El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-03-18
FORTUNES BEING MADE IN THE ALTAR
PLACER DISTRICT Of SONORA, MEXICO
Matt Quinnear, Of Nogales,
Arizona, Describes His
, Dry Pulverizer- Can Be
Used in any Field.

vented machine which saves the gold
from the dry dirt, gravel and concrete.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have
been expended for the last 40 years in
the effort to work not only the Altar
placers, but dozens of others in the
southwest and Mexico, but up to this
time all have been failures
At last Matt GUNNER. an old miner and
prospector Of Nogales, Ariz., has in
vented machine that does the work
successfully. The success of the inven-
ton is so marvellous that a wild stam-
pede has begun to that district, and the
Arizona papers say that every train
going over the Southern Pacific railroad
towards Guaymas is carrying mining
men and prospectorS for one or the
other sections of the Altar district,
which extend in fact from the Yaqui
river on the south TO a point in the
United States boundary in Arizona and
into the gold sands of the Colorado
river around Yuma.
The stages running from Sana Ana
to Baluda are loaded with mining men
and IL is said the mining agent at
Altar is unable TO transact the business
OF filing the applications for denounce-
ments.
Can Be Used in Any Field.
The machine is more than a success"
says GUNNER, land can be used sue
cessfully in any placer field in the
world, and its success lies in the fact
that 1t can be operated so cheaply. II
enables the low grade propositions,
either quartz or placer, to be worked at
q minimum OF cost Take in the Altar
district, for example; it costs me TO
operate my machine there only II cents
Mexican money on each dollar of gold
taken out. You see therefore that
there is a good profit on material which
runs only 80 cents a ton in value
make 90 or so cents where the indians,
MeXicans and others working on the old
methods would make only five or ten
cents.
In addition TO the operating cost, 1
have been working leased ground on
which 1 paid 81 cents gold on each dol
lar taken out, but as my cost Of oper-
alton was only eight and a half cents
gold you see there was a profit of near
ly 90 cents on each dollars worth of
gold taken out
In the Altar district all values are
In the concrete formation and hence
do not have to use all the 20 hammers
the machine contains to do the crush
ing. Thirty-five, half of the capacity.
are sufficient to crush the concrete into
the sand in which the values lie. the
separator throwing out the valueless
gravel and coarse stuff. If it were ne
cessary to crush the gravel if the
values lay in the gravel, could oper-
ate the whole 20 hammers and that re-
suit would be accomplished. The ma
chine operates as a crusher and a sep
arator; and if it is desired and water !
is plentiful, a stream can be passed !
through and the machine then becomes !
a concentration.
Description of Machine.
THE machine which puIverizes the |
dry gold cement weighs about 500 |
pounds It is a trommel screen, con-
structed Of two heads and bars of |
steel, spaced one-eighth of an inch |
apart. with four heavier strips, to |
lengthen the cylinder. Through the |
center of this cylinder is a shaft which |
runs on its own Journals. To this |
shaft are attached So chains, to the |
ends of which are fastened steel slugs. |
set to present their corners when the |
shaft is in motion.
These slugs are six inches long and |
an inch and a half square, and they |
swing free Of the inside surface of the |
cylinder about three inches. These !
chains and slugs are set in spiral form |
IN the shaft, so that the instant that |
the gold-cement and boulders enter the |
end OF the cylinder, the material is pull
Verlzed by the revolving slugs and |
cnalns, and the spiral momentum of the /
sidgs tends TO cast the pebbles and /
valueless material out of the other end |
OF the machine. 1t is this feature of the
machine which is one of its basic rea-
sons for success, for it Immediately
eliminates the worthless material from
thu process.
The interior shaft turns at the rate
OF S75 revolutions per minute, while the
trommel screen, which revolves on a /
little Hanged wheel set under it, turns
at the rate of 2S revolutions per min
ute.
Blow of 1900 Pounds
The slugs strike a blow of 1900
that the machine can not be fed fast |
enough to choke it. Six tons of ma
terlal have been run through on a test
IN three minutes. The fine dust and
Dlack sand, with. the gold, passes
through the screen into a trough below.
the pebbles and worthless rock out of |
the end of the cylinder. The fine ma
terlaI Is then run over a dry washer,
Whlcn is bellows, forcing the wind
rom below up through a screen covered
win matte This screen has rifles
Is \
ieaVlhg only the iron sand and the raw
eolo' which is taken from the sand by
hano- The sand also carries gold values
ana Is therefore also stacked up for
eniPnent. The machine has capacity
Vi ooO tons Of cement per day.
Making Fortunes.
charles Peck has cleared over $780,
'oo' while GUNNER in his placer with an
other machine has taken out over $751;
200 worth OF gold.
II. Il. Dugan watched the machine
working for two days and the run the
-irst day was % ounces gold. Half a
nile away three American boys, Bailey.
thompson and Jones, are clearing s175
. day.
GUNNER has denounced 1000 pertenen-
,as OF placer ground and John Hays
hammond has denounced 5000 pertenen-
las adjoining
George D. Stonestreet, formerly repre-
entlng the English government in the
Sand in South Africa, and now en-
'ioyed by GUNNER, has made 1000
amples on 140 acres of ground and
that on this one tract there |