El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-03-25

/
| An analysis of the ore shipments for
one year show the following proper
tions: Silver, 80 percent; Cobalt, SIS
| percent: Nickel. 3.49 percent: arsenic,
| 25.6 percent; the gangue is calcite.
! l. Native Elements:
Native silver.
Native bismuth.
Graphite.
| 2. Arsenides:
Niccolite, or arsenide of nickal.
MAS.
Chloanthis, or diasenide of nickel
smaltite, or diarsenide of Cobalt
CoAs2.
8. Arsenates:
Erythnite. or cobalt bloom, CoAs
20S plus H20
Annaberguite, or nickel bloom
Ni3As20S plus SH20.
4. Sulphides:
Argentine, or silver sulphide "g2S
Millerite, or nickel sulphide Ms.
5. Sulph- arSenide:
Mispickel. or sulph- arsenide of
iron FeAsS.
Cobaltite. or sulph-arsenide of
cobalt CoAsS.
Proustite or sulph-arsenide of
silver Ag3AsS3.
6. Antimonide:
Dyscrasite. or silver antimonide,
Ag6Sb.
z. Sulph-antimonides
Pyrargyrite, or dark ruby silver,
Ag3SbS3.
Work at the Mines.
At the mines without mills, the grade
of ore is raised by cobbing. washing,
and hand picking. The ore is usually
first passed over a grizzly or coarse
screens, as the screenings generally
carry enough value to be of shipping
grade without further treatment
At the Kerr Lake mine the tailings
from the sorting tables run on an aver
age of about five ounces of silver to
the ton. With the smelter, schedules
and freight rates at present in force. an
ore must run about As ounces per ton
to pay charges outside of the cost of
mining. All ores below this point must,
therefore, be concentrated If they are to
be shipped
The point at which the combined con-
centration and smelling rates meet the
direct smelling rates is about 90 ounces
If, however. a mine owns its own mill,
the grade of ore that can be concentrat-
ed more profitably before shipping to
the smelter direct is much higher. In
the future, if present conditions hold.
IL viii be natural to expect that very
little ore will be shipped from the
camp that will assay less than 100 sill
yer per ton There are at present seven
mills in the camp and five under con-
struction. The average concentration
ratio is As into one. The costs of mill
ing runs from s1-25 per ton to $3.50.
The flow sheet OF the mills is as fol-
lows: Crushers. rolls, trommels jigs,
stamps, or rolls with hardinge or
chilian mills. James or Whitley. or Dies
ter concentrating tables, Diester slim
mers or frue-vanners. Some of the
mills using cyanide process for the
tailings figure that four ounces pays
the cost Of cyaniding.
Cost of Production.
The mines at present. are not receiv-
ing payment for cobalt, nickel or ar
senic. The cost sheet of one of the prin-
cipal mines is as follows:
Cost of production operation s105.46
per ton-13011 per ounce.
Depreciation, S13.03 per ton-.01607
per ounce.
Marketing ore, s51.O2 per ton-.O62s4
per ounce.
Corporation legal, $3.50 per ton
Less income, $50 per ton-.01 per
ounce.
Total. s1s7.s1 per ton-.2O715 per
ounce.
The above details include every item
to production. A depre-
citation of "a percent on plant and build
ings is charged against the working
costs. In the marketing cost is in !
cluded the value of the smelling de-
duction, that is. the difference between /,
the total contents of the ore and the |
percentage paid by the smelter.
During the year 10000 feet of un- |
foreground work was done through IL
shafts and two tunnels, and 10000 |
feet of surface trenching, chargeable |
against production.
Profit on Production.
The profit on production was as fol- !
lows: Gross value of ore 100 percent |
total cost Of production 39.42 percent; |
profit on production paid in divid- /
ends. 60.5S percent. The cost of pro-
ducing, silver ranges from IA per |
ounce to 21c. the average Of the camp !
being about 1870 per ounce.
The deepest workings of the camp |
are at present 500 feet, with high grade |
values continuing, and the future of the |
district in both high grade and milling |
ores is very bright.
The total production to date has |
amounted to nearly $4,000, 900. The !
ore is native silver, occurring as |
sheets and pockets. and with the arsen-
ides Of cobalt and nickel. The pay /
chutes are from 20 to 1000 feet long. !
Many carloads of ore shipped from |
the camp have run in the neighborhood |
Of 100000 per car.
The ores are shipped 20 the Anglo |
French Nickel company, the Swansea
Wales, the American Smelling Rein |
ng company, Perth Amboy N. J., and |
Denver. Colo, the Carnegie Smelling |
company, Carnegie. Pa, the Beer Sond- |
leimer company, of Hamburg, Germany,
he International Nickel company and
he Canadian Copper company at Cop
per Cliff, Ontario, Canada.
Costs Greater There.
The costs of mining in the Cobalt dis
riot are much higher than in the south
western country. There is a great vari-
alton in the camp in the cost of under
ground work due apparently to the fact
hat comparatively few of the miners
ire skilled. For instance. in one of the
principal mines two drifts were run
rom a 100-foot level in diabase rock.
lne cost s4.25 per foot and the other
;12 per foot. This difference was
,aused by the fact that the miners in
he first drift were skilled machine men