Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1935-12-28
ELDORADO PLACER PAYS $1,000 d.
Mining Engineer Describes
Successful Gold Operation
On Washington Gulch, Finn
Interesting Description of Methods on States
Most Profitable Operation given by Rogers
In His Annual Report

EldOrado Gold Placer mines, OPP
Grating on washington gulch, near
Finn, west OF Helena, paid divi-
bends OF $500 during the year
1895. according to the annual re-
port recently issued by P. F. Rog-
ers. manager. his company, CAPT
talized at 500, 900 shares has 425.-
600 shares outstanding and no II
abilities.
The operation continued from Ap-
ril is to November 8, handling
22S,O5S cubic years during that
time. with an average crew OF II
men and a total operating cost, in
Guiding taxes, OF $24 .903.42. The
cost Is the lowest OF any mechani-
cal placer operation in the state,
amounting to but II cents per
yard.
This operation recovered 1914
ounces of gold valued at s48.7O5.-
SO, out of which was paid S1040.5O
in royalties, leaving a gross income
OF s47,665.46. During the season a
total Of S7,17O square yards Of
bedrock or about II acres ground
was cleaned. The depth of the grav-
81 was from IL feet to 10 feet
and the average value per cubic
yard OF the 188,036 cubic years
handled on the area mined was 26
cents.
Refuting reports that the gulch
was about worked out, Mr.. Rogers
points out that EldoradO has 10
acres OF tested ground on the Fon-
fana claim and tx acres on the
lower end of the Schroeder claim
and approximately is acres farther
up the creek.
sThis ground for some 5000 feet
will be, in my opinion, the richest
ground we will have" says MT.
Rogers, "but will have to be work
ed by a different method as the
bedrock is hard and full of cracks
where the gold lodges, but have
a plan ali worked out to handle
this proposition. Our gold saving
plant worked perfectly and made
a very close saving, in fact. you
could pan the fine failing all day
long and not get a color in the
pan.
lose Time In Moves
The only drawback to the plant
is that It takes quite lot OF
time to move 1t back down to start
a new cut. It weighs 25 tons and
is moved by pole car wheels run
ming on ~ inch skids. No other
method would work here as the
ground is very soft in places. The
seven moves this year were from
100 feet to 5000 feet. About 5
minutes Is lost in moving the mach
inc ahead when we are operating.
each move is Is feet in length,
and we move from two to three
times shift.
Testing Results Doubtful
We carry our cut from As to 60
feet wide, and clean up from 200
to 800 square yards of bedrock
per shift. depending upon the depth
OF the pay gravel we have to run
thru the machine. We find no
regular pay steaks. The gold is
deposited in spots; cleanups each
day have run from as low as $54
to as high as S1192. Test holes,
unless sunk rs feet apart, don't
seem to mean anything. We have
had test holes that show as high
as $9.4s per square yard of bed
rock and yet when we cleaned the
ground around this hole 80 feet
wide. the average for the day was
S1.57 per square yard bedrock.
Then again some holes did not
show a cent, but still we took out
more gold than enough to pay
operating expenses. SO you see.
every bit of the ground has to be
stripped so we can test the pay
dirt under the overburden in or
der to know where we are. In a
SIS foot wide strip we make three
or four tests every Is feet long.
This is done by the oiler OF the
stripping machine. A SPOT IS feet
square may have and has had. as
much as $500 in gold. and yet all
around It there was verv little.
Handling Much Tailings
"On the lower ends OF the claim
there has been quite lot of work
done by old timers. A steam shoY-
Ell and a walking dredge meandered
around over the ground. and this
has made It very hard in working
out the corners they have left. and