The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-03-14
GoId-PrOduring "l.cai."

| "''"e 80" 'N'-'2 40 " - iib'i " III dA-
thorlty. So it is plain that old Egypt
held the yellow mctalprccious Pliny
says that mercury was used in his time
to scperatc gold from other substances.
So mctalurry is an old science. Bnt
the world long depended forgold upon
| what miners call river washings. y
| The Indn- and F.uphratcs were the
srgt- where men found it first; then
they touk it from the rivers Nubia and
EthlnpIa. In our own time the rivers
Of .\lasAa are giving up their gold
But the separating of gold from rock
when only from three to fifteen dollars
worth can be got from a ton, i, mod
crn process, and this i, The sccrc. that
has built UP IA town Of eight thousand
people, five thousand feet up among
the enchanting Black Hills.
| Lead in miner, phrase, means IL
vein Of ore Lead. South Dakota, re
ccivcd the name it bears because
"lcad, practically incxhaustibc, Of
aurifcrous rock was found there.
This rock yields up its goll b. sim
pie and inexpensive process known as
free milling. Other ores found in
the Black Hills have to be roasted
and treated with chlorine before their
gold can be secured. But the rocks
at Lead, composed Of hydrous mica,
hornblendic schist, and quartz, and,
incloscd in walls Of porphyry and va
rious kinds Of slate, have only to be
ground az fine as meal
The Indians ccdcd the Black Hills
to the United States government in
1876. The Sioux clung tcnaciously to
their beautiful home because they be-
licvcd it protected by Il kind and
mighty spirit whom they called Taku-
Wakcn (Thc Spirit of the IIills) lie
it was who prepared the hot springs to
cure the red men Of Diseases and he
permitted the white crowned sparrow,
that sings his sweet and plaintivcqu
vers in the darkest night, to tell what
was going to happen to all Sioux who
asked. In 1877 writer in Serb
ncrs $ Monthly said: 81 think the
Black Hills mine will prove fail
urc
Yet in the summer Of that year two
Callfornians bought the IIomcstake
and DcadwoOd mines, although rail
ways had not yet penetrated the hills.
They sent an order to San francisco
for their machinery and eighty stamps.
Everything save the lumber came
overland to Cheyenne, Wyoming,
whence it was dragged by oxen to
Lead, distance Of three hundred
miles. That first stamp mill cost one
hundred and thirty thousand dollars.
Now there are, think, seven stamp
mills, aud every month more than two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars arc
paid out to the lIomcstakc Company
employees il salaries anu wages.
Everything is very much up or
downhill in Lead. On one hillside
the mouth of the great IIomcstake
thine yawns. From it, across the deep
valley, Hgocs great trestle to the
upper story of the Star mill Across
that yiaduct so platform cars loaded
with gold-b bearing rock broken into
chunks the size Of egg coal.
\ stamp is q cylindrical iron pes
tie, on which is q shoe of chilled iron
that can be renewed when necessary.
The whole weighs about eight hun
drcd pounds. AS the stamp lifts it
turns half round so the shoe is worn
down uniformly. It strikes down
upon bed of cast-iron, lifts about
nine inches, and makes about sixty
blows to the minute. was told that
the number Of blows cam be regulated |
from thirty to ninety per minute.
The gold rock is fed into bins, from
which it dcsccnds under the great
stamps. With the rock is dropped a
certain amount Of pure mercury.
Water washes out pulvcrizcd rock and
mercury over series Of inclined cop
per aprons. The copper causes the
to unite with the gold, and the
amalgam clipgs TO the aprons. With the
refuse rock, or as tie miners call it,
'tailings,' goes certain per cent. of
gold, and to catch.this dam was being
built across Deadwood river when
was at Lead. Cleaned from the cop
per aprons, the copper gold amalgam is
put into canvas bags and we'll wash
ed to free it from the excess of mer.
curry. 1t is then sent to the separating
works, where it is carefully heated;
here the mercury passes of as vapor,