Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1902-06-27
SANTA FE, N. M, FRIDAY, JUNE a. 1902.
MINES AND MINING
IN TAOS COUNTY
The Machinery of the Fraser Mountain
Copper Company Excepting the Smelter
at Twining Was Given Trial
Run Last Week,
CONSIDERABLE ACTIVITY IN DEVELOP
MENT WORK IN the RED RIVER DISTRICT

Last week water was turned on ant
all the machinery of the Fraser Noun
tain Copper company, at Twining, Tao
county, except the smelter, which is no
yet completed, was given a trial run
Everything worked perfectly and it viii
be but a short time before the whole
plant is in continuous operation.
The two lines OF water pipe which
furnish the power for his plant, one
$500 and the other 1880 feet long are
now in use. They have direct verti
cal pressure of s6a feet which means q
great deal of power at a very small ex-
pense. The mile Of pipe used in the
constructioYof the line varies in diane
ter from sixteen to twenty seven inches
and holds large quantity of water.
| The water wheels are in active opera
tion now furnishing power for the opera
tion of the cable tramway which Is
| filing the ore bins at the mill. These
bins are of a capacity of about 200
tons.
The electric plant is also in operation
at present, furnishing light to all the
buildings. Telephones are in use wher-
ever needed.
$50, 900 bricks, another is making char
ccal in large quantities and on Monday
of this week contracts were let for the
cutting of wood amounting to 3,125
cords.
Ever since the construction of the
mill was begun last fall development
has continued on the mine and men are
now employed in five or six different
places opening up bodies of ore and put
ting the mine in shape for large ont
put. Only the ore from the openings is
being taken to the mill bins at the pre-
sent time.
The recent work has uncovered rich
er ore than was ever discovered before
the mill was begun and the local repre-
sentatives and members of the company
are very sanguine over the prospects.
Twenty-Five years ago, William Fraser
then comparatively young man, fresh
from. limited mining success in the year
ling state of Colorado, came to New Mex
leo to seek greater fortune. He was at
tracted by prospects OF gold at the mouth
OF the Rio Hondo canon and determined
to penetrate the grea shfs X Of mountains
through which the transparent waters
of that most picturesque stream find
their winding path from the icy caverns
and cliff bound lakes to the parched
sands of the valley, 5000 feet below.
Two days were consumed on that first
trip up the canon, in cutting path
through vines and shrubbery, q distance
of eight or nine miles, to the vicinity OF
the present operations, where camp
was established and prospecting begun.
The same distance is now accomplished
in little more than an hour over a
splendid mountain road, which it has
cost him thousands OF dollars to con-
struct.
His means being limited were very
SUUil CAuduSucu dbu ~ OCtUuU jCCCoo@iy
to secure capital for further develop
ment, or fail entirely and desert the
prospects, something he had no inten-
tion of doing.
He therefore set about to build mill
with which he could abstact the gold
from the ore, and worked almost year
single-handed. The result was crude
plant, consisting of six nine feet arras-
tras run by water wheel, the whole
made of hewn timber, without the use
of nails or other iron. TO this he pack.
ed the oxidized ore from the surface OF
the great vein, on burros, and succeeded
in clearing up six thousand dollars. But
the surface ores were soon exhausted
and the arrastras were too crude
method to save the gold from the more
refractory ore which was developing
with depth and contained combinations
of copper and other metals and the mill
was accordingly abandoned.
But Mr.. Fraser was not discouraged
and Immediately tried another expert
ment.
On the west side of the mountain there
is slide of loose rock about 200 feet
long, 500 feet wide and 80 feet deep,
which has accumulated in past ages
through the disintegration of the great
vein bv natural elements. This slide is
all ore and thorough tests have shown
that it carries from 81 to $40 per ton in
precious and useful metals and there are
over million tons OF 1t. The prospec-
tor now decided to sluice this mass and
accordingly built bitches and put in
sluice boxes. He was again only par
TALLY successful in saving gold, while II
paid 1t did not return enough to satisfy
him and this method was also aban-
doned.
But the sluicing had definitely deter
mined one thing; which was that the
great vein and the great mass OF slide
rock was far richer in copper than In
gold; during the sluicing this metal was
found in nearly all it's forms-malachitc,
azurite, oxides and snlphides+
The development of the mine was now
undertaken more vigorously than ever
before; tunnels, shafts, wines and
cross cuts, requiring years of labor and
much money, were opened up, about
fifty OF such openings, ranging in length
| from ten to eight hundred feet, and
aggregating four thousand feet of rock
work now disclose the immense body
of'ore.
| The Red River region is in the midst
of an extensive mineral zone in north
ern Taos county. and is characterized
by large bodies of low grade to medium
grade ores of gold, silver, copper and
lead, with isolated occurrences Of trac-
es of zinc and antimony. Speaking
generally the ores may be denominated
as refractory, though there are several
localities where from 20 to so per cent
Of the values are free" Gold and sill
yer are found in all the ores, some
times by themselves. frequently asso-
ciated with either copper or lead and
! occasionally all four are found togeth-