO produce 400 tons of medium
grade gold ore every Il hours.
Connected with this veritable bonanza
IS a mammoth reduction and cyanide
teaching plant to extract the precious
metal from the ore. The mill proper con-
sists of Is dry crushing Griffin mills which
have the faculty OF reducing the rock
flour, and under this manipulation the ore
becomes an all-penetrating and almost
impalDable dust. which fills the atmos-
phere of the mill building and has proven
singularly fatal to very many of the en-
ployees, no less than 30 men having died
from the effects OF De Lamar mill dust
in the last three years, post-morte1n ex-
animation of some of the victims showing
that the fatality was caused in every
case by complete wasting away of the
lung tissue, and that when any fragment
VI liIS blG6lLiUS OTSdllS remained II as
completely filled up by the dust" Not
wlthStanding this strange fatality. hardly
a morning passes but what there are from
three to half dozen men lounging about
the entrance to the mill awaiting chance
to be taken on in place of any unfortu-
nate who may have been taken sick or
whose heart had failed him during the
night and who, as a consequence, had
concluded to seek a less hazardous occu-
patton. But. to return to the modus OPP
erandi:
The pulp or dust is conveyed from the
'Griffins" or grinding mills to the bleach
ing watts, of which this mill possesses no
less than 60, Of capacities ranging from 27
to 2SO tons; where it is subjected to an
aqueous solution of cyanide of potassium
the auriterous sediment being filtered
through the bottom of the tank, from
whence it is drawn by a vacuum pump
to a precipitating tank and thence into
the hands of the meter at the furnace.
This in brief, is, with a few notifications,
the De Lamar company's method of eX-
tracing the yellow metal from the mother
rock.
At the April Fool mill the process va
ries considerably from that described
above. the last named company having
sooP so the wet process throughout, saw.
ing 60 per cent of the, metal contents of
the gauge, by flooding 1t directly from
the ordinary stamp battery over a dou-
Bile set of silvered copper plates, from
ing tanks. where the cyanide solution
saves an additional IS or SO per cent, thus
almost entirely eliminating and saving the
golden contents Of the rocks.
OF the net value of the bullion output of
the two mills for obvious reasons, but
little can be learned. but it is estimated
that the De Lamar produces $4,000 to
$4,000 monthly while the April Fool
sends out not quite one-eighth of that
amount.
That the latter will shortly augment its
output is almost beyond question, espe-
cially il the eastern syndicate now con-
sldering its purchase at the lump price of
100000, will take hold of the property and
erect larger mill, which, in case of pur-
chase, they are almost certain TO do.