El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-07-30
ANOTHER MEXICAN
MINE DISTRICT
OPENED
The Sierra Molina in North
ern chihuahua Proves
Rich in Ore

! huafua, 23Hmies west of the station
| of GaIlego. on the Mexican Nationals
railroad, is a second Santa EuIaIia, a
vast storehouse of lead-silver and zinc
| deposits" remarked David NJ. Evans,
the veteran mining man, at the ST. Re-
gis. I own mining properties in Ma
pimi, Santa Eulalia, Sierra Naica, Choir
reros and did own and operate mines
/ in Parral, but in none of them have
1 seen any greater mines than those of
| the Molina mountain. 1 have financed,
developed to a big paying sbasis and
now am turning over to the New Year
| Mining company the really greatest zinc
mines, 1 believe, in Mexico, which cover
25O pertenencias, or 625 acres of the
MOjias and are called La Independence
ana Libertad mines
Old Spanish Workings.
These properties cover antiguas, or
old Spanish workings, whose history is
unrecorded. but doubles worked cen
turtles ago-a perfect labyrinth of sub
terranean workings, extending over 10
miles in every direction underground,
with the living rooms of the ancient
miners in the interior of the mountain,
! with four or five vast waste dumps,
one above the other, and these veins
~
the mountain, all dipping in parallel
planes to the west, separated a hun
dred feet or more apart, yet connect
ed by breaks or channels showing their
common source. The ore deposits lie
one above the other like seams of COAL
Porphyritic intrusions have made the
channels that connect them from base
to mountain summit.
Accidental Discovery.
dnn< toll w
foUSd by Lafayette Pass. Donaldson
Hooopes and L. H. Davis about %
years ago while hunting deer. The
roofs of these tune1s and drifts are
supported by remaining pillars and
stone walls.
The ancients evidently worked these
veins for their silver and lead con-
tents, evidenced by immense Stag piles
of old smelters at San Ysidro and
along the Carmen river, a few miles
away. We have not Yet explored them
in all their intricacies- These old I
workings were in the upper veins, and
we have found them all connected and
that the old miners worked clear
through the mountain from east to
west. The workings are more extern
sive than those of Santa Eulalia.
Il have concentrated my work to
the lower vein, and have done 1900 feet
of new work. and find that we have
almost Unlimited deposits of zinc car
Donates, left intact by the ancients,
who were after only lead and silver
The strange feature of ii is that the
lead-silver strata lie on top and imme-
diately underlie the zine veins, sepa-
rated by a thin partition of rock, from
one to two inches thick.
No Zinc In Lead.
The average thickness of the lead !
silver vein is four feet. and the average |
thickness of the zinc vein is four feet, |
the two horizontally parallel veins ag-
gregating eight feet thick. The lead |
is free from zinc and the zinc ore is |
free from even trace of lead. The !
zinc is prime" and averages AZ per- !
cent, so pure that we get SIT gold per |
ton f. o. b. at GallegO station. notwith- !
standing the high protective tariff re- |
Gently imposed by the United States |
This is the average without any sorting !
just as it comes from the mine
I'VE have thousands of tons of this |
ore practically in sight. stripped and |
ready to knock down. Our only prob
the mine to the plain and haul 1t eco
nomically to the station.
Cost of Orking.
1.-THE working is very cheap, as the
mine requires no timberIing, the roofs |
being firm and massive limestone. At
present we haul it from the mouth Of
the tunnel to GaGllegO for SO a ton
The cost of ming, including dead work,
is only S1.25 per ton. We are arranging
for an aerial tram and freighting out
fit to handle ore and are building ore
bins at the mine and platforms at CAL
lego. This done, we can easily take
out and ship hundreds of tons of ore
a day
we are now driving a large tunnel
from the eastern base OF the mountain
westward, which will cut each of the
different veins, one after the other, as
they dip to the west, and into this sub
terranean channel the ores will be
dropped and carried in cars to the sur
face. This will greatly reduce the cost
Of getting the ore to the wagons.
Rich Mineral Country.
"El PasO people don't conceive what
az rich mineral country YOU have, i'm
tributary to your city, the
development of which is bound to make
Ell Paso greater mining center than
Denver.
Lying on both sides of the railroad
between here and Chihuahua are ranges
Of mountains containing limitless bodies
Of lead-silver and enc and copper ores. |
The Sierras Lamentos and Magdalenas,
east of Ahumada, and to the southw ard ,
he Sierra de las Minas and the noun
-alnS at IerraZaS; on the west, the :
-anges of Carrizal, Sierra Arados, the ,
Santa Lucias, the Mojinas and Encin- I
las. Somehow, this great mineral do :
main has been neglected or overlooked, i {
md is scarcely scratched. It is ideally {
coated with reference to transportation
md accessibility to FL Paso and the 8
;melterS. 2
L am now retiring from active SER
7ice in the mining field and have
placed each of my four sons and my I
'oninlaw in charge of my different c
mines. Now that prosperity has come. J {
apparently all in a bunch, after a quar- !
er Of century of work, my sole re- i
yret is that my wife, who died four y
ears ago, did not live to share it with i
ne. I
The New Year company is incor-
,Orated and its officers are D. B. Smith.
resident: d. NJ. Evans, vice president
md resident director; l. n. He'll. treas
lrer and secretary, and W. T. Swover.
GENERAL manager at the