Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-05-07
CERRILLOS DISTRICT
Commentators And Mills Are Need
ed to Prepare the Ore For
the Smelter.
OPPORTUNITY FOR CAPITAL
Mines Which Have Been Worked For Cen
turies-The Different Mineral Forma-
tions Described Outlook For
the Future Is Encouraging.

| There Is revival of mining industry
In southern Santa Fe county manifest
ed by several lead producers outputting
some ores and undergoing development
to furnish more for the lately completed
| and now successfully running smelter
at Cerrillos. OF course, a silve--lead
district that has produced will be look
ed over again these times to see If en-
terprise may be made to resume some
thing Of its old-time importance and
! values by productions. Indeed, it is be-
ing looked after and developing and
mining has commenced anew in sever
al places, despite the disadvantages of
| recovering old wrecked workings and
gouged mines.
| ONLY SUPERFICIALLY WORKED.
1t should be remembered that the Ger
| rillos district Is yet only specifically
| worked. By such a statement relative
| to comparative shallowness of work.
| ings, it is meant that in so far as lead
and silver and gem stones are con-
| cerned there are no very remarkably
deep workings. The reason for it Is
| manifest when we review the poor aids
and tools (stone hammers, and fire and
water, breaking of rocks) the ancients
used in working for turquois long before
the Spanish conquerors invaded the do
main of Montezuma and his people;
and later, when the Spaniards occupied
the country and used firearms to keep
the people enslaved to their govern
ment, bullets may have been made from
the outcropping or easily mined parts of
lodes in this district; later yet, there
was some mining for silver. People now
living can remember workings Of the
Nina del Trio" the "Ruelina,'' and the
Santa Rosa" mines. Yet later came
American soldiers, and doubtless they
found the Cerrilos district the nearest
place to headquarters at Santa Fe to
obtain lead for making bullets for their
old flint lock rifles and muskets; and
from time to time, until mining COM
menced in earnest twenty years ago,
people must have found the lead ores of
this district handy to get supplies for
bullets from. Numerous old shallow,
partly refilled workings and relics of
stone furnaces attest these simple and
ancient ways Of getting the metals
from the ores of lead and silver.
THE AMERICAN MINER
Later came the American miner and
capitalist. in those days when silver
was as good as gold, and many people
were mining here. Much of the mining
then was by inexperienced people. who
were ready to take chances, as they did
seemingly on anything that had the
least sign of mineral. Particularly did
the lead and blend ores receive the at
tention of the newcomers (metallic lus-
ters being more alluring than some of
the oxide and quartz ores that really
had greater values in them). 1t was
mined and shipped away for treatment
Some lots went to Omaha and st. Louis
and much to Colorado. Moreover much
was devoted to experimentalists with
smelter and concentrator plants that
did not work we'll.
ROOM FOR MORE CAPITALISTS.
Thousands of tons were mined and
disposed of in those several ways; and,
Of course, the modern miner was no diff
ferent from the ancient Pueblo in his
desire to get at the "bonanzas' as
quickly and cheaply as he could. Con-
sequently the prospects are not SO plain
and good as they were before the
"gouging and cutting wrecked and
nearly obliterated it. There would be no
difficulty in capitalizing for all that
might be needed to develop lodes into
mine shape If all the ores taken from
the district could be restored to their
place on outcroppings and in prospect
shafts. AS it is now, fewer mines are
being worked for the output of lead ores
than was presumed might be when the
smelter started and commenced buying
ores. Yet there are good mines and
prospects awaiting workings and de-
velopment into shape that might be-
come abundant producers. A few claims
| are being worked for lead ores. but
there are many more that can be devel-
oped, and yet others that can be recov-
| cred from the wreck Of gougings out
right.
THE MINERAL FORMATION.
Around the bases and slopes Of the
| Cerrillos hills, only few miles from
the smelter the town and railroad,
there are found lodes in formations
I>Oimestones, shales, grit and porphyries)
1 III 20 TVn
places the galena and carbonate Is as
socated in fissure lodes with consider
able values of gold and silver, and
sometimes the sulphides of zinc and
iron are associated with 1t. In regard
to such admixtures in the lodes 1t goes
without saying almost that such ores
need concentrating and separation from
the galena, else they may not be treated
at the Cerrillos smelter with any profit
| for the miner. There are no mills or
concentrators in the district yet these
blend" ores and some gold and silver
prospects more than suggest the need
of them at some central point of the dis
trict convenient for custom work, or
directly at the mines having those
kinds Of ores. 1t is too plain that hand
sorting of galena, in the same lode with
zinc blend ores, Is too costly way Of
separating them. OF course. there are
nests" and "shutes'' of clean good ga
lena and carbonate of lead ores. but
they are so apt to become associated
with the zinc that one should have the
needed machinery for separations az
soon as quantities are developed and
ready to be mined. Miners here who
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