The San Francisco call., 1909-01-25

| The Blue Lead gravel mine in Ne
vada county. which is one of the lar
/ gest of its kind in the state. has been
/ bonded to James Graham of Modesto
and James d. Snyder of Nevada City.
/ The present owners are not financially
i able to operate the property and this
! is given as a reason for the deal now
under way. A gravel channel has been
! tapped at the lower end of the bedrock
tunnel which extends half a mile into
4 the mountain side.
/ Some years ago $4,000 were taken
/ from an acre of ground, as reported,
and one nugget was worth $4,000 Many
/ circumstances combine to make this
deal of more than local interest. The
Bloomfield. ditch runs through the
/ property, which contains about go
! acres. The channel is the same one
that was worked in the, Union mine ad
! joining the Blue Lead.
Through the upper end of the
ground for several thousand feet, so
says the Nevada City Mining Tran
script. the Durbec channel, which has
! yielded large sums of money farther
down the ridge, is supposed to run.
The bonders will extend the main tun-
mel and thoroughly prospect the chan
mel and this may lead to large results.
| Arrangements have been made to re-
/
one of the large producers in the re-
| gion lying just east of Nevada City and
which takes in Willow Valley, Canada
Hill and Banner Mountain sections.
The company that owns the Austin also
has the Mountain Chief, which will be
developed Systematically.
One of the greatest of recent mining
surprises, so said the Grass Valley I'm
ion. was encountered when the Weeks
Brothers in crushing the rock on the
dump, found milling values ranging
from $50 ton to 500 a ton. Under
work in the mines has been sus-
pended and the mill was run on the
dump with small expectation. The
property has a shaft down now 200
feet, with only one drift of any length.
The old Sunnyside mine in Plumas
county, which has been leased to Harry
Merrill, is reported to have produced
about 100000 worth of placer gold 1t
consists of 100 acres of patented
ground. Two hundred feet of the chan
mel rim has been worked
Clark Stamford, secretary of the
Oroville chamber of commerce. has
written a letter in which he sets forth
the mining resources of Butte county
and makes an enumeration of minerals
which he claims are not receiving due
attention. Standiford wrote as follows:
few of these are asbestos which is found
here in a great many places of medium to supe-
rlor quality: kaolonite, which abounds in great
quantities here and is said to be of very fine
Quality This material is used in the making
of earthenware of the best grades for table
use LIMERICK and clays for the manufacture
titles and 1t is claimed that they of ex-
eeptionally good quality. Marble. both white
and notified, granite and soapstone along the
line OF the Western Pacific railway abound in
great quantities. Last but not least the
precious gems Of Butte county. Chrysoberl
chrysophrase. vesuvinnite Tor californitel. pre-
cious serpentine topas. garnets. rlbies and dia-
monds have been found IN Butte county seat
tered over period from its early history
until the present date. Over $50 diamonds Of
first water have been recovered In the gold
/ diggings near Orovie and Cherokee during
monds have been recovered from the surface,
kimberlite, the true matrix of the South Afri-
can diamond, according TO great number OF
scientists. mining engineers and South African
miners, has recently been discovered existing
underneath these gravel deposits. The work OF
opening up a diamond mine is being vigorously
prosecuted.
According to the Plumas National
Bulletin the existence of a large and
rich channel extending four miles, in
| Plumas county, has been proved by
tunnels all along the line, that have
tapped the gravel deposit. Gravel has
been struck on the Alum Cove claim,
from which nuggets worth as much
as $50 have been taken, and recent
returns are reported to have been
good. A bedrock tunnel to tap the
same channel has been run through
the San Jose claim adjoining the
Alum Cove.
! A number of other properties lying
along the channel are the Scott drift
mine, which at one time produced
very large amount OF gold and which
has been bonded to Lassen county
miners. On the northeast of the Scott
mine is the Cameron mine owned by
A. N. Cameron. a placer drift PROPOSE
/ tion from which considerable gold
has been taken.
Next to the Cameron is the Glazier
mine. owned by A. ID. Mcmillan and
others. This has been bonded to New
ada city men. The <5ulletin said:
The North fork section has been known as
rich gold producer since the early history of
mining in California. Many of its mines have
produced enormously. and with modern mining
methods and improved machinery should
tinue to do so. One of the producing properties
is the Dunn White Lily quartz mine. About
p men are employed by the owners and six
stamps are kept steadily running profitable
pay ore. Another quartz property on which
strike was recently made IS the Del Monte, ad-
joining the White Lily. Joh. Rickard and Mrs.
John McAlullen the owners. A large vein OF
$40 ore is said to have been cut but as vet its
extent and permanent character has not been
thoroughly established by development work. This
ledge is supposed 10 be portion of that occur
quartz mine, situated higher up the hill
above the Del Monte and White Lily properties.
Eastern parties expected to arrive shortly to
look over the Gold Nugget quartz claim. owned
by Sam Richards. Probably the most favorable
mining outlook at present in that section is i'm
the rehabilitation and DEVELOPMENT of the placer
drift claims situated along the channel extending
between the Sunnyside aud Glazier mnes a
stretch of about four miles. These include the
Sunnysde. Alum Cove, San Jose. Last Chance.
Scott Cameron and Glazier drift properties and
the Pliocene and Salmon Falls claims, the latter
two being combinations of the same channel on
the north bank Of the North fork which has cut
the ancient river deposit in two
Large mining operations have marked
the beginning of the new year in
Nevada county, where the outlook for
mining is said to be better than at
any time in twenty years. Thel En-
pire mine is putting down two plung
er pumps driven by electricity, one of
which is at the bottom OF the mine.
The shaft will be ounk still deeper
and a large amount of new ground
will be opened in 1909. According to
the Nevada City Transcript the En-
pire is producing now as richly as
ever. The cleanup on the North Star
properties is reported to have been
The ,.icbaSf Of any IOuC nnrioH