Practical mining : a field manual for mining engineers : with hints to investors in mining properties

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PEACTICAL MIKING. 

Jffn 

A Feeld Manual fob Mining 
Enuineers. 



WITH HINTS TO INVESTORS IN MINING- 
PROPERTIES. 



JOHN G. MURPHY, E. M. 




NEW YORK : 

D. VAN N08TRAND COMPANY, 

eS UdbUY and Sf WAE1KE.V STHIETa, 



M 



Copyright, 1890, 

BY 

D. Van Nostrand Company. 



l\ 



PREFACE. 



L 







The percentage which is realized from 
an investment is governed to some extent 
by the nature of the security. If it is such 
^ as is not liable to much fluctuation, it is 
^ sought for permanent investment, even at 
^ a low rate of interest. Generally we may 
I say : The profit to be expected from any 
•*) investment should be commensurate with 
su the risk taken. People who are glad to 
realize 5 per cent on real estate will expect 
to realize 25 to 30 percent, and often more 
than this amount, on a mining venture, as 
it is called ; and it must be admitted that 
it is not too much for a purchaser of min- 
ing-stock to expect under existing condi- 
tions : but the intelligent operator, not in 
mining stock but in niines, will be satisfied 
with less. Naturally, a mining investment 
should be expected to pay a much higher 
rate of interest than real estate or railway 
securities, because it is less permanent. 



4 PREFA CE. 

The chief cause of the uncertainty in min- 
ing ventures, however, is the fact that the 
most of those offered to the public are 
not expected to be productive for any 
length of time, if at all. To get an accu- 
rate idea of the mining industry would 
require severe study and time, so that the 
majority of operators prefer to pay for 
obtaining the necessary knowledge, and 
success or failure is chiefly due to the value 
of this purchase. The following pages 
are written at the request of friends, with 
the purpose of pointing out as briefly as 
possible the nature of the knowledge to 
be sought, and by exposing some of the 
sources, to limit the frequency of error. 

J. G. Murphy. 

New York, December, — , 1889. 



PRACTICAL MINING. 



The relation between mines and location 
is of such vital importance that the engi. 
neer must consider them together. This 
^vill become apparent on reflection, and it 
is the design of this brief work to show 
that a careful investigation of both should 
be made by the consulting engineer before 
he renders a decision. Mining operators 
generally imagine that a knowledge of the 
subject, coupled with a superficial ex- 
amination, is all that is needed — a mis- 
take that has occasioned severe loss. The 
intelligence of the examiner and the 
amount of care and thought devoted to 
each examination have more to do with 
the value of his judgment than knowledge 
of the subject. Many people think that 
when an engineer has examined a mine, 
sampled the ore and had it assayed, and 
reported upon its quality, his work is 
completed. But is his work really com- 



6 PRACTICAL MINING. 

pleted ? I think not ; for a buyer should 
have some idea of how much a given mine 
will pay in order to estimate its value 
from a commercial standpoint. Eastern 
capitalists have often labored under the 
delusion that a needy relative or friend 
who has failed in the ordinary vocations 
of life — a son or nephew just out of school 
— are fitted for mining managers ; and it 
is a source of regret to people who take a» 
deep interest in the mining industry when 
such persons are employed in that capaci- 
ty. In many cases these managers have 
first erected a fine residence, then secured 
a four-in-hand at the expense of the com- 
pany by whom they were employed, be- 
fore the mine began to pay. Ordinary 
business prudence would suggest living in 
a log-hut and visiting on foot until the 
mine becomes productive, after which he 
may discover that it will tax his intelli- 
gence and ingenuity to learn how much it 
can be made to pay. When the discovery 
is made, he will find that there is little use 
for a four-ill- hand. 

I have heard it said repeatedly that the 
mine makes the man, and there is some 



PRACTICAL MINING. J 

truth in the remark with respect to public 
reputation ; but 1 have known the man 
to make the mine and earn his reputation. 
I could cite many instances of mines res- 
cued from financial failure by the substitu- 
tion of competent for incompetent man- 
agement. It is the aim of this work to 
consider the department of an examining 
engineer rather than that of a mining man- 
ager; though the two departments can- 
not be entirely separated. The thought- 
ful reader will doubtless reach the con- 
clusion that competency in either depart- 
ment requires a broad technical education, 
extensive experience, coupled with pa- 
tience and vigilance. 

In making an examination of a mine, 
the amount of the dividends being paid, or 
which can be paid, and the length of time 
any property will pay a given amount, are 
the uncertain factors the examiner must 
have constantly in mind. It is more dif- 
ficult in general to learn what a mine is 
paying than what it may be made to pay. 
The mining and metallurgical operations 
may be carried out to perfection ; there 
remains the commercial question, in which 



8 PRACTICAL MINING, 

the owners are solely interested. Can we 
have larger dividends by the employment 
of other methods than those in use? It is 
to the solution of this question that the 
engineer must devote the knowledge ac- 
quired by large experience, and neither 
more nor less than this his client should 
expect of him. He should not only con- 
sider well-known methods, but also the 
improvements which have been made upon 
them to fit special conditions, and their 
adaptability to the conditions under ex- 
amination. In the Black Hills of Dakota, 
for example, we find two systems of mining 
employed : 1st, Open cut or quarry work; 
2d. Underground mining, and timbering 
by square sets to sustain the roof. The 
ore body of that section is covered by a por- 
phyry overflow, varying from 15 to 100 feet 
in thickness. The first system employed 
was underground work and timbering ; but 
later it was found cheaper to blast and 
remove the capping where it was not 
too thick, and then extract the ore by 
open cut. About six years ago the super- 
intendent of the Father de Smet Mine 
tore down 2500 tons of ore at a single 



PRACTICAL MINING. 9 

Open-cut blast by exploding a series of 
deep drill-holes by the battery. This 
method has the advantage of greater 
safety, and its employment should only 
be limited by commercial considerations. 

In the mining department very careful 
attention is due to the method of attack 
and to the selection of the most available 
point for extensive work, for economy of 
transportation and dumpage, except in the 
case of prospects, when the ore should be 
followed until the stability of the vein is 
proved. The question of transportation 
and the facilities offered for the employ- 
ment of metallurgical operations are those 
which, upon the whole, demand the most 
attention. Very often success or failure 
will depend upon them. 

For convenience, ores may be divided 
into {a) Free-milling^ (b) Refractory, {c) 
Free -milling and Refractory combined. 
This work will be confined to a consid- 
eration of the ores of gold and silver which 
have commercial importance. To (ci) be- 
long native gold, native silver, and the 
chloride of the latter. 

In the examination of native gold, in 



lO PRACTICAL MINING. 

quartz or other rock, the average width 
sho'uld be determined as nearly as possi- 
ble. A mill-run of lOO or more tons should 
be made to determine the average value 
of the ore. But before incurring such an 
expense, however, preliminary tests should 
be made by pan and by assay, care being 
taken to obtain average samples by cross- 
sectioning the vein : such tests may lead 
to the rejection of the mine without fur- 
ther expense. Should these tests be fa\^- 
orable, then the mill-run should be made 
before rendering a final decision. Free- 
milling gold ores are exceedingly variable^ 
even in the same mine, so that too much 
care cannot be employed. 

After determining the width of vein or 
pay-streak, and the average value of the 
ore, it is necessary to see if there is avail- 
able water. How much? How near? 
What will it cost to bring it in ? How 
much would it cost per ton to transport 
the ore to the water? Is there timber 
available for mining purposes and for fuel ? 
Considering the water and timber questions 
together, is it preferable to bring in the 
water or transport the ore to the -water? 



PRACTICAL MINING, II 

If the mine is wet, what will be the cost 
of a pumping plant of sufficient capacity? 
This estimate should be made with some 
regard to future as well as present re- 
quirements. What will be the cost of a 
hoisting plant, regard being had for future 
requirements, to raise a given number of 
tons? The cost of labor is known, and 
the wear and tear can be closely approxi- 
mated. We can now make our balance 
sheet. Charge Blacksmith-shop account, 
Carpenter-shop account, Mine Timber 
account. Pumping and Hoisting account. 
Mine Transportation account, Mine Tim- 
bering account. Mine Supplies account 
(Powder, Fuse, Caps, Candles, etc.), to 
Mining account. Charge Mining account. 
Transportation account. Mill Supplies ac- 
count, to Mill account. Charge Mill ac- 
count. Office account, Insurance account. 
Interest account, Express account. Taxes 
account, Salary account. Law account, to 
Bullion account. This is all that is needed 
for the present. Everything is charged 
over to Bullion account, the value of which 
will show whether there has been a loss or 
a gain, and how much. 



12 PRACTICAL MINING. 

It may be said that all of this is not neces- 
sary, and unless the mine is in operation, 
cannot be determined. It must be re- 
membered that well-developed mines with 
a full plant are sometimes offered for sale. 
If it is a free-milling ore, every account 
mentioned should be determined, with per- 
haps the exception of Law account. If 
the mine is not equipped, it would be well 
to estimate all these accounts as nearly as 
possible for a period of say two months — 
about the average length of time a set of 
mill shoes and dies will last. The Bullion 
value should be estimated by the average 
obtained from a large test of the lOO tons 
at least. Suppose it is designed to equip 
a mine for an output of 50 tons daily: 
our client can easily calculate what the 
bullion output should be for two months 
if he knows the average value of the ore ; 
but he does not know what the equipment 
will cost, nor does he know the cost of the 
operations outlined herein. Let them be 
enumerated, and he will see that he must 
have blacksmith- and carpenter-shops, a 
pumping and hoisting plant, mine track- 
ing, mine supplies, an outer tramway 



PRACTICAL MINING. 1 3 

from mine to mill, a mill, mill supplies, 
etc. If the operator knows his engineer 
well, he may not wish for these details ; but 
he does not always know him, and, hav- 
ing these estimates, he can submit them to 
others for verification. 

The purchase of a mine and its equip- 
ment is a serious matter, and it must be 
expected that the purchaser will make 
close inquiry ; he' should, therefore, be 
furnished with the means to make it. It 
is evident that a mine manager should 
keep all of these accounts, and, if he is 
careful, in addition thereto. Shaft ac- 
count, Tunnel account. Improvement ac- 
count. Then by reference to his books he 
can see what each piece of work costs, and 
if he knows his business he has a check 
on the men. The foreman of any special 
job should render his account when his 
shift is over. Suppose the night and the 
day shifts consist of an equal number of 
men, and that the day shift breaks 12 car- 
loads more than the night shift : the Trans- 
portation account should be made to show 
this, and then we know that there is some- 
thing wrong. Suppose, also, that the books 



14 PRACTICAL MINING. 

show that the cost of sinking a shaft is $12 
per foot, of driving a tunnel $7 per foot. 
A man may be found who will do the 
work under contract fully as well for $10 
and $5.50, respectively. Let the manager 
watch every department, and the com- 
pany can afford to buy him a four-in-hand 
when he needs it. 

We had our bullion (unfortunately on 
paper) and the cost of its production ; the 
value of the bullion may leave a fair profit- 
Is the engineer's work now done? Let us 
see. The capitalist may be well pleased, 
but nevertheless ask, Is that the best that 
can be done? We go over our figures 
again, and show that our addition, multi- 
plication, and division are correct, and, in 
most cases, our client will be satisfied. 
It is possible, however, that he may be a 
mining man, and instead of being satisfied, 
say. Yes, I see that your addition, mul- 
tiplication, and division are all right ; but 
how about your subtraction ? A very in- 
convenient question, which means, Cannot 
the cost be reduced ? That is a pertinent 
question. The ore may be hard or soft, 
the gold disseminated through it may be 



PRACTICAL MINING, I 5 

coarse or fine, or it may be both — which is 
generally the case. If it is hard and mas- 
sive, the stamp-mill should be employed. 
How about the screens? Shall we use a 
40, 50-, or 60-mesh = 1600, 2500, or 3600 
per sq. in. It is readily seen that the ca- 
pacity of the mill will vary with the size of 
screen. 

Assume that we are dealing with a $10 
ore, and that with a 40-mesh screen we 
crush 2 tons per stamp, with a saving of 75 
per cent of the gross value. With a 20- 
stamp mill we will realize 20 X 2 X $7-50 
= $300 gross value daily. By the use of 
a 60-mesh screen, it is found in practice 
that the capacity is a trifle more than one 
half of what it is with a 40: call it half. A 
40-stamp mill is now needed for equal ca- 
pacity, and it will cost about $15 more per 
day to run it ; but we find the saving to be 
85 per cent. Then 40 X $8.50 = $340 
— $15 extra cost = $325, as against $300 
with the 40-mesh, a difference of $25 ; but 
there is the cost of 20 additional stamps 
to consider. In Western practice, little 
or no preference would be given in such a 
case as this; but if we consider the rela- 



1 6 PRACTICAL MINING. 

tive saving of 75 and 85 per cent, there 
would be. (Our personal experience indi- 
cates that if a 40-mesh screen will not give 
good results, neither will a 60 ; but others 
assert the contrary, and it is but fair to 
suppose that there are ores for which a 
60-mesh is preferable.) 

The ore may be^ porous, friable, and eas- 
ily crushed, like all the gold-bearing por- 
phyry at Farncom Hill, near Breckinridge, 
Colorado ; the District of Sinda, Mexico ; 
and elsewhere. The capacity of the stamp- 
mill depends more on the rapidity of dis- 
charge (size of screens) than the crushing 
power of the stamps, so that its effective- 
ness is not increased in proportion to the 
softness of the ore. We would then em- 
ploy the Huntington mill, which saves a 
much higher percentage, especially of fine 
gold. These mills are now in successful 
operation on Farncom Hill ore, where the 
cost of crushing and amalgamation is un- 
der 50 cents per ton, and the original 
cost of a plant, for equal capacity with the 
stamp-mill, very much less. Ores vary in 
all degrees between the massive and the 
friable, so that the most efficient machine 



PRACTICAL MINING. 1 7 

must be determined in each case by a thor- 
ough test. In this way we must be pre- 
pared to discuss the question of subtrac- 
tion with our client. 

. FREE-MILLING SILVER OflES. 

With this class of ore fully as much 
care is required. We cannot use the 
pan, shovel, or batea for our preliminaiy 
determinations. The assay alone must 
show whether or not the ore is suffi- 
ciently rich to justify the expense of a 
mill test. -When the mine is well opened, 
cross-sections of the vein, or pay-streak, 
should be taken every 6 to lo feet, ex- 
cept where bunches of barren rock occur 
that would be rejected in the ordinary 
operations of mining, or at places where 
the vein pinches to such an extent as to 
make the proportion of barren rock to ore 
too great. No general rules for sampling 
can be laid down, the particular conditions 
in each case must receive careful attention, 
and the engineer's judgment should be 
governed accordingly. Crushing, wet or 
dry, and pan amalgamation with or with- 
out settlers, constitute the most approved 



1 8 PRACTICAL MINING, 

method used in the reduction of free-mill- 
ing silver ores, provided the conditions will 
admit of its employment. The process is 
much more expensive than that for free 
milling gold ore. In the latter the crush- 
ing, and also the amalgamation, are done 
in battery (mortar), aided by the outer 
copper plates, and the average cost with a 
fair-sized modern mill will not exceed 75 
cents per ton, while with the former the 
average will reach $4 ; so that a fair profit 
might result from the treatment of a free- 
milling gold ore, while a loss would be sus- 
tained with a silver ore of the same assay 
value. This was signally shown by the 
costly failures of the Silver Cliff and Plata 
Verde mines in Silver Cliff, Colorado, and 
the Game Ridge property near Rosita, Col., 
where 40-stamp mills were erected at a cost 
of fully $1 50,000 per mill. The Silver Cliff 
mine was operated for a time successfully 
on $9 to $10 ore, but the Plata Verde and 
Game Ridge mills were quickly closed 
when they found that their ore, which only 
milled $5 to $6 per ton, would not pay the 
expense of mining, transportation, and 
milling. The Silver Cliff did not long sur- 



PRACTICAL MINING. 1 9 

vive them, as that ore also became too poor 
to pay. We do not know who was responsi- 
ble for the heavy losses sustained by these 
failures, but we do know that these enter- 
prises were condemned by several engi* 
neers whose protests were not heeded. 

Large bodies of free-milling gold ore of 
the above value ($5 to $6) per ton would 
pay handsomely, however, as shown by the 
success of the Homestake and other mines 
in the Black Hills, Dakota, which have 
paid large dividends on $4.50 to $5.00 ore. 

REFRACTORY ORES. 

The consideration of this class of ore 
leads us to the most complex problems of 
mining and metallurgy as a commercial 
undertaking, for which the examiner will 
need all his patience and vigilance. He 
must put favorite methods under lock and 
key, to be brought forth again at leisure. 
Prejudice in favor of approved methods 
must be laid aside. The conditions of 
mine, ore, and district under examination 
are what is needed, and then the applica- 
tion of the system which will give the best 
commercial results. Fatal mistakes have 



20 PRACTICAL MINING, 

been made in the attempt to make the 
mine and its surroundings fit the process, 
instead of making the process fit them. 

Commercially, we may divide refractory 
ores into three classes : (^) Ores that will 
pay best by shipment ; (e) Ores that will 
pay best by treatment near the mine ; (/*) 
Ores that will pay best by selecting and 
shipping a part and treating the remainder 
at the mine. 

We will consider these cases in their 
order. 

If the ore is dry (low in lead), but rich 
in gold or silver, or both, we may find 
it in connection with iron or copper 
pyrites, tellurides of gold and silver, silver 
glance, dark and light ruby silver, brittle 
silver, gray copper, etc. Omitting ores 
which contain a high percentage of copper 
and the tellurides, we have those which can 
be smelted with lead ores, or milled by 
the chlorination and pan amalgamation 
process. The preference will be given to 
smelting when possible, because of its closer 
saving ; but in order to smelt we must be 
located in, or adjacent to, a district where 
we can obtain a sufficient amount of ore 



PRACTICAL MINING. 21 

rich in lead. Failing in this, we must de-^ 
cide between shipping to smelting-works, 
where rates of transportation, smelting 
charges, etc., aggregate the smallest cost 
per ton ; or the milling process above men- 
tioned, at or near the mine. 

The value of the ore per ton will deter- 
mine our choice, which, can be seen by the 
following estimates : 

Suppose we are dealing with a $25 ore, 
and we have figured the cost of mining 
and delivery at the mill to be $2 per ton ; 
the cost of crushing, roasting with salt for 
chlorination, amalgamation, etc., $11 per 
ton ; superintendence, expressage on bul- 
lion, insurance, interest on invested capi- 
tal, etc., $4 per ton of ore : we have a total 
of $17 per ton, which will be found a fair 
average cost by this system. If we save 
80 per cent of the gross value, it may be 
regarded as fair work, and we have 80 per 
cent of $25 = $20 — $17 expense = $3 
per ton profit. 

In some sections the expense charge of 
$17 per ton might be reduced somewhat^ 
leaving a little more profit ; but there is an 
equal liability to a heavier expense account^ 



22 PRACTICAL MINING. 

with a corresponding reduction in the prof- 
it. Now suppose we find the cost of trans- 
portation by wagon and railroad to be $8 
per ton, the smelting charge $io, and add, 
say, $2 for incidentals, etc., — which is but 
half what was added before, because in this 
case the ore is sold at the smelter, — we have 
a total of $22 per ton expense account 
($2 per ton being allowed for mining, as 
before). On an average, 95 per cent of 
the assay value is allowed by the smelters, 
and we have 95 per cent of $25 = $23.75 
— $22.00 = $1.75 profit. The reader can 
make his choice, for it is certain that the 
writer would make no selection in actual 
practice ; for, knowing the liability of ore to 
fluctuation in value, we would take no 
chances on the above showing: but sup- 
pose that instead of $25, we find the ore 
to yield $80 per ton — a value that is often 
reached and even surpassed on the large 
scale. [When $250 and $300 per ton are 
talked of on the large scale, there is good 
reason to suppose that we are being enter- 
tained with fairy tales ; for the history of 
mining in the United States, or in any 
part of the world, does not warrant the 



PRACTICAL MINING. 23 

expectation of such values in extensive 
mining.] At $80 per ton we should have 
with the mill 80 per cent of $80 = $64 — 
$17 = $47 per ton profit. 

By selling to the smelter, 95 per cent of 
$80 = $76 — $22 = $54 profit : a difference, 
of $7 per ton in favor of the latter, as well 
as saving the heavy expense of a mill! 
plant. Here we would have a decided 
preference, and would be glad to take 
chances on the above showing. 

The value of the ore will have many 
gradations between the extremes here 
given. Conditions may vary, rates of 
transportation and smelting may be higher 
or lower, so that the choice must be de- 
termined for each particular case. 

Where the profit is the same, or but 
slightly in favor of the mill, the preference 
should be given to shipments, as the 
amount of the investment, and conse- 
quently the risk of our clients, is thereby 
greatly reduced. If the ore is wet (rich 
in lead), we must consider the feasibility 
of erecting a smelter. The district in which 
the mine is located must now be examined. 
It may produce a variety of ores, some 



-24 PRACTICAL MINING. 

wet, Others dry, some low in the precious 
metals, others rich. If our own mine will 
not supply sufficient ore for a smelter, we 
may secure enough by previous contract 
and purchase, selecting wet and dry in 
proper proportions for our smelting mix- 
ture, which should not contain less than 
20 per cent lead. We may have a wet 
•ore poor in silver, and still may, by the 
purchase of dry ores rich in silver, make it 
pay well by smelting them together. 

What we wish to know is : How many 
tons of ore daily can we control by 
ownership of mines, how many by conr- 
tract and purchase? Briefly, how many 
tons per day can we control that will 
yield 20 to 25 per cent lead? What will 
proper fuel cost? What iron and lime- 
stone for flux? All must be found in suf- 
ficient quantity, and rates be low enough, 
otherwise we may find it preferable to ship. 
Ores rich in copper and tellurides of gold 
and silver must pass through the copper- 
smelting process, the silver being extracted 
in subsidiary processes during the opera- 
tion, such as the Augustine and Ziervogel 
.methods used at Argo (Prof. HilFs) Works, 



PRACTICAL MINING, 2$ 

near Denver, Col. The Argo Works are 
also reputed to have a secret process for 
the extraction of the gold from the copper, 
said to be a device of the superintendent, 
Mr. Richard Pearce. Whether they use a 
secret and improved method for parting, 
or the method by the use of sulphuric 
acid, is known only to themselves. In any 
event it is the same to the mine owner; 
for there are but few districts which will of 
themselves furnish all the necessary ele- 
ments of success for a copper-smelting 
process involving in its operations the ex- 
traction of the gold and silver in the ore. 
Before an engineer recommends such an 
enterprise to his client, he should -spend a 
year in examining the resources of the dis- 
trict and its vicinity wherein he proposes 
to establish such works, and two years in 
thoroughly mastering the various details 
of the process. But even when all this has 
been done, he must have a very sanguine 
temperament if he hopes to compete with 
the great resources in capital, fixed estab- 
lishment, and experience of the Argo peo- 
ple. It is not my purpose to discourage 
honest enterprise, but to enforce the neces- 



26 PRACTICAL MINING. 

sity for thoroughness and caution, which 
are among the * elements which create 
successful competition and promote the 
general welfare of every industry. 

The examining engineer must report 
on every special mine under existing facts 
and prices, and rarely finds time to con- 
sider such a project as copper-smelting 
works. The prices at Argo will vary with 
the character of the ore. On an average 
the following may be taken as a close 
approximation: 95 per cent of the gross 
value of the precious metals is allowed. 
$2 per unit is paid for all the copper in the 
ore, after deducting 2 units ; that is, if an 
ore contains 32 per cent copper, they allow 
$60 per ton on account of the copper alone. 
From the values thus obtained $15 per ton 
is deducted for smelting charges When a 
copper mine containing gold and silver or 
telluride ores is the subject under consid- 
eration, we think it would be prudent to 
make out our balance-sheet by adding to 
the charge of $15 the cost of mining, 
transportation to Argo, etc., and calculate 
the value on the given standard of 95 per 
cent of the gross value of the gold and 



PRACTICAL MINING. 2/ 

silver, and $2 per unit for each unit of 
copper less 2. 

We have considered milling and ship- 
ping ores together, for we could not show 
the commercial advantages except by 
compariso'n. 

There are districts in the United States 
where ores are in such quantity and so dis- 
similar in character that we find the free- 
milling system, chlorination system, and 
smelting operations carried on extensively 
within a radius of three miles. This is 
notably the case at Butte City, Montana, 
where the ore from the Orphan Girl Mine 
and others is treated by the free-milling 
silver process; the ores of the Alice, Moul- 
ton, Lexington, etc., mines, by the chlorina- 
tion process ; while the ores of the Ana- 
conda, St. Lawrence, Parrot, etc., mines 
are treated by the copper-smelting process. 
Lead ores are notably absent in that dis- 
trict. 

The ores which belong to class (/) de- 
serve marked attention, for this section has 
more commercial importance than either 
(^) or (r), or both together. Under it we 
must consider a very large amount, as well 



28 PRACTICAL MINING. 

as various kinds, of ore. We may have an 
ore for which hand-sorting only is neces- 
sary, the selected portion being shipped and 
sold, or treated near the mine, the associ- 
ated rock being rejected as not containing 
sufficient mineral to pay for treatment ; or 
we may have first-class ore as above, and 
the remainder pay by concentration. We 
may find it necessary to crush and con- 
centrate the entire product of the mine ; 
and often, when a milling process is used 
near the mine, it will be profitable to first 
hand-sort the ore, and ship the high-grade 
to the smelter, because of the greater per- 
centage saved. The ore may be commer- 
cially free-milling, but it may pay to con- 
centrate the tailings, or build a crude dam 
in the watercourse below the mill and 
allow them to bank up for future use — 
which is found quite common in practice. 

This division of the subject may well 
be considered under the head of Ore-dress- 
ing, which consists of hand-sorting, and 
concentration, and is one of the most im 
portant of metallurgical operations. 

As the rich streaks of ore in the mines 
are being exhausted, the owners begin to 



PRACTICAL MINING, 29 

look wistfully on their so-called waste 
dump, and other material previously re- 
jected, wondering if it cannot be made 
available. A cheaper method than smelt- 
ing or chlorination is now needed as a pre- 
liminary process, and we are brought to a 
consideration of ore concentration. 

This subject is complex, and requires 
close and careful study of existing methods 
and machines. 

The large number of machines designed 
and patented for the purpose of concentra- 
tion show the importance attached to the 
subject, and, we regret to say, has proved 
a fruitful source of revenue to the quacks 
of mining and metallurgy, who add to 
the difficulty of honest investigation by 
false representations. Each manufacturer 
has some one to act as his duly authorized 
agent, who is in general commercially ir- 
responsible, and who will be found not 
to be the duly authorized agent if the 
innocent purchaser should ever raise the 
question of reimbursement on account of 
misrepresentation. These agents, and self- 
styled engineers of mines, will tell very 
plausible tales, and show on paper the 



30 PRACTICAL MINING, 

magnificent results achieved by their con- 
centrators: and, unfortunately, the merit 
of these different machines is a subject 
upon which many engineers, deemed com- 
petent by the public, are at variance, so 
that an honest investigation demands that 
no hearsay evidence be accepted. Noth- 
ing short of a rigid comparative test against 
approved machines, made with the ore un- 
der examination, should be satisfactory in 
examining a new machine. 

It is evident that if we wish to secure 
separately one or more of the elements of 
a coherent lump of ore made up of inter- 
mingled ingredients, the whole mass must 
be broken up into particles more or less 
fine (depending on the coarseness in which 
the part we seek to separate is disseminated 
through it), after which the separation must 
be effected by proper sizing, and by the 
difference in the specific gravity of the 
elements. After the sizing, the next ques- 
tion is : What medium shall we use to 
effect the separation ? We must decide 
between water and air. Both are in use, 
but I believe the airconcentrator is only 
designed to replace the water machine in 



PRACTICAL MINING, 3 1 

districts where water is scarce or not to 
be had. I may say, without recommending 
either method, that the nearer the medium 
employed approaches the specific gravity of 
the useless material of the ore, the more ef- 
fective the concentration. This would 
seem to be self-evident ; for if the medium 
had just a trifle greater sp. gr. than the 
worthless material of the ore, while the 
valuable portion had a greater, the latter 
would sink to the bottom, while the former 
would float off with the medium, and our 
separation would be theoretically perfect. 
Even in such a case, however, it would not 
be perfect in practice, as small particles of 
the valuable material would adhere to the 
worthless, and thus be carried off. We 
deem it necessary to give this explanation, 
because we have heard the advocates of 
the air-concentrator claim that what the air 
lacks in specific gravity can be supplied by 
giving to it the requisite force — which argu- 
ment is very plausible ; but it must be re- 
membered th^t this force would have to be 
applied with absolute uniformity over con- 
siderable surface. The objection to the 
ideal case here assumed is raised, that even 



32 PRACTICAL MINING. 

if the concentrating medium has a trifle 
greater specific gravity than the waste 
which we wish to reject, some of it will 
nevertheless be carried to the bottom, by- 
adhering to the heavier and more valuable 
part. This is true, for perfection in practice 
cannot be reached ; but the fault is in our 
inability to crush so that the cohesion is 
broken perfectly on the Hnes of junction 
between the heavy and light material, and 
not in the subsequent operation. 

If the student wishes to investigate the 
subject of air and water concentration he 
will find the Krom air-concentrator the 
best of that type ; but of water-concentrat- 
ors he will be met at the outset with such 
machines as these: 

Golden Gate Table, Embrey Table, Frue 
Vanner, Bumping Table with flexible bot- 
tom to imitate the pan motion, Rittinger 
Table, Jigs of one to four compartments, 
etc., etc. 

It is not the purpose of the writer to 
recommend any machine, although he has 
a preference amounting to conviction, not 
based upon theory alone, but substanti- 
ated by practice in the field ; and if this 



PRACTICAL MINING 33 

preference should appear too plainly in 
the discussion which follows, he will not 
deem it necessary to make an apology 
for it. The agent for each machine will 
endeavor to show how effectually he can 
beat any of the others, especially the jig, 
in rapidity, effectiveness, and economy. 
It is the right of every agent to show 
that he can do this ; but we nevertheless 
would suggest to the student to commence 
with the jig of three compartments. The 
same principles are employed in all jigs 
that we ever saw in operation, the model 
being the Old Hartz jig, upon which the 
others are simply improvements, so that 
if the student gives it his attention first, it 
will be giving age its proper place. Let 
the principles involved in its construction 
be studied. Experiment with ore crushed 
to different sizes, down to the slime jig. 
we wish to say here, however, that we do 
not believe a machine has ever been or 
ever will be constructed that will make a 
commercial success on the concentration of 
slimes. Better attempt to save flour-gold : 
it will be found much easier, and offers a 
better commercial field. Ask one of these 



34 PRACTICAL MINING. 

machine men if he can save slimes ? First 
there is a look of broad astonishment, 
gradually replaced with a smile full of 
wisdom, intended to stagger the honest 
searcher after knowledge, and show him 
how little he knows; then, with the ut- 
most nonchalance : Oh, that is quite sim- 
ple : you need only a few machines to 

concentrate slimes or to put in your mill 
to concentrate the tailings after leaving 
the outer copper plates, and your flour- 
gold is saved. You may remind the ma- 
chine man that if such is the case he can 
render inestimable service in gold mining, 
and make millions for himself and the 
owners of such well-known mines as these : 
The Broadway Mine, near Butte City, 
Montana; the Gloster Mine, near Helena; 
the entire region of the Black Hills, Da- 
kota, where he can operate on the tail- 
ings of the famous Homestake, Father de 
Smet, Deadwood Terra, etc., mines; the 
Grass Valley Region of California; the 
Bodie region : in fact, all over the world 
where there are gold-mines. The free- 
milling process will not save 50 per cent 
of the gold in the Broadway ; not more 



PRACTICAL MINING. 35 

than 60 to "JO per cent of the Gloster ; and^ 
even where the gold is called moderately 
coarse, not more than 75 to 80 per cent. 

Or you may ask the machine men, Why 
not resume the dividends of the great 
Bonanza Mines, by extracting the gold and 
silver which has passed off in the tailings ? 
You now think you have discomfitted 
these men. Their wise smile only broad- 
ens and takes on a shade of benevolence 
on account of your ignorance, and with 
much condescension you are told that they 
are simply waiting to sell in certain stand- 
ard districts a few more machines, where 
their worth will be proved, after which 
it will only be necessary to have a corps of 
clerks to take down, orders; and you are 
confidentially advised that now is the time 
to leave your order, before the rush comes 
and the necessity for building new fac- 
tories arises. We may truthfully say and 
quietly prove that this picture is but little 
overdrawn. 

Note the effectiveness of the jig with 
different ores sized by a 4, 10, 20, etc.^ 
mesh screen, the cost of them, and the 
horse power required to concentrate, say> 



36 PRACTICAL MINING, 

fifty tons per day. Compare results with 
any other machine, under the same con- 
ditions. Ask the owner of any other 
machine to deposit sufficient money in a 
good bank, to pay the expense of a com- 
petitive trial if it fails to equal the jig in 
effectiveness and economy, and note the 
result. Should you be fortunate enough 
to find a machine that will do so, you may 
be assured that you have a good one, and 
you will be well repaid for the expense 
and time. The machine men will say 
these are old-fogy notions. Well, we be- 
lieve also in the old-fogy doctrine that 
truth and honesty are good standards of 
human action. Machines like the jig and 
the Cornish pump (when we have to con- 
tend with much water) are certainly old, 
which shows at least that they have borne 
the test of time. For certain work — that is 
to say, where there is not too much water — 
steam-pumps are handier and cheaper than 
the Cornish, but it would be worth making 
a considerable journey to see machines that 
would beat the jig and the Cornish pump 
in their departments. Having selected 
our machine, then, we only have the ore 



PRACTICAL MINING, 37 

to consider. When the rich part is of the 
same specific gravity as the worthless, con- 
centration is impossible. It is also evident 
that the closer the approximation to the 
same specific gravity the more difficult the 
separation. In many cases sorting alone is 
applicable. The valuable part of the vein 
may be well segregated, that is, occur dis- 
seminated in moderately large lumps, the 
remainder being worthless. The one may 
be brittle, and form slimes to such an ex- 
tent that machine concentration cannot be 
successfully employed because of the large 
percentage of loss in the tailings. Such, 
for example, are ores containing a fair per- 
centage of gray copper, brittle silver, dark 
and light ruby-silver ores, tellurides of gold, 
silver, etc., disseminated in a fine state of 
division through the gangue. The valua 
ble part sought may have the same or 
nearly the same specific gravity as the 
gangue. These facts should be carefully 
determined in each case. It is more usual 
to find varying percentages of coarse and 
fine ore in the matrix, a large percent- 
age of which may be extracted by coarse 
crushing, sizing, and concentration, what 



38 PRACTICAL MINING. 

there is of fine material being neglected 
if not commercially available. This is 
common in practice, and can be seen in 
nearly all extensive mining districts. Re- 
finements in metallurgical operations will 
not be tolerated long if they do not pay, 
and they should not be introduced until 
their practical value has been demonstrat- 
ed on a fair scale. It will not do to in- 
crease the cost of an operation beyond the 
value of the increased percentage which 
may be saved. What is sought is net, 
not gross, value. We will illustrate this 
by an example, which will also show the 
great value of ore-dressing in rendering 
mines commercially productive which 
otherwise could only be operated at a loss, 
and yet there is a heavy loss from a chemi- 
cal standpoint. The truth of the exam- 
ple and the figures assumed will be at- 
tested by any experienced mining man 
who has worked in large productive min- 
ing districts for the precious metals. 

Assume that we have a silver-lead ore 
which contains $15 in the precious metals, 
and 7 per cent lead. The question now is : 
What shall we do with it? If the ques- 



PRACTICAL MINING, • 39 

tion was asked of a mining man in this 
country twenty-five years ago, he would 
quickly answer: Let it alone. In its pres- 
ent shape we cannot smelt it by itself, for 
it does not contain sufficient lead. We 
cannot mill it by the chlorination method, 
for the lead is not only objectionable for 
milling purposes but would not pay ex- 
penses ; and yet, if we have such an ore in 
sufficient quantity, we have the means 
wherewith to build up a fine industry. 
The average saving in concentration will 
not reach 80 per cent. In special cases 90 
per cent may be saved, but it more often 
falls to 60 per cent. This will depend on the 
ore and the method. We shall assume an 
average of 80 per cent. If we concentrate 
six tons into one, which is about an average, 
we shall have as an Expense account : 

Mining 6 tons @ $2 $1 2 00 

Concentrating 6 tons @ $1.50 (a 

high estimate) 9 CXD 

Transportation i ton concentrates 

to smelter 7 CXD 

Smelting charges 10 00 

Total cost per ton concentrates. ..$38 cxD 



40 PRACTICAL MINING. 

We now have for the value of the above 
not of concentrates : 
$15 X 6 = $90, total value gold and silver 

in 6 tons crude ore ; , 
7 per cent X 6 = 42 per cent, amount lead 

in 6 tons crude ore. 

By concentration we save 80 per cent, 
and we have per ton concentrates : 

80 per cent of $90 = $72.00 ; and 80 per 
cent of 42 per cent = 33.6 per cent lead, 
or 673 lbs. lead per ton. 

The smelters allow 95 per cent of the 
assay value of the gold and silver, and i^ 
cents per lb. for lead ; from which we find 
the value of our ton of concentrates sold 
at the smelting-works : 

95 per cent of $72 = $68 40 

And 673 lbs. lead @ \\ cents = 10 10 



Total value $78 50 

Deducting expenses 38 00 



Balance, profit per ton concentrates 40 50 
" " " " crude ore 6 75 

This is a very good commercial result, 
which is what we seek ; and unless the 



PRACTICAL MINING. 4 1 

chemical results will show an increased 
profit, as well as saving in the metals, little 
attention will be paid to it in practice. If 
the mine owner had his own smelter, and 
sufficient lead ore could be obtained in his 
district to supply it, a much higher profit 
could be made. It is seen, in any event, 
that ore of the above value is made avail- 
able by concentration when possible, even 
though the per cent assumed as saved 
were considerably reduced ; but as ores 
vary in the percentage which can be saved, 
as well as gross value, the determination 
of the zero-point, that is, where there will 
be neither profit nor loss, is a problem of 
extreme nicety in practice. We would ad- 
vise our client to be exceedingly careful 
when the profit begins to show a tendency 
toward that point. Careful and intelligent 
work in the extraction of ore will greatly /^^^ 
assist in the subsequent work of dressing, . . 
and may in some cases render it unneces- .- - 
sary. The vein may be small, say 12 to ...-. 
15 in. wide, all of which is ore of good ^^ 
grade. In the operation of mining we 
must work in about three times that space, 
sO that there will be twice as much coun- 



W «r w w 

t l» >- 



h V W k 

b w 

V ^ to 



> to to W 

' W to to to 



42 PRACTICAL MINING, 

try rock as ore mined. In such a case, the 
hand-sorting can be done in the mine, so 
that a car-load as it is brought out will 
contain nearly all ore or country rock. 
The same can be done when the vein is 
large, but the pay ore confined to a narrow 
and well-defined streak. 

FREE-MILLING AND REFRACTORY ORES 

COMBINED. 

The term ** free-milling " is used in 
a commercial sense, for there is probably 
no case of an absolutely free-milling ore. 
The nearest approach to one with which 
the writer is acquainted is the Cable Gold- 
mine, near Georgetown, Montana, in which 
even the iron pyrites associated with the 
ore does not contain gold except in the 

• 

free state. More often, however, the sul- 
phurets in free-milling gold rock will con- 
tain gold that is not free-milling. When 
they are in sufficient quantity and value, 
the mill tailings are concentrated, shipped 
to the nearest smelter, and sold. The con- 
sideration of free-milling and refractory 
silver ores combined is a subject of far 
more importance. In some mines the free- 



PRACTICAL MINING. 43 

milling will be in excess, in others the 
refractory ; often in the same mine we fi4id 
a body of free-milling ore, and farther on 
a body of refractory. In general we find 
all gradations between the extremes, and 
it is often found necessary to determine 
which method will give the best commer- 
cial result ; in this case also, when we find 
the profit to be about the same or but 
slightly in favor of the chlorination pro- 
cess, the preference should be given to the 
free-milling system, because it lessens the 
amount of the investment. Suppose, for 
example, that in a given case we find the 
gross value of the ore to be $30 per ton, 
and that we can save by free-milling 65 
per cent and by chlorination 80 per cent. 
We shall have 

65 per cent of $30 = $19 50 
80 ** '' " " = 24 00 

— a difference of $4.50 per ton in favor 
of the latter for gross production. But how 
about the commercial comparison ? It is 
well known by practical and observing 
mill-men, whose services have included the 
operating of free-milling and chlorination 



44 PRACTICAL MINING. 

ores, that in ordinary districts, or indeed 
even when the district is well-favored, and 
cheap salt and fuel can be obtained, the 
difference in the cost of mixing with salt, 
roasting for chlorination in either the 
Stetefeldt or White and Howell furnaces, 
and the repeated handling incident there- 
to, will fully offset in additional cost the 
extra saving by process. Consequently the 
preference should be given to the free- 
milling method (as is really the case in 
good practice), except in cases where the 
ore is becoming more refractory as depth 
is attained, and all the evidence tends to 
show that the ore will shortly become so 
refractory as to necessitate the chlorina- 
tion method. This will be treated of later. 
In many cases 90 per cent may be saved 
by chlorination and less than 65 per cent 
by the free-milling process, the former 
being preferable for commercial purposes 
as well as for the greater percentage saved. 
Careful investigation in each case can give 
us the facts upon which to base an intel- 
ligent judgment. An opinion based upon 
similarity of ore, and the process used for 
one kind, is not sufficient to justify us in 



PRACTICAL MINING. 4$ 

deciding that the same process should be 
applied to another. Such an opinion, «o 
founded, is no more than a mere guess, 
which is a dangerous mode of procedure 
in small commercial investments, and much 
more dangerous when the investment of 
large sums is involved, as would be the 
case here. A condition which has led to 
temporary error is well shown by recent 
experience in Butte City, Montana, where 
the ore in a number of mines was free- 
milling on the surface, and sometimes to 
a depth of 60 to 100 feet, and then became 
refractory (it must be remembered that 
these terms are used commercially). The 
Lexington is a noted case. For some 
years prior to the sale of that valuable 
property to the French company by which 
it is now operated, Judge Davis of Butte, 
who was then the owner, worked the ore 
by the free-milling process to a depth of 50 
feet or more, after which he became con- 
vinced that chlorination would shortly 
become necessary. The opinion was con- 
firmed during the examination by the ex- 
perts, pending negotiations for the sale. 
No deception was used by the judge. He 



46 PRACTICAL MINING, 

frankly told the experts that the reason 
he wished to part with a controlling inter- 
est was due to this fact, for the construc- 
tion of a large chlorination mill is much 
easier talked of than effected, involving, as 
it does, such a large outlay. This case 
shows that a correct opinion cannot be 
formed on superficial mining : we must go 
deep enough to feel sure that the ore is 
not affected by atmospheric agency. If 
the examination cannot be made at suffi- 
cient depth, except at a loss of too much 
money and time, and the ore is found to 
be free-milling as deep as we go, yet we 
have strong doubts that it will remain 
so as greater depth is attained, we should 
provide for the contingency by construct- 
ing the mill building, in which the free 
process is to be used, of such dimensions 
as to admit the introduction of roasters, 
etc., so that we can pass to the chlorina- 
tion method, if necessary, at a minimum 
of expense. Prudence also would suggest 
that no expensive mill of any kind should 
be constructed until there is sufficient ore 
in sight, the net value of which will more 
than pay its cost. The practice of erecting 



PRACTICAL MINING, 47 

• expensive mills on an insufficient showing 
cannot be too severely condemned. 

In what precedes we have briefly con- 
sidered the subject of mines and ores of 
the precious metals and the metallurgical 
operations adapted to them. It has been 
shown that the process must be adapted to 
the ore, instead of attempting to adapt the 
ore to the process. There are hundreds of 
patent and special machines and methods 
submitted to the mining public, the invent- 
ors of which claim to have a panacea for 
all the ills resulting from base metals and 
elements in the ore. The careful examiner 
will reject them as he would the nostrums 
of a quack, unless their value is shown by 
a positive and comparative test. No pro- 
cess of merit has ever been rejected : on 
the contrary, any process or machine pos- 
sessing superior merit to those in use will 
be quickly adopted, and found in opera- 
tion where needed. Many of the agents 
will tell you, with all the appearance of 
truth and honesty : "We have so many in 
use at Aspen, Col. ; so many in Butte City, 
Montana ; so many in Wood River, Idaho ; 
and they are giving excellent satisfaction. 



48 PRACTICAL MINING, 

[The district named will be so far from 
your own section that the probability is 
that you have not been there.] See, here 
are letters attesting the fact." Letters 
and testimonials are produced, yet a visit 
to the districts mentioned will, in ninety^ 
nine cases out of one hundred, show that 
there is no such machine in use there, and 
that if there ever was, it will be found on 
the waste dump. Some of these agents 
may themselves be deceived, or have told 
their story so often that they believe in its 
truth. We must always remember that 
many ores are easy to concentrate, smelt^ 
or mill, while others are difficult. The 
frauds of concentration are by far the most 
numerous, and easy of perpetration ; for 
which reason, as well as its great value 
commercially, it demands most attention. 
The agent may submit letters written by 
men who were honest in the opinion ex« 
pressed, but who themselves were in error. 
For example: The valuable part of the 
ore sought may have a specific gravity of 
5, and not form slimes to any serious 
extent, while the worthless part has only 
a specific gravity of 2.6. Many of the 



PRACTICAL MINING. 49 

machines will effectively concentrate such 
an ore, while signal failure would result 
in the attempt to concentrate with the 
same machines if the relative specific 
gravities are as 4.5 to 3.7 or 4 to 3. It 
must also be remembered that the parties 
who sent the letters and testimonials may 
have never made a comparative test, or 
in fact be familiar with any other machine ; 
and that as soon as they acquired the 
necessary knowledge they would retract 
their previous testimony. We are par- 
ticular in calling attention to this matter, 
because we know that these agents and 
their machines have been the cause of a 
large amount of money being wasted by 
the mining public, and have caused fair 
enterprises to fail which might other- 
wise have been productive — yet the loss 
is put to the debit of mine, and not of 
machine account. We know of many in- 
stances where the substitution of good 
concentrators for poor ones turned failure 
to success. 

It has been showfi that the process 
must be adapted to the ore. It will be seen 
from what follows that both are governed 



so PRACTICAL MINING. 

by locality. There is no country in the 
world in which the operations of mining 
and the reduction of ores have been car- 
ried to such a degree of perfection as in 
the United States. We are justly proud 
of our mining and timbering, the square 
set, etc., being prepared by machinery on 
the surface and lowered ready for adjust- 
ment ; of our steam and compressed-air 
drills, our double-cage system with double 
floors for hoisting, our surface and wire 
tramways, and nearly perfect mills and 
smelting-works ; yet this pride, coupled 
with self-sufficiency, has often led to 
serious error. No people in the world are 
so ready to take advantage of this pride 
as the Mexicans, and Spanish-Americans 
in general, usually assisted by some Ameri- 
can adventurer who may deceive both par- 
ties. If the engineer must be careful of 
the interests of his clients in this country, 
he must be doubly so when Mexican and 
South American mines are under consider- 
ation. It is wonderful how innocent and 
simple these people can look as they say 
to the American or Englishman : ** Tengo 
la mina grande, pero no maquinay — (I have 



PRACTICAL MINING, 5 1 

a great mine, but no machinery). Our 
pride is immediately touched, for how is it 
possible for them to mine successfully 
without machinery ? We will see. We may 
be somewhat surprised that these people, 
who live so close to us, should know noth- 
ing of the refinements which have been in- 
troduced into mining and metallurgy in this 
country during the past twenty-five years. 
If due weight should be attached to this 
consideration, and the cause examined, it 
will often be found that we have over-esti- 
mated their ignorance. Too often we are 
satisfied in advance that we can beat 
them if they have no machinery, and are 
startled when we discover (if we ever 
do) that in many instances our assumption 
of superiority is not warranted by the 
facts ; and, unfortunately, these facts often 
remain in obscurity until it is too late to 
avoid severe financial loss. We will illus- 
trate this by an example. 

The city of Pachuca, State of Hidalgo, 
Mexico, is the centre of the richest and 
most extensive mineral region in that re- 
pubHc. It is reached in four to five hours by 
rail from the city of Mexico via the Vera 



52 PRACTICAL MINING, 

Cruz and Mexico Railroad to Irolo, thence 
to Pachuca via the Hidalgo Narrow-gauge 
Railroad. We have selected this place for 
our illustration, because it is so accessible 
and so important a district that we have 
no fear of contradiction. We visited the 
district four years ago, with letters of in- 
troduction to the managers of the Real 
del Monte mines and the Maravias. The 
ores are treated by the patio process, and 
the haciendas of the Real del Monte are 
the largest in the world, the Progresso 
being next. The ore is crushed dry with 
Chilian mills, then removed to the patio 
floor, where the salt and magistral are 
added. (We should have stated that the 
Chilian mills are driven by mule-power.) 
Water is added until the whole mass as- 
sumes the consistency of a thick paste, 
then trampled by mules, guided by a peon 
who sits on a mule in the centre of the 
mass. A detailed description of this slow 
process would be out of place here. It 
can be found in Phillips' Metallurgy of 
Gold and Silver, and similar text-books. 
Suffice it to say, that it is very expensive, 
even with the advantage of cheap labor. 



PRACTICAL MINING, 53 

The superintendent of the Progresso ac- 
companied us in our examination of that 
hacienda. Conceive the astonishment of 
an American miner to see every detail of 
the patio process in operation, and the 
stamps of a fine modern 40-stamp mill 
hung up ! In connection with the battery, 
we found the pans, settlers, etc. ; in fact, 
a new and complete chlorination mill. 
Blank amazement would convey but a 
poor idea of the manner in which we stared 
at that mill, which v/e could see was not in 
use. The superintendent was eying us 
sarcastically. We asked why the mill was 
stopped. He answered with another ques- 
tion: "What do you run your mills with?*' 
We are somewhat surprised, but answer: 
'* Why, water or steam power, of course.'* 
Where is the water? How do you produce 
steam ? A light begins to dawn upon us. 
We looked around, but could see no water, 
except a small stream blackened and thick- 
ened by the mud from the numerous patios 
above. Even if clean, there was not enough 
to run two fair-sized mills. This stream is 
called the Pachuca River, (It must have 
been named during the wet season or the 



54 PRACTICAL MINING. 

flood.) Could we obtain even cheap fuel? 
Glancing around later, from a high hill we 
found that not a stick of timber was visible. 
About a mile lower down stream we found 
the Pachuca River hacienda, which some 
New Yorkers or Bostonians will doubtless 
remember, for it cost them 50,000 good 
American dollars. We found excellent 
machinery, and a fine assay laboratory, 
constructed, we were informed, by an 
American engineer, whose business doubt- 
less was to erect the buildings according 
to instructions, and not to ask questions. 
The purpose of this plant was to concen- 
trate the tailings from the haciendas up 
the stream. Let it be remembered that 
the patio process is applied to ores similar 
in character to chlorination ores ; that is, 
dry ores, the precious metals existing in 
gray copper, brittle silver, light and dark 
ruby, etc. We are not aware that other 
than dry Mexican ores have been worked 
by patio process — certainly not at this date. 
At all events, the silver ore in the Pachuca 
district is exceedingly refractory, the valu- 
able constituent of the ore being chiefly 
brittle silver with a little gray copper, and 



PRACTICAL MINING, 55 

t 

more rarely ruby-silver. Furthermore^ 
though slow and expensive, the patio 
process saves very close — closer indeed 
than our chlorination ; so what could 
result from an attempt to concentrate 
such tailings? Nothing but what actu- 
ally happened. The machinery re- 
mains as a monument. We have heard 
much talk of the feasibility of working 
over some of the old Mexican dumps by 
concentration, and some reputable men 
have even talked of organizing a large 
company for the purpose, so that though 
we depart from our general to a specific 
subject, yet it merits a little attention, for 
it certainly furnishes food for talk, if not 
for much thought, carrying us back, as 
it does, to the traditional mines of Mexico. 
We will admit that the methods of mining, 
reduction of ores, etc., were tedious, slow, 
and expensive in the past ; but that has 
nothing at all to do with the value of the 
old dumps: their reduction may have cost 
$60 per ton. No matter. What concerns 
us is, how much did they lose, and in what 
condition did they leave it? We have 
. never heard it asserted, nor do we believe 



56 PRACTICAL MINING, 

that It has ever been proved, except in the 
smelting department alone, that we save 
the precious metals any closer than they 
did in the past ; but we can make a still 
closer limitation, and say, for the purpose 
in view, free-milling does not save as 
close as the old Arastra, and chlorination 
no closer than the patio. The great im- 
provements made in mining and metal- 
lurgy have had for their object commercial 
considerations, viz. : rapidity and econo- 
my. We have never heard of a concen- 
trator being placed after a settler in a 
chlorination mill. Why, then, should it 
be successful after the patio? — for it is 
the tailings from this process it is proposed 
to concentrate. We know of no large 
dumps from any other process. There can 
be but two reasons assigned : either that 
others than dry ores were submitted to 
that process, or that it did not work with 
the same degree of closeness that it does 
at the present time. Against this we must 
cite the fact that ore for the patio is pul- 
verized very fine, thus forming a maximum 
of slimes, which militates against suc- 
cessful concentration, no matter what the 



PRACTICAL MINING. 5/ 

machine men. may say. Of course we can 
only present the probabilities of success 
or failure ; for in a given big dump, such as 
that of the Vete Grande, near Zacatecas^ 
Mexico, it would be necessary to submit 
it to a rigid test, first noting the surround- 
ings to see if concentration is at all com- 
mercially possible. 

The locality of Pachuca renders the 
patio process a necessity. We see, how- 
ever, that it was not always customary in 
Mexico to investigate until the mine was 
secured — occasionally not until the mill 
was added. Let us go back to the Mexi- 
can **who had a good mine, but no ma- 
chinery," and go through the usual routine. 
The man who is seeking a mine asks; 
" Was your mine ever worked ?** " Yes^ 
sir." " Did it pay?" " Yes, sir." " How 
deep was it worked ?" " Three hundred 
feet." " Why was work stopped ?" " The 
water was too much for us, as we had no 
pumps." " How did you work your 

ore.'^" "Sold it to hacienda." 

" How did they treat it there ?" " Patio." 
" What did they deduct for treatment?** 
" Thirty dollars per ton." "What did you 



58 PRACTICAL MINING, 

pay for miners?'* "Three reals [=37^ 
cents] per day." "Are they good men ?" 
** If properly directed, yes.** " What did 
you pay for common labor?** "Two 
reals,** [= 25 cents]. " How wide was 
your vein?'* "Six to fifteen feet.** "Was 
all pay ore ?'* "About one half.** " How 
much will your dump assay?** "About 
thirty-four dollars per ton.*' " What will 
it cost to ship it?** "Nine dollars per 
ton.** If the above answers were given 
correctly, the mine would certainly appear 
good enough to justify the expense of a 
close investigation for honest purposes, 
for if the surroundings are not too adverse, 
such a mine ought to pay well with the 
advantage of cheap labor. 

With or without an examination — better 
without, perhaps — it is good enough for a 
mining shark, who will simply go to the 
mine and select samples of the ore, ob- 
serving whether he may safely state that 
the vein is as large as represented. In 
what follows we shall assume a case ; but 
it is selected to fit what has been carried 
out so often in practice, and with the 
single exception of a change of scene, will 



PRACTICAL MINING, 59 

fit a case which several persons of our 
acquaintance may recognize. It will also 
show the character of the most of the 
stocks listed on the Mining Exchange, 
operations in which are published, and 
find their way all over the country, thus 
doing incalculable damage to our second 
greatest industry. What benefit the Ex- 
change derives from keeping on their lists 
securities known to be worthless, is diffi- 
cult ^to understand. The Exchange has 
the name of the Consolidated Mining and 
Petroleum Exchange. Being ignorant on 
these matters, we would be pleased to have 
some light on the definition of the term 
** mining'* from their standpoint. Does 
mining mean the extraction of elements 
of commercial value from the ground? 
And are places where the operation ofex- * 
traction is performed called mines? 

When the operation ceases because there 
no longer exist elements which can be pro- 
fitably extracted, is the place still a mine ? 
If a railroad cannot exist without rails, 
how can a mine exist without ore ? Or is 
a certain piece of paper, representing an 
interest in a certain piece of ground which. 



6o PRACTICAL MINING. 

is known to contain no ore-mining, stock? 
Is a transfer of these pieces of paper 
to an innocent purchaser legalized under 
the head of mining-stock when the seller 
knows the ground to be exhausted of the 
material which gave it the name of mine ? 
We are becoming so seriously mixed in 
our definitions, that we would be pleased 
to learn from the Consolidated Exchange if 
a piece of coal is still a piece of coal after 
it has passed through the chemical changes 
involved in its combustion ; and if the 
piece of ground from which it was taken 
is still a coal-mine if all the coal has been 
■extracted. It may be answered that no 
one can tell but that there may be valuable 
ore there still. True but who can tell when 
he may be standing on top of a $1000 
chunk of gold not more than ten feet under 
the ground ? And in this connection we 
would ask if it is knowledge, or want of it, 
that makes a mine. If stock quotations 
are to be published, where the shares are 
selling at 3, 8, or 30 cents a share, it is un- 
fortunate that the piece of ground is not 
stated to be exactly what it is ; namely, it 
was a mine ; is not now a mine ; but, as no 



PRACTICAL MINING, 6 1 

one can see through the ground, no one 
can say but that it may become a mine 
again. 

We should like to have the legality of 
selling a piece of exhausted ground, under 
the name of mine or mining-stock, tested in 
the courts. The Mining Exchange might 
become a source of great benefit to the 
industry, and not a detriment, if these 
worthless stocks were carefully weeded 
out. This is, of course, but an opinion, 
expressed, by one who knows nothing 
about the inner working of the Exchange ; 
but many good mining securities would be 
listed that are now kept away, were it not 
that the owners fear to associate their 
property with so much other property 
that they deem worthless. We will now 
return to the mining shark. He found his 
investigation satisfactory, and the assays 
of the samples showed an average value of 
$40 per ton ; but the average of the dump 
was considerably less than stated by the 
owner. But no matter about that. He 
now collects samples and forwards them 
to New York, accompanied by the sworn 
statement of the owner as to the past 



62 PRACTICAL MINING. 

value of the ore shipped, the condition 
of the mine when work was abandoned. 
His own statement is also sent, in which 
he shows how valuable such a property 
would be in the United States, and that 
if deemed advisable to ship five to ten 
tons to show the value of the ore, he 
would do so. The advantage of cheap 
labor, etc., is set forth to show that the 
mine can be operated cheaper in Mexico 
than in the United States. Assays are 
now made in New York, and the ore is 
found to go much higher than stated. 
Any one at all fam.iliar with mining 
will see that the bait looks very temp- 
ting. A few friends decide to take hold 
of it, and wire Mr. A. in Mexico to se- 
cure a bond on the property immediately. 
Useless waste of money — they might be 
assured that he already had it. He wires 
back that he will do the best he can ; 
follows this by a letter saying that he 
must have $10,000 cash and $40,000 in six 
months, to satisfy the owner ; that six 
months will give ample time to pump out 
the- mine and put it in paying shape ; 
winding up by advising the immediate 



I 



PRACTICAL MINING. 63 

transmission of the $10,000 to bind the 
bargain. After a conference in New York 
it is decided to send one of the partners 
(Mr. B) with the money, and also to see 
the mine before paying it. On reaching 
Mexico he is met by A and together 
they visit an important mining district, 
where B is shown similar ore to that he 
saw in New York, under treatment, and he 
naturally assumes at a good round profit. 
A points out the crude and imperfect 
method employed in mining, the slow 
and expensive method of grinding the ore 
by the Chili mill ; and above all, the terrible 
patio process is pointed out with mingled 
feelings of pity and disgust. The mine 
it is proposed to purchase is now visited. 
Everything is found to be as stated ; con- 
tracts are drawn up and signed, the 
$10,000 paid over, and B is ready to go 
home. This does not suit A at all. There 
are other important districts to visit, many 
historical things to see. They have made 
an excellent investment, and the visitor 
can write home, tell what he saw at the 
mine, etc., and notify the others of the 
satisfactory conclusion of the business. 



64 PRACTICAL MINING. 

Then B can take a week's holiday. It is 
so arranged. The object of A now is to 
kill just sufficient time. After spending 
eight or ten days seeing the sights, A pro- 
poses another visit to the mine, where he 
shows the necessity for a mining pump. 
After discussing the matter, B decides to 
take A with him to New York. This is 
exactly what A wishes. Then they reach 
Vera Cruz, six weeks have elapsed from 
the time of signing the papers. Four days 
are consumed waiting for a steamer. On 
landing in New York two months have 
elapsed. B makes no note of the passage 
of time ; not so with A, — he notes it care- 
fully. Several conferences are now held 
between all the partners, and A is em- 
powered to select the pump he wishes. 
He spends a week examining the machine- 
shops, and finally leaves an order at some 
foundry for what he wishes. He then 
visits friends in Chicago, whom he says 
he has not seen for some years. On his 
return, he is surprised to learn that the 
pump has been ready for some time. It 
has just occurred to him that he must have 
a machinist, and it takes him a few days 



PRACTICAL MINING, 65 

more to find one that will exactly suit 
him. He is found, however ; and the pump 
and other supplies are put on board the 
steamer. Three months have elapsed from 
the time of signing the contracts. The 
mine is reached with the machinery in 
three weeks more. Everything is now 
apparently being done to hasten matters. 
Barrels are filled with water to supply the 
boiler ; there is not sufficient time for any 
other kind of arrangement. At the end of 
the fourth month the pump is in operation. 
The water yields much more rapidly than 
was anticipated. The shark is a little dis- 
concerted for the first time. He has to 
make some purchases in the city of Mexico, 
and must see the owner about an extension 
of time. He invites the machinist to go 
along, remarking that they can finish pump- 
ing at any time. He manages to waste two 
weeks. They return to the mine, and find 
no perceptible increase of water since they 
left. At the end of the fifth month a dis- 
patch is received in New York that the 
mine is pumped dry, and blasting com- 
menced ; asking that one of the partners 
take the next steamer for Mexico, with 



66 PRACTICAL MINING, 

authority to draw for the money still due 
on the mine. Another of the partners 
(C) starts. As soon as he sees A he asks 
about an extension of time, who promises 
to do the best he can, but reports the next 
day that it is impossible. ,A hurried trip 
is made to the mine. The vein is there, 
and the ore blasted is the same as before 
seen ; some samples are hurriedly taken to 
the city of Mexico, and assayed^ with a 
result of $35 per ton. The shark has 
gained his point. There is no time left 
in which to have a detailed examination 
and commercial tests made. We have fol- 
lowed the operation of this shark step by 
step as briefly as possible, for he is only 
one of a class of men whose methods have 
been disastrous to many, and who are a 
serious drawback to the mining industry. 
They have no faith in any mine, nor would 
they work a moderately paying one if it 
was presented to them. Good or bad^ 
their sole effort would be to sell it for as 
much cash as possible. 

There is a totally different class of men 
who make it their business to seek good 
property for presentation to capitalists, and 



PRACTICAL MINING. 6/ 

render efficient service to buyer and seller 
for a fair commission. We shall consider 
this matter later, and follow the shark along- 
in one of the usual methods. He calls C*s 
attention to figures and data, showing that 
in the United States with high-priced labor 
large dividends are made from poorer ore* 
C thinks it well to consult an engineer. 
Time is short, so he immediately consults 
some responsible business man, and asks 
for information respecting the engineers 
in the city — their qualifications, honesty^ 
experience, etc. Let us consider the 
position in which C now finds himself. 
Within a week he must decide whether 
he shall pay out the sum of $40,000 or 
not, which is a sufficiently delicate matter 
under the most favorable circumstances ; 
but in his position we would like to avoid 
the responsibility. He is in a strange 
country: $15,000 has been paid out — 
$10,000 first payment, and $5000 expenses 
and improvements. If he refuses to pay 
the $40,000, this is lost. He now sees that 
a trustworthy' and competent engineer 
should have been engaged on the start, 
for he is now dependent on the testimony 



^68 PRACTICAL MINING, 

of a business man as to the competency 
and honesty of any engineer within reach ; 
yet how should a business man know any- 
thing of the qualifications of an engineer? 
With respect to this we may say, that 
on our visit to the city of Mexico four 
years ago, we found a man posing as an 
expert mining engineer and, strange as it 
may appear, he had the best reputation 
of any engineer in that city for compe- 
tency ; yet we knew him to be discharged 
less than two years previously for sleeping 
on his post in a large mill in this country, 
Tvhere he had charge of running the engines 
on the night-shift. His competency could 
not be questioned in the new capacity 
which he assumed, without knowledge of 
liis qualifications ; but the transformation 
to an expert mining engineer in so brief a 
period argues but poorly for the profes- 
sion, or bears testimony to extraordinary 
capacity on the part of the individual. 
The fact here mentioned does not lessen 
the difficulty of C ; and the chances now 
are that were it not for the $15,000 already 
in the mine, he would reject it unless he 
were allowed sufficient time in which to 



PRACTICAL MINING, 69 

select a competent engineer in the United 
States, send him to examine the property, 
and report on its value ; but under the cir- 
cumstances he must do the best he can* 
He consults an engineer, — and we will 
assume he is one who has more regard for 
his profession than a fee, — to whom the 
case is stated. The engineer calculates 
the time needed to go to the mine and 
return, which will probably show that he 
cannot spend more than a day or two at 
the property. Then he frankly says that 
it would be useless for him to go, as there 
is not sufficient time for an examination 
upon which to base a trustworthy opinion* 
He is asked what he will charge to go and 
spend what time there is left. The en- 
gineer's fee may be $1000 and expenses. 
That settles it ; he is not needed. The 
sharp is consulted, and, by his aid, one is 
found who will go for $100 and expenses^ 
who claims that he can tell all about the 
property in a day. He is sent. The last 
hope to avert severe financial loss was re- 
jected with the first engineer; and, when it 
is too late, the buyer will learn that he was 
lucky even to find such a man at all, and 



70 PRACTICAL MINING, 

threw his chance away when he rejected 
him, even though his price had been $2500. 
The report of the quack sent is corrobo- 
rative as to the great value of the mine, 
the remaining $40,000 is paid over, and 
thus the first part of a mining transaction 
is completed, on evidence that neither of 
the men who furnished the money would 
accept in an ordinary business transaction, 
with which they are familiar, for $500. 

Have we now reached the end ? Far 
from it. There are the mine and the ore. 
What is to be done with them ? Prudence 
now, if ever, would demand the employ- 
ment of a thorough and painstaking en- 
gineer. Will he be employed ? Oh no ; 
he is too expensive. The sharp goes to 
New York with C, and a meeting of all 
who are interested is called. They decide 
that the patio process is too slow and ex- 
pensive. A forty-stamp mill, with chlori- 
dizing furnaces, pans, settlers, etc., is 
agreed upon ; but now it is found that 
assistance must be had, for such a mill 
erected and in running order will cost 
$150,000 to $200,000, and perhaps more, 
unless the mine is located in a section 



PRACTICAL MINING. J I 

where there is good mill timber. The 
reverse is most often the case in Mexico. 
A stock company is now decided upon^ 
and it is agreed to sell only enough stock 
to buy and complete the mill. The pub^ 
lie now take hold and buy up the stocky 
assuming that such careful business men 
as the promoters took every precaution to 
satisfy themselves as to the value of the 
enterprise. $100,000 worth of the stock 
is quickly disposed of, and at a meeting 
of the trustees called for the purpose it is 
decided to order the mill at once, feeling 
assured that the remainder of the stock 
laid aside for the purpose will be quickly 
sold. A mill-builder and a superintendent 
are now engaged. The shark says he does 
not feel competent to manage an enter- 
prise of such magnitude. The stock set 
aside to equip the mill is disposed of. It 
is also found that the entire holding of the 
shark has been sold. Questioned as to 
the cause, he says that he is going away 
for some years, and wishes the money to 
operate with. Some of the purchasers of 
stock wish a market for it, and it is de- 
cided to put it on the Exchange. The 



72 PRACTICAL MINING, 

regular Exchange will not list it, so it goes 
to the Mining Exchange at, say, $io per 
share, par being $50. Many of the bold- 
est operators and their friends open the 
attack, and sell it short. The more pru- 
dent and extensive dealer is not ready yet. 
A plain-looking man might be seen buy- 
ing a ticket for Mexico a few days later. 
If we happened to be with the party strug- 
gling along the road between the railroad 
terminus and the mine with the machinery, 
we might see a man coming along on a 
stout mustang, who bears a strong resem- 
blance to the plain man who bought a 
ticket in New York nine or ten days be- 
fore. As he comes up he asks the destina- 
tion of the machinery, then pulls out a 
map, scans it rapidly, and asks for informa- 
tion of a place five or six miles from there. 
A mining expert is certainly on his way 
to the mine at last, and we may be assured 
he is one who knows his business. Who 
sent him? The directors of the newly 
formed company? Oh no, it would cost 
too much. Two or three weeks later, five 
or six of the lesser brokers of the Exchange 
are offering stock of the newly listed com- 



PRACTICAL MINING, 73 

pany for sale in small blocks. A very 
prominent broker buys in about one quar- 
ter of what they are offering, the remainder 
being taken up by outsiders. The stock 
gives way and falls a point or two. There 
is a hurried meeting of the board of direc- 
tors and some of the other stockholders. 
The situation is discussed, and the con- 
clusion reached that it is simply a " Bear" 
raid on the stock, which they resolve to 
sustain. Under their purchases the stock 
advances. Larger and larger blocks are 
offered and taken up, but the stock again 
breaks. The public take alarm; some of 
their stock is offered. Lower and lower 
goes the price. All the stock held by the 
public is now thrown on the market in a 
lump at any price. The prudent operator 
buys it in to cover his short sales. The 
original promoters go to the rescue again, 
and the stock is again advanced consider- 
ably ; but now the prudent man begins his 
attack anew. The stock breaks again, more 
large blocks are offered, and the market is 
further weakened. The promoters and their 
friends are still buyers, and hold nearly all 
the stock issued. There is a heavy short 



74 PRACTICAL MINING, 

• 

interest, and consequently some danger of 
a squeeze being given to the sellers. The 
prudent operator is equal to the emergency. 
He knows or learns who the principal 
stockholder is, and calls him to a secret 
conference, at which the plain-looking man 
whom we last saw in Mexico appears. 
Under a pledge of secrecy, a map of the 
mine is exhibited, also a general map 
showing the location of the district, etc. 

The stockholder now receives the first 
accurate information he has had. Integ- 
rity demands that the information be given 
to his associates, but the more powerful 
motive of self-interest says no — not, at least, 
until he has unloaded his own holding in 
the concern, which is offered accordingly. 
His associates continue to buy, in order to 
obtain all the certificates issued. A shrewd 
member figures up to see how much more 
is out, and discovers that there is stock be- 
ing sold and in the market, which should 
not be there, unless there is treachery. In- 
vestigation leads to the discovery that his 
most reliable confrere is unloading. He 
is furious at not being made acquainted 
with the design. The temptation to beard 



PRACTICAL MINING. 75 

him, and show that his treachery is known, 
naturally follows such righteous indigna- 
tion. But stay! Should he be made aware 
of this, he would unload the faster, and 
thus break the market still more rapidly ; 
furthermore, the other innocent associates 
would then be liable to find it out and 
throw their stock on the market also, thus 
breaking it completely. What would be- 
come of his own holding then ? Self-in- 
terest prompts caution, and the necessity 
of keeping his own counsel ; and it prevails. 
But partner No. i is blamed that he is 
compelled to hold his knowledge and his 
purpose to unload from the others. His 
stock is now offered first slowly, then more 
rapidly, and further breaks the market. 
Partner No. i is now satisfied that the in- 
formation given to him has been commu- 
nicated to others. All the stock he has 
left is thrown upon the market in a lump, 
no matter what the price. No. 2 does the 
same. The end is apparent. In the mean 
time, what about the mine? Shortly after 
the collapse of the stock, letters are received 
from the builder and the superintendent, 
stating that after great hardship they had 



76 PRACTICAL MINING. 

reached the mine with a part of the ma- 
chinery, but find it is useless to build a 
mill, as there is not sufficient water in the 
district, mine water included, to run even 
a patio process so that the tailings may- 
be carried out of the way, and that water 
cannot be brought in except at great ex- 
pense ; that the nearest hacienda where ore 
can be sold is sixty leagues distant ; and 
that the ore, though of lower grade than 
supposed, is nevertheless of good average 
quality for a favorable location, but will 
not pay by any known process located 
where it is ; and winds up by asking for in- 
structions. They are told to return home, 
which they do, leaving the machinery 
where it is in the care of a peon. Many will 
doubt that such an extreme case as this 
can be reached. If so, let them ask any 
one who has travelled on the Magdalena 
River about the heaps of rusting machin- 
ery at Calamar, San Martin de Loba, Bo- 
dega Central, etc. This mine and its stock 
would quickly be lost sight of, and sink 
into oblivion, where it belongs — for those 
who were fleeced would be ashamed of their 
part of the transaction, and the public 



PRACTICAL MINING. TJ 

certainly would not attempt to resurrect 
it ; but it is on the Mining Exchange, and 
hawked around at five or six cents per share ; 
these quotations are marked up, and printed 
in the newspapers at these figures — an- 
other blow at the mining industry, which 
is but a cipher in the catalogue of blows 
dealt in this and other ways ; and yet the 
industry has forged ahead with astonish- 
ing rapidity, under the leadership of men 
who will claim our attention later, until it 
has reached the distinction of being the. 
second great industry of the republic. 

Who was responsible for the tissue of 
error in the example just shown? Want 
of men qualified to show that, at the pres- 
ent time, it could not be made a success? 
It could not be this, for we have the most 
capable engineers of any country in the 
world. The mining shark? No: he sim- 
ply acted the part assigned to him by na- 
ture, and might not really know but that the 
•mine would pay; lacking faith in all mines 
he would naturally sell in any event. A 
few of the innocent purchasers of stock 
may ask the promoters who was to blame. 
'* Oh, nobody. We are all heavy losers, and 



78 PRACTICAL MINING, 

it serves us right for going into a mining 
enterprise/' is the reply. 

The entire operation has been outlined, 
so that it will not be difficult to fix the 
blame ;' but the mine must bear it, for 
whether a promoter makes or loses money 
by such transactions, he is sure to assign 
every failure to the special mine ; he 
thinks, perhaps — and there is not a doubt 
in our mind that he is right — the mining 
industry can bear it better than he can. 

We have given but two examples of local- 
ity governing mines and processes, but I 
think they are sufficient. Many examples 
can be found in the United States. We 
may be working in a district where there 
is a sufficient amount of wet ore to smelt 
the dry ore, in which case a chlorination 
mill would not be erected for the latter ; 
and indeed the dry ore might not be made 
to pay with such a mill, when it would do 
so by smelting if we have the wet ore to 
mix with it. From the prices and per- 
centages saved, previously quoted, this can 
be readily seen, and does not need an ex- 
ample to illustrate it. This work is but 
a brief culling from personal experience in 



PRACTICAL MINING. 79 

the field. It is not the purpose of the 
writer to explain to the experienced engi- 
neer what his duty to his client should be^ 
for many of them have passed through the 
same experience as we have attempted 
here to describe ; but we think it covers 
part of the ground of inquiry which should 
be made by every young man who designs 
making mining and metallurgy of the 
precious metals a study for his future pro- 
fession. Nor is it the purpose to convey 
knowledge of specific operations in the de- 
partments of mining and metallurgy, which 
can be found in standard works ; but rather 
to point out some of the difficulties to be 
met with in the application of the knowl- 
edge when acquired, and under what con- 
ditions the application may be attempted 
with some degree of safety. 

The special object, however, is to show 
to the capitalist something of an engineer's 
duty, and seek his aid in an effort which 
should be made for the purification of an 
important profession, and which will have 
at the same time a strong tendency to 
check some of the fearful waste of money 
by bogus mines which has been going on 



80 PRACTICAL MINING, 

for the past twenty-five or thirty years 
Without the aid of the capitalist the en- 
gineer can do nothing. The capitalist 
may or may not employ a competent 
man ; for how is he to tell, when there is 

* 

no law, except conscience, to prevent any 
one from calling himself an engineer of 
mines, and signing his name as such ? And 
yet a careful consideration of the fore- 
going will show the capitalist that every 
person may not be intrusted with the 
performance of the duties described. The 
chances of error are great enough, with- 
out adding the burden of incompetency. 
** But how will you detect incompetency?" 
is a question that will be asked when any 
one may claim to be an engineer of mines, 
and assert that he is a master in his pro- 
fession. Certificates of competency are de- 
manded of persons who seek to fill posi- 
tions far subordinate in importance to that 
of a mining engineer, for even a managing 
engineer is under a heavy responsibility 
for the preservation of life and property. 
Why not demand from him a certificate 
of competency, signed by a competent 
board of examiners, some member of which 



PRACTICAL MINING, 8 1 

will keep a record of easily avoidable errors 
committed by those to whom certificates 
are issued, and placed against the name of 
the person by whom committed, a suffi- 
cient number of which will involve a for- 
feiture of his certificate. This may not 
eradicate the existing evils, but it will ma- 
terially assist in doing so. Competency 
in the profession of a consulting engineer 
especially requires intelligence and a broad 
technical education, coupled with practical 
experience in varied fields, second to no 
profession in the world. In law and medi- 
cine some protection is afforded by statute. 
A man must be a graduate from some law 
or medical institution, or pass a rigid ex- 
amination, before being permitted to prac- 
tise under protection of law. But a grad- 
uate of the School of Mines, Columbia 
College (the leading institution of its kind 
in the world), who receives a degree of 
E.M. authorized by the State of New York^ 
must go into the field and compete with 
any man who sees fit to sign himself an 
E.M. and whose chief qualification, in 
many cases, is that he has spent eight or 
ten years in one or more mining camps. 



82 PRACTICAL MINING. 

His great boast is that he has this experi- 
ence, but he seldom tells in what capacity. 
We do not mean by this that a course in 
college is necessary, for we believe in self- 
made engineers as much as we do in self 
made men. Some of the best engineers we 
ever knew were self-taught : but we never 
knew them to ascribe their knowledge to 
the single fact that they spent eight or ten 
years in a mining camp. Rigid as are the 
examinations at the School of Mines men- 
tioned, yet the professors will frankly ad- 
mit that their ablest students have simply 
the preparatory education necessary for 
their future development in the field of 
labor. 

A complete exposure of all the evils 
which retard the development of the min- 
ing industry, and of the extensive frauds 
perpetrated, would fill a volume ; so in what 
follows we will confine ourself to a few 
of them. Any industry can suffer only 
by a failure to yield an adequate commer- 
cial profit on the capital employed in its 
prosecution. As applied to mining, the 
causes of this failure are in individual cases 
many. We say individual cases, for we do 



PRACTICAL MINING, 83 

not think any reading man will, in view of 
the magnificent results achieved by com- 
paratively few men, who employed their 
money intelligently and under the manage- 
ment of skilful engineers, say that mining 
as an industry is a failure. This success 
has been secured by the employment of 
less than one fourth of the total amount 
subscribed in the United States for mining 
purposes. The men who supplied this 
one fourth merit the gratitude of all who 
take an interest in the industry, especially 
of consulting and managing engineers, for 
the intelligence and care exhibited in 
their selection of property and of the men 
whom they employed in its management. 
Among these men we may with propriety 
mention some whose names have only to 
be heard in any mining community in the 
United States to give confidence and 
strength to a mining enterprise in which 
they may be connected. The great for- 
tunes accumulated by the men, whose 
names we are about to mention, resulted 
from their prudence and complete mas- 
tery of a complex industry, and not from 
a single stroke of luck — as was the case 



^4 PRACTICAL MINING. 

with the men who became enormously 
wealthy from the Bonanza Mines of the 
Comstock Lode. Personally we do not 
Tcnow any of the gentlemen whose names 
are about to be mentioned. We know 
them only by the results they have 
achieved, which are matters of history ; 
and it is from this standpoint alone that 
I take the liberty of using their names. 

Haggin & Tevis, with whom George 
Hearst has been associated, have achieved 
success in nearly all the various depart- 
ments of mining heretofore mentioned. 
In the Black Hills of Dakota they give 
support to the majority of the people who 
populate the cities of Deadwood, Lead, 
and Central — in all, 12,000 to 15,000 souls, 
with their Homestake, Father De Smet, 
Deadwood-Terra, Giant, Old Abe, etc., free- 
milling gold mines; at Park City, Utah, 
3000 to 4000, with their Ontario Mine and 
chlorination mill ; at Butte City, Montana, 
2000 to 3000, with the Anaconda and 
St. Lawrence copper-mines, the smelting- 
works of which, situated in the Deer 
Lodge Valley, support the city of Ana- 
conda, with its 5000 to 6000 souls. I 



PRACTICAL MINING, 85 

might mention other mines and works 
controlled by these men. The great mills 
in the Black Hills, Dakota ; Parley's Park, 
Utah ; and enormous smelting-works in 
the Deer Lodge, are the most enduring 
and valuable monuments which will be as- 
sociated with the names of these men as 
the stanch and skilful supporters of a 
great industry. To what is their phe- 
nomenal success due? Rigid prelimin- 
ary investigation by competent men ; the 
selection of the fittest metallurgical pro- 
cess for each mine ; the selection of capa- 
ble men as managers, whom they bind to 
themselves by the closest business ties; 
mutual good faith, the payment to their 
chief employees of liberal salaries and a 
part interest in the enterprises to which it 
is their duty to give thought and energy ; 
and finally, unusual liberality to all their 
employees, which adds to their sense of 
duty in rendering faithful service. 

It must not be supposed from the above 
that all the mining enterprises of these 
gentlemen are successful ; but in the man- 
ner mentioned, their failures are reduced 
to a minimum. When they do make a 



86 PRACTICAL MINING. 

loss, it is not blazoned on the streets or in 
the Exchange. They never say, " It serves 
us right for engaging in a mining enter- 
prise." Their aim is to make their success 
exceed their failures as much as possi- 
ble ; and with what success, is seen above. 
Some of the other men who have rendered 
great and enduring services to the industry 
are Prof. Hill, of the Argo Works ; J. B. 
Grant, of the Omaha and Grant Smelting 
Works ; Messrs. Billing & Eilers, Gilmer & 
Saulsbury, and the Walker Bros., of Salt 
Lake City, Utah. These are chief among 
the men who formed the bulwark to the 
mining industry, which has proved im- 
penetrable to the attacks of ignorance, in- 
competency, jobbery, and fraud. 

It is our belief that fully three fourths of 
the money subscribed for mining purposes 
is not applied to it, but is paid out in 
heavy commissions, excessive purchase- 
price for property and machinery known 
to be worthless or of doubtful value, ex- 
cessive purchase-price for property of 
known value, etc. Each mine is debited 
with the total cash paid out, no matter how 
much of it is pocketed by the middlemen 



PRACTICAL MINING. 8/ 

and promoters. We shall briefly mention 
the chief causes of loss in honest and in- 
telligent mining. It will be seen by the 
preceding description of ores that they 
are varied in character and quality, even in 
the same mine or vein. A mine may pay 
to a certain depth, and then, by a change 
in either the character or quality of the 
ore, fail. A good example is furnished by 
the Penobscot Mine at Vestal, Montana. 
It paid very handsomely the discoverer 
and first owner, Mr. Vestal, who worked 
one shaft to a depth of i6o feet, and 
another 750 feet, distant from the first 
100 feet. Short levels were also opened 
at 60 and 100 feet, and the average 
samples taken from all of them was two 
ounces free-milling gold ore. In this 
shape it was purchased at a high price. 
An excellent mill was erected about a 
mile distant, and a good tramway connec- 
tion between mine and mill made. Before 
a depth of 200 feet was reached, and the 
levels extended 50 feet in either direction, 
the ore became commercially worthless. 
It would not pay the cost of mining and 
milling. This would convey the idea that 



88 PRACTICAL MINING. 

the mine was salted before it was sold. 
It was not so, however; for it was origi- 
nally examined by a capable and pains- 
taking engineer, at which time the ore was 
yielding the amount mentioned by the 
Arastra. When the writer examined and 
condemned it, the shaft (main one) was 
down 300 feet, and the loo-foot drift ex- 
tended until it connected with the other 
-shaft. There was nothing in the mine at 
that time which would pay, so that it 
only represented an expensive prospect ; 
but who could foresee this when it was 
examined by the first engineer? Who 
could condemn it at that time? Many of 
the men who worked in the mine believe 
that there are good chimneys of ore in it 
still. Less than five miles distant we now 
find the town of Marysville. Nine years 
ago there was nothing on its site but a 
rude little log-cabin, inhabited by a man 
whom people called Crazy Tommy Cruse. 
We will see that there was method in his 
madness. He was then engaged in driv- 
ing a tunnel on the side of a very steep 
hill adjacent to his cabin, and was follow- 
ing up a streak of copper-stained quartz 



PRACTICAL MINING 89 

one to three inches in thickness. With 
indomitable pluck and perseverance he 
worked alone, driving his little tunnel for- 
ward for two to three years, at the end of 
which he was rewarded with the famous 
Drum Lummon vein, twelve to forty feet in 
width, now the property of the Montana 
Mining Co., Limited, of London. These 
two instances (the Penobscot and Drum 
Lummon) are mining accidents, and very 
exceptional. Nine years ago, who would 
have condemned the former and recom- 
mended the latter? Yet had it been done, 
the fortunate man would have been given 
credit for great wisdom. We have never 
seen two other such extreme cases as those 
here mentioned — the one making such a 
remarkably good showing, and the other so 
extremely poor ; yet the conditions be- 
came entirely reversed in a short time. 
The engineer may be called upon to ex- 
amine a prospect, and find it good as such. 
It now becomes necessary to distinguish 
between professional duty and the desire 
to take a risk for ourselves, with, perhaps, 
though not often, one or two friends. We 
may take a chance on a prospect, if we 



90 PRACTICAL MINING. 

wish ; but it is too slender a thread upon 
which to hang professional reputation by 
recommending it to the public. A vexed 
question may now be asked, What is the 
line of demarcation between a prospect 
and a mine ? Personally, we will answer 
that we would decide as much by the vein 
as by the development. Its magnitude 
and character are important considera- 
tions. Generally, a piece of property passes 
from a prospect to a mine when, in the 
estimation of the person making the ex- 
amination, sufficient work has been done 
to show that the chances are largely in 
favor of permanency in the vein. 

Each person will define his own limits, 
so that the line of demarcation is far from 
clearly drawn ; for what one person may 
consider a prospect may be pronounced a 
mine by another. 

The ore may be free-milling to a certain 
depth, and pay until the increased expense 
of deep-mining or change to a more refrac- 
tory ore would entail loss. These are 
some of the causes of unavoidable loss and 
uncertainty : surely enough of themselves, 
without the addition of jobbery and fraud, 



PRACTICAL MINING, 9 1 

or the necessity of paying large dividends 
on a sum representing, very often, ten 
times the actual cost of the enterprise. 

The capitalist is sometimes a serious 
bar to success. This may seem a strange 
statement when it is considered that with- 
out the necessary capital we are rendered 
helpless ; nevertheless both statements are 
true. It may be asked. In what sense is 
he a drawback ? Even though he should 
lose his own money and that of his friends, 
how does it hurt mining? Money repre- 
sents accumulated labor, or rather its 
value. If all the labor in the United 
States was non-productive, we should have 
a poor country. The maximum of pros- 
perity is reached when it is all made as 
productive as possible. The loss of money, 
therefore, being a loss of labor, is injurious, 
especially to the industry in which it was 
sustained, because it is a debit against it ; 
whereas, if intelligently and prudently 
employed, it might be productive, and the 
amount be found on the credit side. Does 
any one suppose that the million or more 
wasted at Silver Cliff on the mines hereto- 
fore mentioned, and others, is no detriment 



92 PRACTICAL MINING. 

to the mining industry? Ask any man 
who sustained part of that loss to invest 
in a legitimate mining enterprise, and the 
chances are that he would open his safe, 
pull out a bundle of Plata Verde, Game 
Ridge, or other worthless stock, and offer 
it to you for sale. You reply that you do 
not want it, as it is worthless. "Very 
well," he says, " I have enough of such 
stuff.'* (We simply mention what we know 
has happened many times.) By this it is 
seen that the industry instead of the in- 
capacity or carelessness of those who 
promote the enterprise is charged with 
the blame. 

What the mining industry needs is a 
thorough knowledge of its requirements, 
such as that exhibited by the men whose 
names have been mentioned. Many capi- 
talists think that mining is easy — that it is 
only necessary to dig out the ore and sell 
it ; yet these same men will, in their own 
business, watch every leakage carefully. 
Tell the merchant, banker, or broker, that 
to be successful in mining requires as much 
knowledge and prudence as his own 
business, and he will eye you in a man- 



PRACTICAL MINING, 93 

ner indicating the existence of insane hos- 
pitals. Many of them have bought min- 
ing interests for the purpose of making an 
opening for a friend or relative whom they 
would not trust with their own business, 
and whom they send to take charge of a 
business with the requirements and de- 
tails of which he is entirely ignorant, 
and so must depend on the faithfulness of 
men whom they employ. He must ask 
somebody when a miner is doing a day's 
work, if the blacksmith sharpens his drills 
properly, if the carpenter is framing his 
timbers properly, and if a sufficient 
amount of timbering is being done for 
the protection of life and safety to capital. 
It would seem that brief reflection would 
show them that success could not be 
expected under such management ; yet 
when failure comes, as it must, they do 
not blame themselves or their managers : 
no, they simply shrug their shoulders, and 
say, " I took a mining flyer and lost ;** and 
the friends who put in their money will 
tell you, " I put in some money with my 

friend in the Mine. He sent his 

cousin out to manage it, so that every- 



94 PRACTICAL MINING, 

thing would be level ; but it failed, and I 
will not have anything to do with mining 
again." We are well aware that such flyers 
as these are not confined to mining alone ; 
that they are taken in railroad stocks, oil 
certificates, futures in grain, etc.; and that^ 
though successful at times, the aggregate 
is a much heavier loss than in mining* 
These losses, however, are never men- 
tioned outside of a select few. People 
are supposed to know something of these 
matters, and a confession of ignorance and 
loss with respect to them would hardly be 
wise ; but in mining it is different. 

The operations of the industry are con- 
fined to the mountain regions, and are 
found exceedingly complicated when 
knowledge with respect to them is sought; 
therefore the greater necessity for trained 
servants, and not men who never saw a mine 
or mill until they assumed charge. Better 
start in ordinary commercial business a 
man who knows neither the wholesale nor 
retail prices of the goods in which he is to 
deal, or send a plough for repairs to a har- 
ness-shop or a harness to the blacksmith- 
shop. The loss, at all events, will be less. 



PRACTICAL MINING. 95 

One of the most serious evils to mining 
is the practice of presenting mines to the 
public at enormous prices. Often an en- 
gineer is compelled to condemn a mine 
because of the price at which it is presented. 
Many good prospects remain undeveloped 
for the same reason. It is the favorite 
field of the mining shark, and it is here 
where his fangs sink deepest. Every ex- 
tensive mining camp is infested with these 
men ; nor are they confined to mining dis- 
tricts alone, but may be found in all sec- 
tions, especially in large business and 
speculative centres. 

Their methods are various, but we shall 
confine ourself to a few of the most com- 
mon, but at the same time most effective. 
The railroad station, which is the outfitting 
point for the camp, is watched for the 
arrival of strangers, who are followed to 
the hotel ; their names are learned from 
the register, and then they are shadowed. 
No detective in the country has a keener 
scent than the mining shark. If you seek 
mines, he will quickly discover that fact, 
and also the special one which is the 
object of your mission. His plans are 



96 PRACTICAL MINING. 

quickly formed. The mine to be exam- 
ined may be bonded to another shark, or 
to a man who honestly seeks to promote 
the joint interests of owner, buyer, and 
himself. Shark No. i may know the 
owner, and the person to whom the mine 
is bonded. If not, he will quickly find 
them out. His next step is to make the 
acquaintance of the stranger, with whom 
he spends as much time as possible, dis- 
cussing the interests of the camp, most 
prominent mines, mills, etc., and requests 
the pleasure of meeting him at his house 
that evening to meet one or two of the 
superintendents. His next move is to see 
the owner of the property, who may have 
seen him with the stranger. He tells him 
confidentially that he knows all about the 
negotiation going on, and that he can aid 
him very materially, as he knows the ex- 
aminer well ; that they have mutual ac- 
quaintances in New York, etc. ; and that 
he is willing to use his influence with him^ 
if it is made an object. The owner tells 
him it is bonded to shark No. 2. No. i 
says : ** Tell me exactly how much you are f o 
get, and it will help matters.** The price to 



PRACTICAL MINING. 9/ 

No. 2 is $16,000. No. I is thoughtful for 
a moment, then says : " Well, I don't think 
he can get much more than that. Now, if I 
make this thing go through, you can give 
me $4000.*' It is so arranged. He next 
sees No. 2 ; the same story is told about 
his intimacy with the stranger, also that 
he can defeat the sale if he wishes : then 
he asks No. 2 what his price is. No. 2 tells 
him that his price to his friend, shark No. 3^ 
in New York, will probably be $30,000. 
No. I now says : ^^ I'll tell you what we will 
do : you ask $36,000, give me $8000, and 
we will put this thing through." The pro- 
posal is accepted. The shark at the New 
York end is notified that the bed-rock fig- 
ure is $36,000, but that in order to make it 
mutually interesting, No. 3 should ask 
$50,000, the balance of $14,000 to be divid- 
ed as follows: $4000 to No. 2 and $10,000 to 
No. 3. The latter now goes to his New 
York friend, tells him the bed-rock figure is 
$50,000, and values his own time and ser- 
vices at $5000, making $55,000. This man 
adds $10,000 for himself, and at last it 
reaches the real party who may desire to pur- 
chase, or a prominent promoter, at $65,000, 



98 PRACTICAL MINING. 

Jf to the latter, the property is intended 
for the public. The property may be ac- 
cepted at $65,000, and a company organ- 
ized. The cash value of all the stock will 
be placed at what has been a favorite figure, 
$400,000, 50 per cent of which will be 
offered for sale, to pay for a supposed re- 
mainder due on the property, and a work- 
ing capital of $50,000. There will thus be 
$200,000 — ($65,000 + $50,000) = $85,000 
more to be divided. All of this grows out 
of an actual $12,000 purchase ; and we may 
say here, without the least fear of contra- 
diction, that the case here assumed is not 
overdrawn. Let us suppose that it was 
presented to a capitalist, who wished to buy 
the property on its merits, at $65,000. 
The engineer has been sent, made his ex- 
amination, and returns. Nine times out 
of ten, he will condemn the property at any 
price ; but he may have found a good pros- 
pect, and so states. Asked if it is worth 
$65,000, he says no ; that of course he can- 
not say to what value it might develop. 
It might do to pay $10,000 for a 5 1 per cent 
interest, the money to be expended in de- 
veloping the property, with the right to 



PRACTICAL MINING. 99 

withdraw any money that might be left 
over, whenever prudence would suggest 
abandoning the property, or he might 
recommend its purchase at $12,000 to 
$15,000. If the capitalist really wants the 
mine, he must now commence negotiations 
directly with the owner. But if the prop- 
erty was really bonded to shark No. 2, he 
will not resign it without being well paid,, 
and thus the negotiation be defeated. The 
practice of giving long bonds on property 
to these sharks, who only wish to speculate 
on the time given them, is to be regretted ; 
yet it is very prevalent in large and good 
mining districts that attract the notice of 
capitalists. An engineer is often wearied 
with these people, and, if he permits it,, 
much of his time will be wasted. It may 
be asked if they do not attempt to bribe 
the engineer : possibly so, if he gave the 
slightest encouragement, but no engineer 
who merits the name would do so. Some 
people may court such an offer of bribery 
in order to condemn a mine. This is 
mistaken policy, and not to be enter- 
tained by any true engineer ; for the 
rascality of the owner, or whoever the 



-■ J 
J J ^ 






lOO PRACTICAL MINING, 

seller may be, does not detract one iota 
from the mine itself. If the opinion of the 
seller, or his word, has anything to do with 
the value of the property, there would be 
no use for an examiner. The Double- 
decker Mine of Leadville was sold on the 
value of salted samples, yet was a very 
valuable property. It has been shown that 
the commercial value of a mine depends 
upon the character of the ore as well as its 
intrinsic value; and to those who know little 
of mining, this is by no means apparent : 
consequently, a very common mode of pro- 
cedure on the part of the shark is to say : 
*' I have a 6-foot vein of ore that will run 
$14 per ton. Such and such mines are 
paying $25,000 per month on $10 ore. 
Assay certificates are produced to show 
this, and samples submitted for positive 
proof. Asked why he does not work the 
mine, his excuse will be want of capital. 
Another common method of deception 
is to use the past history of the mine and 
the production to show its present value. 
The operations performed in New York 
with Leadville mines will doubtless recall 
this. We have often been called upon 



PRACTICAL MINING, lOI 

to 'examine a mine from which the ore 
was practically exhausted. It was shown 
by smelters* certificates that the mines did 
pay ; but we find all the available ore ex- 
tracted, and suggest that the mine is ex- 
hausted. " Oh, no,'* is the reply ; " there 
was not ore enough taken out : on further 
development you will encounter the same 
ore-body.** No one can see through the 
rock, and say whether or not such is the 
case ; but its past history is no advantage : 
on the contrary, it is quite a serious disad- 
vantage ; for at best it is but a poor and 
expensive prospect, and developing, or 
rather seeking for more ore, in an old mine 
is much more expensive than in a new 
prospect. The very history of which 
advantage is sought to be taken is un- 
favorable. When applied in a general 
sense, for mining history shows that the 
extraction of five tons of ore will exhaust 
some mines, while 100,000 tons would 
not exhaust others. The richest lot of 
free-gold specimens we ever saw were ex- 
hibited to us by the cashier, Mr. Halley, 
of the bank at Rapid City, Dakota, about 
sev en years ago. They were from the Ben 



I02 PRACTICAL MINING, 

gal Tiger Mine, which was much talked 
of there at that time. We asked him if he 
went to see it, and how much there was 
of such ore. He showed us a cigar-box 
about half full of the specimens, and said : 
"** Yes, I went to see it, and bought these — 
all I could see there." He was right : sub- 
sequent work proved that, to all commer- 
cial intents and purposes, he had the mine 
in the cigar-box. A very applicable remark 
is credited to a Wall Street magnate. He 
was asked to buy one of the most famous 
producing mines of Leadville. Smelting 
returns were shown from the Grant, Bur- 
dell Witherell, and Billing & Eilers smelt- 
ing-works. The ore-books were shown, to 
prove that the ore extracted yielded six 
millions in less than four years. The 
magnate quietly replied that he would buy 
the mine if so much had not been taken 
out of it. When a mining enterprise of 
magnitude is to be investigated, instead 
of asking the engineer to do it for less 
than his usual fee, it would be much 
safer to ask for additional labor devoted 
to the examination. The soundness of 
any judgment is to be estimated by the 



PRACTICAL MINING, IO3 

amount of intelligence and care which pro- 
duced it. In mining matters specific 
knowledge must be added. Covering as 
it does a wide field of inquiry, an en- 
gineer's efficiency should be estimated by 
the amount of his intelligence, prudence, 
and technical knowledge. 

The capable engineer must remember 
that it is incumbent upon him to keep 
pace with his profession, and if possible be 
himself one of those who make the advanc- 
ing strides. Past and present knowledge 
accumulated and published in standard 
works is not sufficient for the progressive 
engineer. The study of it is most valu- 
able in showing the progressive strides of 
a great industry. Improvement is the 
order of the day, and he who does not 
keep pace with it will fall behind in the 
race. To condemn a fine property for 
want of knowledge, is no less an error than 
the recommendation of a poor one. We 
must never fear unavoidable error imposed 
by the conditions of nature. No one can 
know how soon a mine will be exhausted, 
when rich chimneys of ore may be en- 



104 PRACTICAL MINING, 

countered, or how soon a vein may widen. 
The examiner has nothing to do with these 
matters. He is not employed to indulge 
his imagination, but to determine cold 
business facts as they exist, and whether 
or not there are known and improved 
methods that will certainly alter these facts 
for the better. In what has preceded, the 
term ore has been used in its customary 
sense. So applied, it means vein-filling, for 
in every mining camp the expression : 
Will this or that ore pay ? is used. The cor- 
rect meaning of the word ore is : A sub- 
stance from which metals or their com- 
pounds may be extracted with profit. In 
this sense we see that what were not ores 
twenty or twenty-five years ago are so 
now ; that what are not ores to-day may* 
be so four or five years hence, by reason 
of improved methods, cheaper labor, etc.; 
and also, what is not an ore to one person 
at the present day may be so to another, 
because of his knowledge of superior 
methods or better business management. 
Hence the absolute necessity for an en- 
gineer to keep pace with the rapid pro- 



FRACriCAL xMINING. I05 

gress of the times. The present bent of 
improvement is in the direction of lixivia- 
tion, which has for its object the extrac- 
tion of the most valuable ingredients by 
the use of a solvent, the worthless part 
being unaffected by it. If the metal, 
or metals, which we seek are so chemi- 
cally combined in the ore that they are 
not soluble, then they are submitted to a 
process that* will render them so, and the 
solvent then applied. Such are the subsidi- 
ary processes of Augustine & Ziesvogel, 
already mentioned. The usual solvents 
used in lixiviation are water, salt, and hy- 
posulphite solutions. Lixiviation is by no 
means new ; but we doubt if the appHca- 
tion of solvents for cheapening metallurgi- 
cal operations has been sufficiently inves- 
tigated. It is evident, however, that 
though lixiviation may be used success- 
fully in one district, it may fail in another. 
In lixiviation by salt (brine solution), or 
by the Von Potiva method with hyposul- 
phite of soda, these materials must not be 
too expensive to purchase or produce. 
In the preparation of the foregoing, we 



I06 PRACTICAL MINING. 

have not consulted a single text-book, 
and have had no regard for fear or favor 
(perhaps too little). Imperfect as we 
know it to be, it is nevertheless based 
upon the stern facts taught by an exten- 
sive field practice. 



1 



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Mining and Metallurgy, 

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D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, 

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BOWIE, AUG. J., Jun., M. E. A Prac- 
tical Treatise on Hydraulic Mining in 
California. With Description of the Use 
and Construction of Ditches, Flumes. 
Wrought-iron Pipes and Dams; Flow of 
Water on Heavy Grades, and its Appli- 
cability, under High Pressure, to Min- 
ing. Third edition. Small quarto, cloth. 
Illustrated 15.00 

JANNETTAZ, EDWARD. A Guide 
to the Determination of Rocks: being an 
Introduction to Lithology. Translated 
from the French by G. W. Plympton. 
12mo, cloth 1.50 

RANDALL, P. M. <^aarti Operator's 
Handbook. New edition, revised and en- 
larged, fully illustrated. 12mo. cloth 2.00 

VAN WAGENEN, T. F. Manual of 
Hydraulic Mining. For the Use of the 
Prac tical Miner. 18mo, cloth 1 .00 

FOYE, J. C, A.M., Ph.D. Hand-book 
of Mineralogy. Determination, Descrip- 
tion, and Classification of Minerals found 
in the United States. 18mo, boards 60 

LOCK, C. G. WARNFORD. Prac- 
tical Gold-Mininff. A Comprehensive 
Treatise on the Origin and Occurrence of 
Gk)ld-bearing Gravels, Rocks, and Ores ; 
and the Methods by which the Grold is 
extracted. Royal octavo, cloth 15.00 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 

PHILLIPS, J. ARTHUR, F.JLS., etc. 

Elements of Metallurgy. A Practical 
Treatise on the Art of Extracting Metals 
from their Ores. New Edition. Revised 
and enlarged. Illustrated. Royal 8 vo, cloth. $9.00 

GALLON, J. Lectures on Mininj^, de- 
livered at the School of Mines, Paris 3 
vols. 8vo, cloth. With Atlases of Plates, 
4to 29.70 

KUSTEL, G. Roastinj^ of Gold and 
Silver Ores, and the Extraction of their 
respective Metals, without Quicksilver. 
New edition. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth 3.00 

BROWN, WALTER LEE. Manual of 
Assaying Gold, Silver, Copper, and Lead 
Ores. Third edition, 12mo, cloth 2.50 

ANDERSON, J. W. The Prospector's 
Hand-book. A Guide for the Prospector 
and Traveller in search of Metal-bearing 
or other Valuable Minerals. Fourth edi- 
tion, revised and enlarged. 12mo, cloth. . 1.50 

EISSLER, M. The MetaUurgy of 
Gold. A Practical Treatise on the Metal- 
lurgical Treatment of Gold-bearing Ores. 
Second edition, enlarged. Illustrated. 
12mo, cloth 3.50 

EISSLER, M. The Metallurj^ of 
Silver. A Practical Treatise on the Amal- 
gamation, Roasting, and Lixiviation of 
Silver Ores, including the Assaying, Melt- 
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trated. 12mo, cloth 4.00 

MERIVALE, JOHN HERMAN, A.M. 
Notes and Formulae for Mining Students. 
Second edition, revised. 12mo, cloth 1.00 

DA VIES, D. C, F.G.S. A Treatise on 
Earthy and other Minerals and Mining. 
Second edition. Illustrated. 12mo, cloth. 5.00 



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