The evening times., 1899-03-17
In THE GOLD Fields
OF THE OLD DOMINION
Many Mines Worked From
Time to Time.
Explanation of the Failures of the
Past.
Interest i'm the Enterprise Said to
Interest i'm the Enterprise Said TO
BE ResiVinE-Comme of
Old Writers.

An incipient gold fever has been caused
by the articles on gold mining in Mary
land and Virginia which appeared recently
in The Times. 1t is possible that some
day there may be a great deal OF excite
ment over the nearby gold fields.
Many gold mines have been worked in
Virginia from time TO time. II is said BY
those who believe in the mineral rich
ness of the adjacent country that want of
experience and of proper machinery, want
Of sufficient depth, speculative investments
with no expectation of working them ex-
cept TO get up a company and sell out,
have caused the failure and suspension of
nearly all mining save iron, coal, salt
petre, and sulphur. 1t is also said that
within the last two or three years in
terest has been somewhat revived and that
several gold mines have been worked in
Buckingham. Fluvanna, and Goochland
counties. The Tellurium mine, in Fluvan-
ma and Goochland counties has produced
considerable gold. 1t was worked for
number Of years by Commodore Stockton,
and, although il has produced $1,000, 900,
it has never been worked deeper than the
free gold: the sulphurets which are now
Prof. Stowe, geologist and mineralogist,
after arriving in Virginia in 1873 from Cal
ifornia, wrote: Il am now of the opinion
that the ores of Virginia are the richest
and easiest 10 work Of any | have ever
met. / have made over 200 assays of ores
from the Atlantic slope and have visited
in person many of the localities where gold
is found, and ! speak from facts
Major Hotchkiss. a writer widely known
among Virginia readers, expressed himself
as follows: Here is a mass of precious
metal, enclosed in the rock. which cannot
be exhausted for ages, and in this respect
the region in question is the most import
ant of all known deposits, California not
excepted.
Overman, the mineralogist wrote: We
have here in Virginia a belt of gold of
unparalleled extent, immense width, un-
doubtedly reaching 10 the primitive rock.
In the earlier days very large nuggets were
found by breaking up the quartz with
sledgehammers. One of these found in
SpottsyIvania sold for s43S A nugget,
found in gulch skirting the Busby mine
in Goochland county, was sold al Richmond
in 1882 foI $500"
In the 4J's and SOS gold mining in Vir-
ginia while in most cases paying good
profit did so in spite of crude methods,
wastefulness, ignorance, and bad business
management. IL is said that no more than
80 per cent of the gold handled was Ie-
ceived. IL was a rare thing TO recover 40
per cent. While mining and milling ope-
rations were confined to the ores abov.
the water level, all was satisfactory, b.,
as soon as the workers would go below tn
water lines, they would strike the sulphu-
rets. Then the digging had 10 cease, for
in those days no way had been discoverel
by which the gold could be recovered
cheapiy and quickly from the pyrites Tn
sulphuret ores continued 10 be raised and
milled UP to 1860 and they paid on toe
free gold contained in them. but the pFin
cpai value was lost in the tai.ings.
Some of the taiings were saved and
later having ripened with salt they We
after several years "sluiced.' and some ol
the gold was recovered. The Nanc us
mine in Orange county, and the N mes in
Buckingham county accumulated vas
quantities of tailings. Within the last ten
years some of the tailings of the Nanc us
mine have yielded from 81 to $13 a ton n
free gold. by sluicing. In Buckingham
is said that one man has made over $50, ,Go0
in the last twenty years by working over
tailings which have been ripeniLg sin
1856
AT the Vancluse mine, before 1850 scisn-
ttfic men from Germany experimental al
great cost, trying TO perfect some me,hod
of getting the values quickly and Cheaply
from the pyrite tailings. The resut vas
Wilderness, much money was sp5nt in the
same and with the same result.
At the Knapp mine in Culpeper county.
Va, a great deal Of money was spent in
an effort 10 utilize the sulphuret ores. with
the usual failure. All the mines named
made great sums Of money when operating
on the ores above the water level II is
said that the history OF the mines men
toned is the history of hundreds of mines
in Virginia, North Carolina, South Caro-
lima, and Georgia.
These losses by the people of the last
generation have made those of this gen.
Grafton skeptical. II is said. however, that
mining operations are in progress in Flu
wanna and GoOchland counties which may
make the most skeptical believe. Ii is
said that il is not unusual for men to
make as high as So 81 or s. a day and
rarely as low as 75 cents a day by pan.
In the olden times a gold miner thought
he had a superior outfit if he could get
small stamp mill on some small stream
near his ore. Then a stamp meant white
oak stick about 6 feet long. and inches
square, the lower end shod with iron and
sliding up and down between guides. The
pulVersized material was made TO go
through perforated sheet iron plate on
an inclined table having on il bulls hide,
set so that the hair would lean up towards
the plate. In this way the gold which
could be caught in the hair was all the
miner could hope TO get. The bull hide
would every little while be taken off the
table and rinsed in tub of water.
little three stamp mill of this kind
was in use in the Hughes mine in Flu
wanna county in 1854, and even in this
crude way, The operators made on an av-
erage $50 day from the three stamps.