The copper era., 1911-05-05
CLIFTON -MORENCI DISTRICT
 AS A GOLD PRODUCER.
Mining Journal Editor Continues His Observations Regarding Frisco River
 PIacers aad Qaaflz Mines Adjacent.

Last week the Era published a description of the San Francisco River Placers, written especially tor this paper by Chas. A. Dinsmore, editor of the El Paso Mining Journal. MT. Dinsmore described the work under way in the placer fields and then continues:
 All this caused me to think little and then began looking for quartz mines carrying gold. Hound them. There is one little mine seven miles from Clifton-it i, called the Stargo, but 1 don't have ln idea why-which is owned by people. They started it up nine m)nthss ago, their entire capital being sI2iO. They employed from ' to l2 men-and they have actually paid. in that nine months, S20, ,000 in profits. This is no fairy tale. went into this mine, saw the ore, brought away some samples, and have thoroughly sampled them since. One piece I pounded up and banned gave probably cents gold, and the balance of the stuff was deep green silver chloride. Why, that ore would run three or four hundred dollars to the ton. The manager, Wm. Keppler, showed me six tons sacked of ore that will run over $500 to the ton. This kiud of ore isn't uncommon in this mine-which of course is self-evident in a property that pays such dividends as this has They are not down very deep-maybe 130 feet-but they have a true vein, which is as cratic as woman just before Easter. It gets sorter snappy. at times and pinches down 10 couple of inches, and again it smiles out broadly at times to 30 fret-aud all the time it is pay Not far from here are two other gold properties the Mesa be- Morenci and the N " York Arizona; but as I did not visit them I cannot vouch for the sta e. ments made that they are showing fine, and that one at least is paying for all development work, the ore being shipped to the Copper Quct n reason that these gold veins-and there are very many of them in the CliftouMOrenci hill5-have been eroded and broken down in the count less ages they have been exposed 10 the weather and the chemicals which Mother Nature knows how to make and use as none of the human metal lurgists even conceives; and that in this process ot course the gold in the vein was gradually extracted as the vein matter crumb bled and routed to dust. These veins are yet high on the hills; and they were so bcfore-so in the natural sequence of events, as the rains came the loose matter on the hills was carried downward in the arroyos, creeks, rivers, and de- posted iu spots where the current was more sluggish and where there were crevices and declivities in the bedrock to receive it So, the placer ground was made. Now, another COnSlueTdtlOn Is the uluOuOI6O IdCl that the channels of the rivers have all changed many times since the last disturbance, aud in this change the gold was oftentimes left high and d.y and some distance from the stream which originally deposited it. Therefore, in prospecting for placers the wise man looks not only along the river itself, but he searches for old channels and these he prospects even closer than he does where the stream lives today. Ia the Arizona New Mexico country the erosion was in such manner as to pile the detritus in "benches" as it were-and some times placer gold is found in quan ity l50 feet higher than the present bed of the rivers.
 In furthering this idea that there is gold in this country in paying quantity I looked about a lot, and finally got to the very top of the Winchester Mountains, where, in