Arizona republican., 1916-01-16


 the hills that cluster about the mouth Of the mine wild monkeys are chat tering and jumping about from limb to limb of the graceful palms which afford them food as well as shelter, while among the bright -hued flowers exquisite orchids wait their perfume and display their beauty for the benefit of these impish progenitors of man. Birds of rare plumage fit in and out among the shadows and the gorgeous red blue yellow macaws add their raucous voices to the med ley of sounds while splendid butter flies wave their large wings of irri- descent blue and green and gold to enhance the Iiot of color in these tropic realms
 Tropic realms? Verify. for the deepest mine-god or of any other metal-is located in Brazil. It is near place bearing the euphonious name of Villa Nova de Lima, in the State of Minas Geraes, about $50 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. It has been worked, more or less systematically. | for something over so years, and yet l few of US in the United States have ever heard of the place. much less of ! the mine. which is known as the Morro Nelho and is owned and oper- ated by an English company
 1 Last year two young professors of | geology, Benjamin Le Roy Miller of Lehigh University, and Joseph T. ! Singewald, Jr, of Johns Hopkins struck out for foreign parts and wended their way into the hidden re- cessCs of South America with view of finding out something in regard l to the mineral resources of the west ern hemisphere. They investigated al most all of the known mining dis i trictS of the southern continent and 1 brought back with them a vast store of information relative to the mineral wealth of the various countries wis lted. and it was in Brazil that they 1 found this unusual and n some re- spects unrlvalled gold mine They 1 tell about it in an article in the De cember number of the Bulletin of the Pan American Union Washington D. e. from which the following facts are taken.
 The Morro Nelho mine is located 1 in the gold belt of Brazil, where the | Portuguese were first induced to set 1 tie by the discovery of the yellow metal. The first gold was discovered l in 1899 near the present city of Ouro Preto. The gold was coated with a black substance and hence was called 'ouro preto''-olack gold. The city which tEey founded was long called Villa Rica de Ouro Prcto-the Rich City of Black Coda name which was somewhat cumbersome even for the Portuguese, so they finally short ened it to just Ouro Preto, the name by which it is known today. Once upon a time 1t was about the most important city in Brazil, gold work ing surrounding it ana the valuable metal being obtained from the gravel | of almost every stream in the region. Not only the stream gravels yielded gold, but many gold bearing quartz veins were worked.
 Just when the Morro Velho mine was first opened is not known, but it was being operated toward the close of the 18th century, ands consid-
 erable work had been done when the present company obtained control of it in 1894. The ore body consists ot la great vein of unusual persistence and regularity that dips into the
 earth d an angle of about 4J de-
 grees. IL may be likened to a gigan-
 tic knife blade, held vertically anC
 thrust into the earth at this angle
 with the point still lower than the
 present deepest workings And it is
 these workings that make the mine
 reTarka ble The combined depths oi
 the connected shafts give total o1 , 5,S24 feet In other words, here is :
 gold mine hat is being worked at
 depth of more than q mile below tn,
 surface of the earth. Now be it re-
 memhered that the rock temperature.
 increase as the earth's crust is pene-
 trated. in some regions the increase
 being as much as 1 degree r. fol | each 70 to SO feet increase in depth
 At this rate the temperature at tn,
 bottom of this mine would be ovel 100 degrees higher than at the sur
 face, and fried ham ard eggs migh be prepared for the miners withou | any other heating apparatus than tn
 loose rocks lying a3out. Incidentall,
 the miners would be going througl ! the frying process too. Fortunately however. in this mine the rate of in
 crease of temperature i sonly l de
 gree for every 100 to 120 feet, givin
 the rocks q temperature of only IT.
 degrees. By forcing cool air dow
 into the mine by means of fans tn
 temperature is lowered to a little les than 100 degrees Even 9t that it i
 rather snug, and the miners usual
 wear only shoes, dOnning trouser when company is expected. Still tn
 mine has produced a total of abou ,, i S55. 100000 worth of gold. and is bein woked now at a profit of somethin
 over s700.00O annually.
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