Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1899-10-14
MINING TIN ORE
| IN BLACK HILLS
Bear GuIch Product Is Worth $500
Ton, but Has No Amer
lean Market,
100000 MADE IN THREE WEEKS
That IS what the Grantz Gold Dis
covery Has Returned Its owner
--WilI Continue TO Dig for
Yellow Metal All Winter.

Dcadwood, S. d., Oct. 10.--Andrcw
johnson, general superintendent of
the Deadwood-Bcar Uulch Mining
company, was in Deadwood this week
from the company's mine, in the Bear
Gulch mining district, situated about
thirty miles northwest OF this city.
The company is sinking shaft down
TO quartzite in the hope Of striking
veins of silicious ore. Water has come
into the shaft and il has become nee
essary TO put in machinery. steam
plant will be hauled out as soon as
possible. Mr.. Johnson brought to
Deadwood number Of samples OF tin
ore which he states is 20 be found in
large quantities in the Bear Gulch
district. He states that he has found
a great many tin-bearing veins, run
ming from two to eighteen feet in
width, and carrying values in tin from
/ to per cent Tin is now worth
about 30 cents per pound on the mar
ket. Besides the tin that IL found In
the veins there Is a great quantity of
stream tin, or cassiterisc, which is
about 72 per cent pure tin. This
stream tin is fund in the gravel and
the miners save il when they work the
placer beds for gold. 1t is little
bit lighter than the gold, and in
summers work miner will save sew
eral tons Of it. Many Of the miners
have saved from six TO a dozen tons
and have it sacked up in their cab
ins. 1t is worth something like $500
ton, but there is no market for il
in the United States. The Bear Gulch
district is about twelve miles from Il
railroad, which makes the hauling Of
ore costly matter. Mr.. Johnson
purpose OF interesting capital In the
made trip east last summer for the
purpose Of interesting capital in the
tin ore of his district He found 1t
practically impossible TO get people
TO talk tin ore in the east, especially
where they had heard Of the great
Harvey Peak Tin company's failure
in Pennington county. But one tin
expert came out, stopping off from
trip farther west, and after making Il
careful examination of the tin ore
veins and the cassiterite along the
creeks, he sttaed that there was
enough in the Bear Gulch district to
supply the world for years to come.
In picking up samples of the ore to
take back with him TO New York, he
left the richest for the reason that 1t
would have been impossible to con-
vince those for whom he was work
ing that the ore came from the Black
Hills and not from the Cornwall
mines. The ore bodies are fissure
veins. There is enough gold in the ore
to pay the expense of mining It. The
Burlington Railway company has a
road surveyed into the camp, and
with railroad facilities there is rea-
son to believe that the tin prospects
of the camp will be investigated fur
ther by eastern capitalists. The Bear
Gulch district is reached from Spear
fish by stages.
Along the several creeks in this dis
trict placer mining has been carried
on with great success for number of
years. On Potato creek, which is about
mile and "A half long, miners have
taken out 500 a day in gold dust TO
the man, and this summer men have
averaged about So a day along Beaver
Sand and Bear Gulch creeks.
The American Mining company,
which has been sinking the Dacy
shaft deeper i'm the Ragged Top min
ing district. has under way one of the
biggest mining deals that has been put
through in the Black Hills for some
time. The company has bonded sew
eral acres of ground for a term of
two years or longer, and i'm case ore is
found on the lower ore contact, the
ground will be purchased. After
striking quartzite at n depth of about
! ,O50 feet from the surface, the COM
pany decided that it would be too
costly TO run Il tunnel which would
strike the bottom of the shaft, the
distance being about 800 feet. The
is also planning, so it is stat
ed to erect some sort of an ore treat
ing plant on the Spearfish creek in
which to treat the shale ores found at
the bottom of the gulch along the
creek. The ore carries from So to '$l5
a ton gold, which would make fine
cyanide proposition. The company is
building n wagon road down. from
Ragged Top into the gulch, and ma
will be erected for the tunnel
NOTh as SoOll uS pbSSlDlN' h1 iItN
cyanide plant which has been erected
by Allen, Small and associates, in Ca
lamity gulch, south of Ragged Top
has been running three weeks, and the
first cleanup was made this week. An
other cleanup will be made next week,
and these two will be enough to pay
the first expense Of erecting the plant,
which shows that the enterprise is a
success. About fifteen tons of ore are
being treated daily.
The British-American Mining COM
pany, of Detroit, Mich, is getting very
good assays from the shaft in Butcher
gulch, which is being sunk on an ore
vein. The shaft is down about 100 feet
and assays on ore this week run from
$6.40 to $22.55 a ton gold. The
shaft, it is expected, will
soon strike the rich Brode vein
of ore, which has been opened
into farther down the hill. The char
acter of the ore is changing the same
way that it did in the Gilt Edge mine,
i'm Strawberry gulch. The Brodie vein
OF ore has yielded ore worth $1,000 to
the ton. J. NJ. Sweeney, general man
ager of the company, states that he
will arrive in the Black Hills this
month for the purpose of commencing
work OH the copper ground west Of
Rockford six miles. The company OBJ
tanned deeds for over 700 acres OF
ground in this district last spring,