The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-04-23

carried on. | am told that many
thousands of dollars in rich ore and,I
! bullion was stolen from the company.
With the above as brief introduce
ton to the conditions that existed in
those early days one can better I'M
derstand the simpler problems that
the operators of today have to con-
tend with.
The geological formation of the
district is limestone, stratified and is
slightly tilted from the horizontal
through the lime are numerous In
| trusions of porphyry These bikes
vary snghtly in direction and thick
ness, but generally have a northwest
southwest. The ore bodies occur in
filling between the lime and por
phyry and the mineraliZed solutions
have penetrated the softer rock por-
phyry ard deposited the sulphides for
some distance from the contact. The
ore varies in width from a few feet
to nearly hundred feet The depos
it, as a whole, resembles those of Red
Mountain, near Ouray, Colorado.
At and near the surface the ore
was rich in silver containing also lead
and small amounts of gold and cop
per-: as depth was gained the COP
per increased and the silver decreas-
ed. am told that in places rich gold
ore was found associated with wire
silver and silver nuggets, some of the
ore being almost solid metal. The
length and depth of the ore bodies
were never actually established, be-
lieve, for. as I have said before, the
system of gouging near the surface
/ (150 or 200 feet predominated and
systematic development was neglect
ed
The character of the ore at differ
ly, at one point it will be entirely
copper carbonate and few hundred
feet away galena and lead carbonate,
none of the rich silver or gold ore
REMAINS Ou luc VI uuliipo, liz
lessees having removed it,
During the life of the mine lead
smeltery of possibly 100 tons capacity
was built and operated for a short pc
riod: this was an unsatisfactory way
of treatment owing to the increasing
percentage of copper. Next lixiyia-
ton plant was erected. tried and then
abandoned Finally 30 stamp mill
was built and run irregularly until
the mine was shut down about 1883.
The method of treatment in this
mill was as follows: The ore was
crushed and laid upon an open iron
floor, then roasted in a revolving tu
bular furnace. from the roasters the
ore was elevated to the stamps and
crushed to 40 mesh and then run to
the pans to be amalgamated; the
product from the pans went to the
creek. From a study of the ore which
contained galena. copper sulphides
and carbonates, one can readily see
why the failing assayed so high. To
do Justice to the operators of those
days, however, such mill was prac-
tically the only type on the market,
and it was question of making the
ore suit the mill if possible; today we
have a wide choice and can design a
mill or smelter 10 suit the ore.
AS development progresses and the
ore bodies are opened to a greater
depth, the ore is likely to become u
silver In that case ii will be a typi-
silver. In that case it vii lbe a typi-
cal concentrating proposition and but
little trouble will be experienced in
making good saving.
The old workings consist OF several
, adit levels. numerous shafts and open
cuts. All the adits and shafts are
badly cayed and little can be seen of
the underground workings. but the
dumps give mute evidence OF what
was encountered during the old days.
Most OF these dumps are covered
with copper ore that had been sorted
, and thrown out 10 assist in the treat
ment in the smelter and the mill; the
, copper seemed to be the sole source
of the trouble, and it was kept out of
the ore in every possible way The
, dumps from the mine, smelter and
mill have been sorted over and work
ed by lessees, who have made money
, from them but there still. remains
good profit for the company when
ready to treat them with the proper
methods of mechanical concentration
: The product can today be shipped by
j. rail to the custom smelters at Salt
Lake and can be treated for a nomi-
, nal figure, or later 1t can be treated
; at Ely when the Nevada Consolidated
, copper company's smelter is complet-
ed.
! The greatly improved methods of