The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1915-07-01
GOOD DREDGING
HARD 70 FIND
ALASKA FIELDS HAVE SAME
DIFFICULTY. AS FOUND IN
CoEuR D'ALENEs.

Many times the query is heard In
the Occur dAlenes regarding the alb
sence Of dredges along the gold beds
of the Beaver and Prichard slopes
That rich deposits exist in severai To-
calities along these streams Is well
known to mining men, but proper
method of handling the rough bed rock
formation has not yet been devised
Attempts have been made In the past
TO use the bucket dredge, Trail guicn
and Beaver creek being worked for
long distances by this method which
Is said to have proved a losing VEN
ture. The gold was there but be
rock was Of such a character as u
prevent the buckets from cleaning the
pay dirt and bringing 1t to the sur
face. After numerous attempts the
dredges were removed and sent to
other fields.
Some months. ago California ex-
perts spent considerable time along
Prichard creek sampling bed rock ano
the pay dirt. They reported the pres
ence of gold in sufficient quantities to
yield handsome returns but how to re-
cover it proved sticker and as yet
nothing has developed from the ex-
aminations Some day a method Of
handling the refractory bed rock,
which stands on jagged edges in such
manner as to thoroughly protect the
gold nuggets In the crevices beneath,
will be devised and present difficulties
overcome.
The North Side has yielded mil
lions of dollars In the yellow metal
since the first rush brought the gold
seekers in during the early SOS and
that ii will yet return millions more
to the districts credit is the expressed
opinion of many miners who have
given the matter study.
Good dredging propositions are
easy to find-on paper" declared Jas
G. Murray northern mining man, who
was in Seattle recently on his way 10
the upper Susitina country, but they
have different aspect when one
comes to look at that. They're like
lots of quartz veins that one hears
about. They are fine, strong veins,
when you start out to look at them,
but, somehow they shrink either in
size or values before you reach them.
1t isn't often that a mining prospect
is understated. With the innumer-
able auriferous streams in Alaska, one
would think 1t the easiest thing in the
world to find a place where a dredge
would work satisfactorily he con-
tinued. But 1t isn't. OF course there
are hundreds of good dredging propo-
sitions in Alaska and many machines
are being operated at profit but it
really Is surprising to find how many
streams look like 'cinch for dredg-
ing till you come to examine them.
Many elements are necessary, bedrock,
absence of big rocks and other things.
Alaska Is tremendous dredging field
but dredging has become pretty much
of manufacturing process-so much
raw material, so much cost for treat
ment and so much profit. 1t is the
safest form of mining that can be de-
vised, provided 1t Is carried on in
minerlike fashion, much as a manu-
business would be carried
on. Dredges or other labor saving de-
vices will be operating in the placers
Of Alaska for the next so years, pro-
vided the gold standard is maintain
I'd, and it is important to Seattle, be-
cause a lot of this machinery will be
here"