The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-26
"SLUICE BOX"
Of THE SNAKE
Why Dredging Operations on
Famous Stream Have
FaiIed-The Remedy.
BIG VALUES IN BLACK SAND
THAT CAN BE CONCENTRATED
AT SMALL COST.

The largest and richest natural sluice
box in the world, and perhaps the great
est deposit of gold on earth, is to be
found in the combined gold of the black
Idaho says George W. McGhee in Den
yer Ores & Metals. The writer having
obtained these black sand concentrates
from the bars of the river at varying
depths of from one to two feet below the
gravel TO ten or twelve feet below the
| at different points in the river for a dis
| lance of 24O miles; having treated hun
dreds of samples of these concentrates
in the last three years and obtained their
gold values, will endeavor to give the
public, in this article, authentic state
ment of the results of his labor in this
particular deposit of gold-bearing con-
centrates in the black sands of the Snake
river.
Why Dredging Fails.
The free Or metallic gold that is found
on the gravel bars in the river Is of
light flaky nature. that is washed up on
the bars together with the finer por-
tons of the black sands. and will per-
maps nave an average value of 10 cents
per cubic yard of the gravel. The eff
forts of all the dredging companies OPP
Grating on this river in the past was to
obtain this surface gold, and their
dredges were so constructed that it would
enable them TO skim the surface of the
bars to the depth of a foot or two and
their failures were owing to the fact that
the flaky gold was lighter than the black
sand concentrates, and would wash off
from their burlap Sluices and leave the
black sand, so that they were enabled to
get but a small percentage of the values;
after separating their free gold by ANAL
gamation they would throw their black
sand back into the river.
Riches In Black Sand.
In treating these sands taken from a
depth of one or two feet below the gravel
in the river, l found the gold values to
run from 800 TO 500 a ton. This incIud-
ed both the free and combined gold At
Glenn'S Ferry. where l was enabled to get
the concentrates at a depth Of three feet,
l found the values to be 1880 ton in
gold, and the surface sands obtained
from the Imperial Dredge & Exploration
company at Mountain Home carried gold
tendent of d suction dredge at Great Bend
was induced TO go down to a depth of
from ten to twelve feet below the gravel
and forty pounds of concentrates OBJ
| tanned by me gave gold value of $3.50
a ton.
In these concentrates there was but
| very little, If any, free gold. the black
| cubes of sand at this depth being almost
as large as pin heads; the first one-pound
sample of this batch giving me ninety
| six grains of gold. | also found that the
magnetic sands being of a lighter specific
gravity land they are not gold bearing)
wash up on the bars with the light, fIaky
| gOld these sands carry a much larger
| percentage of magnetic than are found in
| will be seen the difficulty one would
| have to contend with to give an absolute
! analysis Of these sands from a surface
| standpoint.
! How Sand Concentrates.
The percentage of the black sand con-
/ centrates that can be obtained from the
sands and gravel on the surface of the
| bars at the de1th of one or two feet be-
low. 1 have estimated carefully. It runs
| from three-fOurths of one per cent to one
| and one-half per cent; but with every
| foot in depth the INCREASE thereafter is
| enormous. 1t was not possible for me to
| obtain the percentage of the concentrates
| at Great South Bend at the depth men
/ toned above-ten or twelve feet. The
| superintendent of this dredge declared
| that it would run fully % per cent At
this depth they seem to have reached a
black sand stratum. / am fully con-
WINGED that 4 or : per cent of the concen-
/ trates can be obtained at the above
mentioned depth. What the percentage
of values will be at a depth of twenty
or thirty feet can only be conjectured.
No sand that l am aware of has been
obtained at greater depth.
An UncIassified Mineral.
In the analysis of the black sand con-
centrates or cubes 1 find % per cent OF
titanium. This was obtained by me as
a crystal, and perhaps from 10 to u per
cent OF Other oxygen salts and not to eX-
coed 20 pc. cent of iron. 1 mention this
merely to show the absolute infusibiIity
of this compound. In metalurgy we have
the telluridesa selenides sulphides and
pyritic compounds of gold, but there is
no metallurgical authority that mentions
a silica golu titanate; and as ] am the
inventor and patentee of the freeing OF
: gold in its metallic state from its binery
compounds, 1 claim the honor of being
the discovereI of this unclassified mineral
, or compounds silica gold titanate-and
for the present, at least. this is the only
| known method IF extracting the full gold
values from these concentrates.
Big Money to Be Made.
The estimated cost per yard of obtain.
| ing these concentrates by the use of &
suction dredge or sand pump is from &. 3
TO 50. A ten-inch suction pump has a ca.
, pacity of 5000 yards in twenty-four hours
! One per cent of this would give thirty
; yards of concentrates per day that would
: have a gold value of at least $500 pel
yard, or $4,000 per day; but if per CEN
: can be obtained at a depth of from ter
| to twelve feet; and if the gold values OF
: these concentrates run IS go per ton /:
! there any industry on earth that will
! equal the money-making possibilities o.
! obtaining the black sand concentrate:
! from the greatest natural sluice box IL
: the world? And these conditions prevail
for a distance of at least 600 miles The
sand pump is all that is required; the
whole proposition is one of depth anC
5 concentration.