The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1913-04-04
THE GWASCO COMPANY TO START
WORK ON A LARGE SCALE
IMMEDIATELY
DEVELOP MINE AND RUN MILL
Work On Old OkanOgan Free Gold
Mine Starts at Once. Install
Machinery, Electric Power

Preparations are being made by the
Owasco Gold Mining Company to re-
sumo operations at the old Okanogan
Free Gold Mine. Officers of the COM
pany have been here for several days
inspecting the property, contracting
for electric power, and making other
arrangements preliminary to active
development
The officers and members of the
company who arrived last week and
are now here, are d. w. Dart, presi-
dent and manager, and his son; G.. w.
Smith secretary, and Willard Shep-
pard, all of New York. Mr.. Simmons,
also of New York, came with the 9TH
ers but he returned east Thursday
morning. He will probably visit the
property again in about two months
when work is in full progress. A. c.
Brink, treasurer of the company, is
expected from New York in a few
days. Both Mr.. Dart and Mr.. Smith
will remain here, Mr.. Dart assuming
direct charge of all operations.
The Owasco company intends to in
stall compressor plant and four or
five power drills at the start, and will
increase the number of drills as the
progress of the underground work re-
uuires. The mill will be started
simultaneously with the beginning of
underground development work, and
all the machinery will be run with
electric power. A contract has been
made with the Similkameen Power
company to furnish electric power to
the amount of thirty horse power The
transmission line of the power COM
pany runs across the property of the
Owasco Gold Mining company and but
one poll will have to be set to convey
the juice to the mill.
Considerable work has been done
on the mine in the past. Fully 2,700
feet of tunnels, drifts and raises in
four levels have been run, and there is
enough ore in the slopes and drifts
'iittt Nttii NC iCuuiiy uuhulCu W hcCp
the ten stamps now installed in the
mill running at capacity for a year.
Besides this there is a dump contain
ing about 10000 tons of ore, according
to estimates made for the company
that carries average values of from
Sl5 to S25 to the ton. This ore will be
treated. The lodges on the property,
which are four in number, will be
thoroughly prospected and developed
as rapidly as possible, and as the mine
is put in shape to increase it's daily
output, the mill will be enlarged. The
mill was originally designed for twen-
ty stamps, but only ten stamps were
installed.
The first underground work will be
the sinking of straight shaft through
the old workings and installation of a
hoist for handling the ore.
The Okanogan Free Gold Mine is
situated on the extreme south end of
Kruger mountain, about two and one
half miles west of Oroville The Oro-
ville-Vancouver branch of the Great
Northern railway runs within 600 feet
of the mill.
The principal values of the mine are
gold and silver. There are four ledg-
es on the propert. The principal de-
velopment work has been done on the
Cobler vein, which shows an average
width of about eight feet There is
one immense ledge that shows width
where prospected, of about one hun
dred feet The values in this ledge
are lower than in the others, but ow
ing to its great size the ore can prob
ably be worked at a profit. From the
best figures available it is estimated
that about $137,0 has been expended
on the property in the past in tn,
work of developing the lodges an(
constructing and operating the mill
This mill appeared to successful,
save the values and the mine paid tn,
first dividend ever declared in thi
part of the country. The failure t,
continue operations has been account
ed for in various ways, and som