The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-30

| %iioiAtAis Dut III d year or TWO IL SnOulQ pc
 a good deal more. About three miles
 more from Homestake is mine called 1 Golden Reward, which is entirely owned
 by Americans. This mine is now pro-
 ducing not much more than e2O0OO a month. but in year or two I expect
 this will be greatly increased. If the figures shown me at this mine were cor
 rect, it has the potentialities of another
 Homestake
 There are number of mines which
 earn better profits than Homestake, but
 none which approach it in size. The
 next largest in Alaska Treadwell, on l Douglas island. This mine has $40 ] stamps, but all of these can only run for
 part of the year, owing to the scarcity
 of water. We may place the average
 yearly output at 6O0,OOO tons. This ore
 yields barely eight shillings a ton,
 which shows Alaska Treadwell to be ] the lowest grade of the worlds gold
 mines; but, owing to exceptional
 facilities, the total working costs are
 only five shillings ton. As an actual
 producer of gold the Treadwell stands
 far dow1 the list, but the mine is to-
 day in probably sounder condition
 than ever before It has paid a million
 pounds in dividends.
 | Before leaving the states we may note
 the other big gold producers there. At
 Cripple Creek there is the Portland
 mine, turning out about e5O,OO0 q
 month: but I imagine the lower work
 ings are not looking well, and this yield
 will not be continued indefinitely Ad-
 Joining this is Stratton's Independence,
 also big producer; but as this mine is
 practically worked out need not take note of it. The other big Colorado gold
 mine is Camp Bird, turning out about
 E34,OO0 a month: this mine has good
 ore reserves In Mexico there is no. ] mine producing regularly so much as
 this, but next year the El Orc, with 200 stamps running should reach an output
 of nearly e4O0O0 monthly.
 In West Australia there are six mines with yields which bring them into the first rank of gold producers These are Bouler Perseverance, Golden Horseshoe Great Fingali, Great Boulder, Ivanhoe and Oroya- -Brownhill and in each there are ore reserves which assure the pre- sent yield, or perhaps even a bigger one, for years to come
 The two big Indian mines, Champion Reef and Mysore are now in the front rank of gold producers. The smaller mines adjoining them, Ooregum and Nundydroog, are not likely to rival them; but two such great mines are good average for one country. I should imagine that each mine has now reached its maximum production or thereabout neither has got that amount of ore reserve, proportionate to it's market value, which I consider a mine ought to have, but as against this the developments in depth continue to be good.
 In the TransvaaI you have the curious feature of dozens of great gold mines working at half their capacity for want of labor. That is temporary affair, which does not affect the real capacity of these mines, so have assumed that they are producing on the basis of the l year 1S90-when they had a sufficient labor supply. On this estimate there are 17 Transvaal mines among the 30 l biggest gold producers of the world, and l the balance is made up by six mines in West Australia, three in the United l States, two in India, one in Queens land, and one in New Zealand all these, let it be noted. are in the territories of | and are controlled by English speaking people. Of the 1T Transvaal mines, 10 are outcrops six are first row deeps, and one is a second row deep.
 In the world of gold mining exact | Knowledge is just as important, and is | just as difficult to acquire, as in any | thing else. It is astonishing, even, how | fevGmining people know that the Home stake is the biggest gold producer in | the world, for I suppose have seen the newspapers of at least dozen coun- | tries or mining camps assign that place to their own local big mine. The greatest gold mine, too, is claimed for probably 20 localities, although. I think. | taking it's past, present and future in- to consideration, that Mt. Morgan still I holds that title. But when some one. who ought to know what he is talking about, claims that some new mine. | which is little known, and probably lies | by itselS in a strange and inaccessible country, is really the finest gold mine in the world, it is then that my interest is reused. I am always bearing about this shall call it "fabulous-sort of mine. which at present makes no figure among the big mines, but which looks. as if, when developed, it might take E place with the very greatest.
 And there really are such mines perhaps six or eight at present known over the whole wide area of the world | There are three of these about which know, and their undoubted great poss;- oilities have fired my imagination. These are the Dos Estrellas, in Mexico the Santo Domingo, belonging to the Inca company, in Peru, and the Red- Jang Lebong, in Sumatra. The ele- ments of greatness belong, too although on a more modest basis, to the Tas- mania mine in the island of that name and to the Oriental mine, in Corea These names are hardly known to inc vulgar throng,. and the mines do not vel rank with the great producers: but fhe Dos Estrellas is valued by it's Mexican owners at millions of pounds. The San- I10T1111 O rxrnes Ier