A portion of the ore was first submitted to amalgamation in the battery and on the copper plates of a regular stamp mill, with the following results: The total contents, in gold and silver, of an average sample of the ore had been found to be: Gold, 0.15 ounce ($3.10 silver); silver, 3.35 ounces ($2.14)—a total of $5.24 cents per ton. In the battery and on the copper plate we extracted gold, 0.08 ounce ($1.65): silver, 0.50 ounce ($0.32)—a total of $1.97 per ton. The tailings from this operation were assayed and found to contain gold 0.07 ounce ($1.45); silver, 2.85 ounces ($1.82)-a total loss in tailings of $3.27 per ton. By pan amalgamation they were able to extract, gold, 0.10 ounce ($2.07); silver, 2.20 ounces ($1.40)-a total extraction of $3.47 per ton. The tailings from this operation assayed, gold, 0.05 ounce ($1.03); silver, 1.15 ounces ($0.74)-a total loss of $1.77 per ton in tailings. It will be seen by the foregoing that it is out of the question to employ either amalgamation process for the treatment of the ore of this grade, as the margin is insufficient to leave any profit. In our experiments we have found that the ore would be amenable to treatment by the use of solutions of potassium cyanide of proper strength, but the quantity is so large, and this would dissolve in the potassium cyanide, causing so large a consumption of this chemical as to make the cost of the process far in excess of the total value of the ore. We find, further, that it is impossible to extract the gold and silver by solutions of sodium hypophosphites, or by the Russell process, on account of the large quantity of copper contained. To smelt the ore direct would be economically impossible. The large percentage of silica which the ore contains would call for at least 25 per cent of a mixture of limestone and iron oxide, for fluxing purposes. The most encouraging results were obtained by concentration, and combined a saving of the copper as well as the gold and silver. A sample of the original ore, pulverized through a 40-mesh sieve, was carefully concentrated, yielding 6 per cent of concentrated material, or 120 pounds per ton of ore concentrated, and these concentrates contained, gold, 0.65 ounce ($13.44); silver, 14 ounces ($8.99)-a total of $22.43 and 19.33 per cent copper. With less oxidized ore the saving by concentration will be correspondingly better. The small pieces, showing the pyrites as examples of what you find at a greater depth, is ideal concentrating ore, and when you are treating such ore as this you will find no difficulty in saving the values. The important work before you at the present moment should be to attain greater depth as expeditiously as possible, so that you may determine what is the character of ore you will have to handle. If it is the pyritic material, as represented by the small specimens, your problem is a very simple one, as you have an out-and-out concentration proposition. EXPERT'S REPORT. The following report was made by Col. A. M. Elsworth, of San Francisco, after examination the 1st of January: "The writer spent several days at your camp and examined various properties, but found none with as fine-looking veins as the Dundee. The walls are perfect and regular. The ore shows for several hundred feet along the surface and the whole distance down the shaft, varying from 2 to 5 feet at the bottom, then at the depth of 137 feet, and will undoubtedly continue indefinitely. "At 100 feet a level is run both ways, showing a strong, clean vein, varying in size from 2 feet to over 5 feet at the southwest end. These two levels, 200 feet long, absolutely block out over 4,000 tons of ore in sight. When the 200 feet is reached in the shaft, levels run the same distance from shaft should show (providing the vein continues 5 feet) nearly 7,000 tons of ore between these two levels. It is evident that this vein must continue a long distance southwest, and your samples sent out to Professor Price and son, and tested by them, give you the cheapest and best mode of treating your ores. This, in connection with your many assays and shipments and your situation as to transportation, puts the matter plainly before you as a fine concentrating proposition. "The best up-to-date concentrating plant, to work 50 tons of your ore per day of twenty-four hours, will cost you about $12,000, and for 100 tons $18,000, all up to date and of the best material. "The expense of running a 50-ton plant would be about $1.75 per ton, while a 100-ton plant would not exceed $1 per ton. Your mining, with a proper shaft and a pair of link-motion hoisting engines, cage, and cars, should be done, including timbers, running levels, and filling in backs, for less than $2.50 per ton. "If you will substitute Burleigh drills, costing about $100 each, and proper air compressor, costing about $700, your equipment will be complete and up to date. You substitute steam for labor, which never strikes if you furnish the fuel. "Respectfully submitted. DRY CONCENTRATING TEST. "A. M. ELSWORTH." A shipment of second-class ore from the Dundee mine to the Hooper Pneumatic Milling Company, of 519 West Thirtieth street, New York City, for test by their dry concentrating process, gives the following results, that will prove of interest to mines and camps with a similar ore: The Aberdeen Mining and Milling Company, of New York City, was the next, which has recently purchased a group and already has whims up and shafts started on three different mines. On one, the Malachite, water was struck last week at 60 feet, with a 3-foot breast of silver lead ore that will sort up to 60 per cent lead and 6 ounces silver and $1 in gold. In another, the Manila, a 14-inch vein of copper ore was struck last week in shaft at 55 feet. This company propose pushing their work as rapidly as possible to a depth of 508 feet on each of their mines, and will put in concentrator the moment their output will justify it. Horton Batchelor, an enterprising mining capitalist, of 44 Broadway, New York City, inspected the camp the latter part of last year, purchasing several properties, and on returning home wrote me as follows: While in Shakespeare recently I had the pleasure of examining the Dundee mine, which is owned by your company, and I am pleased to say that I found it in a most excellent condition; and I fully believe that with the expenditure of $10,000 in additional development work you will prove up a valuable property and your stock will be worth more than par. The district plainly shows every evidence of great deposits with depth. "The Royal Copper Company, in which I am interested, will push its development work rapidly as possible to a depth at least of 500 feet. When you consider the Shakespeare camp is on the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and that supplies can be delivered at the mines in wagons, and that you can work every day in the year, you will see that the district offers advantages which other camps can not. I am interested in properties at Metcalf, Ariz., which, owing to the topography of the country and the poor railroad facilities, make the work expensive. If they were located at Shakespeare they could not be bought at any price. "I am sure that the future development will prove the Shakespeare camp to be one of the permanent profitable camps of this great Southwest.' The stock of the Aberdeen Company has a par value of $25. It is not listed on the stock market, but in July it sold on the "curb" at New York at from $28 to $30. LORDSBURG'S BIG SMELTER. Mining companies and mine owners in the vicinity of Lordsburg are rejoicing over the assurance of a big smelting plant to blow in its first stack of 75 tons capacity by October 1, and its second stack of 150 tons capacity by January 1, to be followed by other stacks as rapidly as necessities demand. This enterprise is for the handling of the low-grade copper ores that can not now be shipped to El Paso, of which the surrounding districts can produce in great abundance. The company is composed of enterprising and shrewd, farseeing San Francisco capitalists, chartered under the laws of California, with a capital of $600,000, divided into shares of $10 each, issued under a guaranty of 4 per cent annual interest, backed by San Francisco improved realty double the amount. The name, address, and personnel of the corporation is as follows: The Pacific Union Mining and Smelting Company; home office, room 45, 815 Market street, San Francisco, Cal.; smelter location, Lordsburg, Grant County, N. Mex.; S. M. Rohr, president; P. A. Meneray, vice-president; W. W. Barham, secretary and treasurer; E. F. Heath and T. J. Davis, board of directors. This company, after investigating the advantages of the different localities in California, Arizona, and New Mexico, finally decided upon Lordsburg as being the most desirable on account of the great abundance of smelting ores. A very desirable and satisfactory smelter site of 160 acres has been secured and surveyed, and the first furnace is now under construction by the Fulton Iron Works, of San Francisco. Dr. S. M. Rohr, president of the above company, while a very conservative man, was very positive and emphatic in his favorable opinion of the Shakespeare camp, saying: The present development work is sufficient to guarantee a supply of ore for the next one hundred years. The veins are unquestionably true fissures, very large and uniformly well mineralized, showing good values from wall to wall, which must show increased values, with depth where water is encountered, when the ore will change to a sulphide and may open up larger bodies. We will handle a $10 ore with a profit to the miners and a margin for ourselves. We start in under a guaranty of 600 tons per day and expect this to increase to 1.500 tons by 1903. There is ore sufficient in this great Southwest to feed a dozen smelters of 1,000 to 2,000 tons daily capacity. THE ABERDEEN COMPANY. The Aberdeen Copper Company has taken over the claims of the Royal Copper Company, in the Virginia district, south of town, and has purchased a number more. It has now 33 claims, some held for the great mineral showing there has been developed on them, some for their surface indications, and some for the water supply. Last week the company completed the purchase of claims, taking in among others Thomas Kennedy's lead claims, on which considerable water has been developed. It let contracts to sink the Atlantic shaft to 100 feet and start a crosscut, for 60 feet of sinking on the Arkansas, and to sink the Manila to 100 feet. The Manila shaft was started to cut the ledge at depth, and last week at 53 feet it cut a 15-inch streak of copper that will run 10 per cent. The work on the Malachite will be done by day labor, under the direction of Supt. J. H. Cook. At the top the Malachite had 4 inches of ore that assayed 50 per cent lead, 8 ounces of silver, and $4 in gold. At 60 feet this has widened out to 40 inches of pay streak, which looks as though it would go fully as high, being a gray galena, although returns from the assayer have not yet been received. It is on the hanging wall, and the ledge has not yet been crosscut to the foot wall. The continuation of this pay streak from the surface to this depth and its continuous widening and increasing |