The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1916-08-31

mining In COLORADO mas inhue seo@os
advancement in spite OF the fall In the
price of the metals. In fact, one OF the
gratifying elements in recent mining
progress is the total absence of
mining fever. The mining that is be-
ing done nowadays in Colorado Is done
for the most part by mining people
not by tenderfeet and mining people
base their plans on average metal
prices, not on war time quotations
For instance, the Vindicator people
have gone into tungsten mining and
milling In Boulder county
As predicted some months ago, the
quickly made money from the Boulder
tungsten districts is supplying capital
for neighboring counties. Gilpin has
more men at work this summer than
for several years and this condition
exists in spite of the fact that large
part of her population Is still busy
digging tungsten in Boulder That
county, of course, is Furnishing beyond
belief The slump in tungsten came
lust at the right time from a public
standpoint. The sellers of stock were
just beginning to get the dear public
to buy tungsten shares when the slump
came / do not know that any of these
shares sold were bad In fact, such
movements generally start with fairly
conservative enterprise, but / think 1t
is much better for the mining industry
and whole lot better for the dear
public if mining speculation is confin-
ed to those who understand the game.
Tungsten is still being bought and a
good price is being paid for 1t, but
what that price Is is hard to determine.
Unfortunately the tungsten market has
degenerated to a horse trading affair.
In spite of this demoralized market,
money is rolling into the tungsten
fields by the cart load and the accum-
ulated capital Is to a large extent be-
ing used in mining ventures of various
sorts. As a result Boulder. Gilpin and
Clear Creek counties are active along
intelligent and conservative lines.
George H. Barnhart of Ouray Is
building a unique mill, for it is placed
underground The Mountain Top mine
has some good ore but it is situated,
as its name implies, on the very top
of precipitous peak in the San Juan.
There was only one feasible outlet ap-
hn ~
connect with the long adit of the At
las mine (above Ouray) and tram the
ore out that way. Even then 1t meant
building long surface tram. Barn
hart conceived the Idea of building his
mill underground. close to his ore
bodies. Thereby he obtains an equit-
able temperature and closely con-
centrated operation The light may
not be very good on the day shift, but
at night II will be just as good as it
would be outside He is installing
erusher, ball mill, two Whitley tables
and flotation plant. The mill viii
be driven by electricity; 1t is about
1850 feet above sea level, and will
have an initial capacity Of about so
tons.
Altogether about 80 flotatlon plants
have been installed In Colorado. OF
these about one-half are successful.
The failures of the other half might
be more instructive than the sue
cesses If one could be sure they had
any ore to work on Two instances,
which went to some pains to investi-
gate, turned out to be mills built for
mines that needed an alchemist, not
common metallurgist
Several interesting points are illus
rated by the four big pumping pro-
ects now under way at Leadville. |
Within the last 80 years underground |
has been done mostly with |
steam actuated reciprocating pumps. |
Prior TO that time there were good |
many Cornish pumps in operation. or |
he various types all have their adj |
'antages. but no one type has proved |
rood enough to displace the others.
operations at Leadville have demon
trated a distinct and measurable adj
'ance in pumping and hence are wor-
by of special consideration.
The two prominently important
tops are the use of centrifugal or tur-
line pumps, and the driving of the
anne by an extended vertical shaft.
he rotary type of pump is far less
eayy and cumbersome than the re-
type. 1t is, therefore
1uch easier handled in the shaft. The
lea has prevailed that centrifugal
jumps were limited to low heads, but
his difficulty has been overcome by
reating the water in several stages.
he discharge of one stage is the in
ike of the next, and in this way
JUMPING lifts of several hundred feet
lay be effected, ! notice, however,
nat relay pumps are still used in high .
fits where centrifugals are employed. :
I course, the cost of one high press #,
re water column and one high press /,
re turbine may be greater than the a
'st of two low pressure water col
nns and two low pressure turbines. IL
hen again mine does not always y
t all the water on the bottom level.
Is often possible to halt the natural T
'wnward flow of water at some level r
at has fairly good bottom, and :,
inject IL direct to an fntern,a diafa