The Saint Paul globe., 1901-08-19

ground when stamping was begun. The
amygdaloid mine of the Calumet &
Hecla on the Osceola lode has twenty
miles OF openings, or four times as much
as the Isle Royale, and is being equipped
on colossal scale. 1t has not cost the
company four times as much as the Isle
Royale has cost, but the work has ab-
sorbed several millions, from which a
handsome revenue will be secured In
years to come. The fire of Nav. 1900
dld not cost the mine a million dollars
directly, but cost more than than If all
the indirect losses are carefully figured
That is was not more expensive is due
to the elaborate precautions previously
taken to stay the progress of an under
ground conflagration. Extensive better
ments have been made In the smelter
plant at Buffalo, thousands of acres Of
the best timber land in the Lake Supe-
rior district have been added to the re-
serves or the company, and in many
ways there have been large expenditures
for the benefit of the property
The mine is now under the local man
agement of James MacNaughton. a
young mining man who has earned a no.
s1tfon among the leaders in his profess
sion by his sllillful handling Of one Of
the greatest. iron mines of the world
There is no sudden reversal of the pol
Icy followed by the Calumet & Hecla
for twenty-five years past, but there Is
being a cleaning out or dutsy corners
and a general looping off of expenses
where cuts can be made to ADVANTAGE
and without impeding the progress Of
the mine
The Calumet & Hecla has probably
about thirty years of life on the con-
gIomerate within the limits now set to
It's mining operations. In addition there
TO 1t has the Osceola amygdaloid under
lylng the entire cOnglomerate and the
Kearsarge amygdaloid underlying the
Osceola, and has a mine opened on the
OSceola lode that can easily make IL OOg -
900 to 10000, coo pounds of copper annual
~, as now opened, as soon as its new
mill Is running and the equipment COM
pleted at its shafts. In addition to the
mineral resources already enumerated
1t should not be forgotten that the CaIu-
met 6 Hecla also owns a large tract of
land west Of the Tamarack, underlaid bv
the congiomerate. 1t will require deem
shaft to develop mine to the west Of
the Iamarack-a shaft Of nearly two
miles in deptn-but in view of the won
derful strides made in deep mining in the
past decade it is not beyond the range
OF possibilities that such a shaft may
be started soon. Fifteen years ago the
sinking OF No. l Tamarack to a. vertical
depth of 2,270 feet made a new worlds
record, and the men who sunk 1t were
denounced as lunatcs until the phe-
nomena1 success closed the mouths of
their detractors.
The bottoming of the Red Jacket shaft
only few years ago, at a depth of 4gOO
feet, was regarded with wonder and held
by many to be the ultimate limit in deep
mining, yet today the No shaft of the
Iamarack lacks but a months work Of
being a full 5000 feet in depth, and the
holsting plant just installed is built for
service to a depth of 5000 feet-nearly
three times the depth at which the
original Tamarack shaft cut the lode,
although then denounced as a crazy
undertaking by some of the best mining
men Of this district. If the planned
limits of deep mining have been extended
to almost three times their original
bounds, within less than two decades
the jump from 6C00 to 10000 feet is not
such an impossible one as it now seems
to many shaft two miles in depth
could be sunk in ten years, at a cost,
including equipment, of $1,000 900 or 50. co.,
600. In other words a tWo-mile shaft
could be sunk and equipped at about the
same cost and in about the same time
as the Red Jacket shaft, which lacks
a little of a mile in depth
There is really but one serious draw
back TO the sinking of a two-mile shaft,
and that is the question of ventilation
At sucn great depth the heat would be
intense. The developments of the
next two years in No. Tamarack will
settle the question of whether a Iwo-
mile Shaft could be operated to ad-
vantage. That it could be sunk is no
longer. open to question. At the deep
vertical shafts of the Calumet district
powerful fans are used TO reinforce the
natural system of ventilation obtaining
in all deep mines having more than
single shaft. In the case of the hy-
pothetical two-mile shaft the single open
Ing could be made TO serve the purpose
of two shafts by making the different
compartments air-tight and using one of
them for a dOwn-cast, and another for
an up-cast, or chimney, to withdraw the
heated air from the mine. The COM
pressed air from the power drills is also
a powerful factor in mine operation at
great depths, as air gives up much of
its heat under compression, and when
released quickly robs the surrounding
rock and the free air in the mine of a
portion of their heat.
The new mill of the Mass company is
in commission and is prepared to treat
about 500 tons daily as soon as 1t gets
settled down for steady mining. Capt
James Wilcox, who is in charge of the
! mine, states that the rock to feed the
mill can be furnished without crowding
| The 100000 for which Mass shareholders
were recently assessed will be used to
| develop other lodes and portions Of the
| property that nave been opened.
Fifty men are being worked at the
| Belt and good start has been made in
| reopening the old workings and breaking g
| new ground The underground develop
ments at the Belt are pitiably small in
| view of the expenditure of $1,250,0aO made
on the property in the sos by an English
4 company which swallowed some bare