The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-15
ONE OF THE OLD-T|MERS
A Silver Property Noted in
Butte's Early History.
THE GREAT RAINBOW LODE
The Famous Alice Still Producing-Some
Of the Difficulties Incident to
Silver Mining in These
Days.

High up on the hill back of Walker
vile and about at the head of Missoula
sulch is situated the Alice mine, ia
nous in the early days of the Butte
district. and under the SUPPLEMENTARY
of T. w. Buzzo, steady producer
now.
AS long ago as 1877 this property
passed into the hands of the Walker
Brothers of Salt Lake City, for whom
the town of Walkerville was named.
In fact the town was founded and
built up by the employees of this mine
and those connected with its opera
tons.
The mine lies we'll above the copper
belt, upon the Rainbow lode, and is
essentially a silver property, although
carrying a moderate percentage of gold.
1t really consists of a number of
claims that have been consolidated, in
Guiding the original Alice, the Magma
Charta, the Curry, Rising Star, Val
dimir, Midnight, Rooney, Hawkeye,
Boston. Plover West, Saukie. Walker
vile. Blue Wing, Paymaster and eight
fractions. Altogether, the property
covers an area of about 40 acres.
The Rainbow lode is an immense one
At the Alice proper, it is about 200 feet
wide. To the eastward, off in the d.
rection of the Magma Charta and be
yond, it divides into four lodges. To
the westward, in the MOulton direction,
it narrows rapidly and somewhere Off
in that quarter it is supposed to pinch
out and scatter. 1t may well be that
| ct. . ,triIa 1yt nj O.
would term the lode a zone including
number of veins. But while this is
an interesting scientific question, and
in some cases might give rise to
troublesome litigation, the title of the
Alice is clear to the entire body OF
mineral: and whether it be regarded
as a zone or a lode makes no difference
to the owners of the property.
Above the water line. the ores are
oXyds. bellows that sulphides. This line
is about 200 feet below the surface. The
mine has been sunk to depth OF LOU
feet, and there are said to be about 30
miles of underground workings. Quite
generally the different claims are con-
nected underground but it is not uni
versally so. To the east of the Alice
hoist there is an intervening fraction
belonging, it is said, to w. A. clark.
that cuts off connection with the
Magma Charta and the Vladimir, both
of which are provided with their own
| hOists The Blue Wing also has sepa-
rate hoist. These are all in operation
| now except the Vladimir, which runs
! part of the time. At the Alice much
| repairing has been done lately. The
! shaft is being completely retimbered
| above the 200-foot level and the Work
will be finished this week.
| Compared with the machinery oil
! some Of the great copper mines, that
]
| tive and Old-fas hiOned. With the great
| shrinkage of silver values and the I'M
| certainty as to its future, the manage
! ment has not felt justified in mourning
| the enormous expense of Installing a
| cOmplet GSv modern equipment. lhtre-
| fore the work has gone on year aller
wear with what is substantially the
! original machinery of the plant. For
! tunately this was exceedingly good IN
! It's day and generation and it is fairly
| good yet The engine is not only fully
! capable of hosting from the extreme
present depth of the mine, but from at
! least 800 feet lower, which would carry
if down to a total of 1000 feet. And
! SO the pump, a Finch Cornish. is act
ually capable of doing so per cent more
| work than is now required of IT,
| Although the Alice is ClaSSed as a
| silver NINE it may safely be stated
that since the great silver slump IN
! 1898. consequent upon the Closing ol
! the Indian mint and the repeal OF the
| sherman law. had it not been for the
| gold by-product the mine could not
| have run for a single day without loss
| And vet the Alice has been one of the
| best silver mines in the country. some
| of the financial Wiseacres in the East
| who have never been west OF flttSpufS
but who nevertheless think that they
| know all about silver and its cost
] ,1N+ al X
! amiring the accounts of some of oui
| leading silver properties. In this par
| ticular case it may be stated that the
| loss of the mine through the discount
| upon silver was 1922, 744.99 for the yea1
| 1895 and there was loss upon ores
| sold of 100000 more, making, approx
! imately, a total loss of half million
! dollars. In other words. more than
! half the product was lost Had the
mine realized this additional sum
| fully One-half of it would have been
paid out for labor, new machinery
| etc, thus contributing to the prosper
| ity of the entire country.
The operations of this company are
somewhat mixed in their character
1t is provided with 60-stamp mill
! the CAPACITY of which is about 100 tons
| a day But instead of running 1t con-
| tinuouSly on ores from its own NINE
| it sells a large proportion of It's own
| ore and purchases others 10 Such al
| extent that about One-half of the ore
| treated in the mill is custom ore
There are several reasons for this. The
| ores differ greatly in their character
| in the company's own mine. Then
| again some that are so worked need an
| admixture of others of different
| character in order to secure good re-
! turns. For example, it is quite essen
| tial to have oxide ores to furnish the
oxygen to aid in roasting the sulphide
ores. If the company has not sutii-
cient quantity of such ores it buys
them in order to make its own sui
| phides available
None of these ores are free milling
! They all require roasting to drive of
| the sulphur. The ore is delivered al
! the crushers. 1t is there mixed with
salt in the proportion of one shove
of salt to nine of ore. and the mixture
is run through the crusher Thence ii
| passes to revolving dryers, of the
| White & Howell make, where it is
thoroughly dried by the application OF
heat 1t then goes to the batteries