Gold mine

“ When gold began to grow less in the California gravel, the miners looked for it in the rocks on the mountain-side. The placer miners laughed at them and called their shafts "coyote holes"; but in time the placers failed, while nearly all of our gold to-day comes from veins of white quartz in the rocks. A vein of gold is the most capricious thing in the world. It may be so tiny that it can hardly be seen, then widen and grow rich in gold, then suddenly come to an end. This is why a new mine is so uncertain an enterprise. ”

“ We have already remarked, that, in nearly all the gold regions which have been celebrated in past times, their mineral riches have been for the most part extracted from the drifted sands and gravels which overspread the surface. We have also drawn attention to the small amount of skill and intelligence which this extraction requires, and to the brief time in which such washings may be exhausted even by ignorant people. Most of our modern gold mines are situated in similar drifts. ”

“ A gold mine now consists of a shaft or pit dug several hundred feet down into the rock, with levels or galleries running off from it and with big openings like rooms made where the rock was dug out. The roofs of the rooms are supported by great timbers. To break away the rock, the miner makes a hole with a rock drill worked by electricity or compressed air, puts powder or dynamite into the hole and explodes it. The broken rock is then raised to the surface and crushed in a "stamping mill." Here the ore is fed into a great steel box called a "mortar." ”

“ It must be remembered that mining, though often so profitable, is nevertheless a destructive industry, thus differing from agriculture, which is productive, and manufactures, which are constructive. Every ton of stone broken and treated from even the best gold mine in the world makes that mine the poorer by one ton of valuable material; thus, to buy a mining property on its past reputation for productiveness is, as a rule, questionable policy, unless you know there is sufficient good ore in sight to cover the purchase cost and leave a profit. ”

“ We mention not the gold washings that are being worked so successfully at present, for as respects their duration and the developement of the industry of the country, they scarcely deserve the attention of the economist be they ever so rich; as all other mines are more beneficent in their influence to the progress of a country than gold mines. These will become the means of advancing the prosperity of the country only when a regular system of mining by sinking shafts into the rocks shall commence, which it is to be hoped will be done ere long. ”

“ There are a good many ways of gold-mining. Sometimes the mines are in veins in the hard rock. Then the miners bore down to them and dig out the rock, and break it up fine to get out the gold, just as they do silver. Another way is to find it in the loose sand in the bottoms of rocks and in gravel. When the miners first went out, they used to take a little gravel in a dish with some water, and shake it hard, so a little would slop over each time. ”

“ Subsequently low-grade quartz mines were found and developed, and have furnished a notable part of the gold supply of the country (about $100,000,000 from 1875 to 1901) . The output is to-day relatively small in comparison with that of many other fields, but there are one or two permanent gold mines of great value working low-grade ore. ”

“ And now that even one vein of his hill was threatened, he dismissed his old dreams with a shrug and transferred his undivided affection to the exciting treasure the earth had given him. There were few surprises in gold mines. A great copper mine might make geological history. In two districts, Butte and Castle Mountain, copper glance, an ore of secondary enrichment, had been found far down in the sulphide zone below chalcopyrite, chief of the primary ores. ”

“ From what has already been discovered of its richness, we see plainly the ancients, who extracted the gold, have only done so to a limited extent—what may be termed surface workings; for their numerous pits, after all, are mere scratches in the ground at places, but when they are properly worked and greater depth attained, the mines may be found almost inexhaustible. And if the gold-dust, found in the sand of the rivers, can be procured by a few single washings from a small dish, what may be expected when the whole of these rivers have been properly worked? ”

“ All miners of any experience are well aware of the fact that the great difficulty or drawback to gold or placer mining, is not so much how to save the gold, but how or where to find the dirt or gravel that contains gold enough to pay for the working. ”

“ The modus operandi of single-handed mining may be described in a few words. The earth is loosened with the pick, thrown into the wheelbarrow with the spade, rolled to the river, emptied into the cradle,{150} washed by pouring water over it from the bucket, and carefully rocked until the gold is separated from the dirt. The clods of earth, during this process of washing, slowly dissolve, or are suspended in the water, whereupon the gold, (if there is any,) being heaviest, sinks to the bottom. ”

“ Everywhere else gold-mining is a comparatively hazardous and uncertain enterprise. Where the metal is found in alluvial deposits, the deposits usually vary much in the percentage of gold to the ton of soil which they yield, and they are usually exhausted in a few years. ”

“ With modern machinery and enlarged white staffs will come a pretentious exploitation. The Government mines alone yield more than $2,000,000 worth of gold every year. Shortly before my arrival in the Congo what was heralded as the largest gold nugget ever discovered was found in the Kilo State Mine. It weighed twelve pounds. ”

“ Upon the bed-rock is a deposit, from three to four feet in depth, of gravel and boulders, in which the gold is hidden. This is called by the miners "pay-dirt," and to remove it to the surface and wash it is the end of mining. It is an expensive and laborious process indeed. The water has first to be controlled; and in mines of not too great depth this is done by a drain ditch along the bed-rock, commenced many claims below. In this all the claim-holders are interested, and all contribute their quota of the labor and expense of digging it. ”

“ From being merely an agricultural state, it has now become possessed of some of the richest mines in America. The districts which supply the most considerable quantities of the precious metal are Potosi, Changata, Porco, Oruro, Chucuito, La Paz and Carangas, and the mountains of Anauca, near Carabaya, and Asangara, north-east of lake Titicaca, were celebrated in the first years of the conquest for their gold mines. ”

“ The placer-mines of Rogue River Valley continued to yield gold in paying quantities to white men, for about twelve years; since when, the diggings have chiefly been abandoned to Chinamen, who are content with smaller profits. Quartz-leads bearing gold, copper, and silver mines are known to exist in this valley, as well as lead, iron, and coal mines; but the limited capital of the inhabitants, and the greater security of other means of living, have caused them to remain undeveloped. ”

“ It may be taken as a safe axiom that to make gold mining in the mine as distinct from mining on the Stock Exchange really profitable the same system of economy, of practical supervision, and scientific knowledge which is now adopted in all other businesses must be applied to the raising and extraction of the metal. Then, and not till then, will genuine mining take the place to which it is entitled amongst our industries. ”

“ THE HOMESTAKE MINE 5The largest gold mine in the world, employing an average of 3500 men and producing from $5,000,000 to $8,000,000 worth of gold bullion per year, has its principal properties and mines at Lead. ”

“ In testing a gold mine with a view to purchase, it should be remembered that as a rule the intersections of leaders or small veins with the main ore body are usually the richest portions of the lode. This the experienced prospector knows, and generally his shafts and cuttings are made at such points. For the ordinary mining investor, when inspecting with a view to purchase, these are places to avoid if endeavouring to form a correct estimate of the value of the ore in bulk. ”

“ The price of gold, which is itself the standard of value, could not rise to offset growing mining costs and to maintain profits, as was the case with iron, copper, and the other metals,—with the result that the margin of profit in gold mining became so small as materially to affect exploration and production. Another important cause of decreased production was the actual exhaustion of certain mines, and the lowering of the grades of ore available in many others. ”

“ In every instance where they were tried on the Tuolumne, they were soon abandoned as useless. The experiments tried near me were made by an old Georgia gold miner, and one who had been accustomed to the use of the submarine suit, which he had worn in recovering some treasures from a ship sunk in the Mississippi. But he never accomplished any thing with it at the mines. In addition to the cradle, which has been always in use in the mines, the North Carolina rocker and the Long Tom are used to advantage upon the placers where the gold is very fine. ”

“ In Lombardy the chief mines are at Peschiera and Minerva di Sotto. The ore is an auriferous pyrites containing about 12 dwts. of gold per ton. The total yield of all the mines does not exceed $100,000 per annum. In France a small amount of gold is produced, chiefly from auriferous galena; and there are deposits in Savoy. Gold mines have been worked in Spain from very remote periods, but the present annual production does not exceed about $10,000. The mines of the Asiatic slopes of the Ural extend along the secondary ridges of the chain in a N. and S. direction more than 400 m. ”

“ But mining now is as different from the mining of the ancients or of the middle ages as a locomotive engine is from an ox-waggon, such are the resources which chemical and mechanical science place at our disposal. Accordingly, the payable parts of the quartz reefs will have been drained of their gold in a few years, or, at any rate, in a few decades, just as many of the silver lodes of Nevada have already been worked out and abandoned. There will then be no further cause for the existence of the mine-workers at those points, and the population will decline just as that of Nevada has declined. ”

“ I went down to the Victoria mine in August, and proved it, as per report, to contain no more gold than is to be found in traces everywhere, even in sea water. It took me two days to make this discovery, and I immediately begged the directors to allow me to return to London. They were anxious, however, that everything should be done which could be done, no stone left unturned, no useless expense spared which— (kicks under the table) —I mean no useless expense incurred, and insisted on my remaining at the mine: so I obeyed their orders, in spite of my own conviction ”

“ In placer mining, the earthy matter containing the gold, called the "pay-dirt," is washed in water, which dissolves the clay and carries it off in solution, and the current sweeps away the sand, gravel and stones, while the gold, by reason of the higher specific gravity, remains in the channel or is caught with quicksilver. In quartz mining the auriferous rock is ground to a very fine powder, the gold in which is caught in quicksilver, or on the rough surface of a blanket, over which the fine material is borne by a stream of water. ”

“ The sand and gold mixed together are then drawn off through auger holes into a pan below, are dried in the sun, and afterwards separated by blowing off the sand. A party of four men, thus employed at the Lower Mines, average 100 dollars a-day. The Indians, and those who have nothing but pans or willow baskets, gradually wash out the earth, and separate the gravel by hand, leaving nothing but the gold mixed with sand, which is separated in the manner before described. The gold in the Lower Mines is in fine bright scales, of which I send several specimens. ”

“ Of course in large alluvial claims, where capital is employed, such appliances are superseded by steam puddlers, buddles, and other machinery, and sometimes mercury is used to amalgamate the gold when very fine. Hydraulicing is the cheapest form of alluvial mining, but can only be profitably carried out where extensive drifts, which can be worked as quarry faces, and unlimited water exist in the same neighbourhood. When such conditions obtain a few grains of gold to the yard or ton will pay handsomely. ”

“ No pioneers of a new country were ever more suited to their task than they, and the result was soon seen in many new mining discoveries, made in the years immediately following the war.
Again, after the price of silver began to fall, many men were thrown out of work by the closing of the mines, and the search for gold attracted them as offering a more stable pursuit: with the result that in the years from 1890 to 1905 some of the great gold discoveries of the world were made, including the Cripple Creek, Klondike, Goldfield and other regions. ”

“ While gold can be found lying within a few inches of the earth’s surface, and the only capital required to extract it consists in the capability to purchase a pick and a shovel, there is no need of combination; but when the hills are to be torn to their very bases, the plains completely uprooted, and the streams, which flow down from the Sierra Nevada to be turned from their channels, individuals must retire from the field, and make room for combined efforts. ”