USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume I > Part 28
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In 1897 the chlorination process was considered the best for the telluride ores of Cripple Creek and Boulder counties. The record of the largest mills using that process was as follows:
Tons per day.
The Colorado-Philadelphia Reduction Company, Colorado City 250 The Gillett Reduction Company, Gillett 75
The Kilton Reduction Company, Florence 40 The El Paso Reduction Company, Florence 100 The Delano Reduction Company, Boulder 50
There are to-day no chlorination plants in Colorado. The process has been superseded by cyanidation and roasting. The two largest mills in the state have been changed over into newer process plants.
In discussing amalgamation Harry A. Lee, commissioner of mines, in 1897, says: "While no radical changes have occurred the old custom of feeding the battery by hand is almost wholly replaced. New equipment of crusher, rolls and automatic feeders at the 'bead' of the mill being quite common and is now con- sidered an essential part of the modern mill. The stamp battery as a reducing device has stood the test of generations, but its operation is almost as variable as the mills operated. The old reliable slow-drop Gilpin County mill still holds sway in that region and the question of utility as compared with the more modern compromise or quick-drop mills still remains unsettled except with the various parties."
In this report for 1897 he says: "A number of stamp mills have been erected during the past year in various sections of the state, and as previously stated, differ materially in their method of operation. The tendency, however, is towards heavier stamps, faster drop and depending more upon the outside plates (the in- side plates being often omitted) to collect the gold and the appended devices for
VIEW OF A GULCH MINING LOCALITY ADJACENT TO THE TOWN OF IDAHO SPRINGS
(Reproduced from a photographic enlargement of a photograph made in 1867.)
VIEW OF NEVADA IN 1865
This picture was drawn by A. E. Mathews in the latter part of 1865. Nevada is situated in Gilpin County, and was one of the famous mining towns in Colorado's pioneer times.
254
HISTORY OF COLORADO
concentration to recover the remaining values. The weight of stamps varies from 650 to 1,100 pounds, the drop from ten to twelve inches, and screens from twenty to sixty mesh. The amalgamation plates are, with few exceptions, silver- plated but vary in size and pitch."
In 1897 concentration methods had made a considerable advance. The in- creased use of the canvas tables was a long-considered proposition, but was finally very generally adopted. Another departure of this period was the separation of the zinc from lead and iron sulphides and the making of a marketable zinc prod- uct as well as lead and iron. Mr. Lee, however, adds: "While it may be said that concentration has advanced during the past years, there is still room for im- provement, and it must be improved before some of the largest ore bodies can have commercial valne."
By 1900 Colorado recovered its "stride," so to speak. For the panic of 1893, the shutting down of most of its silver mines, introduced a long period of tragic depression, and during the closing quarter of 1902 the market price of silver reached the lowest point in its history, 495/8 cents per ounce. Yet by this time the transition had been made from the leading silver-producing to the leading gold-producing state of the union. There was a slow but certain process that had brought about the change. Prior to 1900 a movement had begun to make the mining of low grade ores profitable. Up to a period between 1895 and 1900 only ores with values sufficient to bear the toll of labor, transportation and smelting were sought or mined. The high-grade segregated ore shoots, chambers, pipes or pockets were eagerly sought, mined and marketed. The intervening ore bodies of lower grade were either left in the mine or, from necessity, removed to the mine's dump. To realize profit from the low-grade ore, the introduction and erection of metallurgical plants and the installation of improved and enlarged mechanical equipment were necessary. Many changes of this kind were effected, and mining methods show a decided advance. By this year the processes had been greatly improved, cyaniding was thoroughly modernized and concentration was given a great impetus by many new and ingenious devices. In these years the eyes of the mine owners were also turned upon the old waste dumps and mill tailings, and out of these have in recent years come vast fortunes which by the earlier and cruder methods had been discarded with the mine refuse.
As the shafts attained deeper levels the cost of production in many districts soon became so heavy that mine after mine was shut down. In fact in many districts work was confined to cleaning up old stopes and prospecting surface areas formerly considered unworkable, but now made possible by lower cost of ore treatment. Then there came the solution of the problem, viz .: the deep drain- age tunnel. Perhaps the most important of these first undertakings was the New- house tunnel, located at the lower edge of Idaho Springs, and with its objective Nevadaville in Gilpin County. The tunnel is now known as the Argo. It pene- trates Seaton and Pewabic mountains, Quartz Hill and Gunnell Hill, crossing under the county line into the Central City district, and has its present terminal under Prosser Mountain. It intersects the mineral veins at an average depth of seventeen hundred feet, and is over twenty-two thousand feet long. Part of it is double-tracked and electric locomotives are used for hauling ores and waste rock which are automatically dumped. The production of Gilpin and Clear Creek gives some conception of the value of this tunnel.
255
HISTORY OF COLORADO
T. J. Dalzell, commissioner of mines, in his report for 1909 and 1910, writes thus of the mining tunnels :
"The largest mining tunnels in the state are the Newhouse, at Idaho Springs ; the Roosevelt, at Cripple Creek; the Yak, at Leadville; the Revenue, at Ouray, and the Big Five, at upper Idaho Springs. Their use has given the mining in- dustry the highest kind of conservation. They have in many cases closely demon- strated the existence of the veins at considerable depths. They have drained the surrounding area, and are constantly increasing the drainage area they affect. They have reduced the cost of mining ore by largely removing the necessity of hoisting, and they have practically eliminated the wagon transportation. They have assisted ventilation of mines; and, in the Clear Creek district particularly, the methods and cost of ore treatment have been improved and reduced by as- sembling the ores of the various mines at centrally operated plants located at the mouth of the tunnel, at which points the entire ore product is treated by the usual methods which have for years proved serviceable in this district. The yearly output of Clear Creek and Gilpin counties was in the neighborhood of four million dollars twenty years ago, but has declined gradually, until that for 1908 was $2,500,000. The improvements and advances which will now mark the completion of the Newhouse tunnel will go a long way toward bringing a return of the old prosperity to these two pioneer mining districts. The drainage tunnel will also have a present effect on the new mines opened, making the work easier and of less cost, by reason of relieving the operator of the necessity of pumping.
"In the Cripple Creek district the enormous help of the Roosevelt Drainage tunnel lies in this, that practically all the mines are drained an additional 754 feet, and the use of many separate and expensive pumping plants is made un- necessary. The tunnel is 14,000 feet in length, and was finished in November, 1910, to the extent of first drainage connection being made. Laterals will now be run to tap the various hills or sections of the district. The Cripple Creek district has produced, in its life of seventeen years, approximately two hundred and ten millions. More than half of this sum was produced in the first eight or nine years of its history, from the zones in which little or no drainage was neces- sary or effected. In late years, the production of more than fifty thousand tons of ore monthly has shown what has been made possible by tunnel drainage, and there is every reason to suppose that the present tunnel, and other enterprises of like character, will maintain the reputation of the district as the greatest gold- producing section ever known.
"The water has begun to fall at a regular rate per day or week-a rate that is practically the same all over the district. Measurements extending over periods of thirty days give a subsidence of three inches per twenty-four hours. While this seems small now, it must be remembered that it is the drainage from but the one water course thus far cut. Very soon another important channel will be intersected and connected with the drainage course, and the heading of the tunnel will also be advanced. It is likely that the drainage will settle itself to a subsidence of six inches daily, at which rate the 754 feet additional mining terri- tory afforded will be drained in eighteen months. This period will not only suffice to develop the productiveness of this new territory, but also serve to per- mit plans and organization for the driving of a still lower tunnel, for which the
256
HISTORY OF COLORADO
site is already available and the project shown to be feasible at a length of about thirty thousand feet."
The Roosevelt deep drainage tunnel in the Cripple Creek district, the Yak tunnel at Leadville, the Raymond, the Sandy Hook, the Carter in the Pitkin and Ohio Creek districts, and many others which are fully covered in the history of the districts, have proven beyond a question that the mineral wealth of Colorado is perhaps largest at depths that could not be worked profitably save by the aid of tunnels.
The first dredging for gold in the United States, aside from some experi- mental work in Montana, was done in the Breckenridge district in Colorado. But the project failed because of the inferior quality of the material used in their construction, manganese and other self-hardened steels being then unknown. But in 1907 the project was again revived.
In 1910 five dredges were in operation in Breckenridge, most of them work- ing even through the winter, and capable of handling up to three thousand yards per day. The Reliance was the largest dredge in the district, and was one of two dredges operating in French Gulch; the others were working on the Blue River. The yield was in the neighborhood of 20 cents or 30 cents per cubic yard, and the field offered extremely promising opportunities to the investor and placer miner.
In the annual State Mining Bureau report for 1916, the commissioner, Fred Carroll, says :
"Dredging, wherever the depth and character of the gravel will permit, is gradually replacing other methods of placer mining, but when the gravel beds 'are shallow or the size and percentage of boulders too great, the older methods of ground sluicing or hydraulic mining are still in vogue; however, in determining the method best adapted for the economical working of any placer deposit, the factor governing is largely that of grade, i. e., the value of the gold contained in a cubic yard of the gravel.
"The Tonopah Placer Company, operating three dredges in the Breckenridge district, employs about seventy men on the boats, on the surface and in the machine shops.
"The French Gulch Dredging Company is employing about fifteen men in the operation of a dredge, which is equipped with buckets of five cubic feet capacity and which is digging gravel at a point opposite the Wellington mill in French Gulch. The gravel bed at this point has an average thickness of about thirty feet and carries values higher than ordinary in the area mined this season.
"The Derry Ranch Dredging Company during last year installed a dredge in the Arkansas Valley, at a point about twelve miles from Leadville, and has operated very successfully for the past two seasons. This boat, which is equipped with buckets of 51/2 cubic feet capacity, is working gravel which has a thickness of about thirty feet.
"The only hydraulic operations of any magnitude carried on in this state dur- ing the past two seasons are those at the head of Tarryall Creek in Park County.
"The Fortune Placer Company started operating in the spring of 1912 and has worked every season since then with a force of from fifteen to twenty men. About thirty thousand cubic feet of gravel are handled each season with the use of three Number 2 Giants, working under a pressure of from eighty to ninety-
257
HISTORY OF COLORADO
five pounds. The gravel now being handled has a thickness of from twelve to eighteen feet.
"The Burnhart Placer was worked with a few men this season. A ditch and pipe line were completed and a pit started at a point a short distance above the pit of the Fortune Placer.
"The Colorado Gold and Platinum Placer Mining Company has spent a large sum during the summer of 1916 in ditches and placer equipment on their prop- erty in the Hahns Peak-district, and is now ready to start actual mining as soon as the season of 1917 opens."
The output of placer gold from thirty-five placers in 1915 was $693,310, an increase of $50,950 over 1914. Summit County, with four dredges and seven hydraulic and sluice mines, produced nearly 88 per cent, and one dredge in Lake County produced 10 per cent of the placer yield.
English capital became more heavily interested in Colorado ventures immedi- ately after the opening of Cripple Creek, when the entire world listened with in- terest and amazement to the stories of fabulous fortunes that were made there. But there had been large ventures and big dividends from English monies invested in Clear Creek and Gilpin counties long before this. In fact foreign capital had many engineers on the ground looking over likely propositions and made many investments. It is not the purpose of this history to cover in detail these foreign undertakings in Colorado, but to mention two in particular which stand out as the solid evidences of a wonderful faith by careful foreign investors in the per- manence of Colorado's mineral resources.
The first of these was the purchase of the Independence mine at Cripple Creek from W. R. Stratton, by the Venture Corporation of London in 1899 for $10,000,000. The second great venture was the sale to a group of London capitalists of the Camp Bird mine in what is known as the Imogene Basin about twelve miles north of Silverton. Thomas F. Walsh sold this property to the English syndicate in 1902 for $5,100,000.
In 1909 the finding of enormous bodies of carbonates of zinc in the old upper workings of Leadville mines opened a new era of prosperity for that camp. These bodies were supposed for years to be spar and valueless. In 1910 the discovery increased the production of the Leadville district over one third. Since then the increase has been much greater. In the State Bureau report for 1912 the district inspector says:
"Lake County has enjoyed a prosperous period during 1911 and 1912, due in great measure to the recent carbonate-of-zinc discoveries, which now total at least one-fifth of the output of the district. This new class of mineral has not only increased the tonnage, but has added to a large extent to the number of men employed underground. In the year 1910 there were employed in mines, smelt- ers, and mills a total of 2,460 men, of whom 1,810 worked at mining, 575 worked in smelters, and 75 worked in mills. A recent enumeration shows that at the present time there are 2,130 men working at mining, 625 in smelters, and 15 in mills and sampling works; a total of 2,770 in all the industries pertaining to the mining business. This is an increase of 310 men over the last biennial period, notwithstanding the fact that the American Zinc Extraction Company shut down its works, which formerly employed seventy-five men in the district."
Since 1915 there has been a new prosperity era for practically all the mining Vol. 1-11
258
HISTORY OF COLORADO
camps save that of Cripple Creek. In this camp the production is confined to gold, and with increased cost of production, the output has not had the added values which obtain elsewhere in the state. The total production of gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc in 1915 in Colorado amounted to $44,060,052.47, an increase of nearly 30 per cent over 1914. This increase was undoubtedly due to the high price of metal prevailing in 1915, together with an increase in tonnage of about sixty thousand tons over that made the previous year. The total produc- tion in these metals in 1916 was but $49,000,000, an increase of only 13 per cent over the previous year, although the average yearly market price of silver for 1916 was 30.3 per cent higher ; that of lead was 45.6 per cent higher; that of copper 55.4 per cent higher ; and that of zinc about the same, $13 as compared with $13.05 in 1915. This condition was the result of a decrease in both quality and grade of the gold ore mined in the state.
OIL FLOTATION
In December, 1916, there was handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States the now historic decision in the oil flotation case.
For years it had been known that oil and oily substances had a selective affin- ity and would unite mechanically with the minute particles of metal and metallic compounds found in crushed or powdered ores, but had no attraction and would not unite with quartz or rocky non-metallic material, called gangue. Patents had been granted to various individuals, and the oil flotation process had been used in Colorado for some years. This consisted in mixing finely crushed or powdered ore with water and oil, sometimes with acid added, and then in vari- ously treating the mass,-the "pulp" thus formed, so as to separate the oil, when it became impregnated or loaded with the metal and metal-bearing particles from the valueless gangue. From the resulting concentrate the metals were recovered in various ways.
The Minerals Separation, Limited, of London, had obtained patents in the United States and all foreign countries in 1906 on a new flotation process in which the oil used was infinitesimal and "the lifting force was found not in the natural buoyancy of the mass of added oil, but in the buoyancy of the bubbles, which, introduced into the mixture by the more or less violent agitation of it, envelope or become attached to the thinly oiled metallic particles."
The decision in both the Supreme Court of the United States and in the House of Lords was in favor of the Minerals Separation, Limited.
Oil flotation is purely an ore-dressing process, which has supplemented and revolutionized concentration methods of sulphide ores. It can be used on any bright sulphide or flaky metal. On the sylvanites of Cripple Creek it is used with splendid results. Under the decision of the Supreme Court the most ad- vanced oil flotation process is subject to license by the original patentees or their agents. At present the control in the United States is in the hands of the Min- erals Separation, North American corporation, with headquarters in San Fran- cisco.
.HOT
EXCHANGE
VIEW OF THE BUSINESS SECTION OF TRINIDAD IN 1869
VIEW OF TRINIDAD IN 1881
260
HISTORY OF COLORADO
PRODUCTION OF BIG PROPERTIES UP TO 1880
The following from Fossett's "Colorado" was published in 1880 and makes a fairly complete record of production of gold and silver from the earliest periods to the year 1880. Fossett introduces his tables with the following explanation :
"The yields given for a majority of mines are close estimates in coin value- not currency, as was the former custom. This list embraces all mines in Colorado whose product had exceeded a quarter of a million prior to January, 1880, and but very few whose yield was less than that. Gilpin and Clear Creek counties have many lodes that yielded from one to two hundred thousand dollars, but they don't think a mine prominent in those counties unless its yield exceeds such fig- ures. Most lodes in Gilpin have several distinct mines on them, but each lode is combined here. Leadville has new mines now producing largely that did not appear below, and many of those mentioned have doubled their product since January 1, 1880. So that in this comparison the new Leadville mines do not appear to the advantage that they will another year."
Name of Mine
County
Character
When Discovered
Years of Active Work
Total Yield to 1880
Chrysolite
Lake
Silver
1878
I1/4
$2,100,000.00
Little Pittsburgh
Lake
Silver
1878
I1/2
3,800,000.00
Little Chief
Lake
Silver
1878
I1/2
2,056,292.00
Iron-Silver
Lake
Silver
1877
21
700,000.00
Morning Star Cons.
Lake
Silver
1877
2
600,000.00
Robert E. Lee
Lake
Silver
1878
1/2
600,000.00
Leadville
Lake
Silver
2
450,000.00
Argentine
Lake
Silver
3
300,000.00
Glass-Pendery
Lake
Silver
1/2
250,000.00
Amie
Lake
Silver
1 1/2
300,000.00
Climax
Lake
Silver
11/2
200,000.00
Printer Boy
Lake
Gold
5
300,000.00
Pocahontas Humboldt Custer
Silver
1874
5
723,929.51
Bassick
Custer
G. and S.
1877
350,000.00
Little Annie
Rio Grande Gold
1873
4
200,000.00
Name
County
Character
When Discovered
Est'd No. Years of Work for Entire Lode
Depth in Feet of Deepest Shaft
Total Yield from Dis- covery to Jan. 1880
Caribou
and No Name
Boulder
Silver
1869
IO
812
$1,368,000
Native Silver
Boulder
Silver
1873
6
580
250,000
Smuggler
Boulder
G. and S.
1876
4
240
300,000
Melvina
Boulder
G. and S.
1875
5 Y
500
310,000
Columbia Lode
Boulder
Gold
1859
14
540
350,000
Gregory
Gilpin
Gold
1859
16
940
6,970,354
Bobtail
Gilpin
Gold
1859
16
920
5,138,837
Gunnell
Gilpin
Gold
1859
15
800
2,300,000
California, Gardner,
Hidden
Treasure Lode
Gilpin
Gold
1859
15
1,100
2,1 50,000
-
261
HISTORY OF COLORADO
Name
County
Character
When Discovered
Est'd No. Years of Work for Entire Lode
Depth in Feet of Deepest Shaft
Total Yield from Die- covery to Jan. 1880
Kansas
Gilpin
Gold
1859
15
1,150
$2,000,000
Burroughs
Gilpin
Gold
1859
14
1,000
1,250,000
Rollins Mines
Gilpin
Gold
1860
7
450
1,000,000
Wyandotte Cons.
Gilpin
Gold
1859
14
300
800,000
Buell
Gilpin
Gold
1859
7
550
650,000
Bates
Gilpin
Gold
1859
9
450
600,000
Kent County
Gilpin
Gold
1859
15
800
550,000
Prize, Suderburg
Gilpin
Gold
1859
9
450
650,000
Fisk
Gilpin
Gold
1859
15
650
500,000
Forks
Gilpin
Gold
1860
IO
700
450,000
Flack
Gilpin
Gold
1860
IO
650
400,000
Rhoderick Dhu,
Borton, etc.
Gilpin
Gold
1860
7
550
400,000
Alps
Gilpin
Gold
1860
9
550
300,000
Illinois
Gilpin
Gold
1860
7
260
300,000
American Flag
Gilpin
Gold
1860
8
450
300,000
Pewabic
Gilpin
Gold
1860
7
300
250,000
Pelican, Dives
Clear Creek
Silver
1871
81/2
460
2,711,253
Terrible Group,
Brown, etc.
Clear Creek
Silver
1868
II
700
1,900,000
Colorado Central,
Consolidated
Clear Creek
Silver 1868-72
9
350
900,000
Red Elephant Con. Clear Creek
Silver
1876-7
3
460
650,000
Dunderberg-East
Terrible
Clear Creek
Silver
1868
6
400
608,000
Hukill
Clear Creek
G. and S.
1871
9
300
525,000
Pay Rock
Clear Creek
Silver
1872
8
350
450,000
Baxter
Clear Creek
Silver
1871
8
350
360,000
Freeland
Clear Creek
G. and S.
1861
4
700
350,000.
Maine-Phoenix
Clear Creek
Silver
1871
6
300
300,000
Junction Group
Clear Creek
Silver
1872
6
400
350,000
Equator
Clear Creek
Silver
1867
7
450
300,000
Kirtley
Clear Creek
Silver
1877
21/4
300
225,000
Roe-Hercules
Clear Creek
Silver
1871
8
300
250,000
Snow Drift
Clear Creek
Silver
1868
8
250
200,000
Silver Plume
Clear Creek
Silver
1868
8
250
200,000
Seaton
Clear Creek
Silver
1861
8
250
200,000
Saco
Clear Creek
Silver
1871
5
200,000
Boston Co. Mines Summit
Silver
1868
II
Tunnel
500,000
Moose
Park
Silver
1871
9
Tunnels
900,000
Dolly Varden
Park
Silver
1872
8
Tunnels
340,000
Phillips
Park
Gold
1862
5
150
300,000
CHAPTER XIII
COLORADO MINING-BY SECTIONS
THE MINES OF PARK COUNTY-THE ROMANCE OF MINING IN SUMMIT COUNTY- LEADVILLE MAKES WORLD HISTORY-MINES OF THE SAN JUAN-BOULDER COUN- TY'S ARGONAUTS-CRIPPLE CREEK PROVES A WORLD WONDER-CUSTER COUNTY'S MINING HISTORY-IN THE REGION OF RICO-EAGLE COUNTY-EL PASO COUNTY- FREMONT COUNTY-MINING IN GUNNISON COUNTY-IN GRAND COUNTY- HINSDALE IN THE SAN JUAN COUNTRY-JEFFERSON COUNTY-LARIMER AND JACKSON COUNTIES-MESA COUNTY-MINERAL COUNTY-MONTEZUMA'S MINES -COLORADO CARNOTITE ENRICHES THE WORLD-OURAY'S MINES-CAMP BIRD MINES-RIO GRANDE COUNTY-ROUTT AND MOFFAT COUNTIES-CHAFFEE COUNTY-SAGUACHE COUNTY-SAN MIGUEL-PITKIN COUNTY-METAL OUTPUT OF COLORADO BY YEARS-DISTRIBUTION OF MINERALS IN COLORADO
THE MINES OF PARK COUNTY
Park County lies some fifty or sixty miles to the southwest of Denver, and was named after the beautiful valley or plateau called South Park. Never a great mining county, it figured largely in pioneer history from the placer camps of early days-Tarryall, Fairplay, Buckskin Joe and other diggings. The gulches and streams of South Park yielded an abundant harvest of gold in 1859-62. The Park was one vast placer, and it attracted thousands of adventurers. The first comers panned out the colors to the tune of thousands and tens of thousands of dollars. The aggregate yield of the mines of the Park region ran up into the millions in the early '60s. Many romantic incidents are related of Park County in those stirring times.
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