Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-17
Matt AldersOn'S Interesting
Talk on the Subject.
IS NEGLECTED
Very Many Fine Cyaniding Prop
0SitiOnS in Various Portions
of the State.

d 1u-udSS lIlp " 1lIl EuSG anu liz
mining camps in the Judith mountains.
He brought with him a large number of
samples of ores and tailings which have
baff1ed previous attempts to extract their
values. Among the lot are samples from
the Maginnis tailings, from above and be-
low Maiden, where no less than four
primitive cyanide plants have been con-
structed at different times, the work of
which has always resulted in failure.
Mr.. Aledrson says the material does not
seem to be as refractory in character as
tailings successfully treated in Madison
county. and he is confident the ores and
tailings can be handled quite easily. He
takes a look at properties south Of the
city tomorrow and expects to leave on the
evening train for Granite county to ex-
a proposition there. He said to the
independents:
Montana has been called "a country
OF magnificent distances and surely it is.
l have been travelling day and night for
over a week on a little trip INTO the mid
die of the state. Since my last visit to
this section "a years ago vast areas have
been placed under cultivation and dozens
OF thriving villages have sprung up. 1t
is a country not only magnificent in dis
tances, but in sourc and possibilities,
agricultural as we'll as for stock raising
and mining. 1t is susceptible of sustain
ing well, in every way, a very vast in
crease in the present population.
II was most interested, of course, in the
mining industry. The successful hand
ling Of the ores of Gilt Edge and the tall
ings of the Spotted Horse mine by cyan
lde has created a very great interest in
the process and it's development in the
Judith country. Several good cyaniding
propositions seem to have been opened
up, n a number of new mills are being
erected, notably a large mill on the New
York group by Wright & Johnson, expert
enced mining men from Colorado.
You have noticed in Mr.. Braden's re-
port of the mineral production of Mon
tana for 1898 that the cyanide product Of
the state for that year was twice as
much as for the year previous. I believe
the recovery by the aid of cyanide in
Fergus county this year will be nearly if
not quite twice as great as it was last
year. In Lewis and Clarke county the
fine new mill at Belmont and the in
creased capacity of the Drum Lummon
plant will make a very large addition for
this year. The seven cyanide plants in
operation in Madison county will more
than double the output of one year ago.
And the end is not yet. The new plants
in course of construction in Madison,
Fergus and Granite counties will still
further add to the mineral wealth Of the
people of the state.
1.-The value of the cyanides-as the pro-
duct of c%yaniding is called-marketed at
Salt Lake city last month, was eight
times as great as for the same month in
1898. Montana, the greatest producer of
mineral wealth in the union, has not kept
pace with this remarkable record for
two reasons: First, we have not discov-
cred and opened up, thus far, such a
magnificent body of cyaniding ore as is
found at Mercur, though we have good
properties in every gold-producing sec
ton Of the state which can be made to
swell the present output very materially.
Second. such cyaniding ores as we do
have are not so easily handled as the most
Of those in Utah. Thus, Gilt Edge is the
only place in the state thus far where a
real good extraction can be secured from
ore crushed coarse and this ore is fine in
comparison with the work of a number
of mills at Mercur. Almost without ex-
ception, the cyaniding ores of other Sec
tions of the state surrender their values
better when crushed fine than otherwise.
Then some of our ores, even when
crushed coarse, mak 50 many shines as
to interfere with, if not absolutely pro-
hibit, percolation. Add to these the
chemical difficulty which has puzzled
some of the brightest minds in and out Of
the state the past four years and finally
determined to be loss of gold by volatiliz-
alton, accompanied at times by partial
appropriation, and one can have an in
telligent comprehension of the difficult
ties with which the cyaniders of Mon
tana have had to contend.
COLORADO, the banner gold producing
state of the union, owes a large proper
ton of it's output to cyanide. Utah, until
recent years far down in the classified
list of producers, is making rapid strides
to the front under the waving banner of
Cyanide is King In u own state,
leaving aside all references to my own
work, let us see what is being done. The
published reports of the Montana COM
pany, limited, at M~arysville, shows hat
tailings are being hauled into the plant
there and %cyanided at a cost of $1.16 a
ton. AT the mill of the Great Northern
Mining & Development company, at Gilt
Edge, in the month of July, just past,
2, 500 tons were crushed and cyanided at
a cost of $1.32 per ton. Have you any
idea of these results mean? They
mean that in the present state of devel-
Opment, under favorable conditions, given
an ore free from substances which cause
an undue consumption of cyanide, a we'll
constructed plant of large capacity run
by water power, n it is possible to mine
and cyanide the large mineralized por-
phyry dykes of the state at a profit when
they carry a value of 81 a on.
To-day at Gilt Edge everything goes into
the mill that assays as high as So, and the
same is true Of the mill at Belmont, run
by the LOngmaids. Is there any other
process that can compare with this? Yet
in Montana cyanide has occupied the po-
sition of a poor, despised beggar. How
many capitalists in this state have any
interest in a cyanide plant. Apply the
question To xour own country and the