Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-15
MINING NEWS
PONY

Pony Sentinel: Through the courtesy
of c.. H. Wood, resident manage of the
Garnet Gold Mining company, a repre-
sentative of the Sentinel had the pleasure
of taking a trip through the company's
mine and mill last Sunday. j. p. Barclay,
superintendent of the mine, inducing the
writer into the mysteries Of tunnels,
levels, slopes, up-raises, drifts and cross
cuts. and climbing ladders.
The Garnet mine and mill is one of the
solid properties in Pony and simply
shows what can be done when such ener-
getic men as F. C. Wood, PRESIDENT;
George A. Zeller, treasurer; j. NJ. Durdy,
secretary, and c. H. Wood, resident man
ager, take hold of a proposition.
This mine, consisting of a single claim,
with a shaft 40 feet deep and another
about 30 feet, was purchased by the COM
pany on January l, 1890. for $50, 900, and
has been worked almost continuously
since on development work. Since pur-
chasing the original mine, the ompan
has acquired by location twelve other
claims contiguous thereto, twelve of
which are patented. In the summer of
so the company shipped Is cars of ore,
but came to the conclusion that it was
best to put the ore on the dump and de-
Velop the nine. to see if a mill would
pay IN preference to giving it to the rail-
roads and smelters.
On the 21st of June, 1896, work was
commenced on the mill, which was fin
ished about October 10 of the same year
and the mill started. The machinery in
operation did not prove satisfactory, not
being suitable for the work, which occa-
stoned the loss of a years work n cost
OF machinery. and was succeeded by the
old stand-by-stamps.
UP to date the company has expended
in improvements, on the mill, mine and
pointed cook-house, bunk-houses and
assay office, since 1890, s165. 600. The mine
is now developed to the extent Of two
levels, with two shafts to surface for air.
and there are over a mile of tunnels,
up-raises and cross-cuts. 1t is a big low
grade proposition and a paying one.
1t may interest the general reader to
know how the ore is handled from mine
to talllngs dump in a modern. first-class,
up-to-date property like the Garnet.
From the mouth of the lower tunnel
the ore is run out in the usual manner
and dumped into a bin holding 400 tons.
From the bottom of this bin a three-rail
gravity tramway has been built down
the steep hillside to the mill, 1000 feet in
length, with a 40o-foot drop. Under the
ore bin at the top Of the hill is arranged
a series of wheels with a powerful brake.
by means Of which a car holding four
tons is let down the Hill. hauling the
empty car up, the cars passing each
other midway on a turnout. They dump
automatically at the lower outside bin
at the mill which holds $50 tons. From
here the ore passes over a "grizzly'' to
the rock breaker, the fine ore dropping
through to the bin in the mill which
holds $50 tons. The large rock goes to
a Blake crusher, into the bin and from
there all the ore goes through the auto
matte feeders into the batteries. No
handling Of the ore from the time the
miner shovels it into the cars in the
mine is what makes the process cheap.
The pulp from the stamps or batteries
passes over the sil%ver-plated copper
plates to the Brown ~sizers, each one talk
ing the proGuct Of ten stamps, from
which the sized pulp run onto Frue
Vanners, which seperate the iron, lead,
silver and gold concentrates from the
silica. Two of the vanne have four
foot corrugated belts and take about
half of the pulp from each sizer, while
the remaining four six-foot plain belt
runners handle the rest, altogether hand
ling from IS to 60 tons per "a hours.
The tailings pass off under the mill to
the settling dumps From the upper
bin to the tailings dump the cost of
handling and treating the ore does not
average 40 cents per ton all told and the
loss in the tail.ngs is less than Is per
cent. from the assay alu
The mill is equipped with the ordinary
S50-pound stamps, 20 Of them, which are
run by a four-foot 50-horse power Pelton
motor, which also furnishes power for the