El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-05-19
FORTUNE IN OLD
MINES IN THE
SOUTHWEST
Many Old Mexican Proper
ties Believed to Be
Still Rich.

"I have mined all over the Rockies
from Gilpin county, Colorado, south
west through New Mexico, Arizona and
into Mexico and l have never known a
genuine fissure vein with true walls
that carried mineral of value, to play
out" remarked Jack Thomas, veteran
miner and prospector who inherited all
the natural mining instinct OF the
Welsh race and opened and worked
many a bonanza In his day. "A good
ore body may temporarily get lean in
values, but I have never failed to find
more ore, either by prosecuting, DRIFT
ing or sinking on the ledge"
Many Rich Old Mines.
Once when on a visit in Ell Paso after
a years prospecting in Sonora, he sald:
AT last 1 have discovered wonderful
mineral country out there on the west
slope of the Sierra Madre range, put
1 found no virgin unworked veins EV-
erywhere I went found that the ola
padres had preceded me, and they were
the greatest prospectors the world ever
knew. Wherever they went their eagle
eyes saw everything good in the way OF
a mine They never overlooked bet
Several times I fattered myself, when
climbing the hills of Mexico and saw
red hill at the foot of which there
was rich float, that at last l had 1ouno
a virgin vein, but on climbing the hill
I invariably came onto old workings
some of them centuries old
MY advice to all American prospec-
tors in Mexico is to examine well those
old workings of the padres You may
think they never would have abandoned
them if there was any mineral left, but
that is not the case.
The Antiques.
IT believe they only abandoned those
'antiguas' on account of the indians, or
from the mines becoming flooded with
water, which, with their poor facilities,
they could not unwater, or because they
encountered sulphide ores or ores too
base for. them 10 treat on the ground
| Besides. they had no custom shelters
in those old days. Now from my own
| experience 1 claim that if you unwater
| one OF those old mines or clean out the
old workings and sink, drift or croSscut
you will surely encounter more ore
would rather take my chances on open
ing up an old antigua, as the old Span
ish mines are called, than TO open Up
| a new and unworked vein. They car
ried mineral down TO the bottom, and, as
1 stated, a genuine mineralized loda
| or vein never peters out"
Mines Still Rich.
There is a phase Of prospecting,
| entirely lost sight of, and that is pros
pecting in mines which have been
worked, and which have yielded for a
| of years and then abandoned as
| worked out. No greater mistake could
| be made than to condemn these mines
as either worthless or worked out.
Evidence continues TO be furnished
| from many camps that the mines re-
ferred 10 have not been half prospected,
and numerous cases in point may be
quoted to illustrate and support this
| assertion.
In fact the advantages offered in
the shape of good roads and transpor-
tatiOn facilities through many of the
! old mining districts, modern hosting
! facilities, pumps and economy of treat
| ing the ores, should hold out induce
ments which an entirely new country,
cut off from communication, does not
afford. A systematic course of cross
| cutting in many of the abandoned mines
might lead TO better results than are
10 M Gained by prospecting new
grounds"