The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1923-06-28

Nv Sunshine Mining company
wv cut the vein in its lowest
tunnel. which resulted in dis
closing rich shoot of gray
copper and lead-silver ore it
apparently solved the problem of deep
ore deposits on Big creek. For this
reason the strike is not only of ire
mendous importance to the Sunshine
company bat it is most reassuring to
the numerous development companies
in that section, who can proceed with
their plans with every reasonable as
surance that the ore goes down. The
point where the vein was cut is about
1900 feet from the portal This tun-
mel was run by the Price Leasing COM
pany and from it many crosscuts and
drifts were run in an effort to locate
the vein The ground is extensively
faulted and presents battling condi-
tions from d geologic standpoint and
it is not surprising that the leasing
company failed to find the long sought
vein. Much high grade ore was found
in the tunnel 500 feet above, and it
was assumed that the shoot would be
found on the Price tunnel level. Fail
ing to find it as expected, the Price
Leasing company made a raise to To-
cate the ore. After passing through
a fault the ore was encountered 200
feet above the Price level, having been
cut off clean below that point by the
fault Subsequent efforts by the
Price lease also failed to locate the
ore on the tunnel level, but the raise
made available quite a large tonnage
up to No. 5 tunnel which was profit
ably mined by the Price lease and also
later by the Sunshine company
Sunshine Finds the Ore.
Something over a year ago the man
agement of the Sunshine company
was taken over by R. S. Merriam, who
is still directing all operations. Mr..
Merriam soon gave his attention to
solving the problem of ore on the
Price level. After a careful study of
the situation and considerable prelim-
mary work, he continued the crosscut
where the Price lease stopped and
after running some so or 60 feet the
vein was cut. It was about 10 feet
wide and on the east side showed
about or 10 inches of ore as we'll as
some small stringers, the ore being
both galena and gray copper. On the /
west side of the crosscut there was a
mere stringer of ore, the situation in
dicating that the crosscut had passed |
through the west end of an ore shoot. /
Drifting east has proved this to be |
the case The amount of ore increas- .
ed with the first round, the gray cop |
per generally lying on the south side |
of the drift and the galena on the |
north side with numerous small |,
stringers of both intermingling be-
tween In places the galena was two
or three feet wide of practically clean
ore. The gray copper covered prob
ably an equal width of the face, COM .
ing in streaks varying from half an
inch to four or five inches. A ship !.
ment of this crude high grade gave
smelter return of A per cent lead and
1O2 ounces in silver This ore con-
tinued about 60 feet in length, and
last Tuesday evening the drill holes
in the face of the drift were in ore
Indicating that another shoot is COM
ing in.
Ore Shoot in Slope 20 Feet Long.
Slopes have now been carried 25
feet above the level with practically
the same ore conditions as found in
the drift and extending west beyond
the crosscut about 10 feet making the
length of the ore in the slopes 20 feet
long or 10 feet longer than in the
drift The drift is also being extend
ed west and there are indications that
another shoot will soon be encountered
in that direction also. Last Tuesday
evening, when a representative of the
Miner visited the Sunshine, the width
of the ore in the stope was II feet.
That is to say, on the north side of
the vein there was about four feet of
lead silver ore, most of it practically +
clean galena. On the south side there
were strealks of gray copper from five
inches in thickness down, while be- }
tween the two classes of ore there
were small stringers of both. The vein
filing is a white quartz and quartzite
and crumbIes readily when broken,
making it impossible to sort the ore
beyond taking out the larger chunks
of high grade. In this situation the
entire mass is sent through the mill
and makes a good average mill feed.
The mill is the usual concentrating :
plant and is running full time, han
ding about As tons per day. Plans are
under consideration to make some ad-
ditions to the plant including another
ball mill, which will add at least 10