The Arizona sentinel., 1903-04-22
LA FORTUNA MINE,

1 Tn the early days of gold discovery of Califor-
 nis, lsis, when the news reached the gold miners 1 Of Sonora, there was Q general exodus of the dble-bodied men who were able to get away northwest to the new Fl Dorado ip California and the state of Sonora contributed many men ! to the mining population. They took the old 1 road, which WAS known as the ''canino real, |" from Estancia and Altar northwestwnrd nearly
 parallel to the gulf following the mountain ridge known as the Gila range, just north of our | present boundary. The road led to Yuma, and 1 in passing tho Gila range they went within a 1 few feet or yards of . very modest outcrop of quartz which no one seemed to consider of sui ! tcient value to merit any attention. That hum
 olc and insignihcant quartz outcrop is today the outcrop of the great Fortuna mine.
 It is situated on the westward slope and nearly 1 at the base of the range of mountains called on 1 some of the old maps the Gila range. This 1 trends northweStcrly and reaches nearly to the 1 Gtla river at the point now known as BlaiSdell The railway in its course to Yuma passes around the northwest point of this range. | W here the rocks arc exposed Gt that point they are mostly of homogeneous granite, of gray color and ~eathered out at the surfaces, which however, are much pitted as if by decompoSi- tion of SoIne soft SubStancP. Bat beyond thesc
 iow-lying hills of granite there are big outcrops
 of rock which 10 the experienced eye indicate stratified formations. They are indeed strait fed, for the bulk of the range southward aud Southe3stwDrd is composed of regular stratined laminated. hard Gneissic rock. use the word 'enelSSic' in R very general and CoInpreheaSiye sense for you can describe these rocks with much more accuracy if you localiZc them as mica states and horn5lendc states with inter polations cf Quartzite beds. especially in the upper part of the series, with green stains, sup posed to be stainS of copper and decomposition of copper orc, which they probably are, al. though there are pecllisrities of color and some yellow colors. which indicate to me the presence of some other mineral possibly. tel luTiuru, which hy it's Accommodation 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 he lower levels of lhp nina The UOrlrip1c vrh oh, have been carried on here have developed condition Of things which could not be foretold from an inspection of the outcrop The vein or lode appears to be chimney, not c contino- ous orc body, nor continuous vein with an ore body or chimney or chute upon it. As re- marked the outcropping points indicate that this ore body.
 The vein is remarkable first in this limited out
 crop; second, h its continuity in depth, It's tinued satisfactory rich eSs, and the promise
 gives Of enrichment by further veins dipping
 .nto IL on the fcot-wan sides.
 Some facts tn regard to the product or yield: I he ore paid from the surface. The product or
 ore extracted up to the time has been sbout 80
 tons per day. which Is sent to the a0-stamp mill, each stamp of which cruShes about tons in every twenty-four hours. The extraction is chleny and largely by power drills. 4 force of go men Is employed by this mine and mill. The greater part Of the labor underground and
 was told. was 6 to Is feet wide. This large space permits the use of power drills to great
 advantage. In the material hoistcd there are
 Fragments of the wall rocks, some of which arc
 thrown out, but many pieces pass through the
 mill. They would prefer to reject most of this
 wall rock. but it would take more time and cx-
 penSe than it does to mill it, and there is
 chance Of some of It. containing gold. From
 these go tons of rock crushed daily the average
 product Is perhaps S4s,0O0 worth of gold per
 month. Some months they have produced as high as sqOO Ooo.
 In tho region of the Fortuna mine the lorna
 tions appenr to be wholly of mica slate and horphlende slate. with some urenEceous layers
 Ike old micaceous sandstones and Quartzites.
 Ibe mine is surrounded by black hornblendic
 dates and mica states, dipping Southward and
 SouthTestwsrd at an angle of about 45 degrees,
 ipd these slateS arc very evenly lamiuated,
 ridge Rftcr ridge.