The Arizona sentinel., 1902-03-19
LA FORTUNA MINE.

In the early days of gold discovery of Califor- nia, 1S48. when the news reached the gold miners of Sonora. there was general exodus of the ablebodied men who were able to get away northwest to the new El Dorado in California, and the state of Sonora contributed many men 10 the mining population. They took the old road which was known as the ''camino real. from EStdncia and Altar nofthWeStward nearly parallel to the gulf following the mountain ridge known as the Gila range, just north of our present boundary. The road led to una and in passing the Gila range |. c went within few feet or yards of very modest outcrop of quartz which no one seemed to consider of sui ficient value to merit any attention. That hum blc and insignificant quartz outcrop is today the - Outcrop of the great Fortuna mine.
 It is situated on the westward slope and nearly at the base of tho range of mountains called on some of the old maps the Gila range. This trends northwesterly and reaches nearly to the Gila river at the point now known as Blaisdcll. . The railway in it's course to Yuma passes around the northwest poiat of this range. Where the rocks are exposed at that point they are mostly of homogeneous granite, of gray color and weathered out at the surfaces, which, however are much pitted as if by decompoSi- tion of some soft substance. But beyond these low-lying hills of granite there are big outcropS of rock which to the experienced eye indicate stratified formations They arc indeed strait fled. for the bulk of the range SOuthward and southeastward is composed of regular Stratified laminated. hard gneiSSc rock. use the word t..rneiSSic'' in a very general and comprehensive sense for you can describe these rocks with much more accuracy if you localiZe them as
 
 polations of quartZite beds. especially in the upper part of the series, with green stains. SUD posed to be stains of copper and decomposition of copper ore which they probably are. al though there are pcculiaritieS of color, and some yellow colorS, which indicate to me the presence of some other mineral. possibly. tel luriun. which by it's decomposition has given these colorS. The fact remains however, that the bullion from the upper part of the vein con- tainS more copper than it now contains in the lower levels of the mine. The workings which hrw.n f7.a rlnra, condition of things which could not be foretold from an inspection of the oItcrop. The vein or lode appears to be chimney, not contino- ous ore body. nor continuous vein with an ore marked the outcropping points indicate that there is no very great longitudinal extension of this ore body.
 The vein is remarkable first in this limited out crop: second in it's continuity in depth, its con- tinued satisfactory richness and the promise it gives of enrichment by further veins dipping into it on the foot-wall sides.
 Some facts in regard to the product or yield: The ore paid from the surface The product or ore extracted up to the time has been about SC tons per day. which is sent to the 20-stamp mill each stamp of which cruSheS- about tons in every twenty-fOur hours The extraction Is chiefly and largely by power drills. force of 30 mon is employed by this mine and mill The greater part of the labor underground and mining is done by compressed air The lode, EaS told was to 15 feet wide. This large space permits the use Of power drills to grca1 advantage In the material hoiSted there arc fragments of the wall rocks some of which art thrown out, but many pieces pass through tht mill. They would prefer to reject most of thl: wall rock but it would take more time and ex pense than it does to mill it. and there is chance of some of it containing gold. Fron these 80 tons of rock crushed daily the average product is perhaps S4S.O00 worth of gold pc month. Some months they have produced a high as S9000O.
 In the region of the Fortuna mine the forma tiOnS appear to be wholly of mica slate ant hornblende slate. with some arenaceouS layer Ike old micaoeOuS SandStoncS and QuartZlteS The mine iS surrounded by black hOrnblendi states and mica states. dipping southward an southweStWard at an angle of about 45 degree: and these states are very evenly lamlnateC ridge after ridge.