Bisbee daily review., 1917-03-18
OLD DESERT MINE LOOKS LIKE C0MER
Old Time Property Near Bouse is Being Developed Into a New and Better Mine.

Desert mine, now the property Of the Navajo Mines company. has come in- to it's own with q vengeance. IL is almost year since C. Y. De Lay of Oakland. Cal, took over the old property, which has lain idle for almost twenty years. and proceeded 10 explore it.
 Mir. De Lay has followed the mining profession almost since boyhood and has been identified with many highly successful properties in Nevada. Cali fornia and elsewhere throughout the west. Time and again he has quit the game" and settled down in his beautiful Oakland home, but ever the hills have beckoned, the voices of the mountain and the desert have call sd-and he has answered.
 The Old Desert is located immedi- ately north of Vicksburg station on the A. and C. railroad. the first sta tion west of Salome and distant some nine miles. From the railroad an ex-
 cellent wagon road has been built to the property and it is peculiarly free from heavy grades.
 As stated, the Desert is one of the oldest properties in the Harcuvar range and was worked as early as
 twenty-five years ago. A mill was built which is still standing and which
 is now being torn down to give place
 to a thoroughly modern plant. When Mir. De Lay took over the
 property it was considered as practi- cally worthless or at best. large low grade milling deposit which would hardly pay for the working. The gold was there in considerable quantity but it was supposed the quality of the l ore was too poor to warrant any ex- tensive development
 One of the new owners first moves
 was a scientific exploration of the I ground, the sinking of many test pits | and tunnels and the taking of number | test assays. As matter of curiosity
 and as illustrating the care with
 which the property was sampled. it may be stated that the last assay was , No. 1873. The assay office is one of ; the most completely equipped in Yu-
 ma county and is in charge of B. H. De Lay. son of General Manager c. L.
 De Lay, and an assayer and miner of | great skill and many years of active , experience. In addition to the work on the Desert, the office has done much assaying for outside prospectors and claim owners.
 This careful exploration developed
 many points of interest. In the first
 place, it was proven that. above the upper tunnel and practically exposed
 on all sides. there lies a hill of gold
 bearing ore. the content of which has
 been estimated within the past two
 months by William Forstner. the not
 ed mining engineer.
 His figures show 100000 tons of ore. with an average content of gold | and copper to the extent of $S per
 ton; 13.500 tons (on the richest part | of the vein) with a content of $16 per ton and 1500 tons of extremely high
 grade ore valued at $50 per ton, all valuations being net. with mining, transportation and milling charges deducted.
 | In other words, the hill above the old millsite has a net value of close to a million dollars-and this practi- cally on the surface.
 Further explorations at greater depth have developed great bodies of much richer ore and assays have been secured running into hundreds of dol lars per ton.
 It is the plan of the owners to work out the upper portion of the property before attempting to extract the ores | lying below the tunnel levels. One of the great advantages of the Navajo company's ground lies in the fact that the ores can be mined and milled with minimum of expense. Ample water supply has been assured by the sinking of five wells of depth | from S4 to 306 feet, which have been itSltu WHICH VIII pro ! duce all water required for mill and camp purposes.
 Comfortable and commodious camp buildings and offices have been built and will be considerably extended within the coming two months. A tel ephone line connects the mine with ! the station at Vicksburg. two miles and a half away. and. as stated, the road has been put in excellent condi- tion.
 The Navajo property marks the western end of the same range on which the Cobrita. the Glory Hole Bonanza, the Cobrita Verde the In- dependence and other well known mines of the Harcuvar district are located and the proving of the values on this old-new property has occas- joned much delight to the owners of adjoining claims.
 It is the De Lay plan to make haste slowly and. being backed by the most ample funds. the development of the great property will proceed rapidly but methodically.