Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-09-20
SANTA FEES LUCK
Importance Of Edison Plan for Work
ing A~uriferous Ground On the
Ortiz Grant.
AIR NOT ELECTRICITY AGENT
A Great Plant to Be Constructed, Hundreds
Of Men Employed and Leasers Given
Opportunity to Make Money for
Themselves.

For some days this week 5. Il. Burn, the
agent of the New Mexico Mining COM
pany, which this month bought the con-
trolling interest in the company owning
the Ortiz grant, southern Santa Fe coun-
ty, was in the city on business connected
with the transfer of the property, pos
session of which was delivered by Re-
ceiver s. H. Elkins when he had sue
ceeded in paying off all the indebtedness
incurred by the old management with
the proceeds of mining operations con
Quoted by the receiver.
When Mr.. Burn first came to the city
he asked to be excused from giving fol
| publication any details with reference
to the plans of the company, but before
leaving for Dolores, the old mining fowl
on the grant, he furnished some infor
nation which will be of interest to tn
people of Santa Fe county, and OF thi:
city in particular, because OF the vas
industrial and commercial results ex
pected from this enterprise. While thu
price paid for the grant has been pub
lished as about SO, 200, 900, the agent o
the buyers declined to confirm or deny
the statement. But as to the genera
plans of the company Mr.. Burn wa
quite frank.
In a day or two he will leave Dolore
for New York where the purchasers re
side, and will return in October with
complete corps of office assistants, engi
neers and mechanics for the purpose o
beginning active operations upon thu
auriferous deposits, which are e%xtensiv'
enough to satisfy the most avariciou
gold hunterif the ground can be worke'
for all it is worth. For decades gold ha
been mined on the grant by placer wor
when there has been water, and to som
extent by dry washers, while quart
mining is carried on there extensively
For some years past the genius Q
Thomas A. Edison, the electrical inven
tor, has been applied to seeking
method for handling vast quantities G
auriferous earth by a cheap and pract
cal method where water could not b
had, and elaborate and extensive eXpt
riments have been made from time
time by him.
When Mr.. Edison decided that tn
machinery he designed would provide a
economical solution of the problei
there we're plenty of men ready to full
nish the money to purchase the mos
extensive gold deposits in this countr
and to operate a plant which the inver
tor would approve. As a result control G
the stock was purchased and Mr.. Ediso
gets an interest for his aid in maxim
the venture profitable. Before passin
it up to the point where he would advis
his friends to invest money, the invento
had a number of car loads of the gol
bearing gravel and earth shipped to hi
eastern laboratory from the grant 70
treatment by his experimental mach
merry.
While the inventor and his associate
have no doubt Of the success OF the neN
process, in rider to guard against an
errors in mechanical construction the
may first have a small plant built, upo
the return of Mr.. Burn, with a capacit
for handling from so to 100 tons OF cart
per day. 1t is intended, however, t
build a plant to handle from $4,000 o
more tons daily, and this may be con
structed without trying the work on
smaller scale if the test to be made upo
a few more car loads of earth to b
shipped at once proves satisfactory
However this point may be decided, tn
first work to be done after Mr.. Burn an
his force come out from New York wi,
be to sink so shafts to bedrock, whic
ranges from 20 to IS feet in depth. a.
the earth above being gold bearing. TIL
output from sinking the shafts will b
first treated by the experimental plant
if one be constructed, and in this mar
ner will be determined which ground
the richest, as the shafts will be seal
tered over the grant in order to Civ
practical tests as to the extent and loca
tion of the most profitable portions.
But has the New Jersey man reall
accomplished what so many mining me.
have sought in vain? Well, Mr.. Edisol
says that he considers this his creates
work, and he has never been accused O
talking through his sombrero. And no,
is the work to be done? The invento
will answer when he m out in tn
winter to start the plant, as he has toll
an interviewer he will. 1t was not par
VI MI. DuIuS UuoIAOSs w VOL ia oUAo
Fe of the machinery to be used. On
important fact he did admit, however
Electricity is not to be an agent in sepa
rating the gold from the other material
as popularity supposed, although tn
power to propel the plant will be cleo
tricity, and to make everything read
for another force to do the work of sepa
ration which electricity can not do, sine
it repels rather than attracts gold. Tha
other force is air, applied in some wa,
at the right time and in proper quantit
to blow the lighter material away iron
the heavier gold.
The simple statement by Mr.. Bur-
that air and not electricity will be tn
agent, leaves DOR for the imagination
The principle upon which all crud
dry-washers operate is that air blow
upon gold bearing gravel and cart
when it is being sifted and agitated by
machine, carries away the waste cart
and finer particles Of gravel, the gol'
falls through a screen and the waste |
excluded. MI. Edison has probably ap
piled this principle on an extensiv
scale, with elaborate apparatus. Las
year he completed q plant in New Jer
sey for crushing an iron bearing roc