Arizona republican., 1898-06-14
PRIMITIVE MINING.

H R. AyreS, who has recently re turned from an extended European tour. tells the Denver Republican an interesting story about primitive meth ods in vogue in some of the mining districts in Europe. Primarily" said he, "my trip was solely for pleasure, but when I began to feel the benefits to my health that resulted from my travels, I decided to make an investi- gation into methods of mining and the treatment of ores, to see if there was anything in use in Europe that was an improvement over our pro- cesses, of ore treatment and concen- tration I may say right here that the United States is far in advance of any other nation both in mining machin- cry and the processes for saving the precious metals. They can make our machines in Europe but they do not make them as well as we do, and cer- tainly do not secure as good results. My trip to. the mining regions was probably somewhat accelerated by the conditions in Spain when I was there toward the latter end of March. I wis., ited Gibraltar, and had intended to visit the celebrated Rio Tinto copper mines, but under the circumstances decided that it would be taking seri- ous risk to go into the mountain re- gions of Spain, and therefore went to Naples and Rome.
 "The most interesting portion of the tour, to me at least, was my visit to the mining regions of Hungary and Austrian Selesia. I visited Schemnitz, KremnitZ, Veraspatik and Brad in Hungary, Freiwaldau in Selesia and Cornwall in England. At Schemnitz there is a plant in operation equipped with Huntington mills, at Kremnitz there is a twenty-stamp mill, at Brad two stamp mills, one of forty and the other of twenty stamps, and at Frei- waldau a ten-stamp mill and a plant Of Huntingtons. All of the machinery in these mills was imported from this country except the boilers and en- zines. The concentration is done with frue vanners, jigs and sizers. The work done is fairly good, but it is my opinion that under similar labor con- ditions Americans would secure much better results.
 But what was the most interesting to me was the method of reduction in vogue among the poorer classes of min ers This was especially noticeable in the gulch that I visited at Veraspatik, though the same conditions prevail at Schemnitz and Kremnitz. The gulch is lined with miners cabins all the way up to the mines, and in front of each cabin is battery of from ten to twenty stamps operated by water pow CT from the stream which runs down the gulch. These mills are of the most primitive character, being entire Iy constructed of timb.r, the heads of the stamps being heavy stones. The main shaft is heavy timber in which are inserted strong pegs, which, as the shaft. revo1ves, catch on shoulders in the stems of the stamps, the stems be- ing also heavy timbers. These pegs raise the stamps up and as they pass from the shoulder let them drop on the ore in the mortar, which is usu- ally a trough constructed of. heavy stones.
 1.-The labor at the mills is all per- formed by women. The men are en- gagged in the mines and in bringing down the ore on pack mules. The wo- men shovel the ore into the mortars, and catch the pulp in great rawhide basins, in which the amalgamation is done. All of the manipulation is done in these basins, which are skilfully handled by the women, and serve both as amalgamators and concentrators, the earthly matter and silica being washed out in the same manner as in banning in placer mines, leaving the free, gold amalgamated and the con- centrates ready for collection. The concentrates are saved and shipped to Zollinger, Hungary, where they are treated in a shelter owned by the gov ernment. I am told that the saving by these methods is very close, and that practically the entire low grade products of the mines is utilized in this