Elk City mining news., April 16, 1904, Image 1

About Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913

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OK City Mining News
Vol. I. No. 16
Elk City, Idaho, April 16, 1904
$2.oo The Year
A MILL FOR DIAMOND JOE
Manager John Olson Goes to Lewiston to Attend a Stockholders
Meeting, Where it is Expected Definite Arrangements Will
be Made for the Purchase of the Boyer Mill.
John Olson, manager of the Diamond Joe, left on Wednesday's
stage for Lewiston where he will inpet Mr. Struve, president of
the company. A stockholders meeting will also Be held for the pur
pose of purchasing a prospecting mill and machinery for sinking.
It is understood the company has secured an option on the Boyer
mill which was installed upon the Galena Creek company's proper
ty at the l^ead of the north fork of Siegel creek. This is a new mill
run only à short time after erection, having shut down for lack of
ore and never started again —for lack of ore, money, and brains—
it is one of those headstones of dead and buried hopes to be found
in every new camp, erected usually by some sheep herder who
thought he was a miner.
In a conversation with the News man, Mr. Olsen said: "You can
say that our assay returns, taken from thq ore bodies already
blocked out, shows $150,000 worth of ore in sight. Work will, in all
probability, begin on the construction of the mill just as soon as
the snow goes enough to permit horses to get around."
Mr. Struve will probably remain in camp all summer, or until all
preliminary work is completed.
•(
MINING IN BLACK HILLS
System of Stoping Ore in the Great Homestake Mine.—Is Done
at a Cost of Thirteen and a Half Cents Per Ton. - Ore
Should be Mined as Cheap in Elk District.
No unusual features are introduced
this method of limbering, so that j
....... j
detailed description will x> given,
The sets are six feet square, sill floor
sets nine feet high and all upper floor I
sets g feet 5 1-2 inches. A sill floor set
contains 324 cubic feet, or about 32
tons, and an upper floor set 304.5 cubic
Continued from last week.
ii
no
feet, or 30 tons.
All stope timbers are shipped in con
venient lengths to the company's saw
mill, which is located at the Golden
Prospect shaft. Here they ax-e sawed '
and framed as needed. Most of the
timber used is native, although some
Oregon timber is used for caps and ties,
With labor at $3 per day, it has been
found that the framing of what is term-1
ed a set of timbers (a post, a cap and a
tie) costs 60 cents, and the cost of saw
ing lagging is 5 cents per running foot.
Two timbex-men, whose wages are
$3.50 and $3, working one shift, will
stand timbers, build chutes and do all
necessary repairing in a stope which
furnishes 100 tons of ore in 24 hours.
This makes the cost of labor for stand
ing the timbers 6 1-2 cents per ton.
All chutes are the ordinary board,
type, with bottoms made of lagging
and sides of two-inch plank. The rock
is held back by two boai'ds, one above
but not directly over the other.
On the upper levels of the mine,
where the ledge was broken and com
paratively narrow, the sill floor excava
tion was made from wall to wall, and
sometimes for the entire length. The
sill floor timbers were then put in and
and stopes worked whex-e convenient.
When the ledge began to widen this
method proved disastrous and thousands
of feet of lumber were used to make
bulkheads in a vain endeavor to keep
A new method was inaugurated on
the 600-foot level, under the supervision
of Mr. W. S. O'Brien, mine foreman,
which is being used on all new levels.
The plan is as follows: A crosscut is
driven through the ledge from the cen
tral shaft, which is called the main
crosscut. The ore body is then devel
oped by driving a 24 foot drift along
the footwall. From this drift rooms 60
feet wide are opened across the ledge,
with 50-foot pillars between each stope.
Beginning with the main crosscut a pil
lar is left on each side, then a 60-foot
the stopes open.
room, a 60-foot pillar, and so on to the
end of the ore body. These rooms and
pillars are numbered north and south of
the main crosscut. No. 3 stope north
would be the third stope north of the
crosscut, and No. 4 stope south the
fourth stope south of the crosscut,
Some difficulty was experienced in
keeping the sides of the rooms straight
while the sill floor was being opened
To overcome this sills were laid in the
foot wall drift to lines given by the
surveyor, and the miners took their
lines from these. Each stope contains
u lines of sills. When the system be
came established no difficulty was ex
perienced in keeping the room of uni
form width and the sides comparatively
straight.
When a stope has been worked and
filled, the pillar may be attacked, and,
by lacing the sides next the fill, all the
pillar may be pemoved.
However satisfactory this method of
blocking out the orebody may be, it did
not solve the timber problem. After
much deliberation and discussion it was
decided to try stoping in these rooms
without timbers. Again the practical
ideas of the mine foreman and his as
sistants worked out a system which
seems to be well adapted to the the
conditions existing in the Homestake
mine, and which for the sake of con
venience has been called the "Home
stake system of stoping. ' '
The level is opened by the room or
block system and sills are laid in the
rooms the same as for timbered stopes,
When the sills are in, three lines of
tx-ack are laid x-unning lengthwise of the
I stope. but crossing the ledge, with as
many cross tracks connecting them as
! ar e necessary. The sill floor posts are
put up and lagging placed over the top.
; The tracks are protected by double
I lagging on top and the rock is prevent
ed from running in at the sides onto the
tracks by lagging or slabs spiked to the
i
posts.
As soon as the timber is in position
the mining operations begin. The ore
is broken down and allowed to fall
through the lagging, entirely filling the
sill floor sets, with the exception of the
car-ways. The lagging, which serves
merely as a staging, is removed as fast
as the sets are filled with broken ore.
No rock is removed from the stope un
til this filling is finished. When the
next cut or breast is carried acx-oss the
stope, some ore must be removed to
make room for the miners.
In the larger stopes two D23 Inger.
soil machines are employed, with from
one to two "baby" machines, which I
are used to drill block holes in the large j
boulders.
Somewhat of an innovation in ma- I
chine drills for block-holing has been
introduced. A small pneumatic ham
mer, such as is used in shops for chip
ping and caulking, fitted with a rotat- !
mg movement, operates a small drill
bit about one inch in diameter. This i
machine will drill holes from G inches I
to 12 inches deep, and has so far proven
very successful in block-holing large
boulders in the open stopes.
As there are no timbers to break,
no limit is placed on the miner as to
the amount of roçk he may bring down
I
at one blast. The stope should be fin- :
ished as quickly as possible, so that the
broken rock all may be removed if
needed. Consequently large slab? of
ore are blasted down, and these must
be broken up to regular car size, either
top of the pile or on the sill floor as
it is drawn down by the shovelers.
on
The French
Croup.
Peter Proulx, a veterap prospector of
Elk City and Newsome districts, was in
town this week exhibiting several large
pieces of quartz which glistens with na
tive gold. The rock was taken from
the French group of claims which are ;
. ... „
situated at Clearwater station, fifteen \
miJes ffom Newsome an( j are 0W ned by
j
Mr. Proulx and I. D. Maxwell.
The group comprises seven claims,
being the Emperor, Red Rose, Yellow
Rose, Napplepn Nos. 5, 6 and 7. Mr.
j Proulx has held these claims several
years during which time he has done ^
considerable development work, con
,
sisting of 140 feet of tunnel on the Em
1 peror, 300 feet of tunnels and drifts on
! the Yellow Rose, 30 feet of work on the
Red Rose and 68 feet on the Napoleon,
The ledge, Mr. Proulx says, is be- j
tween twenty and thirty feet wide and
assays from $1 to $150 per ton. The
group is five miles from the wagon
road, but a good x'oad can be construct
ed down Newsome creek with reason
able cost.
A Letter
from Portland
_
In a letter to the Mining News W. H.
Bennett, of Portland, says: "I expect
to Yi s 't Elk City with a party of capi
talists and wish to know how soon we
can come and see the gi'ound. How are
the roads? How much snow is there?
I en joy your paper very much but never
anything about the weather, roads,
etc., all of which would be of interest
to an outsider, especially one expecting
to visit your camp. I know a num
ber of mining men who expect to
see Elk City this season. With best
wishes for your success and that the
effort being made to segregate the min
ing portion from the reserve may sue
see
ceed. "
The Mining News will say for the
benefit of those desiring to visit Elk
City district that the snow will all be
gone by the first of May, and that the
roads are good enough for the mails to
arrive six times per week as usual at
present but will naturaily improve as
the season advances.
Hendryx Cya
nide System
This is a process for the extraction
of the precious metals fx-om ores by
amalgamation of the coarse gold when
present, and from the mill tailings by
THE OUTLOOK IS GOOD.
Andrew Prader, Manager of Mammoth & Great Eastern, Tells
of the Company's Intentions. —Have a Great Property.
Ore Assays as High as $2000 Per Ton in Gold.
Andrew Prader returned to camp after an absence of six weeks
spent with his family in Spokane. Mr. Prader who has had a wide
experience in the various mining camps of the Northwest as well
as British Columbia, is satisfied that his company has property in
Elk City district which it will pay to tie to—a resolution, by the
way, which does infinite credit to his judgement, inasmuch as one
of their ledges gives assay returns approximating two thousand
dollars per ton, according to the authority of D. M. Evans, former
ly superintendant of the American Eagle mine, who assayed it.
Mr. Prader has mapped out extensive development work for the
coming season, consisting of wagon roads, trails, shaft houses,
s h 0 ps, quarters for the employees, etc., everything, in short, which
ma ^ es f or the efficient and economical operation of a legitimate
terprise. Several hundred feet of underground work is also mapped
ou t, consisting principally of tunnels and shafts, though, of course,
en
the usual levels, upraises, drifts, etc., will fbe opened necessary
enable the management to arrive at an intelligent estimate of
ex tent of the various ore bodies before installing a mill,
Surface prospecting will be diligently prosecuted during the reg
ular spring break up of the roads, which at this time of the year,
makes it impossible to haul heavy machinery. The management
will also beg^p the immediate construction of three miles of wagon
road which, when completed, will enable them to bring in and in
stall the necessary hoisting plant upon their principal property.
Mr. Prader also intends to give considerable attention to those
vast bodies of low grade ore known locally as dykes. He believes
those great deposits are destined to play an important part in the
future mining history of central Idaho. He says that on the outside
Elk City's standing was never so firmly established as now, and
looks for the coming season to place her safely beyond the reach of
the "wildcatter" and the "tin bucket" expert, which gentry have
ever been the most prolific source of the district's troubles.
mean s of cyanide potassium in very di
j ute solution (usually one pound of cya
n i(] e to the ton of water), and deposit
; n g the metals so dissolved upon plates
b y the agency of
electric current,
an
The essential mechanical feature is the
Hendryx agitator, which consists of a
cylindrical tank having a conical bot
In the center of the tank is a ]
cylindrical well in which a vex-tical shaft :
re volyes, carrying two or more propel
i erS) an( j driven by a pulley above the
tank. In the tank, outside the well,
the anode and cathode plates are placed
w hich are supplied with current from a :
dynamo. The ore from the grinding {
department, after having been ground ;
tom.
to the proper fineness, is dischax-ged in- !
to a series of settlets of sufficient ca
pacity to hold a charge for the agitator,
The size of the settler is lax-gely gov
! emed by the character of the ore. They
are of sufficient capacity to permit the
return of clear water or solution being
continually pumped back to the mill
supply tank. When sufficient ox - e has
been ground fox* a charge it is drawn
into the agitator, together with water
and chemicals.
propellers in the well creates a strong
upward current there which immediate-1
ly starts agitation in the tank and cir
culation of the whole charge upward
through the well and downward through
the electrically charged plates. Thus
| the extraction of the gold and silver by
cyanide, thorough aeration of the
charge, and desposition of the precious
metals are accomplished simultaneous*
The revolution of the
ly.
When the extraction is completed,
which usually takes from four to eight
; houi's, a valve is opened in the bottom
of the tank and the whole contents of
the tank discharged into a settler,
whence the decanted solution is pumped
back to the storage or mill supply tank
for further use, and the exhausted
tailings run to waste.
Tests have been made with the var
' ious sizes of machines, from two feet
to sixteen feet in diameter, with
charges from 100 pounds to 76 tons of
material to the charge.
Some of the important features of
1. It is the only ag
the machine arc:
obtainable. 2. It is the only agitator
ol large capacity in which a charge can
be allowed to settle (resulting from
itator in which a constant electrolyte is
break-down or other cause) and again
put into a state of agitation without
practically emptying the tank. Tests
of this has been made,
one of which
was with a sixteen-foot machine con
taining thirty tons of oi'e and forty-six
tons of solution. It was allowed to
stand fox'ty-eight hours owing to break
age of line shaft. When the power was
again applied (eight horse power) the
pump was discharging its full capacity
inside of thi'ee minutes, and the whole
chax-ge was in a state of agitation in
side of ten minutes,
One other feature is the fact that the
agitator is self-cleaning when discharg
ed, no washing or shoveling being nec
essary.
Owing to the use of weak solutions
of potassium cyanide and the period of
contact between ore and solution being
so shoi't, the salts of iron, lead, copper
and others of the baser metals are but
slightly attacked.
further saving of cyanide is accomplish
ed owing to the regenerative action of
the electric current, bi inging the ap
proximate average loss to one-half
pound of potassium to the ton of oxe
ti'eated.
The claims for the process are:
hirst That it will extract all of the
values that any cyanide process can.
This materially re
duces the consumption of cyanide. A
Second—That it will deposit the pro
cious metals in the" form of a market
able bullion without the intervention of
j & troublesome precipitating and refining
j P rocess -
Third—That it will make the extrac
tion with less cyanide because of the
p er f e ct aeration, and the regenerative
act ; on 0 f tbe e | ec tric current.
Foui'th—Tjxat it will do this work at
a much less expense for plant and oper
ating costs than the ordinary methods.
Fifth—That it is perfectly adapted to
handling tailings and slimes from amal
gamating and concentrating plants al
ready equipped and running.