The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-07-31

cess of extracting gold. Mr. OFT said
yesterday to a reporter:
I have nothing to say for publica-
ton. I am simply spending, some money
in experiments. I have conflicting re
ports about the gold in this shale, and
l have not yet decided IN my own mind
whether the gold is there or not. am
offering nothing for sale now to the
public and until I do it is none of the
public's business what I am doing
Otis company owns several thousand
acres of the land. Last week OFT sent
four car loads of the sha1e to be run
through the new mill when it is fin
F. o. Popenoe. president of the Ac-
counting Trust company OF Topeka,
said yesterday:
I hold views differing entirely from
those Of Mr.. OFT and we both have eX-
perimented along the same lines.
have no faith at all in the Kansas Shale.
Some time ago I went to the Smoky
Hill district and secured 100 samples of
the shale from over all the district. 1
took it TO the Kansas university and
had il tested by Prof. Haworth, geOlo-
gist of the university, and Prof. Z. G.
Franklin, professor of the chemistry de-
partment of the university, and John
T. Lovewell, who has been professor of
chemistry for thirty years in Wash
burn college, Topeka These experts
working together, found no gold beyond
the slightest trace. Since that time
have heard so much Of gold being found
that 1 determined to investigate thor
oughIy. I engaged Prof. LOVewen and
fitted him up complete laboratory in
my offices. I went then to the shale
twenty samples from different places,
some of the samples coming from places
where aSsayers claimed to have found
as high as 800 in gold to the ton. Prof.
Loveweu has been working on these
samples several weeks. We have not
yet finished the twenty samples. We
have tested thoroughly and scientifically
more than tWO-thirdS of the twenty
have
am satisfied that there is no gold in
the ShaIe, but am not going to stop
until the twenty samples are tested. L
dislike very much to see the impression
go out that there is gold in these shales,
because people might be deceived by
One of the principal boomers of the
gold fields is Charles K. Holiday of To-
peka. He is in a syndicate that ownsn
several thousand acres of land in Ellis
and TregO counties. He showed a re-
porter for the Star yesterday a button
of gold worth $14, a piece of silver
worth $3.50 and piece of zinc worth
IS, all Of which he said he got from one
ton of the shale sent to the Florence
mill in Colorado. Mr.. Holiday has
numerous official reports of assays
showing from $14 to $4S a ton in gold
from the shale. Several Of these re-
ports are from Prof. LOvewelI. Prof.
LOveWe ell said yesterday;
I have made 100 or more assays for diff
ferent persons can say positively that
there are traces of gold in the ShaleS- l
in SAMPLES of the sbaies IT was possible
to have sailed them, of course 1 know of
was making an assay with another man
and we got $500 in gold to the ton. Later
/ assayed a piece of this same sample
alone and got no gold"
The following telegram regarding the
tests of Kansas shaIe was received by The
Star from its correspondent in Denver:
William 3. Jackson, expert metallur-
to handing the Kansas gold shaie' and
four car loads from Ellis county Kansas,
start The process viii not be a radical
departure from existing methods, but
combination OF improvements in details
that viii make it possible to handle very
low grade ores of certain chemical com
DlnaLlonS al pront- IN the furnace par
ticularly, great Improvement is making.
EreNlous experiments On a moderate scS5Ie
were luerLully SuccessIul ana snow the
value of the process for certain ore in
ABLY cIaSsed- with the new process II IS
expected that there will be a good profit
ton of a plant capable of treating at least
1900 tons of the rock daily.
to open up deposits at Johannesburg, says
Kansas rock is stri1ingly similar to the
t,I ,-CiCari 81 eT1II1fi le 7 e i q u
as his opinion that it was lifted to the
thrown up. This is borne out bv the fact
that shells and sharks teeth are found in
the strata
The question now is whether the chem
zeal or the fire process is most economical
to handle this particular class of ore. and
Experiments to solve this are maxine The
process in the Jackson mill, now building
is used to reduce ores and chemicals to
separate the gold from zinc IN one Of the
large laboratories last week test was
made with the chlorination process. The
rock was treated by chlorine gas and the
liquor subsequently impregnated with
pure hydrogen, when gold was Drecipitat-
ed in brown flakes"
In direct contradiction to this glowing
shales is the statement of Prof. e. c.
Franklin Of the University of Kansas
Prof Franklin is in Michigan and had
this to say when asked about the Ellis
The claims of certain persons that the
ShaleS OF Ellis and TregO counties con-
t5 49, IA X @ lLleS 81 s9Iu anu ztllC
llrsL came 10 my knOWledge IN the winter
of 1861 when Prof HawOrth of the uni
versity submitted a quantity Of the ma
Ieflal 70 me Tor assay 1hese specimens
were carefully assayed, under my direc-
dent in the department of chemistry, with
the result that traces Of gold were found.
for practical purposes, no gold. Last win
ter my attention was again called to these
peka made two trips to the fields south
Of Ellis and collected personally specimens
known to me. made personally at least
twenty-five assays. Together with other
assayers,. I made more than 100 assays.
Some Of these tests were made bv the us
ual crucible methods. while others of them
furnished by the process men and assay
ers who claimed to find gold in the shaies.
The uniform result of all the ASSAYS in
which I took part has been no gold or
only a trace with the exception of one
assay. which showed S1S5 gold ton. Con-
corning this. however, it may be said that
this small quantity of gold, quite a likely,
came from the reagents or apparatus used
in making the assay as from the ore test
ed.
THE men who claim to and gold in
Kansas shales say that the reason the
DDS is because of the peculiar volatile form
in which it is contained in the ore. This
IS rot The processes used by aSSayers /
yield the gold if it is in the ore In the