Idaho Springs siftings., 1902-07-19
Placer Dredging Operations.

Placer Dredging Operations.
There is hardly a mining man, or
! other person interested in mining. in,
| the counties contiguous to Summit
! county that has not heard of the dredg-
ing operations carried ON in the valley
of the Blue river. at Breckenridge. by
the Gold Pan Mining Company, says
the Leadville Herald Democrat, but
hardly one man in ten has any concep-
| tion of the immensely of the PROPOSE
tion or the method of accomplishing
what it has set out to do-to save the
gold values known to exist in the great
gravel beds of the upper Blue. gravel
that cannot be worked by ordinary
placer methods. 1t is just for that rea-
son that an extraordinary placer COM.
pany has come into being; its machin-
cry the most modern, its plant of the
gilt-edged variety. And it is saving the
gold.
When one hears OF dredging" there
is at once conjured up huge steam,
of other poweT-actuated shovel. that
goes tumbling down into the water
and returns with n carload of the stuff
it is sent after. It's different at
Breckenridge The dredging there is
done by an immense stream of gravity
propelled water that goes kissing down.
4 huge pipe; nozzle is turned toward
another great pipe, a vacuum is cre-
ated, and dirt. boulders, gravel. gold
and everything else goes frolicking up.
the pipe, discharging its contents into
a big fiume, in the bottom of which are
innumerable rifles" quicksilver
charged, and the gold that gets away.
from that fiume causes the man
l a IN litfln slapn
Those thorns in the side of
the placer miner - boulders are
taken care of so easily that.
one wonders why it wasn't done be-
fore. Just above and to the left Of.
the pit is located a fine power plant
boilers, holster and everything cont
plete. In front of the power house and
rising to considerable height stands
what looks like the side truss of a
bridge. From this. cables run in ev-
cry direction. bracing it firmly in IT'S
perpendicular position. From the top
of the truss a cable runs directly across
the pit to a safe anchorage beyond the
boulder dump. On this cable runs
stone boat, governed by the engineer
in the power house, n smaller cable
passing from the stone boat to the
drums of the holster. When the crew
uONH III lue pll Nduls 10 Stl llu VI
some troublesome rocks a compressed
air whistle gives a toot, the cable hold
ing the stone boat is slackened. the
boat goes gently down into the pit,
where it is loaded, the whistle toots
again, the engineer causes the cable TO
assume the right angle, and when it
straightens out allows gravity to carry
the boat across to the dump, and when
it strikes a block on the cable the
whole bottom of the boat falls out and
its cargo of boulders placed where they
will cease to be worry. As rocks
weighing seven or eight tons have been
placed in the dump 1t may readily be
seen that the power is ample. The
company has only been engaged in ac-
| tive dredging for two months, but so
.efficacious has been its plant, that
hole large enough to easily accommo-
date building the size of the Nendome
has been dug out of the gravel, which
averages about sixty feet i'll depth AT
the point of operations.
In connection with the dredging plant
is machine shop. where anything can
be made from a pack-knife to a 200
horse power engine; pipe-making
plant that will turn out tubes as small
as a thimble and large enough to drive
horse and wagon through; a wood
working plant and carpenters shop
where anything into which wood en-
ters can be manufactured; black
smith shop that is a model of neatness
containing among other modern APP
pliances a huge trip hammer, where
with the erstwhile stubborn metal is
worked as easily as though composed
of putty.
The power in all these departments
is compressed air; in fact, compressed
air is in evidence rywhere-they
sweep the floors with it, lift great
weights with it. rivet pipes with ii. use
it for air blasts in furnaces, and no
doubt saw wood with it. Besides this,
they have the biggest dipping pit In
the world. That sounds big, but the
pit is there. The purpose of this is TO
place that elementimpervious coating
on pipes which everyone notices ana
no one know how it gets there. Under
the same roof is one of the most com
! plete electric plants in the state.