Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-03-19

property anu run OH q DOuy VI OAlulASU
ore that was mined above sixty foot
level in the shaft. This ore body was
mined seven sets wide and seven sets
high by about one hundred and sixty
feet long and is locally reported to have
produced gold bullion to the value of
$3.50, 900. From a part of this opera
ton a tailings pile was saved said to
contain 5000 tons and average value of
five dollars per ton in gold.
Owing to the enormous expense of
pumping shaft located in a swampy
creek bottom, this operation was dis
continued until the ground could be
opened by the new drain tunnel now in
progress.
The company's managers claim that
the operation of the property did not
pay, which is probably true under such
adverse conditions, but the report that
they have secured seventy claims in the
district would Indicate their faith in the
future. After it is properly developed
and equipped with the necessary mill
ing capacity, run by water power, of
which the company has plenty available
and near at hand, all the gold won out
of the ore of this great vein over two
dollars ton should be net profit.
The veins of the Buffalo Hump are
very clearly defined when opened under
ground, and the ore shoots range from
fifty to five hundred feet in length; the
walls are usually smooth and hard, fire.
quently polished, and the ore shoots are
filled with rather ribbony banded
white quartz next to the walls that
shades into a more massive variety
towards the center with small vuggs
lined with CLASSY crystals; they have
evidently been formed by ascending
mineral solutions that filled pfe-exist-
ing fssure spaces. This district is the
highest in the region, has suffered less
. erosion than the adjacent country and
the values are more likely, for this rea-
son, to extend to greater depth than in
placer district, the erosion OF whose
: veins have produced millions of dollars
worth of placer gold, like those of Elk
| City and Florence, near at hand.
The great quartz ore shoots of this
t district are usually quite thickly sprink-
/ led at short distance below the sur.
r face with banded lines and rich dissem-
/ nations of iron pyrites, together with
t varying mixture of copper, lead anC
e zinc sulphides with free gold, The leaC
n mineral here, as is usual in most Idaho
gold mines, indicates the richest golC
e values.
2 The free milling tests obtained in thi!
h district vary from different veins, anc
e in fact from different parts of the sam
{ vein. The deepest ore now being mill
. ed in the district is from the Jumb
# vein. 1t is a straight hard white quart
It from depth of five hundred feet o.
IS the vein; it is richly sprinkled with iro
u sulphides, but shows occasional color
:, of native gold. The milling results saw
: sixty per cent of the total value as fire
gold, fifteen per cent in the form @
e high grade concentrates, and the ba
,, ance going into failing pit for futur
,s treatment by cyaniding, to which metf
Z cd it is said to yield ninety per cent {
If the remaining values. Practically til
S same results as above were obtained G
j Cracker Jack ore, some of their highe
grade material showing a little less fire
as gold extraction, but just as good result
H. on cyanide tests.
is The country Immediately adjacent
IN Sheep creek basin is very rugged al
~ abrupt, a succession of deep cut ca
a yons carrying large creeks and who's
ed steep slopes are densely timbered. TIL
topography will be appreciated by Il
III statement that from the head of SheC
,;s creek at Hump town to where Il
nd creek joins the Salmon river, the di
he tance is only fourteen miles and Il
et fall is fifty seven hundred and fiji
er feet. These conditions mean gre
=, deal for the economical developme
e. and operation of these veins.
nd The only properties producing in t
Hump district during 1903 were &