The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1916-03-23
TUNGSTEN EXPERT THINKS
MURRAY MAY Be RIVAL
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already passed Colorado in production
and is going ahead.
And of such are the war babies of
California"
Will the Occur d'Alenes Rival Colorado
and California? :.
Chester T. KEENAN,, the Colorado
mining engineer and geologist, who has
been in Murray for the past three
months, closely studying the tungsten
situation, and tested a variety Of rock
for the valuable metal, infermS the
writer that he is of the impression that
the field here is as promising as those
ia Colorado and California for extern
20 nigsten mining. While the 'Nln-
- had already :et in when he got
ere, he has made some research, but
9 has not been able to see much of
surface, and will not be able to get
"a the hills before the first of May,
then. However, the production of
ysten since he has been here has
III considerable, and from the tests
Las made of rock over wide area
leads him to be lieve that the mineral
eposits are extensive and need only
be developed. He doubts whether
BOULDER county and Kern county can
largely increase their output, for they
have been well prospected in the past,
and they have been made to yield
practically up to the limit. Here the
mining of tungsten is really new en-
terprise. Very little was known about
it until the price Of the rare metal
made such a phenomenal jump. Now
there will be diligent search for the
ore in every part of the Murray dis
trict, and as the geological conditions
are favorable a rival for the two old
camps may spring up.
A Pioneer Returns to Prospect.
Alonzo Coplen, one of the real pio-
neers, has returned to Murray to look
over the old Daddy group and satisfy
himself whether there is any tungsten
in the property. Mr.. Coplen was in
terested in the property when it was
very productive in gold, and labors un-
der the impression that the company
discarded much heavy spar that has
since proved to be tungsten. Of course
what passed through the mill is lost, as
the tailings with their additional val
ues went into the creek, there being no
concentration, but the dumps remain,
although they are covered with snow.
Mr.. Coplen was in charge of the Occur
d'Alene exhibit at the Spokane fair
when the writer in 1898 had the first
scheelite ore on view ever shown in the
Pacific northwest. A handsome medal
was awarded to the exhibitor, which he
retains, for the rare exhibit. 1t was
only a few months previous to this
time that the writer had found out
from the United State geological sur
vey that the heavy SPARKLE ore was
scheelite. It was generally termed ba-
rite by Nevada miners here, because
barite is a common mineral in the Sill
yer State. Every old gold dump will
be conned over as soon as the snow
disappears.
Visitors Dropping in.
During the past few weeks number
of visitors have been in Murray, but
they returned to the outside by return
train, evidently with some disgust.
They could see nothing but snow, and
they wanted to know whether this sec
ton was part Of the north pole. One
more cheerful than his fellow sight
seers wanted to know If there was a
chance here to lease tungsten mine