The Arizona sentinel., 1902-07-16
LA FORTUNA MINE.

In the early days of gold discovery of CaliGoE- 1 nia 1Sis when the news reached the gold minors of Sonora. there was general exodus of tho abe-hodied men who were able to get away northwest to the new Fl Dorado in California, and the state of Sonora contributed many men 10 the mining population. They took the old road which was known a> the "Caminu real. from Estancia and Altar ndrthwe,tward. nearly parallel to the gulf, following the mountain ridge known the Gila range just north of our present boundary. Tlic road led 10 Yuma. and in passing the Gila range tle5 went within few feet or yards of very modest outcrop of quartz which no one seemed to consider of sui fcient value 10 merit any attention. That hum ble and insignificant Guartz outcrop k today the autcrop of the great FoTtlna mine.
 II Is silnattd on the westward slope and nearly at the base of the range of mogntaiGS called on some of the old maps the Gila range. This trends mort hWpStCrIN and reaches nearly tO the t;ila river at the point now known as Bl3i>dcI The railway in it's course to Yuma passes around the northwest point of this range Where the rocks are exposed at that point they gre mostly of homogeneous gra.!itc of gray , color and weStthcred oui at the surfaces. which. however. are much pittcd as if by decOmpOSi- rion of some soft substance. But beyond these low-lying hills Of granite there are bi. outcropN of rock which 70 the experienced eye indicate Stratihed formations. They are indeed strait lied, for the bulk cf the range SouthwarG ard SouthcaStward is comDoSed of regular Stratifed. l8ml1ated bard gnelsSlc rock. use the word '-CDeiSSic'' in very general and comprehensive sense. for you cG1 describe these rocks with murh more accuracy if you localize them aS
 
 poidtionS. of Quartzitc beds. especially in the upper part of the series. with green SlaiII~ sup posed to be stains of copper and decomposition pf copper ore. which they probably are dl- though there arc pecuiaritie~ of color .Ii.d some yellow colOrS. which indicate to me the presence of some other mineral. possibly. tel lurium which by it's decomposition has given these colOrS The fact remains. however. thut tho bullion from the upper part of the vein con tains more copper than it HOW contains in the lower levels of the mine. The workings which hDN- m Np g condition of things which could not bc foretOld from an inspection of fhe outcrOD Tn" vein CT lode appears Co bc chimney not a cOntino ouS orc body. nor a continuous vein with an ore body chimney chute upon it. AS re marked the outcropping points indicate that there iS no very great lonSit tudinal extension of this ore body.
 The vein io remarkable first in this limited out crop: second. in it's continuity in depth. its con tinued satisfactory richness. and the promise ii gives of enrichment by further veins dipping into il 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 S0 tons per day. which k sent to the i}-StamD mill. each stamp of which cruSheS about tons in every twentyfOur hours. The extraction K chiefly and largely by power drills. A force Of go men iS employed by this mine and mill. The greater part of the labor underground and mining K done by compressed air. 1EC lode. was told. was 6 tO i5 feet wide. This large space permits the use of power drills to great advantage. Tn the material huiStcd there are fragments of the wall rocks. some Of which arc thrown out hut many pieces pass through the mill. They would prefer to reject most of this wall rock. but ii would take more time and CX- ponSc than Il docs 10 mill it. and there k q chance of some of ij containing gold From these SO tons Ol rock crushed daily the average product k pcrhap, flS0o0 worth of gold pcl month some months they have produced as high aS fl0gG.
 Tn the region uf the Fortuna mine the foslEa tions appear tO be wholly of mica slate and hornblende slate with some arcnaccouS laycrs Ike old micaccouS SJndStoucS and quartZijeS The mi c k surrounded by black hOrnblCndiC states aud mica slatc> dipping S0utnUard alIJ southwest ward at an angle Of about I5 degrees and these states are very evenly laminated ridge after ridge