MEXICO
Americans Have Located Many Claims
During Past Month
Durango—The land and buildings belonging to the Cia. Minera y Explotadora de Ventanas, a once prosperous mining company operating near Ventanas, in this state, are advertised for sale at public auction to satisfy delinquent taxes amounting to over 4,000 pesos plus additional expenses:
Saltillo — Conditions are reported critical at the coal camps of Rosita, Agujita, Eperanza, and Menor, in the northern part of this state. Coal having been largely substituted by oil, there is no demand for it on the market, and the coal mines have reduced their working forces, throwing men out of employment, who are in destitute circumstances. At Mineral de Paula, in this coal region, a large deposit of good coal has been recently discovered in shaft No. 3 and a number of additional miners are being employed, but the company will not be able to give work to the hordes which are rushing there from the other camps.
Torreon—American prospectors and mining men are active in northern Mexico. During the last month the following properties were located and recorded by foreigners, principally Americans:
Nueva Libertad, composed of thirtyseven claims, situated at Temosachic, in the State of Chihuahua, recorded by William M. Ferris and Frank S. Black.
The Santa Margarita Grande, district of Ocampo, Chihuahua, located by Henry Weber and Ralph Benton.
El Sita, silver-lead property, in the Ramirez Mountains, near San Juan de Guadalupe, by Arthur Frey.
La Leona, fifteen claims, in the Bemejilla Mountains, near Mapimi, State of Durango, by Oscar F. Franke.
The Purisima, silver-lead, a group of ixty contiguous pertenencias, at La Noria, one of the principal camps of the Sombrerte district, State of Zaeatecas, by George H. Davis.
Guadalupana, gold, silver, and lead, San Diego camp near Pueblo Nuevo, Durango, by Edward Hartman.
Hudson, four claims, Villa Gonzalez, south of Juarez, State of Chihuahua, by M. C. Hudson and E. D. Edison.
Also a group of four claims carrying silver, .5 lead, and zinc to be known as the Moore, in the same region and by the same persons.
Nacozari—The Moctezuma Copper Co. expects to have the third unit of its concentrator ready for operating by Jan. 1, 1923. The total number of men employed by the company at present is 1,519 and upon completion of the third unit, if the copper market will permit, it will be able to employ 800 to 400 more men.
7 Durango—The Guanacevi unit of the Cia. Minera de Peñoles has commenced developing the Santa Crux mine, employing about twenty men in sinking a shaft.
The Cia. Minera y Beneficiadora de Guanacevi is increasing its work in La Mexicana mine, where it now employs about 100 men and is also deepening the shaft of Palermo mine.
Esmeralda (Coahuila)—The American Smelting & Refining Co. is producing regularly from its San Jose claim and is developing the Fronteriza mining property. The Trinidad mine is again producing a good grade of ore. Lessees at the Fortuna are producing 200 to 300 tons of lead ore per month. The monthly output of the Veta Rica continues to be about 600 tons.
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GOLD AND SILVER IN MEXICANM ANTIMONY EMJ 8 25 1928
August 25, 1928— Engineering and Mining Journal
Gold and Silver in Mexican Antimony Ores Cause Trouble
IT IS THE usual custom for the owners of antimony mines in Mexico, according to a recent issue of Commerce Reports, to turn them over to a native contractor, who operates them on his own account and undertakes to deliver clean ore that will average up to an established standard for an agreed price. During 1927 wages ranged from 2.50 to 4.50 pesos a day, the highest being paid to mine foremen. Nominally a working day consisted of eight hours, but this was seldom adhered to, especially on the contract work. A good supply of labor was available throughout the year, and there was little or no labor trouble.
Besides the usual tax on mining properties, operators were called on to pay a federal and state production tax on all of the antimony mined. This tax has since been shifted to the purchaser of the ore. Where the ore contained silver and gold in appreciable quantities, as in certain local mines, a production tax was paid on these metals. Gold exported in antimony ore had to be re-imported in the form of bullion or coin within 30 days of exportation. The natural result was that little silver-and gold-bearing antimony ore was sold. Silver in.the ore appears to be a particularly detrimental impurity when antimony is to be used in the hard-lead trade.
A large part of the ore of the Altar district, State of Sonora, contains as much as 3 oz. of silver per ton, or 0.01 per cent, and the ore from several mines ranges as high as 30 oz. per ton. In many other mines, the ore assays less than 1 oz. of silver, or 0.003 per cent. Precious metals can be extracted from antimony ores, but the processes are patented and the royalties for their use are so high as to make them prohibitive at the present price, according to the report.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS E & MJ 10 20 1928
MEXICO CITY Letter
By W. L. Van.
Special Correspondent
Operations at Jimulco Mines Suspended Because of Labor Conditions
Mexico CITY, Oct. 8, 1928.—Jimulco Mining, which operates a group of copper-silver mines near Otto, State of Coahuila, Mexico, has suspended operations because of inability to regulate long pending differences with certain labor agitators, according to a report from Saltillo. The shutdown comes as a surprise in local mining circles, as it was recently reported that the company had found high-grade ore. Federal authorities in this city may take a hand in the matter to bring about an adjustment of the differences and a reopening of the mines. The mines, which are 5 miles from Otto, were connected to the railroad there by a narrow-gage extension line. They were controlled by San Antonio, Tex., interests.
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OPERATIONS of the 50-ton quicksilver furnace of Castro, Hernandez & Company at Taxco, State of Guerrero, which were recently started, are now at full capacity. A number of smaller plants for the reduction of quicksilver ores have also been opened in the Hunantla district of the same state.
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An executive order has been issued authorizing the Department of Commerce, Industry, and Labor to determine the minimum distance from government explosive factories, general warehouses, and powder magazines at which mining concessions can be granted and the mines operated. A petition was recently presented for a mining concession near the government explosives factory at Dinamita, State of Durango, and it was believed that the granting of such a concession would he dangerous and undesirable because of the necessity of handling and transporting explosives in connection with mining.
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Work on both ends of the new automobile road from the Guanacevi mining district to the railroad station at Tepehuanes, State of Durango, is scheduled to begin about Nov. 1, and it is hoped that the 85 miles of road will be completed before the next rainy season.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 3 30 1929
MEXICO
It is understood that the Mexico Mines of El Oro will discontinue operations at its mines at El Oro, Mexico, although development will be continued at its property at Catorce, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. In addition to the development program at Catorce, treatment of the tailings from the old mill will be undertaken. The company, which is under the direction of T. H. C. Mitchell, general manager, El Oro, has erected a preliminary plant of 100 tons daily capacity, which will be increased to 1,000 tons daily, if further operations prove successful. Sir Park Golf, 128 Gresham House, Old Broad Street, London, England, is president.
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The Cusi Mexicana Mining Company, with properties at Cusihuiriachic, Chihuahua, Mexico, reports for the year 1928 an operating profit of $874,358, and a net profit of $278,227, after making deductions for depreciation, unproductive prospecting and loss through fire. The latter figure compares with $145,471 for the year 1927. The gross income through the sale of concentrates was $997,604, and the expense of operating was $628,245. The company had on hand at the close of the year, current assets totaling $250,459, of which sum $126,340 was represented by cash, and current liabilities amounting to $85,857. The surplus account shows $526,954, including the net of $278,227, for the year 1928.
H. C. Dudley, 704 Lonsdale Building, Duluth, Minnesota, president, states in his report to the shareholders that the Santa Marina shaft, which was burned from the Providencia level to the surface, has been completely re-timbered, and is again in operation. He also states that as much ore has been put in sight by development as has been extracted during the year.
W. G. Swart, consulting engineer for the company, reports that the company milled 81,472 tons of ore during 1928, as compared with 47,976 tons in 1927, and 37,151 tons in 1926. The shipments from the mill consisted of 7,481 tons of Lead concentrates and 5,698 tons of zinc concentrates during last year, and, in addition, 493 tons of dump ore were sent from the property.
It is stated that there is about one year’s ore supply blocked out and partly broken in the stopes. Two sulphide veins, unknown before, have been cut in the old workings south of the Cusi fault, both of which are said to be producing average ore. A tunnel run on the San Miguel vein is reported to have been extended for its entire length of 250 feet in oxidized ore.
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Silver-lead ore, carrying values in copper, is reported to have been struck on the 200-foot level of the North Cananea Mining Company’s property at Cananea, Sonora, Mexico. The ore was discovered in crosscut No. 2 in the Las Penitas shaft. Crosscut No. 1, which is expected to shortly intersect crosscut No. 2, has been extended about 70 feet. C. W. Gabrielson, Box 279, Bisbee, Arizona, is president of the North Cananea, and C. C. Newens is superintendent.
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It is reported that the San Francisco mine, in the Sierra Juarez district, and the Conejo Blanco mine, in the Taviche district of Mexico, have been sold to a group of Alabama capitalists by the former owners, R. Wilson and Finney Bacon. The San Francisco mine has been idle for the past 20 years.
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Negotiations are being made for the continuance of an automobile road from Durango to Mazatlan, Sinaloa, by the way of El Salto, Durango, it is stated. This would facilitate matters in the transportation of ores to the newly constructed lead smelter at Mazatlan, and furnish an outlet for production from that region.
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It is understood that operations may soon be resumed at the old Dicha mine, located near Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico, which has been idle for some time. At one time the construction of a railroad was started to the properties from Acapulco.
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Difficulty is being experienced by the Cananea Consolidated Copper Company, it is stated, in securing powder for use in operation of its mines at Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, because of the Mexican revolution. An embargo has been placed on all explosives entering Mexico, and it is understood that the Southern Pacific Railroad is accepting no shipments of this product.
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The Sabinal Mining Company, recently incorporated under the laws of Arizona, has opened an office in the Nebhan Building, at El Paso, Texas. The company is at present operating and developing its properties, which are located in the Sabinal district, near Ascencion, Chihuahua, Mexico, and which include the Azteca and Florencia mines.
The Azteca consists of nine pertenencias, or about 22 acres, and is said to be producing ores carrying good values in lead and silver. This mine is well equipped with a gasoline hoist headframe, hoist house, and quarters for workmen.
The Florencia property consists of 10 pertenencias, or about 25 acres, and is a producer of silver.
A mill site with water rights and a tailings disposal location has been secured by the company, and in the near future a new flotation plant of 30 tons daily capacity will be erected, to concentrate the ores that have not sufficient value to warrant direct shipment to the smelter. The mill will be designed so as to be easily increased in capacity.
In general, the Sabinal Mining Company proposes to operate the Azteca mine, ores from this mine to be treated in a mill built for that purpose, and the proceeds from the mill operations to be used for the development of the Florencia property. The concentrates will be shipped to the El Paso smelter. Officers of the company are: B. E. Bryant, president and general manager; B. B. McClintock, vice-president; A. L. Bryant, secretary and treasurer, and G. H. Tisdale, superintendent.
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CALIFORNIA-AHUMADA REPORTS DEVELOPMENT PROGRESSING
Good progress is reported being made by the California-Ahumada Mining Company, H. A. Houser, president, with main offices at 646 First National Bank Building, El Paso, Texas. The company is said to be amply financed, an arrangement having been concluded with the Pardners Mines Corporation of New York, whereby that company is to buy the entire stock remaining in the treasury, amounting to 400,000 shares, at 25 cents a share, having deposited, for the first 200,000 shares, $50,000 cash in the bank to the credit of the California-Ahumada company on November 1, 1928.
The Pardners Mines Corporation is to purchase a second block of 100,000 shares at $25,000 on June 80, and 100,000 shares on November 80, 1929. In addition, the Pardners company has an option to purchase a block of 180,000 shares before April 17, 1980, at 85 cents a share, and 171,000 shares at 90 cents per share by October 17, 1980.
Properties of the California-Ahumada Mining Company are located in the Cerros Cobrados Mountains, in northeastern Chihuahua, Mexico, and consist of the La Gloria, Esperanza, California, Ampliacion de Gloria and Anexa de Gloria claims. About 485 tons of ore, containing values in silver, lead and copper, have recently been shipped from these claims, the gross value of which is estimated at $16,212 72, or an average of $85.82 per ton, the net profits amounting to $9,233.67, or $20.17 per ton.
Within the last few months, the company has installed new equipment and machinery, including a new hoist and compressor. A complete camp has been established on the La Gloria claim, and office buildings, a warehouse, and employees’ homes erected, and a road built. A 75-foot tunnel has been driven on the Esperanza claim to tap the fracture on the La Gloria claim.
On the California, a hoist has been installed, and a shaft sunk along the dike, which at a depth of 80 feet has a favorable showing of lead ore. It is estimated that there are about 10,000 tons of ore, similar to the grade shipped, blocked out in the mines. Forty-five men are employed on the ground, working three shifts daily. Edward Salveson is superintendent, and W. M. Benham, geologist.
Since the new equipment was installed the first of the year good progress has been made. The shaft has been sunk to a depth of 225 feet, and station cut at the 165-foot level. At the 65-foot level, the south drift has been extended 200 feet, and the north drift 225 feet.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 4 15 1929
THE MINING JOURNAL APRIL 15 1929
MEXICO
During the month of March~ 1929, mining companies of Mexico paid total dividends amounting to $1,509,947. This amount was made up of the regular quarterly dividend of 75 cents per share paid on common stock by the American Metal Company, Ltd., operating in the United States and Mexico, totaling $484,947; and the preferred-stock quarterly dividend of $1.50, paid by the same company, amounting to $150,000; together with the regular quarterly dividend of $1.75, totaling $875,000, paid on preferred stock by the American Smelting and Refining Company, also operating in both countries. The last quarterly dividend paid by the American Metals Company, Ltd., on common stock, at the same rate, amounted to $446,127, while the preferred-stock dividend was a duplicate of last quarter. The quarterly dividend of the American Smelting and Refining Company, on preferred stock, remained the same for the last quarter was paid in December, 1928.
C. W. Gabrielson, Box 279, Bisbee, Arizona, reports that crosscuts on the 200-foot level of the main shaft of the North Cananea Consolidated Mining Company’s property at Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, have cut five separate and distinct veins, and that two of the crosscuts are now running into silver-lead ore, averaging around $100 per ton. Intensive development is under way at the North Cananea holdings, following a campaign of diamond drilling. Mr. Gabrielson is president of the company.
For the year 1928, the Santa Gertrudis, Ltd., with properties at Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, reports a net income of $897,867, before deduction for depreciation and depletion, as compared with $520,098 in 1927. From the company’s various properties, a total of 163,251 dry tons of ore were mined during the last year, which compares with 181,880 tons during 1927. The average price received from sales of silver in 1928 was $0.5822 per ounce 999 fine.
The annual report of the American Smelting and Refining Company shows a net income, after depreciation, depletion, interest, federal taxes, and preferred-stock dividends, of $18,586,203, which is compared with $15,477,769 in 1927, and $17,760,721 in 1926. During last year the company paid dividends totaling $8,989,820, against $8,379,840 in 1927. The company’s new lead refinery at Monterrey, N. L., Mexico, is expected to soon start operations, and gives promises of substantial profits.
In addition to the company’s present holdings, further expansions are also under consideration. At the close of 1928, a special distribution of 8 per cent of the year’s salary was made to all salaried employees in the service of the company throughout that year.
Purchase is being made of new hoisting equipment, an air compressor, and machine drills by the Silver Plume Mining Company, to be used in shaft-sinking and development of the company’s Olive Vein. From this source, Morris B. Parker of Hollywood, California, who is general manager, states that 768 tons of ore have been milled, experimentally, at a neighboring reduction plant, with a recovery of 92 per cent of the assay value of the mill heads, and a smelter return of $14,247 from the concentrates.
Arrangements are being made to equip the property with a 50-ton flotation plant, which is expected to be put in commission within the near future.
At the present time, it is understood that two carloads of $60-ore are being mined, which will be consigned direct to the smelter. Harry L. Seares, 511 Story Building, Los Angeles, California, is consulting engineer for the Silver Plume whose properties are located 26 miles east of Cananea, Sonora, Mexico.
In his report to the Ahumada Lead Company, John W. Brooks, Jr., manager of the Cia. Minera de Plomo, S. A., the company’s subsidiary at Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico, states that the total output of lead for the year 1928 was 12,854,809 pounds. The average price realized by the company was 6.29 cents per pound. Production was much less in 1928 than in 1927, the total output of lead the previous year being 24,865,705 pounds.
The total production to date of December 81, 1928, was 142,295,155 pounds of lead, 1,626,882 ounces of silver, with 806,209 dry tons shipped.
A number of things are said to account for the less production in 1928; one being failure to encounter commercial ore in extensions of old ore shoots; the inability to mine on the eighth level, owing to the necessity of providing better ventilation through a connection with the surface; re-adjustment of the old pumping equipment and the installation of a new pump, and the lower prices of metals.
The new pumping equipment provides a capacity of 2,400 gallons per minute. Indications are that a substantial quantity of ore will be mined from the section between the seventh and eighth levels.
Work has been discontinued temporarily on the company’s Perdido claim, while operations have been suspended indefinitely on the Sonora, Lois and Sorpresa claims. All development work and the greater part of the stoping is done on a contract basis. A force of about 197 men is employed under the direction of Mr. Brooks, who has headquarters at Villa Felix U Gomez, Via Lucero, Chihuahua, Mexico.
It is understood that the Erupcion Mining Company, with properties at Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico, has become interested in the Mosqueteros Mining Company, on a 50 per cent basis, and will prosecute development work with a view of opening up new ore bodies. During last year the Erupcion Company shipped around 1,557 tons of ore in seven months, recovering 698,356 pounds of lead, and 9,868.49 ounces silver. Income from sales of lead and silver was reported to be $62,488.17, with expenses of $92,117.06, making an operating loss of $29,688.89. Approximately 989 feet of drifts and crosscuts, and 260 feet of raises and wines were driven. George H. Cobbe, 759 First National Bank Building, El Paso, Texas, is secretary of this company.
The La Campana mine, located in the Altar district of Sonora, Mexico, is being reopened under the direction of J. E. McIntyre, mining engineer of Chicago, it is stated. This mine, of which E. E. Pope of Parkersburg, West Virginia, is one of the principal owners, has been idle since 1912. It is a gold-silver property.
The Moctezuma Copper Company, operating properties at Nacozari, Sonora, Mexico, H. H. Horton, manager, reports for the year 1928, a production of 818,416 tons of ore, compared with 795,958 tons in 1927. Development work consisted of 29,495 feet of drifts, raises, and winzes. A total footage of 16,218 feet was drilled, of which 10,781 feet were drilled as stope development work.
This diamond drill work was successful both in finding net ore and in extending known stoping areas. At present development of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first levels is actively in progress. The Pilares ore body, at the south end of the mine, has been encountered on the nineteenth level, but its extent and copper content are not yet fully known. Drifting and diamond drilling on the Porvenir vein, outside of the Pilares Oval, failed to disclose the existence of commercial ore, and work has been discontinued at this point.
In stoping methods, an increased tonnage was mined during the year by inclined cut-and-fill, and a decreased tonnage by flat cut-and-fill and shrinkage methods. At the concentrator, experimental work on a bowl classifier unit gave favorable results due to the better classification and finer grinding accomplished. Although several outside properties have been examined and considerable work done, no commercial ore has been developed, with the exception of a small tonnage of gold and silver ore on the Margarita vein of the Churunibabi group.
Work is reported to be progressing in a promising way at holdings of the Altar and Cananea Mining Company, located in the Altar, Sonora, Mining District of Mexico, drifting being done both ways from the main shaft, at a depth of about 220 feet. The mines are being worked with engines equipped with air compressors, making machine-drilling possible. The holdings consist of 10 claims, which cover a total area of 824 acres. George Young, 927 East Sixth Street, Tucson, Arizona, is secretary-treasurer.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 630 1929
THE MINING JOURNAL JUNE 30 1929
MEXICO
A strike of silver ore has been reported recently made in the Niñita mine, which is located near Sabinal, Chihuahua, Mexico. At the end of the 300-loot tunnel, a winze was sunk 85 feet in solid limestone, and entered into a contact of porphyry, it is stated. A sample of ore from this contact, assayed in El Paso, Texas, is understood to have averaged 80 ounces.
With further drifting on the contact, samples were taken at intervals of 20 feet, which assayed 100, 200 and 240 ounces silver to the ton. A. V. de Pascale, Albino Garcia, Dr. S. Haffner and Leopoldo Iwonski, who may be reached at Box 417, El Paso, Texas, are owners of the Niñita.
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Work is scheduled to be resumed at holdings of the Ampliación de Florencia Mining Company in July, operations having been suspended for several months due to the unsettled conditions in Mexico. The claims are located at Sabinal, Chihuahua, Mexico, A. V. de Pascale, Box 417, El Paso, Texas, president and general manager.
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Property of the Sierra Madre Exploration Syndicate at Soyopa, Sonora, Mexico, is being developed by adits and shafts with Bulkeley Wells in charge as general manager. According to Fred H. Dakin, consulting engineer, the holdings are expected to be put upon a producing basis very shortly, the values being in gold, silver and lead. Regular mine work requires the services of 30 men. Headquarters of the company are located at 1408 Hobart Building, San Francisco, California.
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A new company, to be known as the El Sol Mining Company, has been organized by H. A. Houser, president, B. Knight Smith, vice-president, H. B. Waud, treasurer, and W. T. Houser, secretary, with main offices at 662 First National Bank Building, El Paso, Texas, for operation and development of properties near Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua, Mexico.
The company, which is capitalized at $1,500,000, has acquired the Hija del Sol, Estrella, La Mexicana, Seguridad and La Abundancia claims, two of which, the Hija del Sol and Estrella, adjoin the California claims of the California-Ahumada Mining Company and lie less than a mile from property of the Mosqueteros Mining Company.
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Preliminary work has already been started on the Don Carlos, Anexas a Don Carlos, and Ampliación de Don Carlos properties, recently taken over by Ralph C. Nowland, mining engineer of 1800 Hobart Building, San Francisco, California, and Durand C. Hall, mining geologist, the new organization to be known as the Aztec Mining Company.
It is reported that an ample development fund has been subscribed by mine operators of the coast, associated with banking interests of New York. The properties adjoin the Gloria and Esperanza claims of the California-Ahumada Mining Company, near Alcaparra, Chihuahua, Mexico.
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A 500-ton concentrator, employing flotation, is being constructed at the old San Carlos mine, located in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, by the Victor Mining Company, which is controlled by Frederick Velie of Kansas City, Missouri. A road has been built to connect the mine with the station of Chato, on the Orient railroad, 30 miles distant.
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News is current that field engineers have lately been at the Silver Plume mine, near Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, working with staff engineers of the Minaret Consolidated Mine Company, on final details covering the installation of heavier mine machinery and the construction of a 50-ton milling plant. C. C. Randall, 107 North Lemon Street, Anaheim, California, is general manager of the Minaret company, now operating the Silver Plume.
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Development work, as well as production, is active at the properties of the Cusi-Mexicana Mining Company at Cusihuiriachic, Chihuahua, Mexico, of which H. C. Dudley, 704 Lonsdale Building, Duluth, Minnesota, is president. The diamond drill, which has been installed on the 1,000-foot level by the E. J. Longyear Company to explore the area north of the Cusi fault, is operating two eight-hour shifts daily. The drill will be driven toward the west at an angle of 60 degrees downward, and to the east at an angle of 80 degrees downward.
The Santa Marina and the San Antonio veins, on the south side of the fault, running directly north, are presumed to have been cut off by the fault, and the extensions of the veins are expected to present a broadside target for the drill.
A station is being cut at 1,150 feet in the Santa Marina shaft, which was bottomed in the vein at 1,060 feet. However, the vein dipped out of the shaft with increased depth, and after the station is completed, a crosscut will be driven to the enrichment, and drifting will be done both north and south.
The extent of the ore downward in the Santa Marina shaft has not yet been ascertained. The drift on the Santa Marina vein, south from the shaft on the 1,150 level, Is expected to carry development under the so-called big lead stope, which lies between the Green and Red faults, and to gain an additional depth of 150 feet. This enrichment is said to extend well toward the surface, having a distance of about 220 feet on the bottom levels, and not having diminished as to size and quality of ore on the 1,000-foot level. The drift from “A” level, south from the Red fault, and which is described as the extension of the combined Santa Marina and San Antonio veins, is being watched with much interest.
The drift, which is being driven to get under the old workings in the San Nicholas area, has lately cut stringers of ore, and it is proposed to explore this once productive area at much greater depth than was attained by former operators.
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Near-future improvements to be undertaken by the Greene Cananea Copper Company on its holdings at Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, will include reconstruction of its crushing and sampling plants, the erection of new ore bins, and improvements to the railroad approach. The capacity of the power plant is being increased by the installation of high-pressure direct-fired boilers and a 6000-k. w. turbine. New high-pressure waste heat boilers are also to be installed at the company’s reverberatory plant. The additional power capacity will enable prospecting of the Sonora Hill area by underground workings. T. Evans is president and general manager, and L. A. Maule is purchasing agent.
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The Jimulco mines at Estación Otto, Coahuila, Mexico, operated by the Compañia Minera de Peñoles, S. A., for the past five years, have been leased to John W. Beard of El Paso, Texas. These copper mines, which are 50 miles south of Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico, are connected with the National Railway by a five-mile narrow-gauge line. George Butler, Jr. will be in charge of development work.
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During the year 1928, the Neg. Minera San Rafael y Anexa., with operations at Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, distributed dividends in the sum of $660,000, bringing the total dividends paid up to January 1, 1929, to $19,119,579.78.
During the year, the company treated a total of 228,250 tons of ore, with an average content of 445 grams of silver, and 1.99 grams of gold, representing an average daily tonnage of 725 tons, as compared with 641 tons the previous year. The extraction averaged 90.6 per cent silver and 92.6 per cent gold.
Frederick MacCoy, who has headquarters at Apartado 47 Bis, Mexico D. F. Mexico, is director general, while active operations at the property are in charge of R. A. Conrads, general superintendent.
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Ore from the property of the Security Copper Company at Pitiquito, Sonora, Mexico, is understood to have recently assayed 16.8 ounces silver, 27 percent copper and $4 gold, running about $81.17 per ton. The ore was sampled at the sampling plant of the Chamber of Mines at Tucson, Arizona. M. M. Hickey is manager.
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The Santa Gertrudis Company, Ltd. of Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, milled 145,893 dry short tons of ore during the quarter ended March 81, 1929, according to reports of that company. For silver sold, the company received an average price of $0.570, United States currency per ounce
999 fine. The total revenue for Santa Gertrudis, Inversions, and Dos Carlos, after allowing for development and participation of owners, but before depletion and depreciation, was $394,919. Capital expenditures by the Dos Carlos Company amounted to $11,020.
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Three shifts are being worked by the Califomnia-Ahumada Mining Company, Alcaparra, Chihuahua, Mexico, in driving the drift and running the No. 8 crosscut on the 165-foot level, 25 tons of ore per day being produced from these two developments. The drift has been in ore on all sides for 73 feet, it is understood, and the crosscut has been extended 19 feet in the same ore. It is believed by company interests that the development of this property within the next six months will warrant the construction of a spur track to the Chihuahua y Oriente railroad, six miles distant. W. T. Rouser, with company headquarters at 648 First National Bank Building, El Paso, Texas, is manager and secretary.
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Operations of the Fresnillo unit of the Mexican Corporation, S. A., at Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico, will hereafter be known as The Fresnillo Company, effective from May 1, 1929. Main offices of the company will be located at Edificio Woodrow, La Bolivar No. 18, Mexico City, Mexico, Hugh Rose, managing director. Thomas C. Baker is general manager of the properties at Fresnillo.
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Following the installation of adequate pumping equipment, production is again coming from the No. 8 level of the Ahumada Lead Company at Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico, John M. Brooks, Villa Feliz U. Gomez, Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, general manager.
The pumping capacity of the mine has now been brought up to 2,400 g. p. in., and bulkheads are being put in the stopes to keep-the water back. Development above the No. 7 level has been dropped, and interest is now being centered upon exploration of the ore body from the No. 8 level.
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Construction of a Forrester flotation machine has recently been completed at the Tigre Mining Company, El Tigre, Sonora, Mexico, resulting in improved extraction. At the company’s 225-ton mill, located at El Molino, Sonora, Mexico, a Model D Dorr duplex classifier, was substituted for two Model C simplex machines. According to General Manager R. T. Mishler, exploration work indicates that the bottom of the ore body has been reached no ore having been found on the No. 7 level of the Fortuna mine, which corresponds to the No. 21 level of the Tigre mine; and the Gold Hill enrichment, said to be continuous in both length and depth for 1,000 feet, has apparently reached its boundary lines at the thirteenth level. Small ore bodies have been developed on levels 18, 14 and 15.
During the year 1928, production amounted to 82,480 tons, resulting in a recovery of 9,684 ounces gold and 2,599,485 ounces silver.
At the Tiger Leasing Company at La Quemada, Jalisco, Mexico, which is also a subsidiary of the Lucky Tiger-Combination Gold Mining Company, difficulty in metallurgical operations has been experienced, and the company is considering the installation of an additional Dorr classifier and tanks.
Proven and probable ore reserves of this company total approximately 174,414 tons, believed to be sufficient to keep the 80-ton plant in operation for six or seven years at the present rate. Additional tonnages are also expected to be developed in the west end of the 400 and 500 levels. W. A. Wasley is general manager of the Tiger Leasing, and T. R. Herndon is mill superintendent.
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A new baghouse and a sintering plant are being added to the lead smelter of the Cia. Minera de Peñoles, S. A., at Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico, A. J. Halbcrt, superintendent. The plant has a capacity of 400,000 tons of charge per year.
At the company’s Achotla unit at Tamixco, Guerrero, Mexico, J. F. Thorn, superintendent, changes are being made in the method of treating the silver-lead-gold ores. Hereafter an all-brine leaching method is to be used at the 800-ton plant in place of cyanidation.
George H. Harbordt, with headquarters at Apartado 251, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, is general manager of the Peñoles company.
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Ore has been proven for a length of 2,487 feet on the 340-meter level in the Cuevo Santa vein at the Mexican Corporation, S. A., now known as The Fresnillo Company, at Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico, according to reports of the company. Approximately 1,837 feet of ore was also developed at a depth of 270 meters.
At 840 meters, the body averages five feet in width, and runs 10.8 ounces silver, 10.9 per cent lead, and 12.1 per cent zinc. The company’s General shaft has been enlarged and timbered to 340 meters, and a raise is now being put up from the 425 meter level. Production has also been started from the San Nicolas area of the holdings. The mill is at present treating 2,500 tons of oxide ore and 400 tons of sulphide ore daily.
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All preliminary arrangements have been made and the ground broken for the 800-ton milling plant to be constructed at Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, by the American Smelting and Refining Company for treatment of ores from the company properties at Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua. It is expected that this construction will involve about a year’s time. At the new plant, the coarse crushing will be done in gyratory crushers and Symons cone crushers, and the fine grinding in rod and ball mills, each in closed circuit with the classifiers. Gravity and flotation methods will be employed in concentration. W. M. Drury is general manager of the American Smelting and Refining Company, and at present maintains headquarters at the New York office of the company, 120 Broadway.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 9 30 1929
THE MINING JOURNAL for SEPTEMBER 30, 1929
MEXICO
Satisfactory progress in development work is reported by the Sierra Pinta gold mine in the Altar district of Sonora, Mexico. The main shaft has been sunk to a depth of 700 feet, and continues in ore. Plans are underway to do some drifting at the 700 level. S. Nixon, who is said to hold an option on the property, states that, while this ore is not as rich as commonly reported, it is of commercial value. All shipments are made by Ajo, Arizona. A. L. Richards, Box 647, Ajo, Arizona, is general manager, in charge of all work at the mine.
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The Jupiter mine, an old Spanish “antigua,” is being reopened by L. 0. Skliris, mining engineer, Hotel Paso Del Norte, El Paso, Texas. Mr. Skliris purchased the mine from Alberta V. Sosa of Agua Prieta, Sonora, after a careful examination and sampling. The Jupiter is in the Sierra Pinta Mountains, 55 miles south of Cananea, and is also near the town of Baviacora, on the Cananea-Hermosillo highway.
There are several thousand tons of ore on the old waste dumps, which Mr. Skliris reports as averaging around 100 ounces silver and one-ounce gold per ton. For the present, work is being concentrated on the opening up of ore bodies disclosed when the shaft was unwatered. An adit tunnel, five feet wide by seven feet high, is being driven, which is to cut the vein at an approximate depth of 500 feet below the surface, and 310 feet below the 190-foot shaft, which was un-watered.
This tunnel is now in 150 feet, and the vein should be reached in 350 feet more of tunneling. It is estimated that this will be accomplished about the first of December. The floor of the tunnel has a one per cent down grade to the portal for the future drainage of the property. The ore in sight in the lower workings is said to show a 20-inch pay streak, assaying 3,000 ounces of silver and 25 ounces of gold per ton.
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The Guadalupana Mining Company, according to an announcement by Dr. Carl Lee Smith, president, 339 First National Bank Building, El Paso, Texas, is to construct a 40-ton concentration and flotation mill. This mine is six miles east of Tecoripa, and 100 miles southeast of Hermosillo, and 60 miles from Ortiz, the nearest railroad station, from which a good road leads to within three miles of the mine. Considerable development is evidenced by the old shafts and drifts, from which a large quantity of high-grade ore was mined in former years. Careful sampling indicated that both high-grade and milling ores in commercial quantities remain in sight, ranging from 7.5 ounces to 662 ounces silver, together with gold and lead. Tests as to method of recovery have been made by the Southwestern Engineering Corporation and by the University of Texas, College of Mines. Principal development is on the 300 level, workings above the level are now largely caved. It is estimated that there are about 1,500 to 1,600 tons on the old dumps, which can be profitably treated by concentration, and flotation. Water for milling can be obtained from wells three-quarters of a mile from the mine, and fuel, semi-anthracite coal, is found in abundance at San Javier, 80 miles distant. The present equipment consists of a steam hoist and small compressor.
S. H. Worrell, mining engineer, has recently completed a thorough examination of the mine.
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Cia. Minera. Borda Antigna y Anexa, near Tlalpujahua, Michoacan, Mexico, closed down the last of August, due to exhaustion of ore reserves. This move had been contemplated for a number of months, as attempts to increase reserves had not been successful. Borda Antigua was operated by Cia. Mm, Las Dos Estrellas.
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Cia. Minera Las Dos Estrellas in El Oro y Tlahpujahua, Mineral Dos Estrellas, Michoacan, Mexico, continues to operate with a full force, although some difficulties are being experienced, due to the low grade of ore now being handled. This company mines about 2,200 tons of ore per day, employing an operating force of almost 3,000.
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North Cananea Consolidated Mining Company, Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, is making plans for the sinking of its main shaft to the 500-foot level. This shaft is now down 380 feet. Drifting on the 200 and 850 levels has given good results, it is said. C. W. Gabrielson, Box 2880, Bisbee, Arizona, is president of the company.
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Pittsburgh Vetagrande Mining Company, Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Mexico, J. C. Archibald, manager, is reported as mining at the rate of about 500 tons of silver-gold ore daily. The San Barnabe mine, in the same district, has been un-watered under Mr. Archibald’s direction, and exploration work is in progress.
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The Fresnillo Company, Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico, Thomas C. Baker, general manager, is understood to be obtaining very encouraging results from the development on the 425-meter level of the Cueva Santa vein, a good grade of ore showing over a three-foot width. The ore shoot has been opened up for 600 feet, averaging 18.6 per cent zinc, 11.7 per cent lead, 18.9 ounces silver, and 0.8 dwt. gold. The sinking of the Saraos shaft to the 425 meter level has been completed, and skip-loading equipment installed. The mill is treating about 3,000 tons daily, of which 2,500 tons is oxidized ore.
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A couple of American engineers from Zacatecas have gone to Northern Puebla, to have another try at reopening the old camp of Tetela del Oro; and are reported to have started in Los Canadas working with 100 men. Tetela lies 9 leagues west of the station of Huitzizilapan, on the Teziutlan branch of the Interoceanic Railway in a rough, hilly country. The formation consists of limestone intruded by porphyry and contains several classes of ores.
Starting from the Santa Rosa mill as a center and the purely gold ores are found to the southwest and the silver ores to the east, both along zones of igneous lime contact. The main ore bodies contain both silver and gold, and the chief modern enterprise on one of them was that of the Tetela Mining and Milling Company which was floated in London over 25 years ago for £200,000. With the small fraction of this sum, that was not gobbled by the vendors and promoters, was built a concentration mill, and the Espejeras Antigua was partially reopened.
The ore chimney occurred in limestone near the igneous contact and shows pyrite, rhodonite and their oxides in quartz with a content of 600 grams of silver and 5 grams of gold. The first adit driven by the Tetela Company struck the ore chimney where it had already been stoped; later the attempt to sink a winze from the adit was prevented by water; finally a lower adit was started but never reached the ore because of the bankruptcy of the company.
Since then the machinery has been sold for junk and nothing remains of the investors’ brave effort except roofless buildings, a flooded mine and a tailing dump, whose values were poorly extracted by a milling process ill-suited to the ore.
The chief gold mines are the companion Providencia and Aurora Antiguas. The gold here occurs in connection with pyrite blende, chalcopyrite, and arsenopyrite, and much of the ore evidently ran 1 to 2 ounces of gold. The old workings are quite extensive and consist of open cuts, shafts, adits and stopes, which are now inaccessible because of water or caving. The ore bodies are sometimes quartz veins, sometimes contact lenses, but are irregular, both in form and gold content. The Santa Rosa mill treated Providencia ore by amalgamation, and has a 50-foot waterfall yielding 21 horsepower. It is located three kilometers south of Tetela Village and has long been abandoned. The latest activity here was a decade ago by Juan lbeken, a millman of Pachuca, who invested a decade’s savings in the construction of a little stamp mill and a silver-lead blast furnace. Ibeken later became manager and did some smelting, with the aid of imported lead, for account of his creditors.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 10 15 1929
THE MINING JOURNAL OCTOBER 15 1929
MEXICO
Dividend payments by Mexican mining companies for September, 1929, totaled $1,644,787. The American Metal Company, Ltd., operating in both the United States and Mexico, paid a 75-cent quarterly, on its common stock, or $630,984, and a quarterly dividend of $1.50 on preferred stock, amounting to $103,014; while the American Smelting and Refining Company disbursed a quarterly dividend of $1.75 on preferred, or $875,000. The Lucky Tiger-Combination Gold Mining Company paid $35,789, representing a monthly dividend of 2 1 cents per share.
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Financial arrangements are being made for larger-scale operations, at the Puerto Corral Mine, situated in the State of Guerrero, Mexico, according to reports. The small stamp mill has been placed in operation, and shipments of concentrates are being made to the American Smelting and Refining Company’s plant at Monterrey, N. L., Mexico.
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Reports of the American Smelting and Refining Company, show a consolidated net income of $10,947,501 for the six months ended June 30, 1929, which compares with $8,219,451 for the first half of last year. This may also be compared with a net income of $8,507,944 for the same period of 1927. The consolidated balance sheet as of June 30, 1929, showed current assets of $94,813,457, against $88,456,101 a year earlier; current liabilities of $23,642,762, against $17,706,323 on June 30, 1928, and net working capital of $71,170,695, against $70,749,778. On June 30, of this year, the company had on hand, in cash, demand and time loans, and U. S. Government securities, $26,668,743. This sum represented a decrease of $553,742, from the total of the same items at the end of 1928.
In this connection, President Simon Guggenheim points out that “cash on hand would have been materially larger had it not been for the revolution in Mexico, last spring. While the company’s mines and smelters were operated during military activities, it was not possible to ship bullion out of Mexico, and thus the cash realization of metal values was delayed.” Operations have now become normal.
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The Vesper and Anexas properties, near Acapulco, Gro., Mexico, have been taken over by new interests, who plan the construction of a new mill for treatment of material from the dump and stopes.
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The Cia. Minera National Quicksilver, S. A., is installing a 40-ton quicksilver furnace, at San Miguel, Chihuahua, Mexico, two artesian wells are being drilled and a water storage dam provided. Regular operations require the services of 100 men, and Paul Ginther, Santa Rosalia Chihuahua, Mexico, is president of the organization.
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Machinery has been put into commission at the Sierra Pinta Mine, located in the Altar District of Sonora, Mexico, and shipments of ore have been started to the El Paso smelter, according to A. L. Richards, Box 647, Ajo, Arizona, manager. The working forces are to be increased within the next few weeks, mine development being in charge of Tom Mannen of Ajo, with operation of the 50-ton mill supervised by E. Winberg.
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Work of enlarging the milling plants of the Cia. de Real del Monte y Pachuca, Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, will involve an expenditure of approximately $2,000,000, according to reports. M. H. Kuryla is managing director, and J. M. Sullivan is purchasing agent.
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Activity is to be resumed in mines of the Hidalgo Copper Mining and Smelting Company at Zimapan, Hidalgo, Mexico, which have been idle since 1913. The company maintains offices in Mexico City, and was originally incorporated under the laws of Arizona.
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Mining companies in north-central Mexico have been compelled to minimize their power requirements due to the shortage of water for the Boquillas power plant near Santa Rosalia, Chihuahua, Mexico. However, due to the fact that a large percentage of the development work in this country is done by hand, mine production so far has not shown a marked decrease. Should the usual rainy season fail to appear, and the shortage continues, it may be necessary to reduce the labor forces.
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It is reported that the Penoles Mining Company, Monterrey, N. L., Mexico, George H. Harbordt, general manager, was robbed of its payroll for the Mapimi Unit, on September 11. Bandits succeeded in obtaining 23,000 pesos, 11,000 pesos of which have been recovered.
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The initial output of the new lead smelter of the Cia. Mexicana cle Minerals, S. A., at Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico, is expected to run about 25 tons daily. The plant will treat both company and custom ores. F. B. Salas is general manager of the company.
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Silver production in Mexico has dropped considerably during this year, according to current statistics. The output was 46,572,000 ounces for the first half of 1929, compared with 54,270,000 ounces for the corresponding six months of last year. The production of silver at Pachuca alone decreased by 2,500,000 ounces this year, and the districts of El Oro, Jalisco, Chihuahua, and Zacatecas, also showed decreases in the output of this metal.
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Offices of the Altar and Cananea Mining Company, at 40 West Congress Street, Tucson, Arizona, have been moved to Room 911, Consolidated Bank Building, that city. The company’s properties are located in the Altar District of Sonora, Mexico.
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Machinery for the new mill has been received at the Silver Plume Mine at Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, and its installation has been started, under the direction of M. B. Parker, manager. H. L. Seares, 511 Story Building, Los Angeles, is consulting engineer of the company.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 10 30 1929
THE MINING JOURNAL FOR OCTOBER 30, 1929
MEXICO
New equipment recently installed at the North Cananea Consolidated Mining Company, Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, includes a Diesel engine, mine pumps and an Ingersoll-Rand XRB two-stage compressor. A number of surface structures have also been erected, and a six weeks’ geophysical survey has just been completed of the holdings.
Ore of consequence has been opened up on the 200 and 350-foot levels, showing values in silver, lead and copper. The shaft has been remodeled to three-compartments and sunk to a depth of 380 feet, supplemented by 1,500 feet of crosscutting on the 350-foot level. In excess of 700 feet of lateral work per month is being carried out on the 350 level, and it is planned to deepen the shaft 400 feet and crosscut at depths of 550 and 750 feet. C. W. Gabrielson, Box 279, Bisbee, Arizona, general manager, is assisted in operations by F. L. Harrington, mine superintendent.
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It is planned to install either a tramway or chute at the La Gloria property of the California-Ahumada Mining Company, near Alcaparra, Chihuahua, Mexico, to facilitate getting the ore down the mountain to the loading platform. About 200 tons of ore per month are being shipped to the El Paso smelter. The company also has executive offices in El Paso at 648 First National Bank Building, W. T. Houser, manager.
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Construction of a flotation plant on its properties at Copala, Sinaloa, Mexico, is being considered favorably by the United Eastern Mining Company, according to Roy W. Moore, 1206 Pacific Mutual Building, Los Angeles, California, who is manager. Unless a power line is run to the Panuco-Copala district from Mazatlan, a distance of 40 miles, power will be obtained from a new Diesel-engine installation. The company is also developing the Tulsequah Chief property, on the Tulsequah River, British Columbia, where over 3,500 feet of diamond drilling and 1,400 feet of tunneling has been done.
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From the Colorado Mine alone, the Greene Cananea Copper Company, Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, now mines around 1,400 tons of ore per day, with production from the Capote, Vetagrande, and other mines, to increase this amount. Diamond and churn drilling have disclosed ore bodies at greater depth in the Capote and in other mines on the property. The Cananea-Duluth Mine has been unwatered and sinking is now being pushed to lower levels, and a new shaft is being sunk in the Sonora Hill area. It is reported that Greene Cananea has purchased the DemocrataMine, which for over 30 years was an independent producer in the middle of the Greene Cananea holdings. During the past year the capacities of the concentrator and power plant have been greatly increased by the installation of new machinery. T. Evans is general manager.
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The La Campana mine, situated in the Altar District of Sonora, Mexico, is being operated by M. H. Laudis of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. This is a gold-silver property.
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New tables are being installed at the 300-ton mill at the Ojuela unit of the Penoles Mining Company, Ojuela, Durango, Mexico, which is also handling custom ores. Approximately 6,000 tons of ore, carrying values in lead, silver and zinc, are being mined per month at this unit. The steam power plant has a 7,000-k. w. capacity. Superintendent W. H. Triplett is assisted in operations by W. H. Halcombe, assistant superintendent, Frank Trotter, mill superintendent, J. P. Savage, general foreman, A. C. Noble, master mechanic, and M. F. Kocsis, chief electrician.
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Development work is being continued on the Copper Prince Claim of the Altar and
Cananea Mining Company, in the Altar District of Sonora, Mexico, with pleasing results, according to George Young, manager, Box 816, Tucson, Arizona. A vigorous exploration program is in progress.
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Following the installation of new equipment, the Butte Cananea Mining Company,
E. M. Dotson, manager, Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, is blocking out ore on the 300-foot level of the Santa Barbara shaft. This ore is said to average 7 per cent copper, 25 ounces silver and $12 in gold, across a width of seven feet.
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It is reported that another new unit of 150 tons daily capacity is to be added to the milling plant of the Cusi-Mexicana Mining Company at Cusihuiriachic, Chihuahua, Mexico, and that by the first of the year 600 tons of ore may be treated per day.
An important ore strike has lately been made in the drift west on the Providencia level. General Manager William N. Fink is assisted in operations by S. A. Madrid, mill superintendent, and J. B. Metcalf, mine superintendent.
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Tunnel operations of the Victor Mining Company, near Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico, have cut 72 feet of milling ore, according to reports, and shipments of between 150 and 200 tons of ore, averaging from 10 to 15 per cent copper are being made monthly to the smelter. V. G. Parodi of Presidio, Texas, is manager.
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The Magistral Copper Company, Charles Hoyle, resident manager, Apartado 7, Ameca, Jalisco, Mexico, is engaged in extensive development of its Las Moras Mine. A three-compartment shaft is now down 175 feet in breccia ore. Principal offices of the company are at 111 Devonshire Street, Boston, and H. L. Percy, Leiter Apartments, 682 Shatto Place, Los Angeles, is president.
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Since its unwatering, the Cananea-Duluth Shaft of the Greene-Cananea Copper Company, is being lined with concrete to the No. 6 level, supplemented by re-timbering below that depth. The new improvement program under way, calls for the installation of a Sullivan duplex compressor, a Nordberg electric hoist, and 4-ton capacity skips. The hoist will be driven by a 2,200-volt a/c motor. A power line is being extended to this mine from Cananea, Sonora, where the company has headquarters, under the direction of T. Evans, general manager. After reconstruction, the crushing plant will consist of two units, each containing a No. 8 Allis-Chalmers gyratory and a 7-foot Symons cone crusher. A new sampling plant is also to be constructed, and new 1,000. ton capacity ore bins are being installed. The bulk of the output is furnished from the company’s Colorada Mine.
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The change to all brine leaching methods from cyanidation at the Achotla plant
of the Penoles Mining Company at Tamixco, Guerrero, is to be completed in December. The plant will continue to handle 300 tons of ore per day. G. H. Harbordt, Apartado 251, Monterrey, N. L., Mexico, is general manager.
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The Cia. de Real del Monte y Pachuca, has surrendered its option on the Lost Mother Lode at Guanajuato, Gto., Mexico, after two drill holes were put down, revealing only junore. Operations were commenced at this point last winter. M. H. Kuryia of Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, is managing director of the organization.
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A. M. McDermott, president, 516 Grant Building, Los Angeles, announces that the El Fuerte Mining Company, operating at La Mesa Colorado, near Choix, Sinaloa, Mexico, is attempting to secure adequate financing without a stock-selling campaign. Heretofore operations have been handicapped by the lack of transportation facilities, but it is hoped that this condition may be removed by the proposed extension of the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway.
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Due to partial exhaustion of the ore reserves, it is reported that the Lucky Tiger-Combination Gold Mining Company will reduce its scale of operations and cut down its labor forces at its El Tigre Mine, at El Tigre, Sonora, Mexico. It is the intention to dismiss about 125 men.
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A new shaft is being sunk at the Morada Mine, in Nayarit, Mexico, which is controlled by the Mexican Premier Mines Company. This company is shipping lead-silver concentrate from the mill at the San Jose Mine, to the smelter at Monterrey, N. L., Mexico.
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At Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, the Cia de Real del Monte y Pachuca is centering attention on the enlargement of its Loreto mill to handle its entire output of silver ore, and the driving of a new 5,500 meter haulage tunnel, to take the place of the cable tramway. A quantity of new machinery is being installed at the mill, both improvements and new additions being under way. The thickener, agitator and filter capacities are being increased, and a cyanide regeneration plant of sufficient size to comply with the new scale of milling, has recently been completed.
It is the intention to have this work completed by March of next year, when the Guerrero mill will be closed down, and the Loreto will handle the entire tonnage of 8,500 metric tons daily. Important changes in ore handling have been essential to transport all the ore to one mill, and for this purpose the San Juan Pachuca shaft, which is only a short distance from the ore bins, is being equipped to hoist all the ore for the mill, except that from the El Chico District, which will continue to be delivered over the El Chico and Loreto tramway. A train of seventeen 12-ton cars and two 13-ton locomotives will be used for haulage. M. H. Kuryla is managing director of the company.
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Plentiful rainfalls have appeared in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, thus alleviating the extreme water shortage, which threatened mining companies operating in that district. Users of power from the Boquillas dam, near Santa Rosalia, Chihuahua, were recently compelled to curtail their requirements by about 25 per cent. A normal supply of water is said to now be available. Work on the new 16,000-horsepower plant of the Electric Bond & Share Company at Torreon, Coahuila, is progressing rapidly, and completion is expected to be made the early part of next year. This plant, which will generate electricity by steam power instead of hydro-electrically, will supplement the Boquillas capacity.
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Reports from Mexico City are to the effect that the Cia. Minera Asarco will shortly establish a 500-ton smelter in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, for the treatment of zinc and lead ores from its properties in the Los Dolores region.
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The Erupcion Mining Company has surrendered its option on the Mosqueteros property, near Alcaparra, Chihuahua, Mexico, and is now undertaking exploratory work on its own holdings at Los Lamentos with the hope of increasing the ore reserves. Production in small quantities is being continued from the company’s mines. John M. Brooks, Villa Felix U. Gomez, Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, is manager.
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Metal production taxes in Mexico were 267,312.34 pesos less during August than for July, according to an announcement by the special taxation bureau of the treasury department. August receipts were 861,744.33 pesos ($430,872.17), while those for July were 1,129,056.67 pesos.
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New development work on the No. 8 level of the mine, having encountered an additional flow of water, the Ahumada Lead Company of Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico, has installed a new Allis-Chalmers pump, with a capacity of 500 g. p. in., to supplement the former 2,400 g. p. in., capacity. The majority of recent production has been coming from Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 7 levels, with this year’s output running about 12,000,000 pounds of lead annually, or at about the same rate as last year.
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The Cuarto Amigos Silver Mine at San Pedro, Chihuahua, Mexico, was recently purchased by interests of El Paso, Texas, for a consideration of $50,000, according to reports. The property was lately inspected by W. D. Greet, Severo Gonzales, and Harris Walthall.
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SANTA EULALIA MINES MEXICO WORD POST TMJ 6 15 1931
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FLOTATION PROCESS IN MEXICO ON RISE TMJ 11 30 1929
FLOTATION PROCESS IN MEXICO SHOWS A DECIDED INCREASE
The Department of Commerce, Industry and Labor, of Mexico, has issued figures on the use of the flotation method of ore treatment, showing a decided increase in tonnage handled. In 1926 mining companies operating in Mexico treated 2,112,506 tons of ore by flotation; in 1927 this figure was reported at 3,573,804 tons, while in 1928 the tonnage had increased to 4,078,418 tons. For 1928, the total treated by flotation methods was 32.30 percent of all ore mined. Figures for the current year are expected to show still further increases, as there are at present 88 flotation plants in operation, including two new ones now under construction.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 11 30 1929
THE MINING JOURNAL FOR November 30 ,1929
MEXICO
Approximately 600 tons of ore per day is being mined by the Neg. Minera de San Rafael y Anna, at Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, with production averaging 20,000 kilos of silver quarterly. This compares with around 90,000 kilos produced last year. R. A. Conrads, is director general in charge of operations, assisted by Oliver Powers, mine superintendent, and L. W. Allen, mill superintendent.
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A number of the smaller mining companies near Zacualpan, Mexico, Mexico, have resumed operations, employing the flotation method for treatment of the ores, and are now shipping concentrate to the San Luis Potosi smelter of the American Smelting and Refining Company. Details are not yet available in regard to the 500-ton flotation plant proposed for erection by A. S. & P. at San Luis Potosi.
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According to Clement K. Quinn, 1050 Union Trust Building, Duluth, Minnesota, the Canam Metals, Ltd., is acquiring the Canam Mex Mines, Ltd. In addition to Tri-state properties which will be taken over, the company is gaining control of mines at Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Mexico, one of the properties being known as the Farroquia, where important ore disclosures are said to now be in progress to the west of the shaft, in virgin ground, at a depth of 300 feet. East of the shaft, the mine is developed to a depth of 660 feet, with the workings bottomed in ore. While installation of a 200-ton mill is considered as warranted by Ira B. Joralemon, the company’s consulting engineer, it is probable that mill construction will be withheld until further development has taken place. The ore is a primary sulphide, carrying copper, lead, zinc and silver. Two other properties of promise in the same district, are the San Roberto and the Zarogossa, both of which are controlled by Zacatecas Metals, which is the Mexican holding corporation for Canam Metals. Operations are being directed by J. C. Archibald of Zacatecas.
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Development work accompanying shaft-sinking on the Oliver Vein in the Silver Plume Mine of the Minaret Consolidated Mines Company, near Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, has uncovered a body of copper-lead-silver ore at a depth of 72 feet, according to current reports of Harry L. Seares of 511 Story Building, Los Angeles, consulting engineer. The shaft is double-compartment, and the ore is said to assay in excess of $82 per ton. The work being prosecuted on the Oliver Vein constitutes a check on geophysical work recently performed by the Radiore Company of Los Angeles (a geophysical prospecting concern), which, it is stated, has outlined conductive ore bodies over a horizontal distance of 1,500 feet. The company expects to take an appreciable tonnage of ore from this source, in addition to the volume being mined from the main workings, and treated in the new 50-toii flotation plant, which went into commission the middle of this month.
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Construction work is in progress at holdings of Cia. Minera Nazareno y Castasillas, S. A., Salaverna, Zacatecas, Mexico, for the enlargement of operations in all departments. The company plans the development of the small mines surrounding the Nazareño unit, property at the Alicante unit being ready to go into production this month. H. S. Evans, superintendent, is assisted in operations by Harold Heide, assistant superintendent; O. K. Foster, mine foreman; 0. H. Munro, master mechanic; and F. J. Price nnd Neil Erskine, engineers.
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In the three months ended September 80, Ahumada Lead Company, Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico, produced 7,396 tons of ore, from which the smelter returned 3,204,164 pounds of lead, an average of 433 pounds per ton. Sales during the third quarter equaled production. In the nine months ended September 30, the company had produced 20,831 tons of ore, from which the smelter returned 8,828,634 pounds of refined lead, or an average of 423.8 pounds a ton. Sales for the nine months also equaled production, or 8,828,684 pounds during this period. September
30, Ahumada Lead had in cash and cash assets, $205,381, compared with $201,829 June 30.
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The Ruby Mining Company, B. Iwaya, manager, Apartado 9, Nacozari, Sonora, Mexico, has deepened its main shaft 200 feet from the 100-foot level, and drifting is now under way both east and west. A new 240-foot tunnel is being driven in the Escuadra Ruby property. This company is composed of El Paso, Los Angeles and Japanese interests, with headquarters at 502 South Stanton Street, El Paso.
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The American Metal Company, Ltd.. operating in both the United States and Mexico, has declared a regular quarterly dividend of 75 cents on common stock, and $1.50 on preferred, both payable December 2, to stock of record November 20. For the quarter ended September 80, 1929, the company reports a net profit of $907,801, after federal taxes, depreciation, depletion and other charges, which compares with $687,466 in the third quarter of 1928. For the first nine months of this year, the company reports a net profit of $2,566,126, after deducting the usual charges, which compares with $1,890,550 for the same period of 1928.
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Approximately $150,000 has been spent in development of holdings of the North Cananea Consolidated Mining Company at Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, during the past year, regular work now requiring the services of 50 employees. Installation has recently been made of a quantity of new mine machinery, including a Diesel engine, pumps and a compressor. C. W. Gabrielson, Box 279, Bisbee, Arizona, is president and manager.
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Two shafts at the Silver Plume property of the Minaret Consolidated Mines Company, Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, have struck silver-lead ore, and two additional shafts are now being put down. This is expected to furnish additional feed for the new 50-ton mill.
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Drifting is well over 300 feet in the San Nicholas ore body of the Cusi-Mexicana Mining Company, Cusihuiriachic, Chihuahua, Mexico, revealing a width of eight feet which will average 80 ounces silver. The development is not yet under the old Spanish 0pen Cut on the surface, and it is believed that the drift will continue in ore under this cut, and perhaps for some distance beyond. A raise is being started to ore above, and other exploratory work to the south of the Red Fault is continuing with favorable results.
There are old Spanish workings still to the south, where it is expected to develop heavy tonnages. William N. Fink is general manager.
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The Cia. Minera El Barrena y Anexas is continuing development of its known ore bodies under the direction of George F. Schattinger, manager, Apartado 64, San Luis Fotosi, S. L. P., Mexico. D. B. McAllister is also connected with the company in an official way.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 8 15 1931
MEXICO
Mexico City officials of the Compañia Minera y Exploradora del Amparo, S. A., deny rumors to the effect that the company plans in the near future to suspend operations in its mines of “La Asunción y Anexas in the state of Guanajuato. According to officials, the company has obtained a prolongation of one year for its work in Guanajuato from the Ministry of Industry, and due to this has revoked notices that it would suspend these operations early in August.
E. Grebe of Etzatlan, Jalisco, Mexico, is mine superintendent for the Amparo company. J. M. Campbell is in charge of the work in Guanajuato
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Governor Andres Ortiz of Chihuahua, Mexico, has petitioned the federal government to parcel out the Hacienda de Canutillo, once the stronghold of Francisco Villa, among miners dismissed by employment reductions in the mining zones of Hidalgo del Parrál, and Santa Bárbara. The plan is to encourage the jobless miners to become agriculturalists, working in co-operative societies with government assistance.
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A difficult situation arising from a mixup of claims to properties made by six claimants in the gold placer field of “El Tambor,” Sinalóa, is reported to have been eliminated by an arrangement made with contestants by Gen. Macario Gaxiola, state governor, and Gen. Juan Dominguez, chief of military operations in Sinalóa, whereby the claimants agreed to work the disputed properties together and share the proceeds equally.
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Reports of placer gold workings about the old camp of “El Onto,” in the Peñon Blanco municipality of Durango, have been confirmed by Alberto Terrones Benitez, ex-governor of the state, who says that he has investigated the area and found it highly promising. He advises, however, that a competent geological survey of the region should be made before attempting exploitation.
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F. A. Dundas has acquired an interest in the old Durazno gold mine near Alamos Sonora, Mexico, from Charles W. Phillips
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The King Mining Company, S. A., was recently organized with a capital stock of $200,000, and has taken over mining claims known as the “El Buen Pastor,” “Dulces Nombres” and “Ampliación de Dulces Nombres,” located one mile from the North Mexico R. R., near Escalón, Chih., Mexico. These properties have been producers of quicksilver. The new company will put in operation modern large size furnaces to replace the obsolete equipment now at the mines, and will carry on a program for the development and exploration of the mines. Officers of the company are: Tsuneo Tani of 1588 Post Street, San Francisco, president; Yozo Ikenaga, vice-president and treasurer; and Tsutomu Dyo, general manager. The company may be reached through Box 652, El Paso, Texas. -
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A fabulously rich gold vein has been reported discovered in the Victoria mine, in the Altar district of Sonora, Mexico. Assays made by Mark Wanless, Nogales assayer, are said to have shown values running as high as $100,168 to the ton. The mine was recently acquired by B. B. Buckeridge, Fort Worth, Texas, oil operator, from F. F. Saldamando of Nogales, Sonora. A test run of approximately 800 tons is being made in the mill of a neighboring mine. If returns warrant the expenditure, it is planned to install a mill at the Victoria property.
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The Boleo Copper Company of Santa Rosalia, Baja California, Mexico, A. Nopper, director, has reported a net loss of 8,707,898 fr. in 1980. In 1929, net profit was 24,904,285 fr. Production in 1980 was 12,600 metric tons. The average price received for its copper output last year was 11.664c per pound, compared with 18.095c, received in 1929.
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SANTA BARBARA, CHIHUAHUA, MX MINING HIST TMJ 8 30 1930
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HIGH GRADE GOLD IN EL TAMBOR, SINALOA, MX TMJ 8 30 1931
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 1 15 1930
MEXICO
The drop in silver prices, has created a further strain upon Mexican mines producing that metal, declared Genaro P. Garcia, president of the National Mining Chamber. He has petitioned the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Labor, for permission to reduce the working staffs at several of the smaller silver mines, contending that it is impossible for them to operate full force under existing price conditions.
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A ‘La Prensa’ dispatch from Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, states that 2,000 miners have been thrown out of work by the closing of the Real Del Monte silver mines, brought about principally by the decline in silver prices. The company for several weeks past had been seeking permission from the Department of Industry to reduce the number of laborers.
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Further exploration of the west ore body, along the San Nicholas Vein, of Cusi-Mexicana Mining Company at Cusihuiriachic, Chihuahua, Mexico, by drifting, has proven to date, a total length of 425 feet of milling ore, and immediately back of the fault gouge, seven more feet of milling ore has been found, making a total width of 15 feet of ore in the crosscut at this point. The raise from the Providencia Level encountered higher grade ore some two weeks ago, and continues to show improvement. The flow of water from the face of the drift, and from the raise, continues in heavy volume, seriously interfering with any attempt to open stopes from the Providencia Level at present, but this level should drain the upper portion of the ore body, which will be opened by two new levels now being driven. William N. Fink is general manager, and W. C. Swart, the company’s consulting engineer, was recently at the mine on an extended trip.
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Little hope is held for relief of unemployment in Chihuahua, Mexico, before completion of the new power dam, now under construction, according to current reports. A number of mining properties in the vicinity of Chihuahua City are now idle, on account of lack of power due to the drought in that district, and the cracking of the old dam by an earthquake a year ago.
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The high spot of the annual report of Mexican Corporation, S. A., Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico, is the substantial increase in the sulphide ore reserves at the company’s Fresnillo Mine, with production continuing at near capacity. On June 30, 1929, these reserves were estimated at
807,006 tons, compared with 477,860 tons last year, 207,193 tons of ore having been extracted.
In the oxide ore zone, the reserves were estimated at 2,073,000 tons, compared with 2,757,979 tons last year, 846,583 tons having been extracted.
More than pleasing results were obtained from exploration work at the company’s TeziutIan unit, Aire Libre, Puebla, Mexico, J. T Boyd, manager, and the ore reserves as of June 30, 1929, were placed at 128,000 tons, averaging 3 per cent copper, and 11 per cent zinc, compared with 55,000 tons last year. At this branch, plans are made for the sinking of a new shaft to the 400-m. level, for further exploration of the ore body revealed by diamond drilling.
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The 300-ton milling plant under construction at Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, by American Smelting & Refining Company, for the treatment of ores from the company’s properties at Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua, is to be ready for operation early in March. Gravity and flotation methods will be employed in concentration.
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Efforts of Santa Gertrudis Company, Ltd., Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, J. F. Berry, superintendent, are continuing, concentrated on the Dos Carlos Mine, and estimates are placed at 959,000 tons of ore in sight, containing 14,500,000 ounces silver, and 61,700 ounces gold. Considerable new equipment has been installed. The company’s El Bordo, and Malinche Mines, are said to be destined to soon join the exhausted ranks with the company’s El Cristo Mine.
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Operations have been suspended at the Santa Rosa Mining Company’s properties at Concepcion del Oro, Zacatecas, Mexico, in both mine and mill. The lack of rain during the year is in part responsible for the shutdown.
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The Mexican Government plans an exhaustive survey, and examination of entirely unexplored regions, in the Sierra Madre Mountains, in the states of Michoacan and Guerrero, in the hopes that valuable mineral deposits may be discovered, according to reports. The search is especially for gold values.
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Mining companies in Mexico disbursed dividends totaling $1,644,787 during the month of December 1929. The American Metal Company, Ltd., operating in the United States, as well as Mexico, paid a 75-cent quarterly on its common stock, which amounted to $680,984, and a $1.50 quarterly on preferred stock, amounting to $108,014. The American Smelting & Refining Company, with operations also in both countries, disbursed $1.75 a share this quarter, or $875,000; and Lucky Tiger-Combination Gold Mining Company paid its 2 ½-cent monthly, which amounted to $85,789.
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Good progress is being made in construction of the 75-ton milling plant, for United Eastern Mining Company, at Copala, Sinaloa, Mexico, and two Diesel electric units are shortly to be installed, of 800 horsepower each, according to Roy W. Moore, general manager, 1206 Pacific Mutual Building, Los Angeles, California. The shaft has been sunk on the vein 450 feet, under the direction of P. A. Wickham, superintendent, and levels have been run at 200, 825 and 450 feet. The property is held under agreement with Butters Copala Mines Co., Inc.
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At a special meeting of the directors of the Mexican Premier Mines Company, Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico, an initial dividend at 1 cent a share, on the outstanding capital stock was declared, payable January 15, 1930, to stockholders of record, at the close of business January 5, 1930. Raymond Guyer is president and manager.
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The Howe Sound Company, operating in Mexico under the name of El Potosi Mining Company, and also in British Columbia, has declared an extra dividend of 50 cents, and a regular quarterly dividend of $1, payable January 15, to stock of record, December 31. Six months ago, Howe Sound paid a similar extra of 50 cents a share.
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MINING LAWS OF MEXICO TMJ 1 15 1930
for JANUARY 15, 1930
Mining Laws and Regulations of Mexico1
By PAUL M. LIJVEBARGER, Washington, D. C.2
In spite of the simplicity of the original mining laws, their extensive applications have created much
confusion as to the procedure to be followed in Mexico.
This paper is one of a series of digests of foreign mining legislation and court decisions, prepared in advance of a general report relative to the rights of American citizens to explore for minerals, and to own and operate mines in various foreign countries. This interpretation of the laws of Mexico, has been prepared from the best information available in Washington, but is released subject to correction and amplification, if necessary, by the proper American diplomatic and consular officers, to whom it has been referred, through the courtesy of the Department of State.
Introduction
Present-day Mexican mining legislation involves, not only the latest mining enactment (August 1 1926), but many other enactments and regulations, principal among which are the constitution, the civil code, the code of commerce, the foreign law, the mining tax law, and the civil jurisprudence of Mexico—the last mentioned being based in part on supreme court decisions. The Mexican Federal government is supreme in mining legislation because, among other reasons, a large part of the revenue of the government must come from the fiscal control of the mines. All circulars, decrees, and rulings that affect the mines, not only have their origin in the central government, but are administered thereby.
The Department of Industry, Commerce, and Labor is in control of all mines. Attention may here be called, however, to Article 128 of the Federal Constitution, whereby the separate Mexican states (particularly Oaxaca and Guanajuato) have passed labor laws affecting mining operations. Certain of these laws will be discussed later. Throughout the following summary, references are given by numbers to pertinent articles of the law of August 1, 1926, or to the regulations of August 4, 1926. The original laws, despite their extensive applications, are comparatively simple, and are founded on readily perceived principles; thus they may be understood even by persons not skilled in law.
Classification of Mineral Industries
The Mexican law distinguishes three classes or divisions of mineral industries, as follows: (a) Primary Mineral Substances Division, (b) Petroleum and Gas Division, and (c) the Sundry Mineral Division. Article 8 clearly indicates under which division any particular mineral should be classified. The matter of classification is particularly important, for it determines the area to be staked out under a concession.
Ownership of Minerals
A distinction is made between surface rights and mining rights. The owner of the surface has no inherent right to most minerals that lie underneath the land that he owns. They belong to the nation; and in case the owner wishes to mine them, he must apply to the federal government for
the privilege. The list of government-owned minerals includes all those that are generally found in lodes or veins, although the distinction at times is more or less arbitrary. [Mexican] Federal government ownership extends to all substances from which commercial metals and metalloids are extractable, or which constitute their matrix, mineral carbons (with the exception of peat), graphite, and asbestos, rock salt, and other salts associated therewith, precious stones, and the waste products (tailings) discharged into waters under federal jurisdiction.
The owner of the surface rights, however, has title, not only to agricultural and forest lands, but also to the following:
All stone that cannot be utilized commercially in mining or oil industries; products obtained from the decomposition of such stone, or rock, when their extraction does not necessitate subterranean mining work covered by the law;
marine salts (tequesquite);
chalk;
building materials, and materials for aesthetic construction.
The owner has title also to the subterranean waters under his land, except those having their origin in mining operations (3), and likewise to surface currents of waters not barred by the constitution (art. 27, par. 5).
The federal government, nevertheless, claims ownership of soluble, abrasive, and coloring minerals, and on fertilizers (guano included). It claims also salts derived from marine waters, products obtained from the decomposition of stone when their extraction requires subterranean mining operations, amber, and other minerals of industrial use, when located on public lands.
Pertenencias
It is essential to understand the pertenencia, or Mexican land grant. Its operation is different generally from the American apex mining system, as it makes no provision for extralateral rights. The mining pertenencia is a solid, extending toward the center of the earth within four vertical planes in a horizontal square of 100 meters. The pertenencia of diverse mineral industries is a solid, extending toward the center of the earth, limited on the surface by vertical planes corresponding to the sides of a single, closed horizontal polygon, of which the surface is one hectare. The mining pertenencia as a unit of measurement and ownership, is not divisible, although a mining fraction (demasia) may be a portion of free ground existing between two or more mining lots not sufficient in extent to measure up to the full pertenencia. Such a fraction of a hectare is considered as one additional mining unit. The same thing is true of fractions in the diverse mineral industries.
Placer concessions and those covering minerals from decomposed rocks (art. 20), except when there is an agreement between the concession applicants and the proprietors of the soil, will be limited to 20 meters under the surface of the soil, measured perpendicularly to the level of the land (reg. 235).
Mining Grants in General
A permit must be obtained for prospecting; and the prospecting or exploration grant, as it is the beginning of all mining initiative, is the foundation for the other government grants of exploitation (art. 60), transportation and storage (art. 70), and grants for treatment plants (art. 80), as well as for certain rights connected with concessions.
The Department of Industry, Commerce and Labor alone has the right to exercise discretionary judgment in matters covered by the law, and then only in conformity with the law and the regulations. The official issuing a permit has no discretionary power. Concessions that are applied for, in full accordance with the constitution and other laws, must be granted by the Department of Industry, Commerce and Labor, through the Departments of Mines and of Industries and their agencies (reg. 2).
The granting of monopolistic concessions depends upon the degree of limitation of the monopoly determined by the Department of Industry, Commerce and Labor (art. 26). There is evidence of a limitation to monopoly in article 31.
Considering the terms “concession” and “grants” to be synonymous, we find that such grants, or concessions, of exploration (prospecting), and exploitation (operation), shall be granted only on what is termed “free ground.” The law specifically declares that the land already the object of a concession or otherwise involved by the actions of others shall not be considered free ground (arts. 28, 46, 47 and 48). No concession for exploration shall be granted in any built-up part of towns.
The government provides that agreements between the owner of the land, and the prospector, shall conform to the [precise stipulations] of the commercial code and the civil code. Contracts relating to mineral industry are considered mercantile agreements, and hence are governed by the commercial code (art. 128).
The prospector has exclusive rights within his claim, if his grant conforms to the law. The concession of exploration, or of exploitation, clearly states the concessionaire’s rights; and all the other concessions, if properly prepared, plainly define such rights. However, the prospector has no right outside of those granted by the concession, except a certain preferential right to obtain a new concession in certain cases (art. 36).
Duration of Grant
With certain exceptions (under the provision of art. 57), concessions shall not run longer than 30 years (art. 86); but a concessionaire who has complied with his obligations to the state has the right to obtain a new grant, covering all or part of the original concession. Exploration concessions, however, are limited to two years, calculated from the first day of the month following the date of the concession. But the permit may be extended three times, from year to year, when proof has been submitted to the Department of Industry, Commerce and Labor that certain work was performed during the previous year (art. 87).
The right to the provision of article 36 requires application to the proper mining agency, one year before the concession ends (reg. 287). A grant for the exploration or exploitation of carboniferous deposits, together with deposits of bog iron or float iron, of float tin or stream tin, and of other diverse minerals, is allowed a concessionary confirmation of 50 years, if it is within the requisites of articles 47 and 48.
Concessions for Prospecting
A grant is required before the work needful to the discovery of a mineral deposit, can be done (arts. 8, 53). This grant, or exploration concession, is merely a permit to prospect. A prospecting concession covers only the area and the minerals actually specified therein. The area is a rectangle, which must begin at some fixed and certain points. No side of the rectangle shall be over 1,000 meters in length for a mining concession, or 4,000 meters for coal or sundry mineral concessions (art. 55). The area covered by a concession to explore the beds and bottoms of rivers (placer ground), however, shall follow the windings of the river for a maximum length of 10 kilometers, with a width of 400 meters on each side of the center of the river.
To keep a permit in force, the concessionaire must prove to the satisfaction of the Department of Industry, Commerce, and Labor, that he has done a certain amount of exploratory work (art. 57). The department accepts the following minimum workings in shafts, openings, or pits: 10 meters for tracts up to 10 claims; 20 meters up to 50 claims; and 80 meters for areas greater than 50 claims. When exploration is made by drilling, the minimum amount of work done must be double that stated above (reg. 147).
Concessions for Exploitation
When the exploration under a prospecting concession proves the existence of some of the mineral substances for which the exploration has been made, the exploitation concession will be granted for mining in the area covered by the exploration concession (art. 60). Although the exploitation concession and the exploration concession must coincide in location, either in whole or in part, free land may be added to the perimeter covered by the exploration concession under duly prescribed conditions (arts. 12, 13, 60, and 62).
The total surface area of an exploitation concession, however, is limited in the case of the so-called “primary minerals’, to 100 mining claims (pertenencias), with an allowance of 1,000 pertenencias for coal or petroleum (“mineral carbon”). In the sundry minerals division, 400 hectares is the maximum exploitation concession (art. 62). Sediment and tailing deposits in river beds are likewise susceptible to exploitation concession (60, 61, 62, and 66).
An exploitation concession will not be granted before the expiration of two years, when the applicant has allowed a previous concession for part, or all of the same land, to lapse.
The surveyor (perito) shall always take as a basis, the area of land solicited for in the application for a concession. He may not change the boundaries thereof; but if as a result of his work he realizes that the application embraces land that has already been included in a prior concession, or for any other reason is not available under the law, he shall limit himself to measuring off only the available land referred to in the petition, and shall include in his explanatory report all observations applicable to the case. The survey must be made by an expert registered in the local agency, or in the office of the secretary of the Department of Industry, Commerce, and Labor.
Right, of Access, Millsites, etc.
Transportation and storage concessions (arts. 70 to 79), as well as those covering metallurgical smelting plants, and preparation and milling plants (arts. 80 to 88), are provided for in detail and at some length in the law, but they can not easily be summarized in a general statement. The mining law effective August 1, 1926, assigns certain rights connected with concessions (arts. 86 to 99).
Rights of Aliens
Only Mexicans and Mexican companies have the right to obtain mining grants; but by virtue of paragraph 1 of article 27 of the Constitution, the State may concede the same right to foreigners provided they declare before the Secretary of Foreign Relations that they are subject to Mexican laws, as Mexican citizens, as far as the property involved is concerned, and that they will not invoke in behalf thereof, the protection of their own governments (art. 24; reg. 266-267, Organic Law of sec. 1, of art. 27, of the Constitution; arts, 46, 90; reg. 286).
If the petitioner for a grant is a foreigner, within 60 days of the filing of his petition, he should present a certificate to the Secretary of Foreign Relations, setting forth his renunciation of his foreign rights of recourse, as far as the concessions are concerned. The petition must state the name, age, occupation, nationality, and domicile of the petitioner, with an indication of the exploration or exploitation right that is sought, and in the case of an exploitation concession, whether or not it is derived from a former concession. Likewise, the number of the lot, its boundary lands, and the name of the municipality in which it is located, together with the number of pertenencias that make it up and the kind of minerals to be taken out, should be given. A survey shall set forth the points of beginning, the boundaries, and the area of the lot.
After complying with the exactions of article 27 of the Constitution, and the respective regulatory laws, foreign individuals have virtually the same privileges with regard to obtaining concessions that Mexican citizens have. Foreign companies, however, under no circumstances are granted concessions (art. 24), and neither foreign companies, nor foreign governments are permitted to obtain such concessions by assignment. They cannot even be partners or associates of companies holding such concessions.
Transfers
Concessions are not to be transferred, either in whole, or in part, without the approval of the Secretary of Industry, Commerce, and Labor, but the Secretary is not empowered to deny any such transfer without showing a justification in the written law.
The concessions and the rights derived from concessions granted in accordance with this law, cannot be transferred, neither wholly nor partially, to foreign corporations, governments, or sovereigns, nor shall they be admitted therein as partners or co-associates, nor can there be constituted in their favor any rights whatsoever in connection with same. Consequently, the concessions wherein [that] may be violated, the restrictions as established in the present article become, ipso facto, null and void (art. 25).
Uniting two or more exploration concessions by transfer or otherwise for the purpose of obtaining a sole concession of exploitation is prohibited (art. 81).
Applications
Priority in the application for a concession gives a preference over subsequent applications (art. 101). The Department of Industry, Commerce, and Labor, which issues all permits, establishes offices knovn as agencies, to represent it in the matter of applications, and other matters. These agencies are controlled, not only by the law, but by special regulations. The applicant must be prepared to prove general responsibility. In cases of doubt, the agents refer the applications to the central office in Mexico City, where responsibility may have to be proved.
The following forms, abridged and translated from the Boletin Minero (April, 1927), may be helpful in giving a general idea of the practice before these agencies, in the matter of applications.
Application Form
Agent of Mines and Diverse Mineral Industries in Casas Grandes, Chih.:
The undersigned, of his own right, by virtue of articles 24 and 100 of the Law of Mineral Industries, and of articles 27 and 31 of the Regulations, presents the following petition: (Here follows the name of the petitioner, with his age, occupation, nationality, address, where he is to receive notification, residence, nature of application, name of the mining lot, boundaries of lot, municipality, number of pertenencias, metals, identification of lot, point of departure, and surveying line.)
In compliance with the prescriptions of article 95 of the Regulations of the Fiscal Laws, I declare that my emoluments do not amount to the sum of $125 a month.
Wherefore, this petition being in conformance with the law, the agency is respectfully requested to register the same, in order to obtain the corresponding procedure.
Mineral el Sabinal, Chih., 11 de octubre, 1926.
C. Antonio Lemus.
This petition must be signed and delivered personally by the petitioner, or by his legal representative, or person holding power of attorney. If the petitioner is a foreigner, he shall within 60 days from the presentation of the petition present his certificate from the foreign secretary, showing that he renounces foreign rights with respect to the concession that he wishes to obtain. If a concession is sought for deposits in the bottom, or the bed of rivers, there must be a certificate also from the secretary of agriculture and development, showing that the water or river wherein such deposits are found are under Federal jurisdiction.
Within 60 days of the acceptance of the petition, there shall be filed the survey and the report of an expert, duly registered in the agency or in the Department of Industry, Commerce, and Labor. In order to assess the amount of the deposit that shall be made to guarantee the execution of the work necessary to maintain the validity of the concession, the distance, location, and direction of the lot nearest the railroad, principal route, or port shall be submitted.
Export Report reform pleas
(Claims having boundaries on free land)
Agent of Mines and Diverse Minerals Industries in Casas Grandes, Chih., I, Luis Pavon, an expert registered in this agency, being commissioned by C. Antonio Lemus, to survey lot 11, for the exploitation of a mine called the “Alhambra,” has the honor to present the following report, manifesting that upon making the survey, he took into consideration the descriptions of the petition herein, of which the contents are known to him: (here follow the registered number of the petition, name of the concession, name of the petitioner, boundaries, municipality and State, area, survey data, and products to be worked).
Adverse Claimants
The mining law of August 1, 1926, gives as particular causes for filing adverse claims against a petition for a concession, those who trespass on land that is not free (art. 28), and trespass on land already covered by an application (art. 118).
Registry of Concessions
The Code of Commerce, when other provision is not made by the law of August 1, 1926, controls mineral-industry operations, and contracts for the exploration, exploitation, or sale of mineral substances, as well as other contracts relating thereto (art. 128). A public registry of mineral industries is maintained in the Department of Industry, Commerce, and Labor, wherein documents should be registered (arts. 128 to 186).
Forfeiture of Concessions
The forfeiture of concessions is entirely under the control of the Department of Industry, Commerce, and Labor (art. 169). Failure to prove the production required, in articles 88, 89, 41, and 42, failure to give the bond required, in article 98, failure to commence or finish work required by law (arts. 70 to 88), interruption of transportation service or of milling operations, the transfer of a concession without permission from the Department of Industry, Commerce and Labor, or nonpayment of taxes is ground for annulment.
Fees and Royalties, & Concession Fees
The following fee bill, which appeared in the Boletin Minero of April, 1927, (p. 278), gives an approximate idea of the cost of acquiring a concession of 10 hectares, for the exploitation of precious metals and certain industrial metals.4
Registry Fees
A tariff schedule for the recording of documents in the Mineral Industries Register, in the Department of Industry, Commerce, and Labor, establishes the following fees: For documents of fixed value, one-tenth of 1 per cent, the charge to be not less than 50 centavos, nor more than 100 pesos; for documents of an indeterminate value, from 50 centavos, to 2 pesos 50 centavos; inscription of each concession title, 5 pesos; and issuing certificates, 50 centavos, including search. (Schedule of July 81, 1926.)
Guarantee Deposits and Taxes
Guarantee deposits must also be made (art. 182, reg. 60).
Space does not permit a detailed statement of the present tax law, which went into effect on May 1, 1927. The law treats chiefly, the tax on manufactured products of mines, and hence does not materially concern the grantee of a permit of exploration.
Labor Laws
Labor laws have been passed by some of the Mexican states, in conformance with the direction of article 27 of the Constitution. There is some talk of the federalization of those labor laws, that affect mines, but this is highly conjectural and perhaps improbable, because the application of mining labor laws must be more or less localized, and hence depend for their execution, upon state authorities. The States of Oaxaca and Guanajuato have stressed state mining-labor laws, and it is doubtful, in view of state activity in this respect, that Federal control will intervene.
Obligatory Employment of Mexican Mine Workers
Ninety percent of the mine operatives must be Mexicans, and the smallest proportion of Mexican employees in each grade of employment, with the same salary schedule as that of foreigners, must be not less than 50 percent for the first year, 60 percent for the second year, 15 percent for the third year, and 90 percent when the fourth year of the concession is ended.
The Department of Industry, Commerce, and Labor may excuse, for the time being, strict compliance with this obligation upon sufficient showing of justification therefore (reg. 284).
Relief of the Mexican Petroleum Law
The Mexican petroleum laws are voluminous; the regulations published on December 15, 1927, alone comprise 861 sections; but they have been briefly summarized in an official publication of the Mexican government (La Industria del Petroleo en Mexico, Talleres Graficos de La Nacion, 1927), from which the following abstract has been prepared.
Subsoil Petroleum Belongs to the State
Since the combustible minerals contained in the subsoil are the property of the Central Government, only Federal authority has the right to initiate, regulate, and safeguard the petroleum industry. This principle of public Federal ownership being entirely within the jurisdiction of the Mexican Federal Government, none of the separate states has the right either to legislate or intervene in such jurisdiction, in whatsoever appertains to the petroleum industry in an administrative, or fiscal relation.
Rights of Owner on Surface
When the state has granted a concession to prospect or develop a petroleum grant, the exercise of this concession entails upon the concessionaire, the obligation toward the owner of the ground, merely to pay him any reasonable damage caused by its occupation and development. If the proprietor of the ground makes unreasonable and exaggerated demands for such damage, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce acts as arbitrator, and the concessionaire may begin his development work at the time he is so authorized by his concession, without any delay arising from the denial of consent by the owner of the land.
How Concessions are Obtained
The Petroleum law promulgated December 31, 1925, determines the kinds of concessions that may be granted in accordance with the Constitution. These concessions are for exploration, for exploitation, for transportation, for storage, and for the refining of petroleum. The government, in granting these concessions, makes them applicable to public lands only, considering as such all those thnt are not affected by any right recognized by the law itself nor acquired before the date of the petition for the concession.
A concession of exploration, when granted, gives to the concessionaire the exclusive right to prospect the ground described in it, within the time limit set therein, which may be, according to the surface extent of the grant, five years. The concessionaire is obligated to perform certain development work in prospecting for petroleum. This development work is to be accredited each year, and proof of an expenditure of a certain sum of money must be shown.
When the concessionaire has struck oil, he has the right to such an extension of his development field, as he may consider practicable, under a concession of exploitation. The life of this exploitation concession, according to the circumstances of the case, may be 30 years, without the concessionaire’s losing the right to continue the prospecting work on the remainder of the land during the five years previously mentioned, or during an additional five years, that the law concedes as an extension. That is to say, if a person or a company acquires a petroleum concession of exploration on 100,000 hectares of land, with such concession will go the right to prospect these 100,000 hectares during a period of five years. If within even the first year of such exploration, oil-bearing indications, as shown by a producing well, are discovered on a portion of the tract—for example, 1,000 hectares—the concession of exploitation may be obtained upon these 1,000 hectares, and the exclusive right of exploration on the other 99,000 hectares shall be continued, until the expiration of the five years mentioned previously. Other portions of the tract may be successively set aside for exploitation; but if at the end of five years there shall remain portions of the 100,000 hectares that have not been sufficiently explored, the operator may obtain a further concession or extension for the purpose of exploration for five more years. As stated, concessions for exploitation may continue, according to the circumstances of the case, for 80 years; and they are extendable.
Mixed Concessions—Both For Exploration and Exploitation
The system described above, according to which concessions of exploitation give way to concessions of exploration, is not absolute, because when the concessionaire is certain that he will strike oil, and the Ministry of Industry is convinced that he will, the concessionaire may immediately obtain a mixed concession of exploration and exploitation, under the theory that all the lands subject to the exploitation grant will be segregated eventually with those that are still in a state of exploration.
to the right of the prospector, therefore, land that he has prospected for petroleum is well vested during the life of the exploration concession. During all this period the concessionaire has the exclusive right to obtain an additional concession of exploitation upon part or all of the land; and, also, the law concedes him an additional three months in which to obtain the concession of exploitation.
Likewise, the right under a concession of exploitation is absolutely indisputable and inviolable, during the life of the concession, as long as the concessionaire complies with the obligations imposed upon him by the law and its regulations.
Concessions for Oil Refineries, etc.
Concessions are likewise granted for refineries and oil carriers (oleoductos). When a concession is granted by the government for a pipeline, or other oil-carrying enterprise, or for a refinery, the concessionaire may count upon the public-utility privileges permitted by law, among which are the free importation of necessary materials; the free use of public lands that may be practicable for the development of the enterprise; and, finally, in cases of necessity, the condemnation of the lands under private ownership, without suffering the delay that might be caused by the opposition of the private owners.
In order to encourage the establishment of oil-transportation facilities, storage stations, and refining plants, the law has now done away with contracts requiring a transit payment for the use of private lands, which formerly were obtained only at extortionate rates.
Constitutional Right of Foreigners to Take Out Petroleum Concessions
From November 22, 1884, to May 1, 1917, when the present Constitution became operative, diverse laws were in effect that departed from the uses and customs of centuries, in matters pertaining to combustible minerals, by bestowing the ownership thereof upon the owner of the surface of the land. The Constitution of 1917, returning to the basic principle that has endured for centuries, returned to the people, the direct ownership of petroleum and of the natural hydrocarbons that are found with it. The Constitution, moreover, restored the right of Mexicans, and Mexican companies, to obtain concessions for the exploration, the exploitation, and the utilization of oil.
The Constitution of May 1, 1917, however, authorizes foreigners also to obtain the same concessions whenever they agree to consider themselves Mexicans, for the purpose of exercising the rights conferred upon them.
Reprinted from U. S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular No. 6182.
2. Principal translator. U. S. Bureau of Mines, Washington, D. C.
3. At times water flowing from mine openings has been commandeered for the use of a local community.
4. See also tariff of fees to the agents of the Department of Industry, Commerce, and Labor, in the Mining and Sundry Mineral Industry Branches. July 31, 1926.
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More than 5,700,000 pounds of copper and its alloys, brass and bronze, are being used in the “Bremen” and its sister ship, “Europa,” now under construction in Germany.
(Continued on page 20)
i.
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MEXICO CITY NEWSLETTER -AND PLEAS TMJ 1 15 1930
[REHAB Notes: The way it still is.]
THE MINING JOURNAL for JANUARY 15, 1930
Mexico City News Letter
By R. B. BRINSMADE, Mexico City, Mexico.
The recent collapse in silver prices has created a new crisis for mines in Mexico.
The Mexican mineral industry enters the New Year, with an outlook even more gloomy than the three previous New Years, which have succeeded the sudden collapse in silver prices in August, 1926. Of the five principal metals in Mexico, silver, lead, zinc, copper and gold, only the last two are now at satisfactory prices. Since 1925, silver has fallen 35 percent in price, lead 15 percent, and zinc 12 percent.
As silver is the most widely distributed, and by far, the most abundantly mined of these five metals, its ruinous cheapness, caused by market conditions in India and China, over which our producers have no control, means a dreadful disaster here. Up to the recent drop from 51 to 43 cents an ounce, even the largest and best equipped silver mines, had been able to continue only by decrease of taxation, drastic economy in expenditure, and radical improvements of extraction methods.
Such was also the case, though in lesser degree, in the great mines of the Parral District of Chihuahua, which are lead-zinc rather than pure silver producers, and which have been vastly benefited since 1925, by the perfection of selective flotation, eliminating zinc from the lead concentrate and enabling it to be profitably marketed by itself. However, [during} the last year, the Chihuahua mines have had their own peculiar grief, due to the drought, and the consequent shortage of the hydroelectric power from the Boquillas Dam, which is essential in large amount, for the pumping of those wet mines.
In 1929, the depressing effect of low metal prices could no longer be exorcised by economies, and began to show itself in a marked decline of production, both in silver and base metals, as compared with 1928. The introduction of more labor-saving machinery and the curtailment of operations had already thrown 20,000 metal miners, and 2,000 petroleum workers, out of work at the end of 1928, or over 25 percent of those formerly employed in the mineral industry. The gradual discharge of employees still continued during 1929, till the December collapse of silver, inaugurated a new crisis. The Mexican Chamber of Mines, now estimates that 7,000 more men will lose their jobs within the next three months; in Pachuca, the Real del Monte company will discharge 750, and the San Rafael company 850 men; in Jalisco, the Cinco Minas, the Amparo, and other smaller silver mines will dismiss 700 men, while the Zacatecas producers will account for a like number.
In Guanajuato, where the ore is of lower grade than in the other mentioned states, the labor outlook is even worse. About all the Chamber can do now is to ask the Federal Department of Labor to dispense with the red tape necessary for getting permission to make these adjustments of personnel, so that the companies will not be obliged to lose more money needlessly, by continuing to employ workmen whose services have become unprofitable.
To add to the depression caused by mining misfortune, is the loss of crops due to the October frost on the Central Plateau. The government statisticians estimate the loss of the chief food, maize, as 623,000 tons, or 30 percent of the normal, and of the second food, beans, as 78,000 tons, or 42 percent of the normal. These deficits have already been reflected by a sharp increase of price in the retail markets, in spite of arrangements for increased food imports from the United States. The decreased payroll in metals and petroleum, was reflected by 2,000 textile operatives being unemployed at the end of 1928, and the present new decreases of the incomes of farmers and mines, must not only close more textile mills, but affect other factories, and all commerce, in general.
After spending a large part of its sessions in discussing the labor law proposed by President Portes Gil, the congress adjourned, sine die, on December 31, without approving it. This was a lucky event, as this law is based on the theories of militant syndicalism, and would enable clever, and unscrupulous labor leaders, to soon put many other large employers in the same fix, as the National Railways: where, since 1921, the personnel has absorbed all the operating revenues, and created a huge annual deficit besides, which had to be paid from the federal treasury. It is a common failing of hopeless victims of drink and other vices, to have a mania for infecting innocents with their own appetite, in order to ruin them.
Such seems to be the case here with the railway union, called Alianza de Ferrocarrileros Mexicanos, which has just published an appeal of which a free translation is as follows:
“It is urgent for the President to suggest to the permanent commission of Congress that a special session be called.
Our organization believes that the national proletariat should not allow that this time, as on other previous ones, the opposing social interests hinder the realization of a project which is so needed in order to consecrate in a definite way the conquests already achieved.
If it does allow the hindrance, it will find that political influences are not constant but unstable, and that the conservatives always manage to submit the working class to their old oppressive practices. We believe that the union representatives, who took part in the convention for the labor law, last August, have viewed this problem with indifference, to the detriment of our class, and this is the more lamentable because the capitalist class, with no pause in its offensive, continues to impede the evolution of the labor movement.
Whether the non-passage of the law be due to the activity of the bourgeois, or to temporary political interests, or [because of] apathy on the part of certain groups of the Chamber of Deputies, it is sure that today, like yesterday, we are beholding the failure of our hopes for an advanced legislation in spite of the intense social agitation of the past year. We, therefore, beg for an extra session of congress in order that the peoples’ representatives may satisfy the intense national longing for a labor legislation which not only shall agree with present realities but correspond to the future needs of the proletariat.”
It is believed that the government will be deaf to this plea in order not to make the unemployment crisis still worse. The truth is that the country can never hope to restore its former economic prosperity till the labor article, No. 128, and the land article, No. 27, of the Constitution of 1917 are radically amended. Article 128 practically destroys the property rights of employers by transferring their power to fix wages and divide profits to political bodies called Commissions of Arbitration. It thus puts industry into politics, wille nille, and encourages labor leaders in the pleasing prospect (realized already for the railway unions and the port stevedores) of absorbing the whole income of an enterprise, and leaving the shareholders only its worthless titles.
Any economic student can see that this plan can only help those few unions who operate some essential public utility, which can freely tax the public for its services, or certain tariff protected factory, whose prices may be raised behind the tariff wall as fast as wages are increased, or some dock monopoly which can prevent the passage of goods till its demands have been satisfied by the importers.
Any employer who is freely exposed to competition as to the price of his product, as are most Mexican miners, cannot long submit to syndicalist exactions without incurring ruin. If he can’t hire labor when needed, or discharge it, when inefficient or superfluous, without constant interference from politicians, his job becomes a burden, instead of a blessing, and will be relinquished at the first opportunity.
The best example in practice of the disastrous agrarian policy authorized by Art. 2.7 is the state of Morelos where, 20 years ago, was a flourishing cane sugar industry, established on irrigated land then valued at $2,000 to $8,000 (Mex.) per hectare (roughly 2 acres). First the state’s 18 modern refineries were destroyed by the senseless feuds of the Carranzistas and Zapatistas, and, since 1920, the sugar lands have been wrenched from their owners and given away to local peons.
Recently the National Agrarian commission announced that: “The agrarian problem of Morelos is settled and landowners need fear no further seizure of their holdings.” But this simply means that landowners have been stripped clean and have nothing left to seize, according to the commission, unacknowledged in its report. Of the total area of 24,568 hectares of irrigated land, only 1,227 hect. now remains in the hands of its real owners, the balance has been commandeered and paid for at par in agrarian bonds, now quoted at 80 per cent discount.
While many may have little sympathy for the losing haciendados (great landlords) because they were usually selfish and unpatriotic, they are the lesser sufferers in the case, for the chief value of the irrigated land is not due to nature, but to canals and dams which cost millions, obtained on mortgage loans from banks and the middle class of investors, who will now have to whistle for their money. Moreover, the new owners, the village communes of barbarian Indians, having no capital, initiative or competence to properly utilize these expensive lands, are producing only a fraction of what they yielded in 1910, when well cultivated.
Finally, the so-called settlement of the agrarian problem in Morelos indicates how little the original idea of “land restoration” has been observed in this case, Of a total of 185 village petitions for land, which were granted by the commission, only three were “restitutions,” i. e., land originally village properties and of which they had been illegally dispossessed. As the latter class of land formed the only reasonable basis for the agrarian seizures, one can judge how efficiently Mexican politicians usually follow their announced program when, as in this case, they have done so in only three out of 185 cases or a matter of 98 per cent failure.
The final explanation of the whole matter is that Mexican social reformers have only the most elementary notion of the science of political economy, Instead of leaving working producers unhampered by politicians, and confining reform to the elimination of such parasites as speculators and monopolists, the opposite program has been pursued. In 1910 the Mexican system of taxation was most undemocratic iIn the country, the great estates were fraudulently underassessed, and in the cities (especially in the center of wealth, Mexico City) the urbanization of new suburbs by streets, sewers and pavements, was paid [for] from the public treasury, instead of by levies against the benefited land as in the United States. Moreover, most of the municipal incomes were raised by taxes on consumption, while in the United States cities, a large amount comes from the land value or the social increment caused by urban growth.
Finally, a hothouse tariff had fostered many factories whose only excuse was the desire of their promoters to [get rich ast the expense of] consumers, especially miners and such, like foreign employers of labor on a large scale. To all these former economic abuses, the revolutionary reformers have given a practical answer like the verbal one of the Hebrew Rehoboam, son of King Solomon, who said: “Whereas, my father lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father has chastened you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.” (I Kings, 12, 11.)
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 1 30 1930
THE MINING JOURNAL
MEXICO
The Parroquia Property of Canam Mex. Mines, Ltd., in the State of Zacatecas, Mexico, is now unwatered to the 175-meter level, and recent examinations and samplings, indicate that the ore continues at this level, as above. The ore is complex, carrying zinc, lead, copper, silver, and some gold. The upper workings of this mine, which carried oxidized ores, are considered practically exhausted. On the Capilla Property, to the west of the Parroquia, the vein may be traced for 1,500 feet or more, and the San Roberto Property of the company, carries ore of a similar character to that of the Parroquia, but on a larger scale. It is proposed to drill the San Roberto at considerable depth, and undercut the present workings to determine whether or not the vein becomes more strongly copper-bearing at depth. The Zaragossa Mine has not yet been unwatered, but has a strong outcrop, and carries a mineralization similar to that of the company’s other properties. Canam Mex. is controlled by Clement K. Quinn, 1050 Union Trust Building, Duluth, Minnesota, and associates.
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The Amajac Mines Company, which has experienced considerable difficulty in operation of its properties at Ixtlan del Rio, Nayarit, Mexico, is now making negotiations for the sale of a part of its stock, to secure funds for further development work and improvements. This property, of which W. E. Michell is general manager, is equipped for the milling of 50 tons of ore per day, as well as necessary mine facilities, including an air compressor, drills, pump and an electric hoist. Development work was delayed by the revolution in that country, and the death of two of the company’s promoters. Principal offices of the organization are located at 410 Sunbury Trust Company Building, Sunbury, Pennsylvania, J. I. Higbee, president.
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Another labor strike is said to be brewing in Santa Rosalia, Baja California, Mexico, since the Boleo Copper Company has refused to comply with demands made by the workmen. Previous demands of the miners had been met, and a direct raise of 90 cents a day was given to common laborers. Nevertheless, in August, it was reported that several thousand workers walked out from the mines and smelter. This project is backed by French capital.
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The Victoria Lead-Zinc Properties, in Tamaulipas, Mexico, are being examined by Neg. Minera de San Rafael y Anexas of Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, B. A. Conrads, director general, and if reports are sufficiently favorable, a cable tramway may be built to the railroad. Development work at this point, has heretofore been held up because of inadequate transportation.
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Work has been started on the addition of cyanide equipment, to the amalgamation plant of the Verdina Mining Company, operating a gold property near Carbo, Sonora, Mexico. The mill has been in operation for a number of years. R. D. Harper, 586 North Arizona Avenue, Tucson, Arizona, is manager of the company.
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The Federal Board of Conciliation in Mexico, has started investigations of circumstances governing the recent request of Cia. de Real del Monte y Pachuca, at Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, for permission to curtail activities, and release 750 laborers. Real del Monte, which is a subsidiary of U. S. Smelting, Refining & Mining Company, produces 250,000,000 ounces of silver a year, and is one of the largest silver mining companies in the world. After studying conditions governing Real del Monte’s request, the federal board will turn to other mining companies, one of which is El Bordo, also at Pachuca, which is asking for a complete shut-down.
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The new mill under construction by Union Copper Company, S. A., at Tepezala, Aguascalientes, Mexico, Henry Wyman, general manager, is scheduled to go into operation this month. E. J. Harrison, chief engineer in charge of construction, was lately in San Luis Potosi, rushing a shipment of necessary material.
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The City of Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, made its final bid for the proposed new zinc smelter, to be built by the San Francisco Mines of Mexico, San Francisco del Oro, Chihuahua, when Mayor Gustavo Flores notified E. A. Strout, general manager of the mining company, that the city would furnish all the land necessary for the plant, together with all co-operation possible, if the plant would be located at that place.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 6 15 1930
for JUNE 15, 1930
MEXICO
During the month of May, American Smelting & Refining Company paid its regular $1-quarterly dividend on common stock, totaling $1,829,940. This company, with properties in various countries, was the only organization operating in Mexico, that reported a dividend disbursement for that month. Directors of the company, at a recent special meeting, voted to authorize the offering of $20,000,000 of 6 percent second preferred stock, now held in the treasury. The stock is to be sold at not less than $100 par value, and is callable at $105. The proceeds will be used for acquisition of new properties, expansion of business, and other corporate uses.
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Current reports show that on March 31, of this year, American Smelting & Refining Company, had net working capital of $66,007,091, compared with $67,465,642 on December 31, 1929. Cash demand loans, and government securities, at the end of March, totaled $25,039,662, against total current liabilities of $22,618,064, without giving effect to the sale of $20,000,000 six percent preferred stock.
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The Cia. Fundidora y Afinadora de Monterrey, S. A., is reported building a mill on the El Toro mining property, near Santa Barbara, Chihuahua, Mexico.
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The San Francisco Mines of Mexico at San Francisco del Oro, Chihuahua, Mexico, E. A. Strout, general manager, is at this time, working on a 500-ton addition to its present milling plant. A 900-meter tunnel is being driven for an underground tramway to connect the north and south shafts of the San Francisco Mine, and a new tramway to the Clarines Mine is being planned. This is one of the most up-to-date properties in Mexico.
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The Antimony Oxide Company, Dr. B. L. Hudspeth, Santa Ana, Sonora, Mexico, is planning on putting a small mill on one of its gold-copper claims. The property is located near Magdalena, Sonora, Mexico.
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Plans are being made to equip the Soledad Mine at Llano, Sonora, Mexico, with hoisting and pumping facilities, for immediate operation. This silver-lead mine was lately taken over by A. E. Place, mining engineer, 1020 Haas Building, Los Angeles, and F. F. Kip of San Diego, California. It is reported that the ore shoot in this property is 500 feet in length. The first-class ore assays from 40 to 50 percent lead, and 250 ounces silver, per ton, it is stated, with the middle-grade product ranging from 10 to 30 percent lead, and from 80 to 40 ounces silver, to the ton. This property was formerly owned by the family of Colonel W. C. Greene of Cananea, Sonora, and is said to have had a past production record of approximately $500,000.
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After the recent directors meeting of Greene Cananea Copper Company, J. W. Allen, secretary, made the following statement: “Action on the quarterly dividend has been postponed until the June meeting, in order that the time of declaration and payment may conform to date of the dividend action of Anaconda Copper Mining Company, of which this company is a subsidiary.”
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William Kemp, manager of the Federal Copper Company, Box 2646, Tucson, Anzona, reports work at the company’s properties, in the Altar District of Sonora, Mexico, progressing nicely, with several new veins, carrying values in copper, silver and gold, being developed. New surface structures are being built at the property, among which is a house for Mr. Kemp and his daughter, who expect to be at the mines much of the time.
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Ore reserves at the Tigre Mine, of Lucky Tiger-Combination Gold Mining Company, El Tigre, Sonora, Mexico, have diminished to a little more than a year’s supply at the present reduced milling rate, and additional exploration is being undertaken in an effort to develop new ore. Under the direction of F. W. Bailey, mine superintendent, extensive crosscuts are being driven east and west from the known veins in the property, and further development is being pushed along the Main, and the Seitz Veins. At the present time, the company’s 225-ton mill at El Molino, Sonqra, is handling about 150 tons of ore daily. Development work has further confirmed the opinion that the Gold Hill orebody practically terminated on the No. 18 level, it is stated, and exploration along the faulted segment of the vein below the No. 15 level has failed to develop ore. According to reports, Lucky Tiger-Combination made a net profit, after all charges and additions, of $175,277 in 1929, which compares with $458,632 the previous year. The company has total assets of $5,172,i70, and current and working assets of $1,602,576.
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At Vicente Guerrero, Durango, Mexico, San Nicolas Mining & Milling Company, Henry B. Hanson, manager, is at present working three mines, and is handling 250 tons of ore daily. The 400-ton flotation mill is treating material from the mine, as well as old tailings. The tailings milled contain silver-lead-zinc values, and are recognized as the most difficult of treatment in Mexico, requiring washing in Dorr thickeners, before flotation, to remove ferrous sulphates.
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For the quarter ended March 31, 1930, reports of Ahumada Lead Company, Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico, show a net loss of $37,931, after depreciation, taxes, etc., which compares with a net loss of $13,659 in the first quarter of 1929. In the three months ended March 1, 1930, the company produced 6,618 tons of ore, from which the smelter returned 2,815,989 pounds of lead, all of which was sold.
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The Fresnillo Company at Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico, is handling 2,500 tons of oxide ore, and 800 tons of sulphide ore, per day, the latter containing values in lead, silver, copper and zinc, according to Daniel Johnson, mine superintendent. Approximately 800 meters of development work is being accomplished per month. The company is now deepening its two hoisting shafts, as well as a large counter shaft, the present low level being 425 meters. The next level will be run at 560 meters. Steel sets are used in the shafts where the ground needs holding, and where the ground is solid, steel I-beams are used for guides. The company has about 85 miles of development. Most of the ground is hard, requiring very little timbering.
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The American Metal Co., Ltd., reports for the quarter ended March 31, 1930, consolidated net income of $773,873, after depreciation and federal income taxes. This compares with $766,471 in the corresponding quarter of 1929. The pro forma consolidated balance sheet of the American Metal Co., Ltd., and its subsidiary companies, as of December 31, 1929 showed current assets of $41,822,557 and current liabilities of $6,514,983 leaving net working capital of 34,807,624. This company operates properties in both the United States and Mexico.
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ORE VEIN FAULTS ON EL TIGRE PROPERTY, MX TMJ 6 30 1930
TIGRE COMPANY SEEKS CONTINUATION OF FAULTED VEIN
Click to see full size image
F. W. Bailey, in complete charge of mine operations of El Tigre Mining Company, at El Tigre, Sonora, Mexico, reports the development program of that company, at a critical stage, due to faulting on the 1,600 foot Level, completely cutting off the vein. He states that there is an apparent displacement of 800 feet.
The El Tigre Company has completed a most extensive geological study of conditions in the mine, and is now doing considerable development on the west side of the fault with the hope of picking up the vein beyond the fault, and again reviving this famous old property, which has helped make mining history in Mexico.
Last month it was reported that ore reserves at the Tigre Mine had diminished to a little more than a year’s supply, at the present reduced milling rate. Under Mr. Bailey’s supervision, extensive cross-cuts are being driven east and west, from the known veins in the property, and further development is being pushed along the main and the Seitz veins. The company uses the cut and fill system of mining, and produces about 6,000 tons per month. The company’s 225-ton milling plant at El Molino, Sonora, is handling about 160 tons of ore daily.
Mr. Bailey, a graduate of the Texas School of Mines, is well able to supervise mine work at El Tigre, having devoted the past 10 years to mining in that country, most of which time was spent at Parral, Chihuahua. At Parral, he occupied the various positions of mine surveyor with Alvarado Mining & Milling Company; mill shift boss of San Patricio Mining & Milling; and assayer, mine shift boss and mine foreman with American Smelting & Refining Company. He has been with El Tigre company during the past two years.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 6 30 1930
MEXICO
Reports of Greene-Cananea Copper Company for 1929, show production of 58,826,951 pounds of copper, 402,080 ounces of silver, and 12,865 ounces of gold. A net income of $3,018,254, after federal taxes, depreciation, etc., but before depletion, was realized, compared with $1,957,047 the previous year. Construction expenditures during the year amounted to $989,195, mainly for remodeling the flotation and concentration plants, and installation of waste heat boilers. The balance sheet as of December 31, last, showed current assets of $4,647,686, against current liabilities of $1,996,416, leaving a net working capital of $2,651,222, against a net working capital of $8,828,398 for the previous year.
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Directors of American Smelting & Refining Company, June 17, declared a regular quarterly dividend of $1 per share, on common stock. Because of the situation in the copper industry, and the general reduction in dividends by the producing companies, it had been reported that the company might take other than regular action.
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S. N. Cook, in charge of operations of The Fresnillo Company, Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico, reports that capacity of the company’s flotation plant has been substantially increased, and is operating at high efficiency. An additional increase in production will take place some time this fall. Although the continued decline in the price of silver has made necessary the suspension of development work in the oxide mine, the company continues to be able to produce silver at a cost below the present market price, and maintain operations on the same scale, as formerly. Development in the sulphide mine is very satisfactory, and the ore reserve estimate will show a substantial increase. It is understood that sinking of the Saraos Shaft, on the Cueva Santa Sulphide Vein, has reached its present objective of the 560-meter Level, and a station has been cut preparatory to development work. A hoist has been put in place at the 425-meter Level, and sinking of the East Winze on the Cueva Santa Vein, below that point, has commenced. Development of both the Plomosa, and the Agripo Veins continue favorable.
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The American Smelting & Refining Company has announced its intention of reducing the working week at its Avalos, Chihuahua, plant, in Mexico, to one day each week, because of a scarcity of metal, according to reports. The Potosi Mining Company, also in Chihuahua, has asked permission to dismiss 125 workmen because of the reduced price of silver. The West Mexican Mines, Ltd., announced a total suspension of work.
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The option of Cia. Minera Las Dos Estrellas, S. A., on the Mexico Mines tailing dump, has been released, and General Manager H. E. Nyberg states that in view of present economic conditions, and results obtained by experiments, both in the United States, and at the company’s mines at Mineral de Dos Estrellas, Michoacan, Mexico, it has been decided that the proposition is not sufficiently attractive to warrant the investment of capital necessary for the construction of the required mill.
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The 175-ton flotation plant of International Ore & Smelting Company, near Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico, W. J. Moir, general superintendent, is reported operating at full capacity, on silver-lead-zinc ore, after an idle period of several years. This requires the services of over 200 employees.
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In the first quarter of 1930, operations of The Fresnillo Company, Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico, produced bullion and concentrate valued at $1,054,455 from a total of 262,459 tons of ore handled, or an average return of $4.02 per ton. This is comparable with a production valued at $1,318,473, from a total of 250,722 tons of ore, handled in the first quarter of 1929, or an average return of $5.25 per ton. This achievement means a substantial advantage towards meeting the drop in the price of silver, and was made despite the fact that considerably more development work was undertaken during the first quarter of this year, than was done in the last quarter of 1929. As announced some time ago, development work on the oxide ore body has been discontinued, but additional tonnages are steadily being opened up in the complex lead-zinc-silver sulphide zone. However, ore reserves in the oxide zone, are said to be sufficient for several years’ operation at the present milling rate. About 800 meters of development is being accomplished per month, and capacity of the sulphide flotation plant has been increased accordingly. Operations of this company are in charge of S. N. Cook, assistant general manager.
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Good progress is reported attending efforts of Mexican Corporation, S. A., to develop the Minerva Copper Deposits, at its Teziutlan Unit, at Teziutlan, Puebla, Mexico, J. T. Boyd, manager. The shaft is now down 160 meters, intersected by the Cometa Tunnel. Tests are being made at the mill, looking towards an increase in the grade of concentrate. This property reports a loss of $28,600 for the first quarter of this year, due principally to the lower price for zinc, and a larger outlay for development.
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Recent heavy rains saved the copper mining and smelting situation in the State of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, according to officials of the American Smelting & Refining Company. Because of the long drought, resulting in a serious shortage of water, officials previously stated that they would be compelled to shut down the plants in that section, which would have resulted in the closing of the mines. Operations were stopped at some points for several days. Then came the rains, and operations have now been resumed in all quarters.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 7 15 1930
MEXICO
The Greene Cananea Copper Company has declared a quarterly dividend of 75 cents per share, placing the stock on a $8 annual basis, against $8 previously paid annually. The disbursement is payable August 11, to stock of record July 12.
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In order to solve the unemployment problem, and satisfy the demands of mine owners, and small producers, it is understood that the Mexican Government intends to establish an ore purchasing agency in Parral, Chihuahua. This agency will be financed by the Banco del Trabajo, labor bank, which was scheduled to open its doors in Mexico City July 1. According to government officials, arrangements will be made with some of the larger mining companies operating in that country, whose plants are partially idle, to mill and smelt the ores bought by the agency.
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The San Nicolas Mining & Milling Company, S. A., operating at Vicente Guerrero, Durango, Mexico, has ceased operations at its 500-ton milling plant, and only a limited amount of development is now being undertaken in its silver-lead-zinc properties. Unless the metal market improves, Manager Henry B. Hanson states that even this work may be suspended. The company had just recently completed installation of new crushing equipment. Thirty-five men had been employed at the mill, treating from 160 to 800 tons of ore daily, during the past few months. The company’s proposed one and a half mile tramway, from the mine to the mill, contract for which had been entered into with the U. S. Steel Products Company, will not be installed for the time being, at least.
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Metal conditions have necessitated suspension of operations at the lead smelter of Cia. Mexicana de Minerales, S. A., at Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico. This 100-ton plant was blown in last December, for the treatment of company, and custom ores. Offices of the company will remain open, in the hopes that shipments to the smelter may be resumed before long.
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A number of the principal silver mines in Mexico are continuing to show marked effect of the sagging price for that metal, and frequent reports are received of the adoption of further curtailment measures, and, in some cases, suspension of work. Dispatches from Mexico City, state that Cia. de Real del Monte y Pachuca, at Pachuca, Hidalgo, proposes to reduce its working force by 500 men, and Neg. Minera San Rafael y Anexas, in the same vicinity, seeks to drop 480 employees from its payroll. Cia. Minera de Panuco, with properties near Mazatlan, Sinaloa, and Cia. Minera Nazareno y Castillas, S. A., at Salaverna, Zacatecas, have stopped work.
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In spite of the fact that the larger mining companies continue to cut dividend rates, Howe Sound Company has declared a regular quarterly dividend of $1, payable July 15, to stock of record, June 30. The organization operates under the name, El Potosi Mining Company, in Mexico.
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The American Smelting & Refining Company has declared a regular quarterly dividend of $1 on common stock, $1.75 on its cumulative preferred, and an initial quarterly dividend of $1.50 on the second preferred. The common stock dividend is payable August 1, to stockholders of record, July 11; cumulative preferred, September 2, to holders of record August 8; and the second preferred, September 2, to holders of record August 15.
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The San Francisco Mines of Mexico, is increasing its capacity and working force at San Francisco del Oro, Chihuahua, Mexico, stated General Manager B. A. Strout, while in El Paso. Work is under way on a 500-ton addition to the milling plant. No decision has been made in regard to the location of the company’s proposed zinc smelter.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 8 15 1930
MEXICO
Among mining companies paying dividends during July, were the Greene-Cananea Copper Company, which paid its 75-cent quarterly dividend, amounting to $375,000; and the Howe Sound Company, operating in Mexico and Canada, which paid a $1-quarterly dividend, totalling
$496,088.
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The San Francisco Mines of Mexico, operating lead-zinc properties at San Francisco del Oro, Chihuahua, Mexico, milled 170,160 metric tons of ore, in the first six months of 1930, and produced 22,946 metric tons of lead concentrate, and 20,875 metric tons of zinc concentrate. Mill capacity is being increased to 500,000 metric tons annually, from the former capacity of 300,000 metric tons. Lead-concentrate output has been rising, since ore with higher lead content is being mined because of the depressed zinc market.
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La Verdina Mining Company, 32 miles southeast of Carbo, Sonora, has temporarily closed, to change its milling process from amalgamation to cyanide. This change is being made, following advice by University of Arizona engineers. The mine had been producing until recently. Andrew Brady of Tucson is president; A. N. Farmer of Cleveland, vice-president; and Dr. W. H. Allen of New York, secretary-treasurer. R. D. Harper, 220 East Mable Street Tucson, is manager of the company. It is organized under the laws of Mexico, capitalized for 100,000 shares, par value one peso.
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The Mexican government has granted permission to the American Smelting and Refining Company to curtail operations at Parral, Chihuahua. About 1,200 mine, and mill workers, will function on a reduced time schedule as a result of the permit. The mineworkers will be employed five days a week, instead of six, and in the mill, a six-day week, instead of a seven, will be in effect. Curtailed working schedules are in force at most of the A. S. & R. properties, officials state, following government permission to reduce forces by 25 percent.
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The Mexican government has taken a definite step to relieve the business crisis, brought on by the drop in the price of silver, authorizing mining companies to reduce salaries, lay off employees, or cut the number of working days. Heretofore, it was necessary to obtain the consent of the Board of Arbitration, this resulting in much delay. The mining companies, by the new order, must give the men laid off, 15 days’ extra pay, and 30 days’ notice.
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The Mazapil Copper Company, James Caldwell, general manager, Saltillo, Coahuila, has applied to the Mexican Gvernment,for permission to cut down working forces at its Arazanzu, and San Eligio mines, as well as at the smelter at Concepcion del Oro. Mazapil produces about 6,000 tons of copper, and an equal amount of lead, annually. More than 2,000 men are employed.
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A gold strike is reported from the little Mexican mining camp of Sonoyta, Sonora, 43 miles south of Ajo. The property has been named La Buenaventura de los dos Hermanos (The Good Fortune of the Two Lucky Brothers). Ten men are at work at present, and results, to date, are said to warrant erection of a five-stamp mill. The property is being operated by Jose C. Gutierrez of Los Angeles, and Ygnacio Quiros, formerly of Ajo.
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A sufficient number of Canario Copper Company shares having been deposited, the Board of Directors of the Amex Copper Company has authorized the issuance of Amex Copper Company stock, for all deposited shares of Canario. Transfer headquarters are located at Suite 607, 198 Broadway, New York City. H. L. Berkey, president of Amex Company, is leaving soon for the mines at Nacozari, Sonora, Mexico, and will start developments on a much larger scale. He maintains headquarters at the Santa Rita Hotel, Tucson, Arizona.
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Operations at the Sierra Pinta Gold Mine in Sonora, Mexico, are temporarily at a standstill, due to the breaking of the crankshaft, on the main engine. As soon as necessary repair parts are received, work will be resumed. The property is operated under the direction of A. L. Richards, Box 647, Ajo, Arizona, general manager.
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MINING AT STA BARBARA, CHIHUAHUA, MX TMJ 8 30 1930
Mining Industry at Santa Barbara, Chihuahua
By R. B. BRINSWADE, Mexico City Mexico. The first of a series of three articles on the
history, geology, and principal mines, of this famous section of Mexico.
This covers the big mines of the Asarco Company.
To reach this district, one leaves the main line of the Mexican Central Railway at Jimenez, and travels west across an arid plain (at 5,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level) for 89 km., on a branch line to Parral; thence the railway turns south, for 25 km. to Santa Barbara, near the Durangan border. The Jimenez Branch Railway was not built till 1900, or more than 350 years after the early mining for gold in this region, whose mines were first found in 1547, just 25 years after the overthrow of Anahuac, by Cortes.
Santa Barbara has had an eventful history, both political and mineral; recently favored by the famous Pancho Villa, with his dreadful attentions, it had long been sunk previously in political obscurity, after being for centuries, during the Colonial epoch, the capital of Nueva Viscaya, comprising what are now the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sonora, California, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. First worked for its surface bonanzas of gold, the camp had in 1620, a population of 7,000 miners, who treated their output in 700 water-driven arrastras, for a yield of one ounce per arroba (25 pounds). Soon after this happy epoch, the values must have dwindled, for, by 1648, many mines were abandoned, and only a few hundred old-timers lingered on to bewail a vanished prosperity.
Besides leaner ore, the cause of ruin was the crude method of mining that neglected support for the vein walls, and caused them to collapse at a depth of 150 feet or so. Finally, the old timers quit the gold mines in disgust, and tried their luck on the adjoining silver outcrops; soon they found these wider fissures better than they appeared, for they yielded lead oxides which could be easily smelted down for litharge, and silver bars. Later, when the silver became scarcer with depth, it still paid to work the veins for litharge, which was in great demand for treating dry silver ores of neighboring camps.
Among the famous gold veins of the pioneers were: Antigua, Cinco Toros, Franquena, Monterilla, Quevadena, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Taraciega, and Vasquena.
The silver veins included: Ascencion, Cabras, Cabristante, Dulces Nombres, Garabatos (Cusswords), Noriqueña, Nuestra Sonora de Delores, San Antonio, Abad, San Ant. Padua, San Diego, San Jose, Santa Gertrudis, Santa Trinidad, and Soledad.
After the exhaustion of the richer surface ores during the Colonial epoch, and the transfer of the political capital to Chihuahua City, Santa Barbara was dormant for generations, till revived in the latter 1870’s, by an American operator, who reopened the Tecolotes Mine, and then the Del Agua. In 1888, this operator erected the first water-jacketed lead blast furnace, and smelted in it, the lead concentrate obtained from hand washers (planillas), which had hitherto been treated in the native adobe stacks exclusively. The resulting base bullion was shipped to Denver, until 1886, and then to El Paso, for refining. The Tecolotes Company also built the first gravity concentrator of 60 tons’ capacity, but by 1914 this had been augmented to 700 tons.
After that, there followed oil flotation by local experimental mills, till, by 1925, the perfection of selective flotation had solved the separation problem, and brought back for this district, with its vast reserves of complex primary ores, a greater productivity than it had ever known in the best days of its surface bonanzas. Nevertheless, the village of Santa Barbara has not yet recovered its ancient glories, and is still merely a mining settlement of a few thousand people, situated in a broad, dry, east-west river bed, or gulch, bounded by the rounded foothills of shale and porphyry, which contain the great veins now producing so copiously.
Geology
The dominant topography of this region is that of a basalt-covered plateau, at a general elevation of 7,000 feet, which has been dissected by streams into gulches, whose sides are steep, but not precipitous (except where they are formed of silicified dikes or veins) and whose bottoms average 500 feet lower in elevation than the plateaus while the basalt cap of the plateau was originally thousands of feet thick, little of it remains to conceal the sedimentary formation of grey to blue-black marl and shale, which is cut in various directions, by rhyolite dikes, and fissure veins.
The latter are older than the former, and comprise the first or quartz-filled fissures, (containing the ore) and the latter calcite and the final clay fillings, neither of which contain metals. After the metal veins, arrived the intrusions of rhyolite, which tend to become thicker as they near the present surface, and last of all the basalt dykes and pipes which fed the thick laccolite originating the present plateau.
Immediately to the east and north of Santa Barbara, are three principal vein systems, striking north, and dipping west, at an angle varying from 50 degrees, to subvertical. The central system contains the Alfarena, La Paz and Moctezuma mines. The western shows the Tecolotes, Cabrestante, Hidalgo, and Los Angeles mines, while the eastern has San Diego, and Cobra-Cabrita mines. The outcrops of brownish vein quartz are often imposing, standing as knolls above the softer shale and sometimes reaching a thickness of 100 feet; the quartz seems frozen to its walls, and no slickensides or clay gouges are anywhere seen. The ore bodies do not occupy the whole thickness of the fissure, nor are they continuous along the strike; nevertheless they attain sometimes a length of 1,000 feet, and a depth of 700 feet, while their thickness varies from an average of five to 15 feet, up to the unusual, of 30 to 100 feet.
Occasionally ore is found in disconnected pockets. Many veins have a branching habit and the best oreshoots often occur at these points, either in the main fissures or out in its branch. The oxidized zone extends for 200 to 400 feet below the outcrop, but it is now nearly exhausted in the principal mines.
The primary zone contains two species of ore: 1, A siliceous silver-gold with argentite, galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite; and 2, A massive sulphide with much galena and sphalerite, and a little pyrite, arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite. The latter species can further be subdivided into one class whose gangue is pure quartz, and another whose gangue contains also fluorite, epidote, garnet, and allied silicate. As the silver-gold species also contains a profusion of the latter gangue minerals, they must have been extruded from hot zones, which tapered off on their borders, down through the silicate-sulphide bodies, to the coldest zones of the quartz’sulphides..
The silver-gold primary ores average 300 grams silver, 6 grams gold, a percent or two each, of zinc and lead, and a trace of copper. The sulphide ores run 5 to 12 percent lead, 10 to 20 percent zinc, ½ to 2 percent copper, 6 to 10 percent iron, 30 to 40 percent silica, 200 to 800 grams silver, and one, to 3 grams gold. Unlike the usual happening, the widest part of these ore bodies is often the richest. In the oxidized zone, the lead occurs chiefly as cerussite, the zinc calamine, the copper as malachite or azurite above, and bornite or chalcocite below, the gold as metallic, and the silver as cerargyrite. The present production of carbonate ore runs 800 to 500 grams silver, 8 to 5 grams gold, 10 to 20 percent lead, 3 to 4 percent zinc, and 40 to 50 percent silica.
Central Vein System
Alfarena Mine—When this antigua was first reopened by a French engineer, some 40 years ago, it had been long abandoned. As a guide, he took an old miner, who had worked there as a boy, and by descending a long series of chifIons, finally succeeded in reaching the sump at 500 feet depth. The old stopes were extensive, and the Frenchman was greatly surprised to find that his samples showed that the vein only ran 100 to 300 grams silver per ton. Disgusted, he consented to give a short option on the property, at the price of $100,000 (Mex.) to an ore buyer, but later repented when he had tested his silver assay buttons and found them to be 30 percent gold, which meant that the supposedly lean “silver ore” was really a rich gold ore, running 30 to 90 grams per ton.
Luckily, by the use of various subterfuges, the engineer prevented the ore buyer from suspecting the true nature of the ore till the option had expired, as the adjoining mines had been lean in gold. Within the next year, the Frenchman was able to take from the old stopes, enough gold ore to bring smelter returns of more than $100,000. Later, a large quantity of siliceous ore on the dump, running only 8 to 10 grams gold, was shipped profitably to Aguascalientes, for use as converter lining. Finally, after working several years longer and reaching a depth of 800 feet, the Frenchman sold this mine to the Asarco Company (the local incorporation of the mine-operating branch of the American Smelting and Refining Company), for $700,000.
At present, the Alfarena Vein has two working shafts: the Alfarena, and the La Paz, and is one of the biggest producers of the Santa Barbara. The former shaft is sunk vertically in the hanging wall, and cuts the vein at 800 feet, with sump at 900 feet, where is located a station with electric multistage centrifugal pumps, throwing 300 gallons per minute, to the surface. As is customary here, the head-frame is of timber, while hoisting is done by cages whose ears are dumped, over a rail grizzly with 10-inch slots, into an ore bin. Thence the ore is spouted into a train of six-ton hopper-bottomed cars, and drawn by a Porter coal-burning locomotive, over a 30-inch gauge railway to the mills below.
Some stopes of the mine still yield a little ore for the carbonate mill, but the bulk goes to the sulphide mill. This vein dips 50 degrees west, and pay shoots are 5 to 16 feet thick, and favor the hills, while the barren stretches lie under the gulches, Thus, the next pay shoot along the vein to the north, is across the gulch from the Alfarena Shaft, and is developed by the La Paz vertical shaft, which has balanced skips dumping into an ore bin (just under the shaft collar) which spouts into a tunnel connected with the railway to the mills.
Moctezuma Mine -This is supposed to be the southern extension of the Alfarena Vein, but is separated from it by the broad gulch in which is located the railway station, and town of Santa Barbara. The vein has a striking quartz outcrop on the south bank, and dips west; it shows an opencut, 1,500 feet long, and has some deeper workings, but all were idle at my visit. Thirty years ago, this property was acquired, along with others on the north side of the camp, by the Kansas City Smelting and Refining Company (operating as the Moctezuma Mining and Milling Company). The price was $220,000, although a few years previously the mine had been offered for $10,000, with no takers.
The new owner built a 250-ton gravity concentrator in 1901, which was operated for many years for a lead-silver product, low enough in zinc to be marketable. Annexes to the old mill were a roasting furnace, with magnetic, and Wetherill separators. Power was supplied by five Sterling vertical boilers, and horizontal steam engines. All this equipment is now partially dismantled, but the adjoining two-story brick office building is still intact. The Moctezuma Company’s properties are now all worked under lease by the Asarco Company, and their ore milled locally.
Western Vein System
This system in plan resembles an elm leaf extending north for 1% km. from its vein stem, called La Seca. The west edge of the leaf, is formed by the Coyote, and its northern extension, the Hidalgo Vein, while the east edge vein is named, as it advances north, Tecolotes, San Albino, and Cabrestante. The leaf is 800 m. wide at its center, south of which it is cut in two by a rhyolite dike, 200 m. thick, which separates the Coyote, from the Hidalgo Vein on the west, and cuts through the east edge, just north of the Tecolotes Vein. The chief openings for the system are the Tecolotes and Hidalgo shaftsM and the Cabrestante adit.
Tecolotes Mine—Near the working shaft, the vein outcrops as a high ridge of hard quartz, 18 feet thick, which is frozen to its slate walls, and shows an ancient stope entering a paystreak, five feet thick. The shaft had a wood headframe, 105 feet high, and four compartments, two for a 4-ton skip and its counterweight; one for a double deck cage, and the fourth for a pipe and ladderway. The skip dumps into a headframe bin, which spouts onto a rubber belt conveyor leading to a 700-ton headbin. The last supplies an overhead continuous cableway, carrying one-half ton buckets spaced at 45 second intervals, which deliver the ore to the sulphide mill, 6,000 feet away down hill.
The head bin is also reached by the surface railway running to the carbonate mill. This shaft is 635 feet deep, and makes 300 gallons per minute, of water, which are handled in a pump station, 200 feet above the sump, containing two Aldrich electric vertical plunger pumps, one triplex, and the other quintuplex. At the shaft, is an Ingersoll-Rand cross-compound air compressor of 1,400 cubic feet per minute capacity. The balance of air needed underground is piped from the central plant at the sulphide mill. Underground, the many air drills (drifters, stoppers, and sinkers) are of several brands because of the policy of utilizing the latest improved types wherever available. The smithy here contains equipment for sharpening all the Asarco drills, and includes an Ingersoll-Rand sharpener, and heating furnaces. There are two hoists; the skip hoist has one drum with two 1 ¼-inch ropes, and a General Electric motor of 225 horsepower; the cage hoist has a three-foot drum, and a General Electric motor of 75 horsepower, each motor is spur geared to its rope drum.
Underground, on the 1,000-foot Level, tramming is effected by five-ton cars, drawn by a General Electric trolley locomotive, while on the 1,200-foot Level, there are two-ton dump ears drawn by Mancha storage batteries. The ore occurs in generous ore shoots, separated by long barrascas, and the stopes extend from 400 meters south of the Tecolotes Shaft, to beyond the Hidalgo Shaft, 1,200 meters farther south. The shrinkage system of stoping obviates the use of much timber, even in the wide stopes. Levels are driven in the vein along the footwalls, at intervals of 60 meters or so, and pillars of two to four meters height, are left above and below them for protection. Chutes are raised in the back of a level, at 10-meter intervals, and from these are started rill stopes, by overhand drilling. If the hanging wall be weak, it is supported in wide stopes by round pillars of ore; the miners work on broken ore till they reach the pillar beneath the next higher level, then the stope is emptied of its content and abandoned.
Hidalgo Mine -This shaft is about 500 feet deep, and has a 90-foot headframe, and three compartments, one for a ladder-way, and the other for balanced one-ton skips, which handle both ore and men. The electric hoist has two independent four-foot drums, and is spur geared to a 75-horsepower induction motor. The local air compressor is a Sullivan angle compound 22x18x14 inch, and is belted to a Westinghouse induction motor of 200 horsepower and 560 R.P M.
Los Angeles Shaft—This is a new opening for exploring a smaller parallel vein, and is located 50 meters to northwest of the Hidalgo Shaft.
Eastern Vein System
In this article I will describe only the northern mine of this system, leaving the Cobra-Cabrita Mine, to the south of the Santa Barbara gulch, for a later article.
San Diego Mine—This is an antigua, and, though bought by the Asarco Co. in 1915, was not reopened till 1921. The shaft, called No. 8, is two km. east of the town, and just north of the gulch on the hillside. The shaft was started on the footwall of the vein, but was continued on a regular dip of 70 degrees west, and is bottomed at 900 feet in the hanging wall. The vein is one and one-half, to two meters thick, and no ore was encountered till the leached zone was terminated at water level at 200 feet depth. On the 600-foot level the ore shoot is reported to be 1,000 feet long, and the showing 200 feet below is as good. The shaft has an electric hoist, and is equipped with two Ingersoll-Rand compressors, each of 1,400 cubic feet per minute capacity, which also supply air to the mines of the Central Vein System.
Central Compressor Plant, Shops and Laboratories
These are located at the sulphide mill just east of Santa Barbara. There are three Nordberg tandem-compound compressors, each delivers 1,100 cubic feet per minute, and is belted to a General Electric induction motor of 225 horsepower, 456 R.P.M., and 440 volts. The machine shop is completely equipped, not only for handling heavy mill machinery, but for the Porter, and electric locomotives. The carpenter shop can wind armatures, and make other equipment repairs. The assay laboratory is completely equipped for fire, and wet analyzing. The experimental laboratory keeps the technology of mine and mill up to date.
Gas Power Plant
This is now idle, but represents a successful attempt to utilize wood more efficiently than is possible with steam boilers. The plant adjoins the sulphide mill, and was installed to run it in 1907. Considerable difficulty was at first experienced from the tarry nature of the fuel, but this was soon overcome, and the engines ran successfully till 1914. There are four Loomis-Pettibone gas producers, of 500 horsepower each (one relay), which can supply seven 200 horsepower gas engines, for a total of 1,400 horsepower. Next to electricity (supplied now from the faraway Boquillas Dam) gas engines are said to have been the cheapest power from the utilization of the dear fuel here available.
Welfare Installations
This camp has been modernized, for the care of the 2,000 workmen who mine and mill the 2,000 tons of ore, now being produced daily by the Asarco Company. There is a general hospital with the best of equipment, and a competent staff of doctors and nurses. Besides the public Spanish school, an English school, reaching the sixth grade, is maintained for the children of the foreign staff. For the staff, too, is maintained a village, adjoining the main office east of town, which contains a comfortable clubhouse (with restaurant and baths), rooming houses for single men, and cottages for families, all equipped with electric lights, and running hot and cold water. Near by are an outdoor swimming pool, and tennis courts.
The native operatives live in the town of Santa Barbara, which possesses a municipal government, police, markets, hotel, church, and schools, also a water supply and electric lighting. Underground work is done by contract whenever possible; wage advances are made weekly and final settlements monthly. The Mexicans here are miners, mechanics, or millmen, by heredity, and are consequently so efficient that foreigners need only be used in a few of the higher executive, and technical positions.
The surrounding country, being an arid desert, all provisions have to be imported from the United States or brought in by rail from some of the distant irrigated oases of northern Mexico, or from the rainy regions of the south.
END
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MEXICO MINING NEWS MINING JOURNAL 8 30 1930
THE MINING JOURNAL
MEXICO MINING NEWS TMJ 8 30 1930
For the six months ended June 30, 1930, Ahumada Lead Company, of Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico, reports a net loss of $71,448, after depreciation, taxes, etc., which compares with a net loss of $20,516, in the first half of 1929. For the quarter ended June 30, this year, the net loss amounted to $88,512, against a net loss of $37,931, in the preceding quarter, and a net loss of $6,857, in the June quarter of the previous year. On June 30, last, cash and cash assets amounted to $141,889. The company produced 12,757 dry tons of ore, during the six months ended June 30, this year, from which the smelter returned 5,478,090 pounds of refined lead. Sales for the six months were 5,478,809 pounds of lead.
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Work is now under way for installation of the smelting plant for Federal Copper Company at Salada, Sonora, Mexico; equipment for the plant being moved through Tucson, Arizona, in trucks. The smelter includes three boilers, of 17 tons each. It is reported that part of the equipment is being moved from Mayer, Arizona. The company has run into ore, paying $200 per ton, in gold, silver, and copper, it is stated, and additional development and construction work, has necessitated a 50 percent increase in the working force. William Kemp, Box 2646, Tucson, is head of the organization.
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As a consequence of protests from workers, dispatches from Mexico City, state that the Department of Labor has cancelled the recent decree, which allowed mining companies to reduce their personnel by half, without seeking permission of the Arbitration boards. This will mean that when a mining company now wishes to reduce its working force, it will first have to file a petition before the Board, and abide its decision, which often heretofore has been unfavorable.
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In regard to recent reports circulated, to the effect that the new zinc smelter of San Francisco Mines of Mexico, would be erected at Camargo, Chihuahua, Mexico, company officials have stated that no decision has yet been made as to a site for the new plant. Negotiations have been under way for a location for the plant, for over a year now, sites in both Texas, and Chihuahua, having been under consideration. H. A. Strout is in complete charge at the company’s headquarters at San Francisco del Oro, Chihuahua.
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The American Metal Co., Ltd., is reported to have declared a quarterly dividend of 37 ½ cents on common, placing its stock on a $1.50 annual basis, compared with $8 previously paid. Common stock had been on a 75-cent quarterly basis, since March, 1927.
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It is understood that Guanajuato Consolidated Mining & Milling Company, operating at Guanajuato, Mexico, has adopted a five-day working schedule, and output has been reduced by approximately 2,000 tons monthly. This is one of the old properties in that district, managed by Alfred Wandke.
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The Compagnie du Boleo, a French copper company, operating at Santa Rosalia, Baja California, Mexico, for the year 1929, reports copper output of 11,705 metric tons, compared with 11,600 metric tons, the previous year, and 10,475 metric tons, in 1927. Total ore mined was 811,800 tons, compared with 284,000 tons in 1928. The average grade was 8.81 percent copper, against 4.01 percent, the preceding year. A profit of 24,904,285 francs, was reported for 1929, against 17,872,701 francs, in 1928.
This organization has experienced considerable difficulty in operation, during the past year, due to labor dissensions in Mexico, but has thus far been successful in repressing disturbances among its workmen. Considerable attention is now being concentrated on the area South of the present mine workings.
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It was announced some time ago, that profits of Santa Gertrudis Company, at Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, were considered remaining on a substantial basis, despite the drop in the price of silver, seriously affecting that district, and reports now come of a June profit of $87,312. This organization has been handling about 1,500 tons of ore daily. J. F. Berry is the company’s superintendent.
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UNIQUE PUMPING ARRANGEMENT ALLOWS PROFIT AT OJUELA MINE
An unusual feature in operations of the Ojuela Unit, of Peñoles Mining Company, at Ojuela, Durango, Mexico, in meeting its water problem by pumping nearly 8,000 gallons per minute from the sections being mined, without a drop transported to the surface, is resulting in profitable operation at present metal prices. The arrangement is saving the company over 750 pesos per day, in power alone. A few years ago, it was discovered that water in the mine could be pumped from one manto (bed or level) to another, with no appreciable return flow. All of the upper water is now being absorbed by the sections not being worked and in outlying water-courses.
This is one of the old and historical lead-silver mines in Mexico, and has been developed to a depth of 2,850 feet, with some 200 miles of underground workings. The ore bodies are all of the typical Mexican lime manto type. The company owns and operates a narrow gauge railroad from the mine, to Bermijillo, a distance of 30 kilometers, where connection is made with the national railroad. All ores and concentrate are shipped to the company’s Torreon Smelter, in Coahuila. The ores are lead-silver-zinc, but the zinc concentrate is not smelted in that country. The unit’s selective flotation plant has a capacity for 300 tons daily. The power plant is steam turbines, of 7,000 k.w. capacity.
Operations of the company at Ojuela are in charge of William H. Holcombe, who was the first of June, promoted to the position of General Superintendent, from the duties of mine superintendent. He has been with the company at this point, for the past six years, having previous to his last two positions with the company, been underground foreman, and chief mine engineer, of the unit.
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A gold and silver strike, which promises to be of considerable importance, has been reported just made across the international border, a few miles into Mexico, about 25 miles West of the town of Sonoyta, Sonora. The ore body is said to vary from 8 to 10 feet in thickness, running up to $800 per ton in gold. Report of the new strike was given out by
Y. C. Quiroz, businessman of Sonoyta, who has become interested in development of the property. Mr. Quiroz is connected with the Sonoyta Mining Company, which was formed several months ago for development of gold and silver deposits located nine miles from Sonoyta, and which he reports is going forward very successfully.
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During the past few months, El Potosi Mining Company, of Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, E. P. Ryan, General Manager, has been able to continue its full program of development work, formerly curtailed due to a shortage of power. Shipments of zinc concentrate, suspended early in the year, have been resumed, the company having entered into a new contract.
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The American Smelting & Refining Company is continuing to operate its 800-ton tin mill, near Chihuahua City, Mexico. This company is working upon the well-known lead carbonate from the San Antonio section, of the Santa Eulalia District, which carries cassiterite, running from 2 to 4 percent tin, and 15 percent lead.
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The Arizona Corporation Commission has granted the Noche Buena Mines Corporation authority to issue, and sell 50,000 shares of its capital stock at $1 per share. This company has mining properties at Querobabi, Sonora, Mexico, and headquarters in the Pickwick Building, Nogales, Arizona, Dr. A. L. Gustetter, President.
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It is reported that the Santa Maria de La Paz Mining Company, has installed a 250-ton selective flotation plant, at its properties near Matehuala, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Santa Maria output, principally silver, was formerly handled at the Matehuala Plant of American Smelting & Refining Company. Joaquin Calzada is Manager.
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Cia. Minera Las Dos Estrellas, S. A., of Mineral de Las Dos Estrellas, Michoacan, Mexico,
H. E. Nyberg, General Manager, put into effect, October 8, a 16 percent wage cut, which affects approximately 8,400 men. No reduction in men was made by the company.
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Installation of the smelting plant, by Federal Copper Company, on its properties in the Altar District, of Sonora, Mexico, is to be completed by Christmas. Equipment for the plant is being hauled through Tucson, from Mayer, Arizona. According to Spencer Phelps, Treasurer, a Tucson office is to be established by the company.
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The Jimulco mines’ production at Otto, Coahuila, Mexico, George Butler, Jr., Manager, is running 850 tons per month. The ore averages 15 percent copper, and output is shipped to the American Smelting & Refining plant at Matehuala, S. L. P., Mexico. Activities are at present being centered upon advancing the third level eastward, and upon general prospecting work. The mining force has been reduced, and pending better copper prices, the power plant is being operated only five hours daily.
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Manager C. F. Weed reports that Cananea Consolidated Copper Company, Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, is at this time, completing remodeling of its concentrator crushing and sampling plant, and the installation of new conveyors and ore bins. The sampling and crushing plant at the smelter is also being remodeled. Changes have also been made at the waste heat boiler plant, installation of two 400-pound pressure waste heat boilers, of 805 horsepower each, having been a part of this work.
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The Silver Plume Mining Company, of Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, is directing its attention toward sinking the Oliver Shaft, now down about 250 feet. Silver Plume is continuing development work at a steady rate, although mill operations are at a standstill for the present. Harry L. Seares, 707 North Los Angeles Street, Anaheim, California, is manager.
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Several important new ore strikes have been made by the Noche Buena Mines Corporation, as the result of recent development work at Querobabi, Sonora, Mexico. The company is awaiting financing for its program of expansion. Dr. A. L. Gustetter, with offices in the Pickwick Building, Nogales, Arizona, is President of the organization.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS THE MINING JOURNAL 11 15 1930
for NOVEMBER 15, 1930
MEXICO
The Howe Sound Company, operating in Mexico under the name of El Potosi Mining Company, made a dividend disbursement of $496,038 during the month of October. This was at the regular quarterly rate of $1 a share. Howe Sound’s earnings have not been affected to the extent of those companies that are wholly dependent upon copper, as a large part of its income is from its lead-producing properties.
For the quarter ended September 30, this company reports a net profit of $456,865, after taxes, depreciation, etc., but before depletion. This compares with a net profit of $459,260 in the preceding quarter, and $940,084 in the third quarter of last year. Nine months’ net profit was $1,639,155, before depletion, against $2,959,001 for the first nine months of 1929.
The company produced 27,082,163 pounds of lead, 18,827,915 pounds of zinc, 11,666,379 pounds of copper, 1,085,896 ounces of silver, and 3,605 ounces of gold, during the third quarter of the year. This compared with 19,445,182 pounds of lead, 11,116,968 pounds of zinc, 11,394,480 pounds of copper, 798,438 ounces of silver, and 2,390 ounces of gold, produced in the second quarter.
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Current reports state that the Aztec Mines, 15 miles southwest of Alamos, Sonora, Mexico, continue to show up promisingly, and Don Luis Urrea expects to be able to ship several cars of high-grade each month. During the past 18 months, a copper-silver property, five leagues northwest of Alamos, is reported to have shipped over $75,000 of ore to American smelters.
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Additions to milling equipment of Cia. de Inversiones del Oro, S. A., at La Noria, Zacatecas, Mexico, has brought about greater efficiency, and recovery at the plant has been improved, and is now about 85 percent, compared with 81 percent last year. The mill is at present handling approximately 14,000 metric tons of ore per month.
Development work at the company’s La Noria Mine continues most encouragingly, with cutting of the downward extension of the ore body on the 266-meter Level, with gratifying results. A 14 percent reduction in wages and salaries has been put into effect by this company, which is managed by George M. Wasteneys, of El Oro, Mexico, Mexico.
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The American Metal Company, Ltd., operating in Mexico, as well as other countries, has been given permission to list 850,000 additional shares of common stock by the New York Stock Exchange, upon official notification of their issuance. These shares will not carry dividend rights until December 1, 1932, which fact will be duly evidenced by a stamp across the fact of the certificates when issued.
These new shares will be issued in place of the 850,000 shares of unlisted common stock of American Metal, which, with $1,000,000 in cash, were given in payment to the Canadian Selection Company, for 800,000 ordinary English shares of Roan Antelope Copper Mines, Ltd., and 1,000,000 ordinary shares of Rhodesian Selection Trust, Ltd.
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Operating profit of San Francisco Mines of Mexico, San Francisco del Oro, Chihuahua, Mexico, for the fiscal year ended September 30, was £143,690, compared with £415,261 in the preceding fiscal year. Net earnings for the past year are expected to amount to about £115,000, against net profits of £885,589 last year. E. A. Strout is the company’s manager.
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The main shaft of the Concheno Mining Company, at Concheno, Chihuahua, Mexico, has been sunk to a depth of 900 feet, and future work will consist of development of levels below the 650-foot mark, according to Arthur P. Cortelyou, who is manager. The company is continuing its adit tunnel, now over two miles long, and expects to explore the ground above the tunnel to the surface.
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The middle of October marked complete suspension of operations at the Achotla Unit, of Peñoles Mining Co., at Campo Morado, Guerrerro, Mexico. The suspension was brought about by the drop in the price of silver. Of late, the mill at this unit had been operating at only about one-third of capacity. Peñoles Mining has not yet reached a decision in regard to the erection of a milling plant for the treatment of lead-zinc ore at its properties at Avalos, Zacatecas, E. A. Manderfield, Superintendent, but it is thought likely that construction will be withheld until metal prices improve.
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Driving of a 2,500-foot drainage and haulage tunnel is the only work being done by the Sinaloa Premier Mines Company, in Sinaloa, Mexico, according to Raymond Guyer, Manager, 58 Sutter Street, San Francisco. B. W. Russell, of Rosario, Sinaloa, is Mine Superintendent of the company.
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Plant operations of Cia. Minera de San Jose, S. A., subsidiary of Mexican Premier Mines Company, at Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico, may have to close down almost any day, on account of present price of metals, states Raymond Guyer, the company’s consulting engineer, at 58 Sutter Street, San Francisco. The company has now cut the Alacran Vein, after driving its crosscut tunnel 2,000 feet. Details of the ore encountered at this point are not yet available.
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The pilot mill, erected by the Pelican Gold Mining Company of Arizona, to test a special process of electrical amalgamation, was completed October 5, and is now operating on three tons of ore daily. The heads average $78 per ton, with recovery of gold running 97.5 percent, and silver, 82 percent. It is planned to erect a 25-ton mill on the property within the near future, and to install a 500-horsepower hydroelectric power plant a half a mile below the mill. The company is cleaning the old workings of its Santa Francisco Mine, and starting new stopes.
This shaft is to be carried to the 500-foot Level, with drifting on three levels, to connect with the company’s San Nicolas Mine. The company intends to dewater the San Jose Shaft, and start work on the 100-foot Level, for exploration of the Animas Vein, which at that depth is running two feet wide, assaying an average of $862 per ton.
Previous miners could not work this ground on account of organic gases, but the Pelican Company is now prepared for the work with proper equipment. The management, supervised by Jim Goeyens, 709 Texas Bank Building, Fort Worth, Texas, plans to shortly have 60 men working, and 200 on the job, within six months.
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BORDER COUNTRY SUFFERS FROM METAL CONDITIONS
A strained economic situation in Mexico has been aggravated by further depression in the metal market throughout the world, according to a report to the U. S. department of commerce from Vice-Consul Louis
B. Mazzeo, of Chihuahua.
The republic is at present more than usually dependent on mining for its general prosperity, Mazzeo states, due to the long period of reverses suffered in the agriculture and livestock industries from droughts and other causes. Reduction in metal prices has caused the larger mines in Mexico to curtail production, while some of the smaller ones are closing down entirely.
However, the federal government is continuing to take steps to improve mining conditions, and numerous plans and proposals are under consideration. The new mining law, recently adopted in Mexico, is expected to play an important part in bringing relief to the country.
From the standpoint of value of metal output, the mostimportant of the Mexican states is Chihuahua, which in 1928 produced 80 per cent, by value, of the mineral production of the country.
Chihuahua’s metal production is said to have been twice as large as that of Hidalgo, which is Mexico’s second largest ore producer. However, Hidalgo lead in silver output, the state of Mexico in gold, and Sonora in copper, with Chihuahua leading in lead and zinc.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS THE MINING JOURNAL 12 15 1930
THE MINING JOURNAL
MEXICO
In October, the San Francisco Mines of Mexico, of San Francisco del Oro, Chihuahua, Mexico, E. A. Strout, Manager, resumed production of zinc concentrates, which had been temporarily suspended because of the depressed metal market. The company’s report for October, shows that 33,890 tons of ore were handled, from which 4,429 tons of lead concentrate, and 4,242 tons of zinc concentrate, were recovered at an operating profit of $49,759. The tonnage treated in the company’s concentrator, has been increasing slowly for the last year, as capacity is being raised from 800, to 1,400 tons, daily.
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Although profits have been affected, the Amparo Mining Company is reported normally continuing operations at its properties at Etzatlán, Jalisco, Mexico. Engineers are now examining the Pasadena del Monte, and San Nicholas del Monte, properties, recently acquired by the company under option agreement. E. Grebe is the company’s mine superintendent.
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Profit of £45,399 has been reported for the El Oro Mining & Railway Company, of El Oro, Mexico, Mexico, for the fiscal year ended June 30, which compares with profit of £25,385 during the previous year. Production from the company’s La Noria Mine, amounted to 4,337 metric tons of concentrate, which averaged 18.8 kg. of silver, and 13.97 grams of gold, per ton; and 119 metric tons of shipping ore, which averaged 11.6 kg. of silver, and 4.6 grams of gold, per ton.
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A. Nopper, Director of the French-controlled Boleo Copper Properties, at Santa Rosalia, Baja California, Mexico, has announced that, contrary to reports, the only step that his company has taken toward curtailment, is a cut in wages, in conformity with present copper prices. It is understood that the company has not materially reduced its working force. Awaiting better [copper] metal conditions, the question of equipping the southern part of the property, for production, has been postponed.
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Quarterly reports of Santa Gertrudis Company, Ltd., of Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, J. F. Berry, Superintendent, show an encouraging profit of approximately £260,000 for the fiscal year ended June 30. However, the previous year’s earnings amounted to £285,000. An interim dividend of 7.5 percent has been paid, and a final dividend of 5 percent is expected. This compares with total payments of 15 percent the year before.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS THE MINING JOURNAL 12 30 1930
MEXICO
The Fresnillo Company, of Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico, D. Johnson, Mine Superintendent, is continuing active development of its sulphide ore zones, with most satisfactory results. The crosscut being driven to the Cueva Santa Vein, from the Saraos Shaft, at a depth of 560 m., is now well under way, more than a third of the distance having already been covered. The Cueva Santa is considered the main sulphide zone of the property. Work is also being centered on the sulphide area on and below the 425-rn. Level. Extensive development is under way both east and west in this section, and two winzes are now being sunk below the level, with both showing ore carrying better than average copper and silver contents.
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The 200-ton smelting plant being constructed by the Federal Copper Company, S. A., on its properties near Salada, Sonora, Mexico, is to be put in operation early during the coming year, in treatment of ore averaging better than 10 percent copper, in addition to gold and silver values. The necessary power plant for operation of the smelter is now on the ground. Other equipment being installed includes a Connersville blower, with capacity of 100 cubic feet of air per revolution, and a new hoist and compressor. The main shaft on the property has been timbered, looking toward further development. Spencer Phelps and William Kemp, Box 1013, Tucson, Arizona, are the principals of the Federal organization.
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A new discovery promising to be of considerable importance, has been reported made on the 17 ½ Level, in the Dos Carlos Mine, of the Santa Gertrudis Company, at Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, J. F. Berry, Superintendent. It is understood that for a length of 149 feet, ore at this point of development ran 10 dwt. in gold, and 120 ounces of silver, per ton. The Don Carlos has long featured as one of the company’s most important developments. Santa Gertrudis directors have declared a final dividend of 7.5 percent on the company’s capital of £1,553,400, making the total payments for the year 15 percent. This is the same amount as paid by the organization last year.
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Sinking of the new 2,000-foot shaft at the San Pedro Mine, of the American Smelting & Refining Company, in the State of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, is practically completed. This development is of five compartments. The company’s San Luis Potosi smelter is now handling between 2,000 and 3,000 short tons of ore from the San Pedro, monthly. Nothing definite has yet resulted from plans of the company to erect a 500-ton concentrator at San Luis Potosi for treatment of production from this property. Regarding other A. S. & R. operations in San Luis Potosi, it has been currently reported that the company is seeking government permission to suspend work at its Dolores Mine, near Matehuala.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS THE MINING JOURNAL 1 30 1931
THE MINING JOURNAL for JANUARY 30, 1931
MEXICO
Current reports of the Tigre Mining Company, of El Tigre, Sonora, Mexico, are that operations are being continued at about 60 percent of normal capacity. The company ordinarily handles about 225 tons of ore daily. The values are in silver, gold, copper, and lead. R. T. Mishler is the company’s Manager.
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It is reported that R. C. Trowbridge and associates have made arrangements for reopening of the Boquiilas Mines, situated in Mexico, across the Rio Grande, from Boquillas, Texas. Ore from the property, according to reports, will be consigned to the Monterrey Smelter.
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The St. Francis Gold Mining Company, an Arizona corporation, owning extensive gold mining interests near Magdalena, Sonora, Mexico, has been reported taken over by a group of California and other capitalists. It is understood that John S. Cook, former banker of Goldfield, Nevada, is opening an office for the company in Tucson, Arizona. The property is to be diamond drilled, and if exploration proves favorable, shaft work is to be undertaken.
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Although Santa Gertrudis Company, Ltd., of Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, continues satisfactory development of its Dos Carlos, Malinche, and other mines, the company’s El Bordo, and Santo Tomas silver properties, have been reported abandoned, due to exhaustion of the ore supply. The new gold and silver discovery on the 17 ½ Level of the Dos Carlos Mine, promises to be of considerable importance. Ore reserves of Santa Gertrudis were estimated on June 30, at 880,700 short tons, averaging 1.6 dwt. of gold, and 20 ounces of silver, per ton, which is a drop of approximately 78,000 tons from the estimated reserves, at the same time of the previous year. J. F. Berry is Superintendent for the company.
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The International Geophysics, Inc, of Culver City, California, is conducting a geophysical survey for the Security Copper Company, of Pitiquito, Sonora, Mexico. The work is being carried out by C. H. Wilson, J. W. Daly, and Milton Sperling. The chief problem to be solved by the geophysical work, is the location of the continuation of the ore body cut off by a fault. A. J. Harshberger, Box 158, Tucson, is Consulting Engineer for the Security Company.
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Almost the entire working force at the old Acacio Mine, being operated by Tobias Guzman, in the Sierra Ramirez District, near San Juan de Guadalupe, Durango, Mexico, has been put to work in an effort to relocate the Acacio Vein, which was evidently cut off by a fault. Shipments from this property have fallen off considerably. The Consuelo Mine, west of the Acacio, has suspended all operations due to low metal prices.
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Louis D. Ratto, General Manager of the Cia. Minera Santa Cecelia y Anexas, S. A., of Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico, has suspended all operations at the Santa Cecelia Mine, near San Juan de Guadalupe, Durango, and will concentrate work at the San Jose property. The main exploration shaft on the San Jose is down over 80 meters, which puts work on a level with the deepest of the old workings. It is planned to sink 30 meters more, before starting to drift.
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Alfredo Devoille, of Acacio, Coahuila, Mexico, is reported to have struck a large body of sulphide ore, in the Trinidad Mine, near San Juan de Guadalupe, Durango, Mexico. The operating force at this mine has been reduced to about 20 miners, and in the hopes of better metal prices, only sufficient ore is being shipped to meet operating expenses.
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A two-compartment shaft is being sunk by Juan Jimenez, of Acacio, Coahuila, Mexico, about 50 meters from the Trinidad mining property, located near San Juan de Guadalupe, Durango, Mexico, in the hopes of cutting the Trinidad Vein. His new shaft is down to a depth of over 80 meters. In the meantime, Mr. Jimenez continues to ship ore from his Canjilones, and Tres Rosas Mines, in the same district.
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The San Diego mining camp, in the Cuencame District of Durango, Mexico, continues active, according to current reports from the border country. The post-office address for this camp has been changed from Trinidad to Diego, Durango.
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Work is being continued at the Libertad Mine, near Diego, Durango, Mexico, by Tomas Zertuche, who holds the property under lease. It is reported that ore from this property enables operation at a profit, despite low metal prices.
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MEXICO MINING NEWS THE MINING JOURNAL 2 15 1931
for FEBRUARY 15, 1931 THE MINING JOURNAL
MEXICO
The BoIeo Copper Company, of Santa Rosalia, Baja California, Mexico, produced 8,945 metric tons of copper during the fourth quarter of 1930, making a total for the year of 12,600 metric tons. A. Nopper is Director of the company.
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The annual stockholders’ meeting of the PalmilIa District Mines Consolidation, owning mining property in Chihuahua, Mexico, is to be held in the Luhrs Tower Building in Phoenix, Arizona, February 17. A board of directors for the company will be elected at that time. Notice of the meeting was given by H. L. Polsley, Secretary.
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In January, Greene Cananea Copper Company, of Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, duplicated its previous quarterly dividend by paying $375,000 to its stockholders, at the rate of 75 cents a share. The Howe Sound Company, operating at Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, under the name of El Potosi Mining Company, has maintained its regular quarterly $1 dividend rate throughout the months of depressed copper prices, and last month its dividend payment amounted to $496,088.
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The Mazapil Copper Company has resumed operations at its properties near Concepción del Oro, Zacatecas, Mexico, after a suspension of work for four or five months. The ore values are in copper, lead and silver. James Caldwell, Apartado 64, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, is head of the company’s operations as Manager.
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According to current reports, curtailed production of El Potosi Mining Company, of Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, E. P. Ryan, Manager, is averaging approximately 45,000 tons of lead-zinc sulphide ore, and from 8,500 to 4,000 tons of direct smelting lead carbonate ore monthly. The company is now going ahead with its full program of development work, formerly curtailed due to a lack of power. Shafts Nos. 1, 3, and 5, are all being deepened, with crosscutting at intervals of 165 feet. Development at depth is showing the sulphide ore bodies, holding up in both grade and area, and lateral work undertaken in the mine is reported exceeding results obtained by diamond drilling. The company’s San Guillermo Mill, in which the sulphides are treated, has been gradually enlarged to 2,000 tons daily capacity. Slight changes in the flow sheet have effected improvement in the separation of the lead and zinc contents of the ore, with higher recoveries.
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Cia. Minera Kildun y Anexas, S. A., of Matehuala, S. L. P., Mexico, J. H. A. Williams, President, is reported now on a regular shipping basis of 100 tons of gold-silver ore daily. Recent development in the mine has added 300 feet to the known length of the vein, which shows values ranging from $20 to $60 per ton. Crosscutting is at present being undertaken north and south on the 1,475-foot level. This is expected to cut the downward extension of the ore bodies developed on the 1,000 level.
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Net profit of the Howe Sound Company, for the quarter ended December 31, was reported as $391,137, after taxes and depreciation, but before depletion. The company earned 79 cents a share during the fourth quarter of 1930, against $1.42 in the same period of 1929. Reports of the company for the year 1930, compiled from quarterly records, show a net profit of $2,030,292, before depletion, against $3,662,475 the previous year. Howe Sound operates in Mexico, under the name of El Potosi Mining Company, and also in British Columbia.
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In Zacatecas, the Mazapil Company has been struggling during the past year between two dilemmas—serious operating losses, and 5,000 trained workmen desiring the continuance of their employment, which the low prices for silver and copper have made unprofitable for the company.
A recent arrangement has enabled the company to find work for many in the reopening of some old mines, for the purpose of prospecting them thoroughly. On this scheme, 25,000 pesos monthly will be expended, and the company will be allowed to dismiss employees (without indemnifying for dismissal) in case the prospecting operations show that the property under trial is unprofitable.
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At the famous old silver mine of Sta. Maria de La Paz, in San Luis Potosi, the men are working under the following arrangement, until silver again reaches the price of 48 cents an ounce: wages at rates exceeding 2 pesos daily have been reduced 20 percent, including that of the Manager, who gets 1,250 pesos a month; rates under 2 pesos daily have been decreased 10 percent, leaving the minimum wage at 1½ pesos, but with a working week of only four days.
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The old Lane-Rincon silver mine at Temascaltipec, State of Mexico, continues running at a loss, in the hope of soon reaching the extension of a rich oreshoot, where silver can be produced at around 20 cents an ounce.
A curious conspiracy for robbing this company’s output has lately come to light. One of the company’s clerks (in charge of mineral sales), arranged with two merchants in the nearby town of Real de Arriba, to buy all the mineral stolen at a low price. Manager Blamey Stevens soon noticed the losses, and then employed detectives to trace the reason for his small output. The sleuths soon discovered a train of 11 mules, which had been laden with some stolen mineral, all well concealed under leaves and fruit to hide its identity, and sent to a local merchant in Toluca (who was in the secret) for marketing.
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A welcome relief to the many shutdowns, is the good news from Guanajuato, of the resumption of large operations by the Union Mining Company, whose properties show ore with 20 g. of gold to the ton, besides 400 to 1,000 grains of silver. This gossip centers in “La Union” tunnel, and contains besides the Constancia, Buena Suerte, and Fe de Constancion claims. Under lease, the company has the Cedro, Purísima, San Caralampio, Guadalupe, and Coronela claims. All these are about 2½ km. away from Guanajuato City.
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In Coahuila, at the San Pedro del Gallo, just north of Torreon, there have recently been found some rich coal veins by Jesus Casiano Arriola, who has denounced 140 hectares (a hectare is about 2 US acres). Later, ASARCO and Co. sent an exploring party of engineers who denounced (claimed) 8,000 hectares of adjoining ground, and there have been other smaller denouncements made nearby. The coal vein is 2 inches thick, and of fine quality.
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Some good news for Mexico City is the actual start of the construction of an 18,000,000 peso oil pipeline, from Tuxpan, to a new refinery of the Aguila Petroleum Company, which will be erected at Atzcapatzaleo, D. F., at 10 km. north of the capital. General Salvador Alvarado, Governor of
Yucatan, from 1915 to 1918, had a concession for such a pipeline, 10 years ago, but the subsequent De Ia Huerta revolution, which cost Alvarado his life, cancelled the project then.
The high cost of railway transport, to lift the oil from the wells on the coastal plain up to the 7,400-foot altitude of Mexico City, has hitherto prevented a supply of cheap oil for the manufacturing center of the republic. Not only will the new Aguila pipeline mean an abundant supply of crude oil for factory use, but it will mean the cheap fuel of petroleum coke, to replace the forest-consuming charcoal, which forms the kitchen fuel of the capital.
Whether the new refinery will mean a cheapening of gasoline for autos and trucks remains to be seen. The chief obstacle to this at present, is not transport, but the gasoline tax of 5 centavos a liter, or about 12 cents (U. S.) a gallon at present rates of exchange. This causes the present high price here for gasoline of 18 cvos. a liter, or about 86 cents a gallon.
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rehab
RESOURCES OF BAJA CALIFORNIA TMJ 2 15 1931
THE MINING JOURNAL
ESTABLISHED IN 1917
Vol. XIV. No. 18 FEBRUARY 15. 1931
Mineral Resources of Baja California, Part 1
By DAVID D. BAKER, mining engineer, Phoenix, Arizona.
A story, giving results of a detailed survey covering six months’ work, and examination of all known mineral deposits, including many old time producers.
(The proposal of Senator Henry Ashurst, that the United States purchase Baja California, has created an interest in that section and its resources. The story presented here is the result of personal investigations of Mr. Baker, covering a period of several
months, during which time he made a complete survey of its mineral resources.)
The recent suggestion on the part of a United States senator, that the American government purchase Lower California, was occasioned largely by the possibility of international dispute over the apportionment of water and hydroelectric power, to be developed by the proposed Boulder Dam. This proposal has focused attention of the agricultural and mineral resources of the peninsula, and given rise to the question of what advantage would accrue to the United States, through the ownership of this territory. A discussion of the mineral resources of the peninsula should be, at this time, of special interest to mining men.
The peninsula of Lower California parallels the West Coast of Mexico, for a distance of some 720 miles, its backbone being formed by a series of mountain ranges, that appear to be a continuation of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Its width varies from 22 to 78 miles. The greatest width is at the middle, and the narrowest just north of the city of La Paz.
Although isolated and difficult for access, the mineral possibilities of the peninsula have been known since the days of the early Spanish missionaries. The Jesuits started working the silver mines at Triunfo, as early as 1700. Gold was discovered and mined in the Ensenada region, during the boom days that followed the discovery in California. The copper mines of Santa Rosalia were found in 1868. This should be enough to indicate that as a mining region, Lower California has been well prospected. Its geology has also been thoroughly studied.
Certain areas have been visited and studied in detail by Lindgren, Emmons, Merrill, and Darton, of the United States Geological Survey, while the Santa Rosalia District has been studied and described, by the French geologist, Ed Fuchs. The published reports of these eminent geologists have been drawn upon by the writer, who acknowledges his indebtedness for these sources of information, to supplement the data gathered by himself during a recent examination trip covering the entire peninsula.
Modern sea shells found at altitudes varying from 1,000 to 3,000 feet, and old sand dunes and shore lines, that are conspicuous far above sea level in several areas, prove that much of the peninsular uplift has been in recent geologic time. The lowest strata are pre-Cretaceous schists and other metamorphic rocks. These have been intruded by a white, medium coarse grained granite, that constitutes the Sierra San Pedro Martir; that outcrops north of Ensenada, north of Santa Catarina, and in the high central ridges between latitudes 28 and 30, and is prominent in the high mountain ranges south of La Paz.
The schist, which outcrops between Santa Catarina and Calmalli, has been overlapped by younger sediments, south of there. It appears in the high ridges on Cedros Island, on Point San Lorenzo, and on the islands of Santa Margarita, and Santa Magdalena. The schist is found also in the Triunfo region.
The Cretaceous period is represented by conglomerates, quartzites, tuffs, and agglomerates, which are cut by dikes and stocks of various igneous intrusions. Limestone appears in various places. A series of soft fossiliferous sandstones and shales have been correlated with the Chico formations of northern California.
Eocene strata lie on the Chico beds, and are composed of shales and sandstones, outcropping near Rio Rosario, Rio San Vicente, Rio San Fernando, and Arroyo Santa Catarina. West of La Paz, the Eocene formations appear as sandstones in the area near the Arroyos Liebres, Colorado, San Hilario, and Guadalupe.
Soft loamy substances, and clays, with local limey beds lying under the Santa Clara Desert (Desierto de Vizcaino), and extending toward San Ignacio, make up the Monterrey formation, commonly called the yellow beds.
Below San Ignacio, and extending as far south as La Paz, widespread mesas characterize the topography of the peninsula. These are underlain by thick, west-dipping sedimentaries, and conglomerates. A massive gray sandstone, several hundred feet thick, in the western portion of this region, merges into conglomerates, with thick agglomerates, and tuffs, to the east. These latter formations are capped in many places, with thick outpouring of basaltic lava, and make up the High Sierra that extends along the gulf shore, from San Ignacio, almost to La Paz.
A narrow interior valley is enclosed between the main mountain chain, and a low range that follows the shore line of the West coast, southward from Tijuana, as far as Cape Colnett. Below this point, the peninsula as seen from the West, appears as a broad, gently rising plain, broken by numerous arroyos, and culminating in a blue line of serrated peaks. On the east of the crest, the descent to the gulf is precipitous, and marked by great escarpments that follow a long series of fault lines, constituting the chief points in the evidence connecting the peninsular, with the Sierra Nevada uplift.
From the gulf, the mountain slopes rise either directly from the shore, or from low basal mesas. The mountain chain is continuous over the entire length of the peninsula, with the exception of a low pass not over 200 feet high, just north of the city of La Paz. South of La Paz, the character of the mountain ranges resembles that of the northern Sierras, especially the Sierra San Pedro Martir.
Thus it is seen that the peninsula is divided into three geographic provinces: That including the granitic ranges of the north reaching as far south as Calmalli; the volcanic area extending from Calmalli, south to La Paz; and the granitic region making up the southern tip of the peninsula, from La Paz to San Jose del Cabo.
The present configuration of the terrain, in the region of La Paz Bay, and the low pass across the peninsula at this point, clearly indicates that the land south of La Paz, was at one time an island. The sea once covered the Desert of Vizcaino, and probably extended entirely across to the gulf. That Santa Margarita was once divided by the sea, seems also clearly evidenced by the narrow pass across the middle of the island, separating the two mountainous areas.
Each of the three provinces described above has been found to contain a center of typical mineralization: In the northern province, the Alamo district, inland from Ensenada, and the Calmalli district, have been the scene of considerable gold mining activity; the central province is marked by the great copper deposits at Santa Rosalia, while the southern province is famous for the great abandoned silver mines of Triunfo and San Antonio.
Lindgren, describing the geology in the vicinity of Ensenada, states that the higher hills forming the Coast Range, north and south of this point, are of quartz-porphyries, and quartz-hornblende porphyries lying on granite, which forms the floor of the depression at Todos Santos Bay. The hills are therefore younger than the granite, and they are proved to be pre-Cretaceous, by the fact that their rounded fragments have been found in Cretaceous beds.
Gold quartz veins, which seldom appear in the granite, are found 12 miles east of Ensenada, in a belt of nearly vertical metamorphic slates, associated with diabase.
Farther inland from Ensenada, lies the famous Alamo gold mining district. The first mines worked were the Pueblo, and the Castillo, the latter giving the name to the town of Real do Castillo. Other mines in the region were the San Nicolas, the San Francisco, the San Luis, the Siuza, the Accidente, the Tepeyac, and the San Raphael. In the nearby Jacalitos district, were the China, Piedad, Mina, California, Cristo, and San Luis mines. Most of the deposits were pockety, and were mined by coyote holes. The district has been practically deserted since 1912.
In the vicinity of Calmalli, where the numerous skeletons of old mill buildings attest to considerable past activity, there were found many superficial gold deposits. Not far from here is the El Arco Mine, which during the past year, was opened and operated for a short time by a company financed by King C. Gillette. At present, this mine also is shut down, and it is not known what plans have been made for future operations.
Numerous other deposits of various minerals, have been discovered in the Northern part of the peninsula. Copper is known to exist near El Rosario, a number of small, abandoned gold mines are found in the region between El Marmol, and Calmalli, but with the exception of an American company that is engaged in mining onyx, and a small gold prospect that is being developed by a company headed by ex-Governor Cantu, there is apparently no mining activity in this area.
The onyx mine at El Marmol was employing about 30 men last June. The product is hauled by truck to Santa Catarina Landing on the West coast. A small onyx deposit is known to exist near the East coast, a short distance south of El Marmol, and another fairly extensive bed has been announced near Cataviña. The latter deposit has not been developed because of the very rough topography which would entail a very large road building expenditure, before any material could be shipped. Ten miles inland, from Miller’s Landing, another American company is getting out onyx for shipment to San Diego, and Los Angeles. The blocks are trucked to the shore and lightered out to the freighters.
rehab
PARRAL, CHIHUAHUA NEAR SANTA BARBARA DISTRICT MX EMJ 9-15-28
September 15, 1928— Engineering and Mining Journal
Geologic Notes on the Santa Barbara Area in the Parral District of Chihuahua, Mexico
By HARRISON SCHMITT
Mining Geologist, Hanover, N. M.
THE Santa Barbara section of the Parral Mining District, in Southern Chihuahua, is noteworthy for unusual geological features, especially the remarkable strength and persistence of the veins, and the variety of minerals contained in them. Since 1923, I have had several opportunities to make geological studies there; the total time spent, aggregating about eight months. Such fieldwork as I was able to do, was supplemented by laboratory studies at the University of Minnesota. This paper is part of a thesis submitted there, on the ore deposits of the Parral District.
The Santa Barbara area includes a group of mines situated about 12 miles southwest of Parral. Although worked since 1547, these, mines are still important. Gold was the only metal produced in the early days, but now lead and silver are the chief metals, with copper and zinc as valuable supplementary products.
Much fieldwork on this area was done in 1922, by John G. Barry, of El Paso, Tex., although none of the data collected by him have been published. Through his courtesy, Fig. 1 is reproduced.
I am indebted to the American Smelting & Refining Company for permission to publish the data collected from its property. Valuable aid and criticism, has been afforded me by Dr. W. H. Emmons and Dr. F. F. Grout, of the University of Minnesota, and by Augustus Locke, of San Francisco.
TOPOGRAPHY STEEP BUT NOT PRECIPITOUS
The topography of the district is that of late youth— that is, inter-stream plateau areas, predominate over those of slopes. The streams flow in V-shaped valleys that dissect a basalt-covered erosion surface. The valley slopes, although steep, are precipitous only where arroyos cross rhyolite dikes, veins, or areas that are strongly silicified. Differential erosion has given bold outcrops, which “hold up” many of the ridges. The average elevation of the area is about 6,900 ft. above sea level, and the relief is about 480 ft. Average annual precipitation is between 20 and 30 in.
The areal distribution of the rocks in the most important part of the region is shown by Fig. 1. Most of the country rock is classed as calcareous shale, but some of it is a hard, blue-black shaly limestone. These rocks are strongly folded and faulted, and are probably Pre-Comanchean in age. Hard, light-colored, rhyolite-porphyry dikes, cut the country rock. These dikes, in thin section, usually show phenocrysts of quartz and orthoclase, in a fine-grained matrix. Some of the narrower of the dikes, however, have no phenocrysts, and show conspicuous flow structure parallel to their walls.
In thin section, the flow lines are made evident by quartz finer grained, than that in the rest of the field, and by streaks of kaolin, that presumably resulted from the alteration of feldspar. Rounded areas, almost isotropic, appear to have been spherulites, formed in a glassy matrix, that has become de-vitrified.
Rhyolite Cut By Dikes
Cutting and overlying the rhyolite and the sediments, are dikes and flows of olivine-basalt. The flows appear to have inundated the topography in recent time. In this section, the topmost flow shows corroded and slightly serpentinized olivine phenocrysts, making up about 10 percent of the field.
There are idiomorphic phenocrysts of plagioclase, near labradorite in composition. The matrix is composed of microlites of plagioclase, pyroxene, magnetite, and olivine. Calcite makes up about 1 percent of the field, and appears to have displaced the matrix, rather than to have replaced it. Idiomorphic phenocrysts of wholly unaltered feldspar are enclosed by this carbonate. This suggests that the magma, in passing through limestone, on its way upward, absorbed some calcium carbonate.
The basalt flows were evidently fissure eruptions, because they are related to local basalt dikes. Conditions indicate that a new cycle of differentiation may be starting in the region, the very acid rhyolites being taken as the climax of the previous cycle, in the early part of which more basic rocks were present. Between the rhyolite and basalt epochs, was a marked period of erosion.
A discussion of the structure of the area narrows down to the consideration of the forms and relations of the faults, veins, and dikes only, because the pre-mineral folds of the country rock were too complex to make their study practicable. Most of the veins are along faults of unusual regularity of dip and strike. Study of striations on the walls and flexures of the bedding of the wall rock, indicates that these faults are of the normal type. Fractures in the footwalls and hanging walls, have attitudes that tend further to verify this. Occasionally one of the larger hanging or footwall fractures is mineralized and makes a commercially important vein, occurring as a branch of the main vein.
Post-mineral faults are found cutting the veins and dikes, although few of them show offsets of more than 60 ft. These faults seem to be of three types and ages, and they are classified as follows:
1. Quartz-filled faults (near valuable mineralization age).
2. Calcite-filled faults (late barren mineralization age).
3. Gouge-filled faults (recent age).
Some of these faults, dipping almost vertically, have their major component of movement, horizontal, taking therefore, the nature of thrust faults.
The several veins have dips varying from 40 to 90 deg. Well-defined walls and great regularity of dip and strike, are their prominent structural features. Branch veins diverge from the main veins along the strike, especially when the latter are about to play out horizontally.
The late rhyolite dikes have interesting relations to some of the veins. One of these dikes, which intruded in, and is parallel to the Hidalgo vein, has in places, split the vein in two parts, making mining more difficult and locally unprofitable. After the intrusion, furthermore, quartz was introduced along the dike-ore contacts, reducing the grade of the ore, and in spots, making it unprofitable.
Relatively shallow depth of intrusion is indicated by the structure of the dikes. Thus the cross-section of the Hidalgo dike, Fig. 2, suggests that within the intruding rhyolite, magma, found the easiest path in depth, to be along the vein, but that nearer the surface, the path of least resistance was directly upward through the hanging wall. Furthermore, the large rhyolite dike that cuts the San Albino, and other veins of the camp (see Fig. 1), widens rapidly upward.
Oreshoots are hard to delimit in most of the veins, because the ore occurs as tabular bodies of considerable vertical and horizontal extent. The strike length of a shoot, may be as much as 950 ft., and the dip length more than 650 ft. Locally richer and wider parts of the veins can be recognized, such enriched parts often occurring at vein junctions. This habit is shown by the composite plan of the Hidalgo mine, Fig. 2.
The depth of origin of the ore now developed, was perhaps about 3,000 to 4,000 ft. After studying the depth of origin of the ore deposits, in the Parral section, which are presumably the same age as those of Santa Barbara, it was estimated that about 3,000 ft. of volcanic material covered the sedimentary rocks, at the time of mineralization. At Santa Barbara, all the volcanics have been removed, and the basement of sediments has been eroded to a depth of several hundred feet.
Three distinct kinds of primary ore are mined at Santa Barbara. One is a siliceous lead-silver-zinc type, characterized by massive galena and sphalerite, and containing minor amounts of chalcopyrite and pyrite. A second, is very siliceous gold-silver ore, distinguished by the absence of massive sulphides, and the presence of silicate minerals such as pyroxene and garnet. A third variety, like the first, carries much massive sulphide, but in addition a large amount of silicate minerals. Typical assays of these ores are as follows:
I An attempt was made to work out the paragenetic relations of the foregoing minerals by a study of thin and polished sections. The result is shown graphically by Fig. 3-A.
Several features should be noted:
1. A large part of the quartz was precipitated as coarse crystals, before the sulphides, but some persisted through to the last.
2. The fluorite is always associated with the sulphides, and appears to be contemporaneous with them.
3. Galena and sphalerite are always closely associated, and were deposited over about the same period of time. Galena occasionally appears definitely later than the sphalerite, because it cuts the latter mineral as veinlets, but in some occurrences, sphalerite seems later. Such relations should be expected if mineralizing solutions carried both these minerals at the same time.
4. The chalcopyrite, occurring in the sphalerite, as the usual microscopic blebs, is considered the same age as the latter mineral. The chalcopyrite, cutting all minerals as veinlets, obviously is late.
The paragenetic relations of the foregoing minerals are shown graphically on Fig. 3-B.
II. The siliceous gold-silver ore containing abundant silicate minerals— Most of the ore of this type is found in the San Albino vein. Primary minerals identified are:
1. Quartz was deposited over the entire mineralization period, but most of it was distinctly early, as in most of the other ores of this camp, and of the entire Parral District.
2. Some of the silicate minerals are later than the sulphides and fluorite.
3. The sulphides, although scanty, are closely associated with the fluorite. The absence of abundant sulphides may be accounted for by the probability that the fluorite-sulphide stage occurred at a higher temperature, than the corresponding stage of the ore of type I.
The mineralization of the San Albino vein grades, into the massive sulphide mineralization, toward the north, where the same vein is called the Cabrestante. Toward the south, it grades into the Coyote and Tecolotes Veins, which carry massive sulphide ore mainly. Thus there appears to he a zoning of these two mineralizations, the San Albino type being a “hot centre”, around which is found the lower-temperature, massive, sulphide ore.
III. The massive sulphide ore with abundant silicate minerals— The bulk of this ore has been found in the Alfareña Vein, which lies about a mile east of, and more or less parallel to, the San Albino Vein. It is outside the area shown in Fig. 1.
Primary minerals so far identified are:
A number of features of this mineralization are worthy of note:
1. Orthoclase (not Adularia) is present as a vein mineral.
2. An early silicate stage of mineralization was followed by a period of shattering, after which sulphides were deposited. The early stage is represented by a mineral aggregate of quartz, orthoclase, fluorite, and pyroxene, that is suggestive of a pegmatite, but that has the grain of an Aplite. Note that here the fluorite is pre-sulphide.
3. A stage later than the sulphides, is represented by calcite, epidote, and zoisite.
4. As in the other ores, much quartz is early, and some continues to the last.
5. Garnet and vesuvianite (?) replace the pyroxene, suggesting conditions changed during the silicate or high temperature stage.
The time relations of the three types of ore described are not obvious. According to Barry, in the Tecolotes Mine, in some places the high-temperature, or silicate-stage, cuts the solid-sulphide, or lower-temperature mineralization, but in the Alfareña Mine, the mineralization of which was just described, the reverse relation is the rule.
Thus the following succession of mineral stages is suggested.
1. A solid-sulphide, moderate-temperature period.
2. A stage characterized by silicate minerals of high temperature origin.
3. A solid-sulphide stage.
4. A period when calcite, epidote, and zoisite were deposited.
This order suggests that during mineralization, temperatures rose and declined.
SECONDARY (SUPERCENE) ORES
Oxidation extends to a depth of about 325 ft. This is also about the average depth to the ground-water surface. Until recently, the oxidized ores were of great importance. In the early days, extremely high-grade gold ore was mined near the outcrop. Norberto Dominguez says that some of it carried 80 oz. per metric ton (rehab notes- roughly a cubic yard of ore).
I have seen assays of samples cut in certain old stopes, that ran 8.5 oz., although on the average, they are much lower. In the oxidized ore now mined, lead and silver are the chief metals. There is a little gold, but zinc and copper have been almost completely leached out.
The minerals of the oxidized zone were studied with particular care in the Hidalgo Mine, and the following is a list of the principal ones identified, with notes on their occurrence:
Cerussite—This is the most abundant and important secondary ore mineral. It was noted in two distinct forms: the tabular and the bi-pyramidal. It is usually white or grayish, although some has a bluish or greenish color as a result of copper staining. Some of this mineral appears to have been derived directly from galena, some from anglesite.
Anglesite—This occurs in small quantities as the characteristic concentric, amorphous, gray shells around galena.
Plumbojarosite—Much of this was identified, and is an ore mineral in this mine. It is the characteristic yellow micaceous material, and shows platy hexagonal crystals microscopically. Some of it occurs encrusted on cerussite, and so is later than that mineral.
Mimetite’’ This mineral is present at many places in small amounts, appearing as yellow crystals or crusts. Many of the crystals are shaped like minute doughnuts. Where the relations can be made out, the mimetite is later than cerussite. Mimetite is an ore mineral in the neighboring La Paz Mine. The arsenic was there derived from primary arsenopyrite.
Pyromorphite—This mineral occurs as yellow and brown crusts, and as small white hexagonal forms capped by pyramids. The hexagonal faces of these latter crystals have striations normal to their long edges. Thus they look exactly like small quartz crystals and were thought to be such until their hardness was tested. The pyromorphite is generally later than the cerussite.
Hisingerite—This mineral was found associated with jarosite. It gave characteristic optical and chemical tests.
Jarosite—Some jarosite occurs as a yellowish, powdery material containing a little lead.
Calamine—In one stope, near the ground-water surface, much calamine occurs as radiating sheaf-like groups of tabular and prismatic white crystals that lie in cavities that represent space formerly filled with sphalerite.
Malachite and Azurite—These minerals are abundant locally near the ground-water surface.
Plattnerite—This rare mineral occurs as small black globular masses in cavities associated with calamine. It was identified in a specimen taken only a few feet above the ground-water surface.
Smithsonite—Some smithsonite exists locally as white and green crusts. It is usually near the ground-water surface.
Bornite and Chalcocite—These minerals are common but not abundant. They occur near the ground-water surface. The microscope shows that they resulted from the replacement of chalcopyrite along fractures, and this relation, of course, indicates a slight enrichment of copper.
(rehab notes- there has been some comparison of these deposits with those of the Yellow Pine Mining District ores, near Goodsprings, NV. Namely the Root Hill Mines, Carbinate (sic), and other adjacent properties in the Sandy Valley side of the district, which includes the Boss Mine and others. I just cannot remember the exact source, though it may be USGS Professional Paper; Goodsprings Quadrangle, 1931.)
METAL CONTENT OF ORES AT VARIOUS DEPTHS
By means of assay records of the Hidalgo Mine, curves were compiled that show the variation of metal content from the outcrop to the lowest workings. Fig. 4 shows these curves, and Fig. 2 the location of the vertical section of the 212 samples used as a basis. The following points may be of interest:
1. Copper and zinc are almost completely leached out, above the ground-water surface. This leaching does not progress below a certain minimum value, which appears to be about 0.5 percent for zinc, and 0.1 percent for copper.
2. Enrichment of copper is suggested by the curve for copper, which shows an increase below the groundwater surface. Microscopic data of polished sections, obtained from a point just below the ground-water surface in the area used for the curves, shows the development of bornite and chalcocite, from chalcopyrite.
3. The gold content, 1 to 5 grams, although locally irregular, averages about the same above and below the ground-water surface. The gravity concentration of gold, which gave rise to the rich pockets along the outcrop formerly mined, is not shown by the curves, because of the lack of assay data.
4. The silver content appears to have been little affected by oxidation. There was possibly a slight leaching of this metal, because the proportion of silver to lead is a little less above the ground-water surface. There is no indication of secondary enrichment of silver in the area of the curves.
5. No leaching or secondary enrichment of lead is apparent. Thin sections show local migration of lead and the precipitation of it, as cerussite, in veinlets, cutting primary minerals.
6. The specific gravity of the primary ore changed from about 3.20, to about 2.70, as it was oxidized. Thus, because of the increase in porosity, the absolute amounts of the metals that have not been leached out, such as lead, are about 15 percent greater than they were, previous to oxidation and leaching. Taking this into account, the primary amounts in gold, silver, and lead, appear to be increasing downward along this section.
7. The lead and silver curves show a close relationship. This indicates either that the lead and silver are closely associated, mineralogically, or that they were closely proportional in amount originally, and have reacted similarly to oxidation.
8. The vein is richest where it is widest. There is some field evidence indication that the widest parts of the veins, were the areas of greatest brecciation, along the pre-mineral fault planes, and thus the most favorable places for hypogene enrichment.
The fact that primary values are influenced by variations in the width of the veins makes the theory of the deposition of the vein material, by the injection of an ‘‘ore magma’’ an unsuitable hypothesis for the origin of the veins of the Santa Barbara Camp. It would seem that an injected vein, like a dike, should show a rather constant composition in all its parts.
The principal publications on this area are as follows:
Weed, W. H .: “Notes on Certain Mines in the States of Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Sonora, Mexico,” Trans. A.I.M.E., Vol. 32, 1902, pp. 399-402;
Dominguez, Norberto: “The District of Hidalgo del Parral, Mexico, in 1820,” Trans. A.I.M.E., Vol. 32, 1902, p. 459;
Rice, C. T.: “The Silver-Lead Mines of Santa Barbara, Mexico,” Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. 86, pp. 207-211 (1908);
Willis, Bailey: ‘Geologic Structures’ Chap. VII, 1923.
and Spurr, J. E.: “The Ore Magmas,” Vol. 2,1923, pp. 669-674
rehab
MEXICO MINING NEWS THE MINING JOURNAL 2 28 1931
THE MINING JOURNAL 2 28 1931
MEXICO
Development at the Boleo copper properties, near Santa Rosalia, Baja California, Mexico, A. Nopper, Director, is being centered on an area south of the present mine workings. Results to date have been relatively encouraging, and have pointed to the existence of a deposit of considerable tonnage. It is not sufficiently large as yet, however, to justify equipment, to replace the present Montado workings, which are nearly exhausted. Exploration on the Infierno Level has been suspended because of failure to encounter interesting mineralization.
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The San Francisco Mines of Mexico, operating at San Francisco del Oro, Chihuahua, Mexico, B. A. Strout, Manager, is reported now handling approximately 1000 tons of ore daily, compared with an average of about 850 tons daily, last year. Capacity is being increased to 1,350 tons daily, by construction of an additional concentrator unit. The lead content of the ore at the San Francisco property has been rising steadily, so that output of lead concentrate is now greater than that of zinc concentrate.
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Production from properties of the Peñoles Mining Company in Mexico, during the past year, was slightly lower than in 1929. Zinc production showed the heaviest drop, with smaller decreases in lead and silver output. The company suspended shipments of sulphide ore from Avalos, Zacatecas, Mexico, to the Mapimi Concentrator, in Durango, as well as consignments of zinc carbonate ore from the Sierra Mojada unit, in Coahuila. The Achotla leaching plant, treating silver-gold ore at Campo Morado, Guerrero, was closed the latter part of the year. A drop was shown in receipts of custom ore at the company’s Monterrey and Mapimi smelters, as the result of small mines closing throughout Northern Mexico.
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Current reports of mining properties in the Parrál District of Chihuahua, Mexico, are to the effect that the Prieta and Santa Barbara units of the American Smelting & Refining Company, and the Tecolotes and San Diego properties, are each milling over 1,200 metric tons of ore per 24 hours. The American Smelting & Refining Company, and the Potosi Mining Company at Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua, are reported working “full blast” again.
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It is rumored that the International Ore & Smelting Company, (Cia. Internacional de Fundiciones y Minerales, S. A.,) will take over mining properties operated by the Peñoles Mining Company at Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico. International Ore & Smelting is controlled by French-Belgian capital, and W. J. Moir, of Taxco, Guerrero, is Manager for the company in Mexico.
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The West Mexican Mines, Ltd., at Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua, Mexico is seriously considering airplane transportation between its camp and Parrál, Chihuahua. The camp could be reached within two hours by plane, instead of 11 days with pack mules, to the nearest station of the Parral & Durango Railroad.
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At the Noría Mine, in Zacatecas, Mexico, controlled by El Oro Mining & Railway, recent development is reported to have disclosed high-grade ore at depth. Production is being maintained at 14,000 metric tons monthly.
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Production from properties of the Howe Sound Company, operating the Potosí Mine, in Chihuahua, Mexico, and the Britannia Mine, in British Columbia, Canada, showed substantial increases in 1930, over 1929, compilation of quarterly reports indicate. In the last quarter of 1930, copper output fell off slightly due to curtailment measures adopted. Howe Sound copper production in 1930 amounted to 45,266,927 pounds, compared with 43,082,641 pounds in 1929; lead output was 90,430,797 pounds, compared with 75,276,511 pounds; and zinc production, 59,120,464 pounds, compared with 53,455,920 pounds. Silver output of the company totaled 3,606,977 ounces in 1930, against 2,978,016 ounces produced during the previous year; and gold production amounted to 12,770 ounces, compared with 14,252 ounces.
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A gold strike of importance has been located 30 miles southeast of Cosala, Sinalóa, and 14 miles east of the well-known Guadalupe de los Reyes Mines, which has been working almost continuously for the past 150 years. The vein is stated to be from 6 inches to 24 inches in width. In 30 hours, 10 men are stated to have taken out 120 pounds of pure gold. S. A. Novarro, Calle Hidalgo 92, Cosala, Sinaloa, is the owner.
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rehab
MEXICO MINING NEWS EMJ 10 28 1922
MEXICO MINING NEWS EMJ 10 28 1922
MEXICO E&MJ OCTOBER 28, 1922
Durango
State Government Takes Friendly Attitude Toward Mining Enterprise
By ALBERTO TERRONES
Mining in the State of Durango has been greatly handicapped by local financial depression. Although a large area has been denounced (claimed), the investment of capital has been practically nil during the last year. It is expected that in the event of recognition of the Obregon administration, by the United States Government, the situation would greatly improve. The state government has granted every reasonable facility to people willing to undertake mining, and the same policy will be followed hereafter. As regards the 2 percent state tax on ore extraction, the government has not taken fiscal measures that will interfere with mining operations. The government has also taken pains to overcome the difficulties encountered by the Cia. de Dinamita y Explosivos, so that the production of dynamite may not be suspended. Twenty-eight mills have been reported to officials in the State of Durango, with a value of I 2,020,000 pesos.
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L. V. Elder and Geo. D. Wolfe recently have examined the camp of Guacamaya, in southern Durango. This camp is two days’ ride south of the city of Durango; the road can easily be adapted for automobiles and trucks at small expense. The camp is supposed to contain much low-grade ore, with facilities for mill and hydroelectric installations.
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J. B. Devlin, from St. Louis, Mo., representing La Cruz-Providencia Mming Co., is making arrangements preparatory to starting operations. The company controls and owns the following mines, situated in the Pueblo Nuevo district: La Providencia, La Cruz, Ampliación de la Cruz, Huinacaxtle, La Cubierta, Bello Encanto, El Salvador, Sindicato de San Luis, San Patricio, and Anexas a San Patricio. Devlin is optimistic about the future.
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The Cia. Minera de Peñoles, S. A., has started work preparatory to developing its Guanaceví mines. The 4 shafts are being retimbered in the Santa Cruz properties, and the same will be done in the Arianeña group. M. W. Hayward and E. F. Salisbury, of the exploration department of the company, have recently visited Guanaceví. Details of operation will depend on their reports.
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Mexico City. The mints have received instructions to cease the coinage of silver. Merchants are complaining that the country is being flooded with silver, while the gold coin is hoarded. For the present, only gold coins of larger denominations, and copper coins for small change, will be minted.
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Hermosillo—A. L. Lewis, of this city, has applied to the mining agency for titles to the Catalina, a group of four silver-lead claims, about one mile south of El Represo.
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