Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-02-12
GOLDEN-CERRILL0S
Two Camps In Southern Santa Ee
County Where Miners Are Do
ing Something.
BIG GOLD SAYING MACHINE
Preparations At the smelter to Begin Work
Valuable Output Of a Turquois Mine
"A Turquois Trust Has Local
.... Directors
Special Cor. New Mexican.

Special Cor. New Mexican.
Golden, N. NJ, February 1o.-Han-
ding gold-bearing gravel at the rate of
a cubic yard per minute at a cost OF
cents per yard is the record of the
plant owned by the Monte Cristo Min
ing Company, now in operation half
mile east of this town. r. A. Kirk, of
st. Paul, Mimi, is president of the COM
pany, and it's principal stockholders-it
Is capitalized for 81, 1000, ,000-reside at st.
Paul, Cleveland and Kansas City Col.
J. A. Wood, of the latter city, is mama
ger, and 1t is due to him to say that it
Is chiefly owing to his unbounded conf1-
dence in the enterprise, his push and
inventive genius, that all obstacles have
been overcome and the plant made to
attain it's present completeness and
success. The
GOLD-SAVING MACHINE
has been practically rebuilt during the
past year, according to IDEAS OF Colonel
Wood. as suggested after exhaustive
experiments. 1t is a three-decker aftalr
on wheels, run by steam. The gold
laden sand and gravel is dug up by
Chicago steam dredge, which cuts
swath in the earth 40 feet wide and ~
to 80 feet deep, scooping up everything
on top OF bed rock. The dredge bucket
is a curious contrivance with a bottom
that works on hinges, and controlled
by chains and levers. Operating like an
elephants trunk, it gathers up cubic
yard of gravel, swings gracefully
around and dumps it into tram car,
and wthile the car is lifted to the hopper
by a steam hoist; another bucketful Is
got ready, and 50 ON at the rate of one
yard per minute. This dredge is also
on wheels; the two machines are run
on parallel lines, and but thirty min
utes' time is consumed when 1t is nee
essary to move them forward to the
face of the gravel pit.
ROCKER AND sLUICEs.
The tram car conveys the gravel to
the top story Of the gold-saving plant
proper. where it Is automatically drop
ped into hopper and fed into a huge
perforated steel rocker, over which are
the water pipes whence comes with
great force the precious fluid playing
upon the boulders. gravel and SAND as
IT Ia shifted from side to side in the
rocker. This agitation washes the grav-
ed perfectly clean; boulders and grave!
finally work their way down to the
mouth of the rocker drop into the cups
of a 6O-foot steam conveyer and are
carried off to the dump, while the sand,
clay and cement in the shape of very
muddy water pours down through the
perforations in the rocker into double
set of rifles, where
THE BRIGHTLY WASHED GOLD
finds lodgment AS rule, 95 per cent OF
the values are caught in the first ten
inches of the rifle box. There are clev-
er devices for pumping up the tailings
and working them over the rifles again
and by a system of exhaust pipes
pumps and reservoirs the water is used
over and over as often as three ITO hve
times in conjunction with "a moderate
quantity of pure water. Two wells 5Ot
feet in depth supply the water which is
pumped into two iron tanks of ca
pacity of $1,000 gallons, and thence
reaches the we'll through 6-inch mains
on an incline of $50 feet in half a mile.
The company OWNS 400 acres OF lane
Just off the Ortiz mine grant, where the
Edison experiments are about to pt
made. They declined to divulge the av
erage value OF the gravel, but 1T is saae
to be about 90 cents per CUBIC yaro
which, treated at cost OF cents PEI
yard would seem to be a real warn
thing for the owners. There are no"
seventeen men employed at the plan
under the supervision of Walter Mo
ldleton, OF Kansas City, Colonel Wood
son-in-taw.