Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1938-12-08
"A CLOSEUP WITH A
GOLD NINE

The richest in the world is the
| Homestake Mine at Lead Oeed)
| Lead and Deadwood are together in
| Black Hills, South Dakota. How
| ever, the hills are mountains. the
highest east of the Rockies. They
| are not black either They are blue
| with spruce, green with pine Home
| stake produces $6,00O,00O a year,
and over 100000 since 1874
1t was organized mainly by Sen.
Geo. Hearst, father of VIM. r.
Hearst.
Our guide was an educated Fin
nish girl from the State University.
From the surface, where thousand
feet have been removed as gold
ore, laborers go down $500 feet,
for more, worth $4 a ton. Electric
hoist engines bring it up Pieces
examined with microscope show
gold; 500 crushing rods, 1850
pounds each, make hundred
strokes a minute, and crush 1000
tons of ore day! Dewatering cones
receive the crushed ore, which is
taken then to the classifiers and
separated Finer particles overflow,
passing to vats below, then to peb.
BILE cones (pebbles from France,
two inches thick, and the ore is
further reduced
The coarser particles go to the
tube mills, where tubes revolve like
rolling mill. To free the gold,
the ore passes over plates; the gold
is caught with mercury, forming
an amalgam. Heat drives off the
mercury, distilling it over Remem-
Der the affinity Of mercury and
cyanide for gold. Cyanide (prussic
acid) precipitates gold. Heat then
gas.
Now what you have is a GOLDFISH
yer amalgam. Silver accompanies
gold in the mine, 200 parts silver to
500 parts gold. We passed many
tanks having 81 500 in gold in them
The gold-silver is moulded in bricks.
The weight is great. These are
shipped by rail to another place and
made into gold and silver bullion,
separated by heat, 2,016 degrees
Fahrenheit.
Such is the modern refinery proc |
ess. Eastern capital operates the
mine, employing 1000 men. AL
million pounds of dynamite areF
used in a day, costing $500,
The Manuel brothers discovered |
gold in the Black Hills. They used |
primitive placer methods. All hah!
This was easy. In those good old
days, nature had done all the coarse,
heavy work, on a vast scale. She
had mined, crushed the ore and sep
arated the gold A man could pick
It up, and fill his pockets. That
process is no more. All loose gold
has been picked up long ago. Elk
hunted for the exception! No more
now, pan, cradle, sieve, the long
trough and rocker, the dirty water
passing on, the heavy gold remain
ing behind, and falling through at
the lower end.
Then came the hydraulic method.
Water was conducted in canals to
the edge of the gravel bed where
the ore was located. Enormous
squirt guns played on the banks, ex~l
cavating with great rapidity, car
rying the dirt away, the gold re-
behind 1t was entrapped
in pools of mercury, held by cleats
in the sluices. Then later the ANAL
gam was retorted, the mercury dis
tilling over. AS they have to go
now $500 feet, capital on great
scale is necessary to carry on. That
is why the small stockholder is
needed to swell the Golfers of theI
rich. No gold operator is likely toI
want to make everybody else richI
at his own expense. But God Is.
Think how He has operated at great
cost, - Calvary. Operators 0ftenI
sink great fortunes in their mines,
and then give them up. The west is
dotted with Interesting ghost cities.
They have BEEN Given up. God new