The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-01
PROSPECTS ARE BRIGHT
For a Prosperous Mining Season
in Garnet.
MUCH WORK WILL BE DONE
Scme Good Preparatory Operations
All the Mines Are Self-Support-
ing and Will Prove
Money Makers.

Garnet, Feb. 27.-The wonderful Gar
into a profitable ore bearing region of
remarkable magnitude and richness.
Each coming season witnesses the en-
largement of the zone of valuable mines
and prospects. until the mineral belt
can now be said to extend continuously
from the Copper Cliff mines on the west
easterly along the rumpled backbone of
the rugged mountain range for dis
lance of something like Is miles to the
headwaters of Deep creek, while in
deposits is placed by practical men at
about four miles.
This vast mneralized area is fissured
and scanned in all directions by hun
dreds of quartz veins and contact ore
deposits, varying in size and richness
but mostly of an economic nature, and
is without doubt the primitive source of
the rich placer gold deposits in Bear,
Elk, Deep and other gulches that head
in the belt During past ages erosion
and disintegration have cut down the
ore bodies along with the surface of the
hills and the debris has been swept into
the gulches below. forming these great
placer deposits from which, up to the
present, something like $70.000,O00 in
placer gold has been recovered.
The north slope of the region is COM
posed mostly of a cynetic granite for
nation, which at about the apex of the
mountain plunges under ancient sedi-
mentary rocks that cover the south
slope. The ore deposits are not con-
fined to any one particular formation,
but are found traversing all of them,
but inclined to cluster near the contact
of the sedimentary with the eruptive
rock. This broken, distorted contact
zone is the most interesting feature of
the district. forming, as it does, the CEN
trail line of the ore belt, and during the
hot spring period of the mineral de-
poSit seems to have been the seat of
the most violent mineral action. The
elements that deposited the ore in the
sedimentary rock without doubt flowed
from the underlying igneous formation
and at several prospects the ore has
been followed by shaft through the
sedimentary into the underlying gran
ite
The gangue rock of most of the veins
is vtreous white quartz. heavily charg-
ed with aurifcrous iron pyrites and usu-
ally carrying copper and lead in more
or less quantities. Near the surface the
sulphide ore is oXidized and of a free
milling character; this horizontal oXi-
died zone only extends to a depth of
60 or 100 feet. At about this depth the
character of the ore makes a radical
change and begins to show its original
nature, but still gives evidence of hay
ing been altered by the action of sur
face elements. The iron pyrites which
occur in different degrees of civilization
is of brassy color and is very brittle
and decrepitates easily, being much
softer than its quartz matriX. In this
zone copper and lead also make their
appearance, the former occurring in the
form of pyrites, soft glance and brittle
gray copper; the latter in the form of
galena, usually assaying we'll in gold. In
the Mammoth mine a Coloma it has
been demonstrated that at greater
depth the minerals of the ore become
hard and tenacious, while the gangue
rock is soft and brittle. This will doubt
less be the permanent physical condi
ton of the ore at great depth.
Experiments are now being carried
on in almost every laboratory in the
state seeking the right method for the
treatment of this particular character
of ore, and it is safe to say that the
right man with the right process will
mos assuredly make his appearance, and
for such man. with the means to erect
a. suitable plant, the Garnet district is
indeed most promising one.
Twelve miles north of Bearmouth sta
ton, on the Northern Pacific railroad
is the town of Garnet, situated mid
way of the mineral belt and seemingly
at the seat of greatest naturalization.
Garnet is at present and doubtless will
be the future metropolis of this vast
conner and gold nrnHnpinpr rapinn q
gion that promises in the near future to
equal, if not surpasS in size, perma-
nency and richness of its ore deposits