The Alaska daily empire., 1913-12-31
Juneau Holds Attention
 of Whole Mining World

The Wall Street News Letter, pub lished by the great New York. Boston and Chicago brokerage firm of Thomp- son. Towle & Co.. contains the follow ing leading article on Juneau gold mining development:
 Probably no developments in gold mining in the world in the past few years have attracted such general at tention as those in progress in the Vii cinity of Juneau, Alaska, where work is now under way by different cOmpan- ies to treat on a gigantic scale the low grade ores of this belt
 By far the best known of the new developments is that carried on by the Alaska Gold Mines Co.,, which now has in the process of construction 6O00-ton mill, which later will prob ably be enlarged to at least 20,-000 tons. Parties returning from Juneau state that at this property the big con struction program is being carried out on scheduled time and that the com pany should be ready for operations by the close of next year.
 Another important development on this belt is that of the Alaska-Juneau, which property adjoins the Alaska Gold Mines. This property will be the first of the big mines lying on the north of Gastineau channel to begin operation, and the first unit of the plant will be placed in commission this winter. The conditions under which this company will operate are similar to those at the Alaska Gold Mines, and the results will be watched with interest.
 When Alaska Gold was first brought out in the summer of 1912, the esti- mate of the company's engineers that a total cost of mining and milling of 75 cents per ton would be realized, evoked considerable comment.
 ''In a recent article published in the Mining and Scientific Press on the Alaska-Juneau, by the well-known en- gineer F. w. Bradley, much light is thrown upon the mining and milling in the form of quartz stringers. The quartz being more friable than the methods 10 which these lOw-grade ores will be subjected, as we'll as the eco nOmical advantages of operating these deposits as compared with the Alaska Treadwell and other properties on Douglas island. Below we give some of the most salient features of this ar ticle.
 Tn mining the ores a combination of the Douglas island method with the caving system developed in the Alas ka Gold property will be followed, and it is expected that at least 100 tons of broken ore per machine-drill shift will be possible as against an average of 31 tons at the Douglas island mine. The Alaska-Juneau ore is much easier to drill than that of Douglas island, and powder consumption will be less. Moreover, the ore crumbles when brok- en, thus doing away with the expense of blasting the larger pieces in the stopes. The ore will be dropped by gravity to the main tunnels and hauled to the mills which are located at tide water.
 Tn the milling of the ores, experi- mental work has demonstrated that the mill feed can be proftably enriched by sorting out and roughing out the waste. This is made possible by the occurrence of the gold in the ore. While the slate and metagabbro each carry from 25 cents to S5 cents per ton, most of the recoverable gold is slate and breaks into smaller pieces in crushing and the waste is eliminated passing over the trummeL It is esti- mated that 20@o of the waste rock will be rejected in the crushing house. Hand-sorting of the waste material will be resorted to on belts to prevent any substantial amount Of ore being lost in this way.
 Regarding the recoveries and total cost of production, MT. Bradley states that it is expected that an average re- covery of $1.45 per ton will be ob- tained from the entire vein. On basis of 5000 tons treated per day, the cost will not exceed 80 cents per ton, and figure will be greatly reduced when eventually handling 12,000 tons per day. Comparative figures are shown, giving the total costs at the Alaska Juneau compared with those being ob- tained at the Douglas island properties. The average cost at the latter is $40 per ton. It is principally in the min ing of the ore that the great saving will be effected, the cost at the Ju- neau property being 40 cents per ton for development, stoping, underground and surface tramming, hoisting and pumping, as against 95 cents at Doug has island. It is estimated that say ing of cents per ton will be effected in milling cost, this figure placed at