Omaha daily bee., 1902-04-15
MINING IN THE BLACK HILLS
Installation of New Machinery Increases
Facilities for Rapid Development,
NEW EXPERIMENTS IN GOLD EXTRACTION
Cyanide Process Calculated to Hasten
Action of solution H. Attracting
Much attention Among
Miners.

Copper company was held in Deadwood and
ohicers elected for the coming year. J. E.
Barnes Is president; T. L.. Wilkinson, vice
president; John Robinson, treasurer, ami
George M. T~hresher, secretary. These, with
the following, constitute the board OF d.
%rectors: George NJ. Wilkinson, John B.
Taylor and Robert Scholt. With the ex-
ception OF Mr.. Taylor the officers and d.
rectors are residents OF Benton Harbor.
Mich. Mr.. Taylor resides at Rockford, S.
D., and is general manager OF the COM
pany.
The company Is developing both copper
and gold properties in Pennington county.
1t has been working on the Copper Reef
group nearly four years, starting ar In
cline shaft on a ledge of copper-bearing
ore that at the surface measures $50 feet
across. The shaft Is down 500 feet. At
the 4O0-foot level II has driven a cross-cut
sixty feet into the ore, which assays 3
per cent copper and from 50 to 81 a ton in
gold. Cross-cuts are being driven both
ways on The ledge from the sOO-foot level.
The company's gold property is known rs
the Benedict group. recently purchased Of
Mendenhall, Hooper and associates, situated
near the Copper Reef. Fourteen miners
have lately been set to work, and a deep
shaft is to be started.
Buys Chilean MIL.
The Black Hills company has purchased
a Chilean mill and is setting 1t up on the
ground. The steam hoist that was in use
on the Yellow Bird in the same region
last year has been Installed for the deep
shaft. The company's property is situated
in what is the most active portion Of the
Black Hills this year. An immense amount
Of new work is under way. Nearby the
Ohio-Deadwood company. is employing a
large force In development, opening UP a
strong ledge Of free milling ore running
from SO tc $46 a ton. The Cochran Mining
company, organized on the Cochran mine.
employed twenty-seven miners, and is at
present prosecuting the ledge at right
angles, and is getting ready to start the
Huntington quartz mill. which has a ca
pacity of thirty tons daily, and is to be
continued in use until a stamp mill can be
built. The British American Copper Min
ing company expects to start work this
month after remaining idle all winter, and
miners are being engaged for that pur-
pose.
d. c. Boley is conducting an interesting
series Of experiments in the Black Hills
with an invention calculated to hasten the
action Of the solution in the cyanide process
Of gold extraction. Electricity is used in
his scheme, on which he obtained a pat
emit about a year ago, and he claims that
he can do the work in eight hours that
ordinarily requires eight days in the way
of extraction. He has taken a lease on the
Gibbs L. Cook plant at Gayville, and Is
conducting his experiments upon Black
tail gulch ores principally. He expects to
demonstrate the ofncacy Of his system
during the next few weeks, and to secure
its adoption ia several Of the large plants.
Mr.. Boley has been operating In the Black
Hills several years, being at one time a
lessee OF the Rossiter cyanide plant in
Deadwood., which he operated on ores from
ground that he owns IN Blacktal gulch
with a good degree Of success.
Contract for Hauling Tailings.
The Imperial Mining company has let the
contract for hauling the tailings from the
dump of the Rossiter cyanide plant to the
new Imperial plant, both of which are To-
Gated in the lover part Of The
Imperial company has purchased the old
dump, which is estimated to contain about
so, 900 tons. Numerous assays have been
made on the tailings, showing that they are
worth better than So a ton. 1t will be
necessary to haul them only a fourth Of a
mile, over an excellent road, and deliver
them into the teaching tanks. The part of
the dump purchased by the Imperial COM
pany was formed ten or twelve years ago,
The Rcssiter plant was the first cyanide
mill to be built in the Black Hills and was
necessarily primitive in design and equip
ment when first put into commission, be-
ing therefore unlble to make the saving
that is possible in a modern plant. The
Imperial mill has been running steadily
since 1t was first started, being supplied
with ore from the company's Blacktall
gulch property. II has received only the
highly oxydizeu ores SO far, as the rooster,
built to treat the blue ores, is not yet ready
to start up.
The Bear Gulch Mining company has
lately acquired several additional claims
along Bear gulch in the western part of
Lawrence county and has enlarged its ter
ritory materially. The company has every
thing ready to resume work on Its prop
erty as soon as the snow gets OF sufficiently
to enable supplies to be hauled out to the
camp.
New Company Organized.
The Penobscot Mining company has re-
Gently been organized on 900 acres OF ground
in the Garden City vicinity, r. T. Byrns,
formerly of Denver, but more recently Of
Chicago, is one Of the promoters and the
company is made up chiefly OF Chicago and