El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-03-25

JUNEAU, Alaska, March 81 have
just returned from a trip through
what promises to be one Of the
most famous gold mines OF the world.
7 have ridden through its miles Of
tunnels behind an electric engine, and
have walked through the mighty cav
ems, called Slopes, where they are
blasting down the ore and dropping it
into the cars for the mills. I have
gone through the new crushing and
reduction works, the latest Of their
kind, and have seen, as II Were the
mechanical triumph of the twentieth
century in saving the riches hidden in
the bowels of the earth
The mine l visited today has a
mighty ore body whose gold contents
average about $l.'O per ton. ana ,,S sun u
the machinery for mining and Milling
Is such that fully half of that amount
IS clear profit The actual cost of
mining the gold is now about 60 cents
a ton, and it may be cut to 90 cents OF
even lower than that
What $3.50 Gold Means.
Have you any idea Of what gold ore
carrying only $3.50 ton means
Gold is worth about $50 an ounce and
At that rate $50 worth Of gold would
eyuaI only about one thirteenth Of an
ounce. Divide a twenty dollar gold
piece into thirteen parts and each part
will not be as big as a pea Neverthe-
less, that pea Of gold is all that is TO
be found I'm one whole ton OF TINS ore.
A ton of ore is carload Tor Two
horses Now grind your pea into the
finest Of powder and put one Of the
grains Of that powder in every pebole
or broken piece of A carload OF gravel
and YOU have some idea of how the
feold is scattered through the rock and
how difficult 1t is TO get II all out
or suppose the gold to be salt, and
the ore to be water / went TO dru6
store today and weighed out enough
salt TO just equal the weight Of the
gold in a ton Of this ore The salt did
not fill the smallest teaspoon. But
ton Of water would fill ESQ gallon
hogshead. Now If you should drop
your spoonful Of salt into the hogs
head and churn up the water until the
salt is thoroughly mixed through II ALL
you would have just the proportion
OF the gold and rock in the mine OF
which 1 am writing. Think OF getting
the pea made of gold powder out of the
CARLOAD Of rock I'm such way that
half OF it will more than pay all the
costs. and you have the problem which
the operators Of this mine have sue
cesFfully solved
IL seems a petty business does it not2
Nevertheless f. is one Of the biggest
businesses Of the world Of today IT
takes millions to work the mine and il
THE mine / refer to is the Alaska Gas
tineau property. II Is only one of sew
eraI mighty low grade propositions
along the Gastineau channel which
will keep thousands Of miners and
millions Of dollars OF machinery at
work mere for q century to come. Ad-
Joining il is the Alaska Juneau mine,
similar mountain of gold which is now
AT its very beginning Further along
Is the Elmer mine, another great prop
erty, and there are other deposits about
Of enormous extent.
The mountain Of loW-grade ore over
the Alaska Gastineau mine rises al
most precipitiOusly from the Gastineau
channel. Its ore body is said to cover
something like 2OO0 acres 1t is more
than two miles in length and the min
ers have already made 20 miles Of tun-
nels and cross-cuts I'm their develop
ment works According to the report
of the managing director. d. c. jack
ling, to the stockholders. the block
OF ore has something like 21,000,0
tons above certain level and at least
100000. 600 tons above the level OF the
sea The Treadwen group on the OPP
posite side Of the channel is now ex-
tending mines under the sea, so that