Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1918-03-14
Production of Quicksilver

| :" A small production of tungsten 4on
eentrates was made from the prop srty
of the Idaho Tungsten company at Pat
tison creek in Lemhi county. For the
first time in the history of the state,
small production, amounting to five
TASKS of quicksilver, was made from
Idaho ore by the Fern Quicksilver Mn
ing company situated in Idaho county,
about eighteen miles southeast of Vel
low Pine postoffice and about mile
north of the old Thunder mountain
wagon road where it crosses the Mon
umental creek summit. This is new
discovery, made less than two years
ago. and is theiresult of the efforts of
the veteran prospector of that region,
A. Il. Van Meter. 1t consists of a zone
of highly altered quartzose gangue at
n contact with a blue limestone forma-
ton, which is probably a remnant pend
ent of ancient sedimentary formation,
as the surrounding region is noted for
igneous rock exposures and granite for
nations.
to Percent Mercury
''The deposit is said to carry from l
to 2 percent mercury in the form Of
cinnabar across width of thirty feet,
and includes several lenzy shoots as
much as six feet thick that average =
to 7 percent mercury. The property
was equipped during the summer with
a small Johnson Mckay l2-cell retort Z
furnace, capable of treating twelve
tons in twentyfour hours, which was
installed at cost of $4,000 at the mine.
The plant was finished late in the fall
and test run of five tons made from
which five TASKS of quicksilver We're
produced and shipped to the San Fran
cisco market, where it was sold for
$50 flask The furnace was handled
without previous experience by its
operators, one of whom has gone to
California to study the subject of mer
curry ore treatment, and III the mean
time small crew is pushing develop
fent on the deposit with view to
putting it in shape for continued oper
alton during the coming summer
Trace Contact Several Miles
''This interesting mercury bearing
contact is traceable across tn, noun
tains for several miles, extending to
Sugar creek, where the Pringle- Smith
mercury deposit occurs under very
similar conditions, and exhibits sur
that it is believed win safely average
twenty pounds of quicksilver a ton
across a width of twenty feet. The
debris on the steep mountain side below
these outcrops is literally sprinkled
with fine cinnabar sand and it is not
unlikely that other discoveries will be
made in iths region of commercial i'm
portanee in this desirable liquid metal,
which is in big demand in the manu-
faeture of fulmanite cap mixtures, now
in such extensive use throughout the
warning world.
In the same region, at Yellow Pine
basin, some splendid deposits of clean
stibnite OF anthony sulphide, have
been developed and consist Of banded
vein in soft granite formation that is
ten feet wide and is said to include an
aggregate of fully five feet Of clean 80
percent ore bands. Unfortunately for
the marketing of this mineral it has
to be transported over q rough noun
tain country by wagon eixty miles to
the nearest railway shipping point at
Cascade, in Long valley, but negotia-
tons are now in progress for the in
stalation of plant to concentrate this
ore on the ground by sublimating