The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1913-10-03
.0WASC0 IN RICH ORE
Knocking Down Quartz That
Runs High In Both
Gold and Silver
WITH AN EIGHT FOOT LEDGE
The Owasco Nine Should Speedi-
ly Break Into the Divi-
dend Paying Glass

Tuesday C. w. Smith, of the Owasco
mine. walked into this office carrying
a sack of ore in one hand and bar
of pure gold in the other, one OF three
recently cast from the metal taken
from the plates of the stamp mill.
The bar was not large one. 1t would
fit comfortably in ones pocket. But
it does not require very large bar OF
gold to run into monetary value, and
the ore that Mr.. Smith exhibited rep
resented considerable sum in cold
cash. Yet it was not so much the
gold in the raw as the ore from which
the gold was extracted that is a mat
ter of interest to the public. Gold bars
are impossible unless the matrix in
which nature has stored the metal is
present in quantities sufficient to pay
FOR the extracting. Now it looks as
though the Owasco has the ore, the
matriX, in sufficient tonnage to make
the mine pay, and pay well. The ore
exhibited was taken from the tunnel
at the stamp mill level, and from
ledge eight feet in width. Mr.. Smith
is the assayer at the mine. He has
aSsayed numerous samples from the
ledge, average samples and not picked
specimens, and these assays show
value of $140 in gold and 21 ounces in
silver. This is a marvellous showing
for a ledge of the size of the one from
which the ore was taken. Some of
this ore is so exceptionally rich that
it will not be run through the mill,
but assorted and taken to a smelter
Free gold is to be seen in some of the
samples of quartz, but values are not
depending upon visible flakes of the
precious metal. 1t seems to be freely
distributed throughout the ore.
At the present time men are stop
ing out this ore at five places on the
ledge. ana there is congestion of rich
quartz, as it is being knocked down
faster than the mill can reduce it,
although the stamps are dropping
continuously night and day. With a
more extensive blocking out of the
ore an increase in the capacity of the
mill will be necessary, and that will
naturally follow if the company de-
cides that the showing justifies the
expenditure.
The discovery of this rich shoot Is
repetition of the history of other
mines once abandoned and then re-
opened and operated at profit. The
ledge had narrowed down and bent
over when the workmen left it in the
former days of operations. Investi-
cation pushed on a few more feet by
the present owners uncovered the
ledge in place, between we'll defined
walls wider and richer than it ever
bad been in the early period of devel-
opment.
The Owasco is not as yet paying
dividends, but that happy time is fast
approaching, judging from present in
dications. The mine is not depending
wholly upon the this single ledge for
ultimate returns, but if all the other
ledges prove to be barren, and the one
now being worked holds out, the other
ledges are not necessary in order to
insure the mine paying rich returns
to the stockholders. Just now indica-
tons are that the OwaSco is to be the
first paying mine in northern Okano-
gan county, but it will not be the last
as there are others of just as fair
a promise. 1t is located almost within
sight of Oroville to the west and
should it turn out to be all that it
promises at the present time it will
have direct and important influence
in the growth of this place