The San Francisco call., 1898-07-03
NEWS OF THE MINES.

mia, limited, an English corporation oper- ating in Butte, Cal, returned this Weeh from London.
 All the oranges grown in Southern C,.ll- fornia do not represent much more tha II half the value of Southern California mineral production. The Los Angeles Review notes that while Southern Call fornia is producing from 1200O to l5,VoO carloads of oranges year, having a local value of something over $3OU,OOU, the value of Southern California; minerai production last year was $o,6So 6OS.
 In Sierra County, as elsewhere, the lack of water interferes materially with min ing operations. There number or lfn- portant drift mines are operating Vigor- ously, but the gravel mined IS stored 10 await the time when water Is available. At some mines the piles of gravel are already imposing in size.
 The cyanide plant at the Gentle Annie mine near Placerville, gives satisfactory .n,S returns. This is a new venture In this section, and the results are carefully not ed by mining men. similar plant lo in operation at the old Vandalia mine, fifteen miles west of Placerville, and It is said that 1t is worked with fair profits on the low grade ore of this long-aban- doned property.-Mining and Scientific Press
 The Postlethwaite dredger at Poker Bar, Trinity River. will shortly be ready for operation. It has a capacity of 1O5 cubic yards per hour.
 Concerning the oil market the Los An geles Times says: shipments to San Francisco during the past week were un- usually large. and the result has been to favorably affect prices. During the early days of last week some lots of oil changed hands at G5 cents n barrel in the field. Then the price went to 75 cents, and the close of the week saw it marked confidently expected that oil will open a so cents 0 barrel. spot delivery, with $l barrel asked on term contracts"
 Near what is known as the Salt Wells, rag ..f Ial are large. valuable borax deposits, owned by the Colorado and California Mineral Development Company, of which Gail Borden of Los Angeles is president. The company Is actively engaged in exploring and developing their properties in that region which aggregate 14,000 acres.
 There Is movement on foot to organ ize a company and erect d ifty-ton In fact, the preliminary steps In the or ganization have already been taken, and it is the intention of the promoters of the enterprise to push 1t to completion as rap idly as -Randsburg Miner.
 Ten carloads of ore are being shipped daily from Randsburg and Johannesburg to the stamp mill at Barstow, which is now running day and night.
 The newly opened Blackfeet reserva ton in Montana promises to afford an other mining rush of some proportions with the usual story that belongs to min ing rushes and their ends. A miner from the new district reported as follows the other day:
 We have got our location all right and will stretch our canvas tomorrow. After sizing up the camp and country l be- licve it is the coming city of the West. They are beginning to prospect now and there Is an assayer here from Butte. A pToSpector came in yesterday with some ore and had it assayed. It went $16 In gold and 53 per cent copper. The camp went wild over 1t. and the claim Is near this town. There are, as near as l can T t1aaNE continue to come in every day. My ad- vice to any one who wants to come Is to walt about a week-that IS. if 1t does not rain any more. You can tell any one who is thinking of coming that the sooner they get here the better"
 The books of the Denver Mint for the fiscal year just closed show a total in gold receipts equal to S16,240 Al 93, com pared with $6 ,944 ,904 19 for the year which ended June 30, 1897. The gain equals S9,- 296. .5S7 .T4, or in excess of 13S per cent.