White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1910-07-31
PIT MARVEL Of
MODERN MINING
STREAM OF ORE GOES DOWN
HIGH LINE EVERY DAY AND
NIGHT AND SUPPLY SEEMS
INEXHAUSTIBLE.

They have been taking out of the
steam pit during the week richer ore
than the big excavation ever before
yielded It came from a patch of
ground which had been left standing
N the shape of an island toward the
south and on the east side of the pit
It is carbonate ore, and not little
Of the stuff removed by the steam
shovel was copper glance. The trea-
sure troye was deserted by the
shovel on Friday, the management
possibly having decided that sufficient
had been extracted to enrich the por-
phyry ore of lower grade.
During the week a Star drill was
introduced into the pit, the first that
the company has put into use, and the
intention is to drive as deep hole as
possible down through the ore-a
thousand feet if the footage can be
attained at this point. Water was
encountered at a shallow depth but
| this of course was TO be expected and
was anticipated by the management,
so that now the hole is well under
way.
Below the present floor of the pit
the Nevada Consolidated has proved
the commercial for Iurther depth
of 200 feet This has been done by
means of ehurn drills. and up to the
present time no attempt has been
made to prove the ore at any greater
depth. The location of the drill at
the present is we'll toward the south
where they have been getting the
richest of their ore, and it is con-
fidently anticipated that most satis-
factory developments will result. In
the Eureka workings of the Ely Cen
trail. Nevada Consolidated's next
door neighbor, they are in pyrite
limestone several hundred feet be-
low the present depth of the pit; be-
low the zone of the proven ore. In
the pit there is mass of this same
limestone which lies to the north of
the porphyry ore, and in the south
crosseut at the 4 65 foot point the Ely
Central management expects to find
the porphyry ore as they have the
limestone of the pit This being the
case there would seem to be the
strongest possibility of the Nevada
Consolidated doing likewise in the
pit At any rate they are going down
after it while in the Eureka workings
they are going out to 1t.
The Nevada Consolidated pit is
surely one of the marvels of modern
mining, for there is stream OF ore
going down the high line every day
and night, and the supply seems in
exhaustible Back come the empty
trains each day for more, and the T.
900 or 5000 tons shipped out daily
seem to leave no mark in the great
cavern of copper ore. And there Is
plenty of ore there, plenty to take out
and still leave enough for years to
come. The steam shovels are all but
human, and they are moved about the
pit from place to place at the bottom,
and from terrace to terrace, from the
floor of the pit to the top of the hill
on the west side. They look like ele-
plants in their movements, and get
about as slowly and with as little
grace but they get there and they do
the work. The dinkey engines run
in and out of the pit up and down the
grades, carrying out overburden and
ore, nimble as goats In their way, and
running along with about as little
noise Eeverything is work in that
marvellous workshop of ore, and
everything seems to run along in well
oiled grooves under the able manage
ment of Superintendent Vanderhoef.
There is another steam shovel on
the way, which perhaps will not
reach here for another month. This
is one of the shovels ordered for the
new Liberty pit, but it may be stop
ped and put to work in the present
excavation. There are at this time
five of the monster scoops in the pit
and every one of them is kept busy
all the time. One of these is in the
bottom in the ore; another on the
first terrace toward the southeast.
another on the same terrace on the
west; two more on the upper terrace
on the same side. They are tearing
into the hill on the west at a rate
which threatenes total annihilation,
and they are making an awful hole to
the south, above the ore and into the
ore.
At the Liberty pit the work of
grading, surveying, drilling, pipe
laying and track-laying still goes on;
getting everything in readiness for
stripping ore against the arrival of
the shovels and the locomotives. 1t
is hardly probable that the new pit
will be shipping this year; but from
the great output of the old pit, one
can hardly understand the necessity
of another producer by the same COM
pany. Eighty new ore cars are on the
way to Copper Flat. and these can
be used right handily in the present
excavation before the stage of pro-
duction is reached in the Liberty.
l. the first of the wear will see the Gi-