Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-03-26

"a Ieu SCdlllp Hill Was pun Oi Iiio
property and run on body of oxidized
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 Aundred and sixty /
feet long and is locally reported to have
produced gold bullion to the value of
$3.50, 900. From part of this opera
ton 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 '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 a 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 pre-exist-
ing fissure 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
/ district are usually quite thiekly sprink-
| led at short distance below the sur
: face with banded lines and rich dissem-
nations of iron pyrites, together with
t varying mixture of copper, lead and
: zinc sulphides with free gold, The lead
! mineral here, as is usual in most Idaho
gold mines, indicates the richest gold
; values.
: The free milling tests obtained in this
district vary from different veins, and
in fact from different parts of the same
, vein. The deepest ore now being mill
= ed in the district is from the Jumbo
t vein. 1t is a straight hard white quartz
from depth of five hundred feet on
g the vein; it is richly sprinkled with iron
, sulphides, but shows occasional colors
h of native gold. The milling results save
: sixty per cent of the total value as free
gold, fifteen per cent in the form OF
high grade concentrates, and the bal
4 ance'going into tailing pit for future
S treatment by cyaniding, to which meth.
: cd it is said to yield ninety per cent ot
L the remaining values. Practically the
same results as-above were obtained OF
q Cracker Jack ore, some of their higher
It grade material showing a little less fret
s gold extraction, but just as good result!
/ on cyanide tests
- 70 The country Immediately adjacent t.
= Sheep creek basin is very rugged anc
G abrupt, succession of-deep cut can
a yons carrying large creeks and who's
II steep slopes are densely timbered. Thi
g. topography will be appreciated by tn
10 statement that from the head of Shee
is creek att Hump town to where tn
ID creek joins the Salmon river, the dis
le tance is only fourteen miles and tn
=. - fall is fifty seven hundred and fit
r. feet. These conditions mean a grea
n deal for the economical development
e, and operation of these veins.
ID ?. The only properties producing in tn
uupo,, DISTRICT d,,,.;no 1909 were th