Omaha daily bee., 1907-05-05

acres Cthe original Homestake claim has
been added TO, until at the prestnt time
the company's holdings in the immediate
vicinity Of Lead amount to 1900 acres,
mostly all of it valuable mining property
upon which workings have been established.
Immense Plants In Operation
Year by year the company has been i'm
proving its property and it's milling and
treatment plants. and from the first eighty
stamp there has grown up a system OF
mills and cyanide plants. and slime treat
ment plants that cannot be equalled by
any other in the world, and the mills hav-
ing daily capacity for treating 1900 tons
Of ore, the cyanide plants a capacity for
retreating the tailings from all OF the 900
stamps dropping and the slime plant a
capacity of 1900 tons a day. All Of the
companys six mills have been until the
fire in daily operation, three OF these being
located in Lead, two I'm Terraville and one
in Central City, and all of them connected
with a network OF railroad lines, under
ground and surface, operated by steam and
compressed air. The cyanide plants of the
company, the largest in the world. are
located in Gayvllle and Lead being con-
nected with the mills by pipe lines which
convey the tailings to them for retreat
ment.
year ago the company began the con-
struction of a slime plant above the city
OF Deadwood and it is now running, but
will close down in a day or so, the COM
pany having expended about 100000 upon
it,
Established upon its different properties
ore hosting works capable of caring for
and handling all of the ore mined daily in
its underground workings, the largest OF
ha he ha
largest in the world and costing with its
equipment in the neighborhood of 100000.
Railways and other Works.
In the first years of its operation the
company built system of narrow gauge
railroad lines. radiating from Lead through
the wooded sections of the Black Hills and
connecting with the Northwestern system
at Piedmont, forty miles distant, in all
trackage of about fifty miles over this
system Of roads the company hauled its
fuel mining timbers and other supplies
until few years ago, when It sold this
system of roads to the Chicago. Burlington
q Quincy, which company is now operating
1t at profit, the company receiving for
the same a handsome compensation.
1t has but recently completed a system Of
water works, taking water from the Spear
fish river twenty miles distant At the
town of Hanna, fifteen miles distant, the
company has established a pumping sta
ton. which lifts this water over a divide
OF 500 feet, where it is delivered into a tiled
ditch and conveyed TO reservoirs in Lead
and distributed TO the company's mills and
the cities of Lead, Terraville and Central
This is but one Of the companys water
systems, costing for the installation Ct
pumping machinery, construction Of ditch
and labor 100000.
On the line of the new water system the
company has recently completed and placed
in operation a power plant for the genera
ton Of electricity at a cost OF about $4,000.
from which power is furnished for two OF
its mills
On the company's grounds In Lead are
machine shops capable of making any nee
essary repairs to the machinery in opera
ton; a foundry, In which castings to the
weight of ten or twelve tons, can be made;
carpenter shops, repair shops OF all kinds
and department buildings I'm which the
business Of the corporation is transacted,
all connected with a private telephone sys-
tenn, which includes in it's ramihcations the
most distant parts Of the underground and
surface workings OF the company. its wood
and timber camps, its lime and other
camps. In fact, It is as complete and ex-
tensive as that OF a good sized city.
It would be a small estimate TO place
the cost OF the Improvements, the build
ings. the milling plants and their contents,
owned by the company at $2OOOOOO
In the employ OF the Homcstake company
up TO the time Of the fire were $500 men.
who received an average wage OF 1875.
Lead and the HOmestake.
Lead is not a mining camp I'm one sense
ian.