Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1904-10-20
THE HEARST
MINES SOLD
The Famous Million Dollar Prop.
erty at Pinos Altos Changes
Ownership.
A WEALTH PRODUCER
The Comanche Mining and Smelling
Company is the Purchaser and
Has Taken Possession.

The Comanche Mining G. Smelling
Company has secured control of the
Hearst mines at Pinos Altos, Grant
County, the transfer having been made
on October Is. Two one-third pay
ments have been made, the price paid
being in the neighborhood of a million
dollars. In the sale are included the
famous Gillette mine, which is down
95 feet the surface and underground
improvements at and around Pinos AL
tos, the office and store buildings, sixty
dwelling houses, 700-acre ranch and
| water right, pipe line six miles long
and a reservoir at the mines, besides
the Thayer, the Hearst, the Pacific, the
North Pacific and other shafts. The
property was acquired by the estate in
1897 for $1,250,000 and has been work.
ed continuously, by it's owners, yielding
million dollars in gold values. The
principal mines were discovered in the
cary sixties and up to the time of be-
ing sold to the Hearst estate, produced
oCNCl al ullilOu uOildIo III SOlU UulllOus
One shipment of gold bullion extract.
ed from ore taken from the Pacific vein
by Bell & Stevens, in May, 1896, con-
sisted of seven bricks weighing 1,340
ounces. This was the product of As
days and nights run on ten stamp
mill
Pinos Altos has long been noted as a
gold producing camp and upon the first
discovery of gold there in the early
sixties, was the scene of great excite
ment, miners and prospectors rushing
to the place from all parts of the coun-
try. The following pen-picture of the
camp, as it appeared thirty years ago,
is found in the Mining Life, paper
published in Silver City in the seven
ties. The sketch was written by Ed
itor O. L. Scott, who is still resident
of Grant County, and appears in the
issue of August 1, 1874:
Taking advantage of leisure day
we last week took trip to Pinos Altos.
This mining camp, situated on the
DdSh-UOHC VI taC SoItAACAtp INV plO
sents very busy and thriving appear.
ance. Look in any direction you
please, your eye lights on an arastra
driven by mule power, grinding out
gold dust, and from friends door we
counted over twenty of those primi-
tive but economical gold savers at
work, some driven by steam and work
ing night and day, the others worked
by mule whose slowness but inces-
SAINT tread reminds one of the march
Of time, and like time these mills are
slow but sure. They save nearly the
entire amount of the gold in the quartz
which is consummation not arrived
at by any other process at least not to
he extent reached by this process.
The quartz treated yields on an aver
age of an ounce to the ton and occurs
IN veins of from three inches to four
or five feet in thickness, the smaller
veins sometimes yielding as high as
our ounces to the ton, and although
more expensive to mine, yet the net
results are very gratifying. Pinos AL
.os mountain to the south of the town
S scanned with these veins and honey
,ombed with shafts. adits and tunnels.
'Tn the entire camp there are S8 ar
astras driven by steam, that work
night and day, and "a by mule power
that are busy during the day only.
There are probably 30 tons of quartz
treated during each "a hours, and the
production of gold is fully 80 ounces
Of No. retort, the market value of
which is SIG per ounce, making total
Of nearly $500 per day or about $4,000
per week, but those who are best post
ed claim a production of $4,000 Be
that as 1t may, each and every one
seems to be contented with his lot and
putting forth his best efforts to give
lis abode homelike appearance by
planting gardens, and where attention
s given, with good results. - Near
Y everyone carries little buckskin
sack and makes change by rendering
| small portion of dust, the amount of
which is determined on the ever-pres-
mt gold scales. = ="
The Comanche Mining and Smelling
Company has built two hundred ton
,melter at Silver City and has bought
he Pinos Altos property to supply the
;melter with steady supply of ore in
addition to the custom work it will do.