Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1910-08-20
CONCENTRATING ORES
OF SOUTHERN HILLS.

| Or 6OOlnhftN HILLS
The large quantities of silicious
smelling and cyaniding ores of Law
renee county, which have always
been comparatively easily mined
have attracted attention from the
possibility Of developing bodies OF
concentrating ores and consequently
have left that department of the
mining industry, almost wholly neg
lected in the Black Hills. There
has been no company but the Home
stake that has ever conducted con.
centration on large scale and even
with that company it has been alb
andoned since the feasibility Of cy-
aniding the tailings from the stamp
| mill has been demonstrated and i'm
mense plants erected for the purpose
of extracting values by that means,
Here and there, through the Black
Hills, there have at times been at
tempts made to save values by means
of concentration, but at the best, the
attempts have been but half hearted
and in every case, conducted on a
diminutive scale. During the days
Of activity at the Holy Terror mine
In the Keystone district, when that
company was taking out free milling
ore of great richness, a concentrate
was derived from the tailings which
though 1t was of very high grade,
was small in quantity and was pro-
duced at considerable expense
Aside from these few scattered at
tempts to which may be added a
more recent one at the Grand View
mine in the Silver City district on
Rapid Creek, where a gold silver-lead
ore was concentrated on a small
scale successfully, until flood in
Rapid Creek removed the only av-
ailable means of transportation,
there has been no systematic endeav
or to develop bodies of ore that are
essentially of the concentrating var
iety. The scheme as It has been out
lined by mining men who have con-
sidered the possibility of such an en-
terprise, includes the development of
large bodies Of pyritic ore, which
must Of necessity be of low grade.
1t it contended by these that at nu-
merous points in the Black Hills and
especially in the southern Hills,
there are immense ledges Of low
grade pyritic ores that could be pro-
fitably treated by concentration. In
carrying out an undertaking of this
kind 1t is pointed out that the first
item to be considered Is strict econ
omy Of operation. In order to ac-
complish this essential feature. the
ore body will have to be Of large pro-
portions, 80 that the rock may be
mined at the very lowest possible
cost. The motive power, for both
mine and mill will have to be the
cheapest and this can ouly be secured
by installing a water driven electric
plant, owned and operated by the
mining company. Another requisite |
o the successful operation Of such a
project, must be cheap railroad
ate, which must be much lower than
my now in force in this section. In J
he absence of cheap railroa- I
reight rate the company must oper-
tie its own smelter at point close
o the concentrating plant and this
f course would add an additional
arge expense to the project of es-
the company. With these
arious items of expense adjusted to
sufficiently low point, 1t is the op-
lion of experienced mining men that
concentrating proposition could be
tade large dividend payer in the
lack Hills.
In looking over the country for ,
iitably large bodies Of pyritic ore, {
.tention is naturally drawn to the 6
'uthern Hills where the vertical for {
alton is in evidence over practical I
the whole territory and where the v
dges are large and strong. There 7
e a dozen different sections in that
strict which afford opportunities Q
r such an enterprise and In most 8
them there are also present the e
euisites in the way of water power, '
III sites and timber. The long t