The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-11
NEWS OF THE MINES.

rising from the Trinity River at the place
named, sfxty-f1ve miles west of Redding.
The lowest channel lies 81 feet above the
present river and the highest 300 feet The
average value Of the gravel is good and
the total amount of gold contained has
been estimated by experts at $4,000, 900.
been taken out and work on a small
scale has been going on profitably dur
ing recent times. The property has been
waiting for capital to establish the costly
plant and large scale Of operations need
ed This will now be done The present
water supply. of 800 inches, brought eight
niles nj from Swift Creek. and delivered at
2e0 feet, Will be trebled. A new f1ume
planned Gs Will cost. $4,000. Contracts for
4OO, coo feet of lumber have been let New
aVe e epe ines for + sbioleeg ETC., ana
among the improvements planned. A
large number Of men will be employed
and there will be busy scenes at Trinity
Center which is destined to move one of
these days and see its every lot washed
away to bed rock, for the town site is a
good guaranteeing sadiSlg proposition. t is a
scoop up painful Of the street when ten
.derfeet come along. pan 1t out in the wat
ering trough and show by colors what q
rich country that is.
A new and progressive feature is noted
In the neighborhood of Oroville, one of
the most important regions of the State,
in which capital is interesting itself in
the problem of working, mainly with
dredgers, large tracts of dry low grade
gravel, as well as the river banks, bars
and beds. OF course prospecting a bed
Of gravel to determine it's average rich
ness at various depths is the first thing
necessary. Heretofore sinking shafts to
bed rock has been the method pursued.
associated with him received at Orovlle
steam drill. which is expected to rap
idly bore to bed rock a six-inch hole TAX
ing out sufficient gravel for assays at a
fraction of the usual cost. The prospect
ing will be comparatively speedy and
cheap. and so more prospecting will be
done.
There are number of new dredger
projects being got into shape or planned
few years this method of gold mining
will be a big feature of the Industry
along the Feather and elsewhere. Among
the dredgers now in process Of building
on the Feather are two near Biggs, few
miles below Orovillle. Their cost will be
about $4,000 each and each will handle
about 200 yards of material a day. In
many dredger operations now going on
elsewhere the gravel is worked at a cost
of about 3 cents a cubic yard, or about
the cost of hydraulic mining under ia
yora6le conditions. If a machine can
deposits can be profitably worked, and
there are almost limitless quantities of
gravel in this State, averaging. a few
cess. The possibility OF closely deterrnin-
ing the average values of a gravel de-
post, or, in other words, the amount of
gold in sight" takes the element of
speculation largely out of the enterprise.
and smaller profits are tempting to CAPT.
tai.
One of the new dredgers mentioned is
being built by ]. w. Farris of Sacra-
mento and George F.. Ditzler of Biggs,
and will be named the "Plutus." It's mas
sive machinery comes from Marion Ohio.
though 1t ought to come from San Fran,
cisco. The other is San Francisco prod
uct and is being builu by A. s. Cartwright
Of Oakland and the Golden State Iron
Works of this city. Both these dredgers
will use big steam shovels instead of the
more common chain buckets, each shovel
handling one and one-haf cubic yards of
gravel.
The Anaconda Mining Company has
added a new feature to the staff of men
who care for its great copper operations
at Butte, Mont. 1t has hired regular
''geologtst'' in the person Of Horace B.
Winchell, who for some years has been
the able assistant of the State Geologist
of Michigan. He receives fine raise of
salary. Heretofore mining companies have
expected their high-salaried mining en-
gineers TO attend to their geology.
Butte is just now, by the way, probably
the most prosperous mining camp on the
continent, and its own present census of
the year 1903 Is about 100000 population.