Bisbee daily review., 1911-10-07

IaN
 Work has actually begun on the building of the dams for the I.oto- wana Placer Mining Co. which will conserve l50.000, ,000 gallons of water and enable this company to work its 5000 acres of auriferous gravel in the famous San Domingo field miles north Of Wickenburg. Arizona. and about 1 miles back from the Hassa- yampa river. The ground averages over feet to bedrock and carries above 40 cents a cubic yard. There Will be two dams. All work, inelud- ing 70 feet of tunnels and 500 feet of heavy rock. has been done for the pipe line to the placer ground from the dams. and the water will have 90 feet of heads when it reaches the sluiees. In 30 days placer operations VIII be in full blast in Rogers wash, which is 1-2 miles long. 1000 feet wide. g feet deep. and for the entire distance carries more than 70 cents yard. As fast as possible this work will be extended to the other ground of the company, and eventually there will be three 20O0-yard dredges in op- eration. In the requirement of the 1000 acres in the holding, in estab- lishment and maintenance Of camp, and in the thorough testing of 500 acres and prospecting of many hun dreds more, some S3O.0OO has been expended. and by the time everything is In full blast the total initial out lay will have been approximately x75,000. Estimates of numbers of engineers who have investigated this project place the amount of gold that can be profitably saved at 1000, ,OO0. This is the greatest placering opera ton in the United States today: and the work here will demonstrate that sufficient water may be conserved for this class of operation on a large scale using the methods Of the gov ernment in retaining the arid lands of the country.
 Three years ago MT. and Mrs. John $. Sanger, both experienced placer miners who made money in the Nome. Alaska, fields, started across country witn pack train to prospect South western Arizona for 25 cent ground. field, and investigated They camp ed on the ground, and prospected very carefully, the results astonishing them as the ground was so rich. the gold so generally distributed from surface to bedrock; but it was told them that 1t was practically worth less, because there was no water But after careful investigation MT. Sanger decided that there was a wa ter shed of sufficient size to furnish all water necessary for operations on large scale if there were points where 1t could be saved. Natural dam sites were found in both San Domingo and Blackberry washes. The first will save 50,OO0,OO0 gallons, the latter twice as much. All this occupied more than a year; when the Sangers organized their company, and, returning. devoted all their at tention to testing the property. The Rogers wash attracted his attention first. and MT. Sanger tested 800 acres very thoroughly; but later he found other equally large washes, which are tions, however, will be in the Rogers wash
 This placer field is east of the Hassayampa river, lying fiat, with benches on either side of numerous deep washes. The gold is coarse and in angular fragments, so little alloy ed that it brings $19.25 per ounce The gold is from the surface to bed rock, about the same richness throughout. Probably it was not brought here by fiood-waters, but is the result of the erosion of the noun tains which once covered the fiat The ground is not packed as it would be if brought by water; and there are no large boulders to hamper plac- CT operations. In the wash is found a great deal of quartz, some granite, diorite. sehist, shale. lime, porphyry.
 The country rock at the head of the washes is generally granite, with great porphyry dykes passing through and there is considerable schist. The placer ground has some growth of mesquite and palo verde, and there is much cacu of different growths. Bedrock is conglomerated, and in a thousand years or so would be the typical Gila conglomerate of the sec tion. It is fairly soft now, so the top can be easily taken of. and thus all the gold that has concentrated or bedrock will be saved. In prospect ing, men are sent out with pans and dry washing machines, many samples being tak4 from the top of the benches, from the sides, and from the bottom of the washes In testing, pits are dug feet long. 3 feet wide, and to bedrock. In all this prospect ing and testing not one absolutely barren pan has been found, which is most unidue In testing, Mir. Sanger has been more than conservative, re- iecting all nuggets and also all pan uings running exceptionally high. have spent many days on the proper ty. prospecting all the time, and the result was always the same-colors always. An expert Mexican placer miner named Eulalia was with me and I saw him take diuble hand fuli of gravel. dry placer 1t in his palms. and get from 2 to 25 colors- We took a pan in one of the rlcher snots in Spring Gulch wash, and got 2o0 coIors. It is the most wondertui uroposition ever saw, and others rho have given the field careful at tentisn say the same.