Mineralogist

“ In view of the immense mineral resources of our country, provision should also be made for the employment of a competent mineralogist and chemist, who should be required, under the direction of the head of the bureau, to collect specimens of the various minerals of our country and to ascertain by careful analysis their respective elements and properties and their adaptation to useful purposes. ”

“ Although the promoters of this vast system of mineral locators are known to have expended considerable money in making surveys and otherwise performing assessment work upon their claims, it soon became evident that the mining feature was not the real object of their tremendous activity, and in my report to State Mineralogist Anbury covering their operations I pointed out that what they were doing looked very much as if they were paving the way for some railway route. ”

“ The lode of Tin was formerly worked at the Mount, and a considerable quantity of ore obtained; any farther excavation, however, threatened to injure the foundations of the castle, and it was therefore prudently abandoned.
The remains of the Mine may be seen on the south side of the hill, and should be visited by the mineralogist, who will find in the Drift, [30] Tin crystals and Carbonate of Copper, besides some other minerals. Veins of Lead are also discoverable in the rocks. Mr. ”

“ When our mining experts discover a mineral belt containing precious metals or copper, iron, lead, nickel, platinum, cobalt, quicksilver, manganese or any other ore used in manufactures and the arts, the first thing we do is to sink a shaft on the most likely ore chimney and at every one hundred feet in depth we run levels to develop it and if we continue to find ore as we go down and the ground requires drainage, we survey for a drainage tunnel that will drain the mine at the greatest depth, even if we have to run a tunnel ten miles. ”

“ Should any of them, perchance, from curiosity or interest, descend into these dark recesses of the earth, they are prepared to discover only a few insulated objects, which they may think strange or possibly hideous; but they cannot recognize either the symmetrical disposition of mineral bodies, or the laws which govern geological phenomena, and serve as sure guides to the skilful miner in his adventurous search. It is by exact plans and sections of subterraneous workings, that a knowledge of the nature, extent, and distribution of mineral wealth, can be acquired. ”

“ Immense mines of ore, inexhaustible coal-beds, surround us wherever we may be. For the minerals that are contained in the field soils are quite as precious as are the mines of iron and zinc, yes, even of gold and silver. Man can not live on gold and silver; but out of the minerals of the field-soil, out of potash, lime, phosphoric acid, ammonia, and sulphuric acid, the cell-state of the plant prepares bread on which we live, linen in which we clothe ourselves, wood out of which we make our vessels and tools, and the remedies which when we are sick restore our lost health to us. ”

“ We have mines of gold, lead, copper, iron, and tin, but up to the present, though there have been a few gold rushes, very little attention has been given to our mineral resources, and we really know little about them. ”

“ All of us who have had much to do with mining know that the majority of the best mineral finds have been made by the purest accident; often by men who had no mining knowledge whatever; and that many valuable discoveries have been delayed, or, when made, abandoned as not payable, from the same cause—ignorance of the rudiments of mineralogy and mining. I have frequently been asked by prospectors, when inspecting new mineral fields, what rudimentary knowledge will be most useful to them and how it can be best obtained. ”

“ XII THE MINERAL DEPTHS Ages before the dawn of civilization, primitive man had learned to extract certain ores and metals from the earth by subterranean mining. Such nations as the Egyptians, for example, understood mining in most of its phases, and worked their mines in practically the same manner as all succeeding nations before the time of the introduction of the steam engine. The early Britons were good miners and the products of their mines were carried to the Orient by the Phœnicians many centuries before the Christian era. ”

“ Several of the mines in the mineral soil have been traced down into the rock, and have been pursued through apertures, closing and expanding in the manner of true veins. In the numerous cases where the rock has put a stop to further mining, and it has exhibited no signs of ore, it may be supposed that the ore has been moved, by diluvial force, from the original position of the mine, and been finally deposited, with the soil, upon unmetalliferous portions of the rock. ”

“ In mining, let us observe, the whole round of work consists in separations which bring masses from bigness to smallness, again and again. First of all the solid walls and floors are broken up by pick, or drill, or powder, or all together. Iron ores as hoisted to the surface of the earth are taken to breakers which crush them into pieces suitable for the blast furnace. When the ores carry gold, copper, lead, or tin, this crushing is followed by stamping to facilitate the final process by which metal is separated from worthless rock. ”

“ Such a man will not stop to compare and reconcile facts, which are seemingly opposite, or to investigate the nature of general principles.
[Pg 177] Hence miners exclaim on the uncertainty of finding ores by rules drawn from the observations of science; that the strata of the earth are irregular, and not to be depended upon like the rock formations in Europe; and that, in fine, we have no guides by which its mineral treasures are to be sought, and that, in so confused a soil, chance is the best guide. ”

“ Mining for gold alone is divided into two general classes: that which seeks the metal from the solid rock or quartz, and that which finds it in sand, gravel, or soil. The former process is the universal and familiar one of all rock mining, following the rich veins into the bowels of the earth with pick and powder, crushing the rock and separating the infinitesimal atoms of metal from the dusty, powdered mass. ”

“ More than that, the more any public writer has been acquainted with the chemistry of the coal mine, the louder has usually been his condemnation of the recklessness of the miner. No doubt, from the chemist's point of view, there is but too much reason for this. Avoid naked light and avoid blasting, and you avoid explosion. This logic is undeniable. But the chemistry of the mine is not the matter which most directly presses upon the miner. The mechanic, the physiologist, the optician, each has to be consulted. Grim fact shows that the chemical danger is, and always has been, affronted. ”

“ There were all kinds of work to do, and all sorts of new things to learn about mines and mining. The ore occurred in the rock in a manner different from that in any other known gold field, so finding it and getting it out, and then getting the mineral out of the strange new kind of ore, required resourcefulness, "original research," as the scientists say, and constructive [Pg 74] imagination. And the technical problems of discovering and manipulation once solved, there was still needed organization, system, and administration to make the mine a paying one. ”

“ In the year 1510, many mines were found near the Cordileer mountains, affording at once gold, silver, copper, iron, lead and tin: which destroys the notion, that different metals are never formd together in one mine. ”

“ But it requires different tools, machinery, and works, for mining in rock; the process is also more tedious and expensive, and is considered especially so by those who have been accustomed from their youth to find bodies of ore by a few days' digging in the earth, and who, if they should work a fortnight at one place, and not fall upon a bed of ore, would go away quite disheartened. The principal search has therefore been made in the sub-stratum of clay, where large bodies of ore are sometimes found by a day's, and sometimes by an hour's work. ”

“ The size of the blocks or the distance between the main passages is determined mainly by considerations of convenience and economy in excavating and handling the mineral, and by the possibility of supporting the roof long enough to permit the excavation of the mineral without unnecessary risk or expense. In metal mining, when the workable portions of the deposit are small and separated by unworkable areas, the levels serve also the purpose of exploration, and in such cases must not be so far apart as to risk missing valuable mineral. In coal-mines main entries are often 100 yds. ”

“ By having no scientific knowledge of mineral veins and geological structure, as practically adopted in Europe, all rule in the process of mining and raising the ore had degenerated into mere guess work, and thousands of dollars had been wasted, in some places, where the application of some of the plainest mining principles, would not have warranted the removal of a shovel full of earth. In short, there was here observed, a blending of the miner and farmer character. Almost every farmer was a miner. ”

“ Not the least important application of geology to slides is in relation to deep mining operations. While the mining geologist has been principally engaged in exploration and development of ores, he is now beginning to be called in to interpret the great earth movements caused by the sinking of the ground over mining openings. For instance, the long-wall method of coal mining has resulted in a slow progressive subsidence of the overlying rock, affecting overlying mineral beds and surface structures over great areas. ”

“ Minerals.—The mineral resources of the kingdom, though capable of further development, are not rich. They are chiefly confined to the mountains, where iron, coal, copper, lead, zinc, silver and sulphur are mined in small quantities. ”

“ Which way of proving mines or minerals is far better and speedier than that which is usually done by a decoction and exhalation of lead in the Cupel. Thus may you mix five, six, eight or ten grains of some finely powdered mineral, with one or two lots of Venice glass being of easie fusion, and put the matter thus mixed in a well covered crucible, and by melting it reduce it into glass. The colour which will be in the said glass, will shew what metal the minera contained: Lead will yield a duskish colour, tin, a white, copper, a Sea-green ”

“ When a mine is first begun, it is always left open to the sky, and the mineral is extracted by following the vein that contains it; but, as the mine gets deeper, two obstacles present themselves: the extraction of the ore becomes more costly, and the workmen are not long in meeting with hidden springs, the waters of which, unless removed, would drown the mine and stop the works. To provide against this danger, shafts are sunk, at the bottom of which a working gallery runs, that follows the vein of metal. ”

“ In temples and pavilions of ineffable gorgeousness were exhibits of gems and precious metals of dazzling beauty. Useful ores and their products, building stones, soils, salt, petroleum—indeed, everything that man furthers from the dark entrails of the earth, was offered to inspection.
Besides the mineral resources of the world in their original state, the displays embraced many devices of mining machinery; such as pumps and engines used in mining, moving, and delivering ores; apparatuses for breaking out ore and coal ”

“ In really successful mining it is in the last degree important that the mode of extraction of metals in the most scientific manner should be thoroughly understood, but as a general rule the science of metallurgy is but very superficially grasped even by those whose special business it is to treat ore bodies in order to extract their metalliferous contents, and whether in quartz crushing mill, lixiviating, or smelting works there is much left to be desired in the method of treating our ores. ”

“ In other cases, however, it is doubtless due to the fact that very few persons connected with our mines have even an elementary knowledge of the rudiments of mineralogy, while in continental Europe almost every mining officer is familiar with all the ordinary minerals. Thanks to the training of our schools of science, an improvement in this respect is already noticeable, as is shown in the discoveries made in the mines of our Western States and Territories during the past few years. ”

“ On the National Importance of Mineral Possessions, and the Cultivation of Geological Inquiry.
The importance of the metallic ores and other mineral substances, considered as instrumental in the advancement of national prosperity, is obvious to every one. In announcing that a certain country possesses extensive and skilfully worked mines, either of coal, of iron, copper, tin, lead, or other of the numerous ores, we at once proclaim her wealth in terms that all must understand. ”

“ The total ignorance of almost every thing relating to the sciences of geology and mineralogy, and above all of chemistry, in the conductors of mines, and their agents, is not only matter of regret, but it can scarcely be doubted, is also the cause of much loss to the adventurers in mines, to the lords of the soil, and to the buyers of the ore. ”

“ For instance, manganese moves from three principal sources to four or five consuming centers. Chromite moves from two principal sources; tungsten also from two. Even for certain commodities which are widely distributed and move in large amounts, the concentration of movement is rather marked; for instance, the world movement of coal is controlled by England, the United States, and Germany. In other words, although the world movement of mineral commodities is widespread and exhibits many complex features, most of the individual minerals follow two or three salient lines of movement. ”