Daily inter mountain., 1899-10-10
THE CYANIDE PROCESS.

at Gilt Edge, Montana" was written
F! for the Mining and Scientific Press by
| Matt w. Anderson:
The western end of Montana is noun
| famous, while the eastern end is a rolling
| plain. From the main mountain range
| on the west a few ranges branch out,
called the Tobacco Root, Big Belt and
Little Belt ranges, respectively. East OF
! these are several small comparatively
| isolated, ranges, known as the Crazy,
the Snowy, the Little Rocky, the High
wood and the Judith. In the latter a
range about eighteen miles in length BY
| five or six in width, and almost in the
! geographical center of the state, are gold
mines which have attained considerable
prominence, notably the Spotted Horse,
the Maginnis and the Gilt Edge. The
country to the east, north and south is
practically unbroken for hundreds OF
miles. To the southwest is the Snowy
and to the northwest the Highwood
! mountains. while to the west is the broad
Judith basin, rich agricultural and
stock raising basin fifty miles in dame
ter.
The Judith mountains rise above the
level of the surrounding country some
2.oOO feet, and the highest summit is $3.50
! feet above sea level. AS one approaches
| these mountains he is impressed with the
boniferous age, which is the prevailing
country rock. At their feet he passes
over the upturned edges of the coal
bearing sandstones, and the camp pre-
sents the beautiful spectacle, at the New
Year group. of a gold mine worked on
top of ridge, with a mill al the foot,
the power for which is furnished by fuel
mined practically at the door of the fur
mace room.
The district is greatly handicapped by
it's remoteness from railroads-over 100
miles in any direction-though five stage
lines furnish connection With the out
side world. The mines of the Maginnis
group are idle. Some work is being done
on the Spotted Horse mine, which in the
past has produced over 100000, but
otherwise none of the properties worked
as free milling years ago are in opera
ton. The Spotted Horse. discovered in
1880, was the first mine opened in the dis
trict, and it and the properties Of the
MaginnlS group We're worked on an eX-
tensive scale for years. No efforts were
made to save the tailngs from the
Spotted Horse and they flowed down the
! sulch. Today there are four cyanide
plants treating these tailings and making
money by SO doing, though the method of
handling them could be very materially
| improved upon. At two Of the plants an
extraction of S. to Sc has been obtained.
and at one of these the tailings are now
| being treated over again and further
saving of about $3.50 a ton is secured.
| The material is finely ground. but not
sufficiently Shiny to prevent percolation,
! though the shines sometimes retain a
considerable proportion of the values:
otherwise there seems to be no difficulty
in treating the taiings. Most of the
plants are owned and opera ted by per-
sons having little technical knowledge of
the cyanide process, and checks on the
work by assayiHS are considered unnec-
essary.
T.e first attempt to work the ores at
Gilt Edge was in 1892 with a Huntington
mill, but the venture was a failure be
cause of lack of free gold in the material
! A Alr. SheraYd, who had obtained lit
| tie knowledge of the then new cyanide
process while employed at the Reyepue
mill, became interested With the theH
owners, Messrs. Collins and Armington
and a cyanide plant was put in in 1893.
The crushing part of this old mill was
a rock breaker and Chilian mill, Whert
the wheels revolyed on stationary, axles
the bed travelling under the wheels, tht
crushed ore being scraped back and forl L
over slotted cast iron portion of the be5
about one foot wide outside of the soliG
portion, over which the large crushing
wheels reyOlyed. This crusher is said tC
have handled satisfactorily thousands o1
tons of ore year and would easily crust
100 tons a day to such size as was deemed
necessary for successful teaching.
Some difficulty in precipitation was
found when the mill first started. but this
was finally overcome and the plant has
been in operation almost continuously
since. though it has had very checkered
career, principally because of bad man
agement. Some years ago the property
t,,$~ tl,,Nh hp,, ,Ic..>
lator, who soon wrecked the entire propo-
sition 1t then fell into a receivers
hands. This gentleman-Mr. Woodbury.
had a business head on him and he
operated the property, making a finan.
cial success of his trust. +. w. King
who had put in the water works and ths
first electric light plant at Great Falls
with L. G. Phelps, a banker of that city
purchased the property and ran it foi
some time. In August, 1898, they parted
with two thirds interest to the Grea,
Northern Mining & Development Com
pany, Mr.. King being retained as man.
ager. A new mill was constructed at ths
mine and the accompanying illustratio,
gives very clear idea of it and the ma.
ture of the surrounding country. Il i:
the largest. finest mill in the state treat
ing ore by cyanide direct In the illus
tration the machinery and engine rooms
are first on the left, the crushing room
and ore bins in the center, and the tank
room on the right with the precipitat atine
room in the ean-to in front. The ma.
chinery and engine room is 5GxS4 feet, ths
tank room 32x1SO feet solution room 16x3(
feet. and the room occupied by the eX-
| tractors and for cutting down the pro
duct by sulphuric acid 32x44 feet.
The ore enters the mill in ears drec
from the mine, the main ore bin. back OF
the mill. as shown, being 19x33 feet, q
feet high. From here it falls onto a,
endless belt which conveys it to No. ;
Gates crusher. 1t passes thence to re.
volying dryer of the usual type. The fue