Nevada Nugget Hunters

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for AUGUST 15, 1930

GOLD HILL DEVELOPMENT CO. PUTS NEW PLANT IN OPERATION

Completed one month ahead of schedule, the 100-ton cyanide plant of the Gold Hill Development Company, was put into operation on August 1. From the time ground was broken, on April 1, J. W. Harcourt was in charge of construction until he was compelled by illness to retire on June 1. H. A. Johnson, superintendent of the Tonopah Mining Company, who designed the plant, also purchased and assembled material and machinery, and personally directed construction after June 1. Cost of the plant, $70,000, is considerably below the original estimates, and includes extras, such as a water system for fire protection.

The plant will operate at low cost, and with a small force of men, since the product flows automatically, from the time the ore enters the mill, until bullion is melted. Ore from mine chutes is trammed to the shaft, and dumped into an ore pocket over an eight-inch grizzly. The larger chunks of quartz are broken in the ore pocket, and the product is hoisted to the surface in a
one-ton skip, and dumped into the crusher bin, passing over a 1 ½-inch stationary grizzly, to a 10x 20-inch Blake crusher.

The product of the crusher, 1 ½-inch maximum, and grizzly undersize, is delivered by belt conveyor to a 225-ton mill bin, and passes thence to a, 5X5 Williamson ball mill in closed circuit with a Simplex Don classifier. The cyanide solution is introduced into the ball mill. Discharge from the ball mill will be 10 mesh, to a Duplex classifier in closed circuit with a 5x18-foot tube mill. The object is to obtain in this circuit a product of 80 percent 200 mesh. In reserve for further classification, if required, are three seven-foot Callow cones.

From the tube mill circuit, the crushed ore passes to a primary thickener, the solution overflow of which goes direct to precipitation, and the pulp to a series of agitation tanks. Due to the character of the ore, a 70 to 80 percent extraction is expected in the grinding circuit.

The pulp passes through three agitators of the Dorr type in series, to a Dorr thickener, and thence to an Oliver filter, discharging into a log washer to waste. The solution from the primary thickener for precipitation goes to a storage gold tank, thence to a shallow tank equipped with Butters leaves, for clarification, before passing to the Mills-Crowe precipitation equipment.

In cleaning up the Mills-Crowe, the precipitate is sluiced to a cleanup tank with a canvas filter bottom. The dried precipitate containing the gold is melted in a bullion furnace, of the type used at the Desert Mill of the Tonopah Mining Company at Millers, Nevada. A complete and modern assay office is connected with the plant, but in another building. The first cleanup was to be made August 15.

The mill started operating on 6,000 tons of dump ore, which samples $11 per ton, and ore reserves on and above the 225-foot level are estimated at 50,000 tons. A recovery of 95 percent or more is expected. According to Johnson, mill costs will amount to $2 per ton, and total operating costs, including metallurgical loss, will not exceed $6 per ton. J. N. Davis, who has had experience in mining in California, New Mexico and Nevada, has been chosen superintendent of the new plant.
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Drifts and Crosscuts

California mine operators are very much disturbed over a bill that has been introduced into Congress, which is modeled after Senate Bill S-4774, and which is designed to place in the hands of the Forest Service, the full power to control the use of the water or timber, on mining claims, in the national forests of California, even to the point of refusing the use of the same to the locator of the claim.

Water and timber, as well as ditches, pipelines, and other utilities, are necessities of mining, and in placing these beyond the control of mineral locators, the rights granted them by the Mining Laws of the United States, would be,. ‘to a great extent, nullified...

The proposed bill, if it became a law, would give to the Forest Service the power to control the use of mining necessities. Development of mineral deposits within the national forests would be at the discretion of forest rangers, who are not competent to judge mining requirements.

By withholding permission to use water, timbers or other necessities, forest officers might seriously hinder or prevent the development of valuable deposits of gold, and other metals and minerals within the forests of this state.

Such a law, if passed, would prove, very serious to the mining industry. Mining development is certainly restricted and handicapped enough now, so much that it is wondered where the new mines will be coming from, to take the place of those being worked, and every little while, someone pops up with another brilliant (?) idea, for making the path of the prospector a little more rocky.

It is time that the mining industry spoke its little piece to those in Washington who are presumed to represent us.
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How many times we condemn a thing simply because we, as individuals, do not see its opportunities and possibilities of development?

It is the inclination of all of us to “knock” that which we do not understand, and it must be remembered that our statements of today, probably made in all sincerity, may sound just as foolish and ridiculous a few years from now, as the following editorial which appeared in a prominent eastern newspaper about three score years ago.

“A man about forty-six years of age, giving the name of Joshua Coppersmith, has been arrested in New York for attempting to extort funds from ignorant and superstitious people, by exhibiting a device which he says will convey the human voice any distance, over metallic wires, so that it will be heard by the listener at the other end. He calls the instrument a telephone, which is obviously intended to imitate the word “telegraph” and win the confidence of those who know of the success of the latter instrument, without understanding the principles on which it is based.

“Well informed people know that it is impossible to transmit the human voice over wires as may be done with dots and dashes and signals of the Morse code, and that, were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value. The authorities who apprehended this criminal are to be congratulated, and it is to be hoped that his punishment will be prompt and fitting, that it may serve as an example to other conscienceless schemers who enrich themselves at the expense of their fellow-creatures.”

Foolish, indeed, is the man who says today, “It can’t be done,” for he is likely to be interrupted in his statement by the announcement of the man who has done it."
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for OCTOBER 30, 1930

AMERICAN METAL ACQUIRES STOCK IN AFRICAN MINES

Expansion of the holdings of American Metal Company, Ltd., in Africa, has been revealed, with the announcement that the company has acquired additional shares in two companies interested in the development of copper mines in that country. Purchase of the shares, is to be accomplished through the issuance of stock of the American Metal Company, to the Canadian Selection Company, Ltd., present holder of the shares. The company already has an interest in the Roan Antelope Mines, Rhodesian Selection Trust, B’Wana M’Kubwa Copper Mining Company, Ltd., and other copper companies operating in Africa.

The American Metal Company is to receive from the Canadian company, 800,000 ordinary shares of the Roan Antelope Copper. Mines, Ltd., and 1,000,000 ordinary shares of the Rhodesian Selection Trust, Ltd., in exchange for 350,000 shares of the American Metal Company common stock, and $1,000,000 in cash. The stock, to be delivered to the Canadian Selection Company, is not to receive dividends until December 1, 1932. Application is to be made to the New York Stock Exchange, for the listing of the new shares on that date.

The Rhodesian Selection Trust, Ltd., has a two-thirds interest in the N’Kana Mines, in southeast Africa, and the Roan Antelope Company has acreage in the Mufilera, and other mines, in Rhodesia. The Roan Antelope Company’s properties have proven 75,000,000 tons of 3.3 percent copper ore, and it is estimated that it will be in production late in 1932. The extent of the company’s copper resources has not as yet been delimited, but it is thought that the mines will produce upward of 200,000,000 pounds of copper annually by 1934 or 1935.

The company has an authorized capitalization of 6,000,000 ordinary shares of the par value of 5 shillings and 1,500,000 shares of 7 per cent debenture stock. A. Chester Beatty, mining engineer and chairman of the boards of directors of the Roan Antelope, and Rhodesian companies, is to be on the board of the American Metal Company.

L.
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for DECEMBER 30, 1930

William H. King, junior United States Senator, from Utah, has publicly stated that, in the event endeavors are made in the short session of congress this winter, to take action on the public domain surface rights’ proposal, of President Hoover’s Conservation Commission, he will demand consideration of his senate bill which proposes granting to the states the entire unreserved public domain, including minerals.

The, senator’s bill goes beyond this, in that it gives the states full rights to the minerals underlying the national forests and parks, recognizing merely the right of the government, to the surface rights in these forests and parks, together with control of lumbering and grazing within these reservations.

Senator King is opposed to the suggestions of the commission, recommending control by the federal government of mineral rights in the unreserved public domain, and he joins in the general opinion that during the short session of congress, the public land and conservation laws will not be revised.

Governor George H. Dern of Utah, voicing his opposition to the suggestions of the president’s conservation commission, several days ago issued the following statement:
“I have yet seen no reason why I should alter my views as expressed at the conference of western governors, held in Salt Lake City, eighteen months ago. At that time former Governor I. M. Dixon, of Montana, then Assistant Secretary of the Interior, delivered the president’s message to the governors assembled in the conference. It was in that message, the president suggested the formation of the conservation commission, and asked the co-operation of the governors in selecting the personnel.

‘The more I go into the question, the more I am convinced that the fears I expressed at that time were well justified. The federal government has gone over Utah with a fine-tooth comb looking for mineral values, which it is now, and was then, proposed to reserve. The surface rights, in my opinion, would be more of a liability than an asset, even leaving out the subject of federal aid for highways or of reclamation.

“Stockmen all tell me that the public domain ranges of Utah are overgrazed, and this condition would necessitate a campaign of range regulation, which in turn would cost the state much money, and would yield no revenue to the state in dollars and cents during the period the ranges were in the process of restoration. The reclamation fund, it is true, would not be entirely depleted of revenue if the federal government retained the mineral rights of the public domain, as part of the royalties derived from such rights goes to that fund, but the fund would be at least deprived of whatever revenue comes to it at present from the sale of public lands.”

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PROSPECTORS RETAIN MINERAL RIGHTS IN DEATH VALLEY AREA

E. S. Giles of Goldfield, Nevada, Consulting Engineer, and Surveyor, has been advised by the United States Land Ddepartment, that the recent withdrawal of lands in the Death Valley area, will not affect the mineral rights of prospectors. Under the provision of the act, the lands shall at all times, be open to exploration, discovery, occupation and purchase, under the United States mineral laws.

The, area withdrawn for a new national park development, which includes a large part of Death Valley, extends from Death Valley Scotty’s famous ranch in Grapevine Canyon, to within three miles of Trona, California. It includes the old mining towns of Ballarat, Panamint, Skidoo, and Greenwater.
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THE MINING JOURNAL

Further Thoughts on Ore Deposition
By CHARLES E. PHOENIX, Mining Engineer, Bellingham, Washington. A discussion of the article by A. R. Fletcher
published in The Mining Journal of December 30, 1930.

The article appearing in The Mining Journal of December 30, 1930, entitled “Where Does the Ore Come From?” brings up a question well worth one’s attention.

Whether the discussions, that are sure to follow will materially alter the views that are held is a question, but it is hoped that it will bring out a number of facts relative to the physical condition of deep deposits, that may prove of value in this discussion, and as Mr. Fletcher states, retard the mystery of ore genesis at least one step.

“Diastrophism”—the mountain building forces, which contrast with “tectonic” in that the latter has more to do with the form and structure, may be evidenced on a continental, regional, or local scale, as a structural study will show. The “Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes” in Alaska, the eruption on Kodiak Island, and the known volcanic disturbances in the North Pacific, are examples of diastrophism on a regional scale.

Diastrophism becomes cataclysmic in its intensity, when that force hitherto exerted on a broad, continental scale, enters its secondary stage, and produces folding, faulting, crushing, and overturning, forming vast tectonic blocks, and breaking them up into smaller ones, with the consequent phenomena of volcanic action and lava overflows. From then on, there is occasional recurrence of the disturbances, regional or local, and of varying intensity until a condition of stability is attained. Toward the close of this secondary stage of activity, localized areas were developed, which favored the concentration of an eruptive magma of enormous force, which, further reducing the resistance of overlying strata, burst forth as eruptives, either in the form of peridotites, andesites, or basalts, forming a structure suitable for ore deposition.

There is no question that fracturing and fissuring in such rocks as granite, extend to unknown depths, and in the case of metal deposits, to the “matte~magma.” The theory that a fissure or fracture to the depth of the “matte-magma” would remain open for any period of time, with only an occasional contact of the walls, is open to serious doubt, even though the depth to the “matte-magma” be, what we might consider, shallow.

What might be considered the magmatic depth, beyond which modern mining efficiency would be impractical, might very properly be called a wild guess. Certain it is, that any approach toward the magmatic origin, would be heralded by unfailing signs of heat, and in some cases, emanations of carbon-dioxide.

Granite, of the common gray variety, has among other constituents, about 70 percent silica and 1.09 percent of water. Its crushing resistance is from 300 to 1,200 tons per square foot. Assuming heat temperature to increase approximately one degree Fahrenheit for every 60 feet or more of additional depth, then, theoretically at the depth of the “matte-magma”, the walls would be certain to “flow” together, and at a shallower depth would close by spalling from the pressure of occluded gas (steam).

It is most unlikely that a fissure would be formed, by a thrust fault, to a fluid magma, with all but barometric pressure removed, except an occasional wall contact. The forces that formed the faulting and fissuring to that depth would speedily fill the fissure with magma, made more fluid by the explosive energy of steam.

If, as may be the case, deep fissuring would speedily close by expansion of the rock—which I have termed flowing—or by minute spalling at a lesser depth than

the “matte-magma”, then the emanations to reach the zone of depression would have to be very liquid, or, more correctly, gaseous, and the metals either in solution, or in the nature of things, volatile.

Some authorities claim that the metal values are carried by gel—a form of colbid matter—some by a magma, which is about the same thing so far as density and fluidity are concerned. Yet we know that mine waters carry immense and varied quantities of the elements, and many of these waters are acidic and supernormal in temperature, which is a factor in holding the elements in solution.

The faulting and fissuring of an area may be evidenced as having occurred in several stages by the character of the crystals of the block en masse—chemical changes effected by solutions at depth, with the original mass in more or less plastic state; next by intense and deep fissuring to the “matte-magma” and the filling of the fissure with acid dykes and feldspars, and metal-bearing magmas, which differentiate in solidifying; and in other cases, by another series of faultings to “depth”, and the deposition of metals by mineral-bearing chemical solution. Alongside these acid dykes we may find one or more of the precious metals in association with other metals, and in association with such elements as sulphur, arsenic, tellurium, etc.

The force of gravity, exerted as pressure by overlaying rock strata, which of itself generates heat; the chemical reactions taking place within that belt termed the lithosphere, together with its slight but nevertheless present wave-like action, are all factors in the manifestation of phenomena of volcanism and earthquakes. Steam is the dynamic factor in all eruptive or explosive phenomena of volcanism, and in some instances, earthquakes.

Water of saturation, that would be steam or vapor at ordinary atmospheric pressure, becomes a potential factor of eruptive magnitude at the comparatively shallow depths in the lithosphere. At much greater depths, it would cease to be an explosive factor, owing to a lower saturation point and increased resistance. Water of crystalization released through intense heat, would become an occluded gas, and would be an eruptive factor.

The fumes of sulphur are the most predominant gas in the volcanic eruptions, and sulphur is the most abundant of the volatile elements found associated with metals in ore bodies. Other substances such as the chlorides of ammonium, iron, calcium, etc., as well as the sublimates of lead, copper, zinc, and other metals, are products of volcanic activities. Again, these elements are found in crystalized form in vein deposits, the results of deposition by magmatic waters.

From the evidence we have, it seems logical that metals, at the depth of the “matte-magma” or reservoir of the metals, though obviously in chemical solution under static conditions, are not in chemical solution during the stage of migration, from the parent magma, to the zone of deposition. At the initial movement toward egress, the explosive energy of the confined gases soon converts them into a state of gaseous solution. But it is evident that they are not deposited in that state.

The gaseous solution must traverse the fractures and faults of the crushed zone, under the impulsion of enormous pressure, until it reaches the zone of cooler rocks, when it becomes a chemical solution, and continues to traverse the metal-bearing zone, cooling and depositing its contents progressively, until the filling is complete.

In connection with this paper, I am going to submit a few observations,
(a) Attention is directed to the Comstock Lode of Nevada. My citation is drawn from memory—as I have no definite information immediately at hand. But this fact is pertinent, and, I deem, sufficient for the purpose. After the mine reached a certain depth, the temperature changes began to increase, out of proportion to the normal rate. When the extreme depth was reached, the heat of the workings was so intense that work of mining had to be carried on in short relays, and under a spray of cold water. Now, and here is a problem for a geological theorum, given the exact ratio of temperature increase for each level and sublevel, to the deepest part of the workings, and the depth at which each observation was taken, plus the changes in character of the gangue and wall rock, and whatever gases were present, and it might be possible to construct a curve of value in indicating an approximate depth to magmatic conditions. The lode is Solfataric in origin.

(b) On the 81st Level of the Portland Mine, Victor, Colorado, Cripple Creek District, the south end of the Portland Mine is 10 degrees warmer than the north end. Carbon dioxide gas forms a dangerous factor in the work of mining the south end. At the time I was there, it had not been definitely determined whether it escaped from rock as an occluded gas, or escaped from depth through very thin, minute fractures. The water that was pumped from this mine and other deep workings into the long drainage tunnel K, was nearly 70 degrees, Fahrenheit.

(c) The three true-fissure veins forming the Lode System of Central City, Colorado, have well nigh perfect walls for a depth of 3,000 feet. At a depth of 400 feet, on one of the veins, a careful examination revealed the presence of serpentine. The lode system was not formed by the thrust of an eruptive magma, though it was unquestionably a disrupting factor or aid. The Argo Tunnel, driven to de-water the lode system encountered very acidic waters.

(d) The copper deposits of Red Mountain, Cascade Range, in Chelan County, Washington, consists of a very fine grade of copper-sulphide ore, in a vein nearly 250 feet wide, and over 2,500 feet below the outcrop. The vein is of crushed and faulted granite, with firm and steeply dipping walls. Extensive faulting of a minor nature was encountered before the main vein was reached, and each had copper sulphides. The vein has an iron capping, and is distinctly traceable for a long distance to, and through a mountain range. It would be interesting to follow up the development to that point with a geological study.

(e) The Gold Hill mining property adjoining the Azurite Mining Company in the extreme eastern end of Whatcom County, Washington, furnishes an excellent surface study of extreme faulting and fissuring, and chemical alterations en masse of rock, of the entire area of lode system. It well illustrates statements made in this article.
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rehab · Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 6:23 pm Post subject: A FEW MINING ADS MINER INTEREST

SEND THE OLD LADY TO WORK 7-5-1919

STOPERS AT WORK EMJ 10-6-1928

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DECEMBER 30, 1930

Where Does the Ore Come From?

By A. R. FLETCHER, Consulting Engineer, American Metal Company.

Suggesting that the constituents of ore bodies did their traveling as gases, condensed to solutions only when they neared the surface where ore deposition occurred.

There is probably no thoughtful mining man who has not, from time to time, asked himself where ore came from. It is one of those insoluble, but recurring perplexities, that plagues a man in his reflective moments, as do the mysteries of germination, growth, death, and possible immortality. To throw your light on a back of ore, 20 or 30 feet wide, waiting to be broken, is a sweet sight, but, at the same time, to realize that you have looked for its downward continuation below, on the tenth level, and then not find it, is not so comforting. If ore bodies pinch out with depth, as we know them to do, how did the ore bodies get to the places it occupies in commercial quantities, near the surface? How could such a considerable quantity of ore-making material ascend the underlying fractures, without leaving convincing traces of its passage?

There would be small excuse for embarking on this article if geologists were inquisitive. As a matter of fact, most of them are not; instead, they are studious. Turning to the geologists for an answer as to where the ore came from, we elicit no satisfactory response. They merely obfuscate us with terms like vein-dikes, solutions, magmas, and gels. I sometimes suspect them of falling in love with the sonorous Latin and Greek terms of their profession. They seem inclined to turn a technological vocabulary into a ritual, to be pontifically intoned, rather than use the terms of that vocabulary as tools, continually to be scrutinized for defects, and re-sharpened and reshaped to cope with new experience. They have not answered satisfactorily the question propounded in this article, “Where does the ore come from?”

Geologists, for the most part, cannot answer the question. For that matter, neither can I, but I can at least attack it, and summarize, and generalize the experience gained, at the expense of much sweat, and ladder climbing, in many mines. I hope to indicate a line of attack that has been neglected. I believe I can make the mystery of the birth of ore recede one step, and that, in the last analysis, is all we ever do with the mysteries that surround us in that wonderful world—make them retreat a step at a time.

It may be well to begin the serious part of this paper by summarizing some of the things we know that are true of all mines, or of a sufficient number of them, to make the generalizations valuable:

·Mines occur in regions of igneous approach.
·Intrusions and dikes are notably numerous in the vicinity of mines.
·Rock temperatures at a given vertical distance below the surface, in the vicinity of mines, give evidence of being, or of having been, higher than those found in non-mineral regions at the same vertical distance below the surface.
·Sulphur is, or has been, present in the ores of most mines.
·The ores and gangues of veins are not like the wall rock, and it is difficult to conceive them as having been derived either from the adjacent wall rocks or from other deeper seated rocks of the region, the existence of which may have been revealed naturally by erosion, or artificially, by the perforations of the diamond drill.
·All veins were once faults.
·The mineralizer that creates an ore body, follows the course of least resistance, which is available to it from its source, to the place of deposition.
·The fractures, faults, joint planes, shear zones, and their intersections, which define
·the channels traversed by mineralizers, tend to diminish rapidly in width and number, as depth is gained.
·Movement makes mines.
·Minor movements, many times repeated during mineralization, along planes of weakness already established before the advent of the mineralizer, make great mines.
·The cataclysms associated with regional faulting and mountain building, do not produce mines. The secondary adjusting movements that inevitably follow such periods of cataclysmic activity, do produce mines, provided they occur at the right time.
·The relatively feeble adjusting movements, characteristic of a period of mineralization, and occurring repeatedly along previously defined planes of weakness, penetrate more deeply into the crust, than the original cataclysmic movements that created the planes of weakness.
·Ore deposition is a phenomenon associated with the recession of igneous and dynamic activity from a district.

I believe most mining engineers will subscribe to the soundness of the generalizations above stated. There is nothing new in them except the emphasis placed on movement, as an agency, in the formation of ore bodies. Professional geologists, with few exceptions, think of ore bodies in terms of chemistry, and are only beginning to realize the all-important role in which movement plays in the formation of an ore body.

The rest of my premise has to do with matter, and is of easy acceptance. Matter is palpable to us in three forms: solid, liquid, and gaseous. In its solid form, matter will neither flow, nor is it easily compressible; as a liquid, it is mobile, but incompressible; only in its gaseous manifestation, is matter both mobile, and compressible. The matter that finally comes to rest to form an ore body, has had to travel, and it has had to do that traveling in one of three forms, which matter is capable of assuming. It has had to traverse exceedingly small openings, and afterward fill large ones. It must have continually had to adapt its volume to the varying cross-sections, and curiosities of the channels it has had to traverse. Only in its gaseous form, can matter plausibly be imagined as performing this feat.

Geologists have summarily dismissed this hypothesis, that the mineralizer could assume a gaseous form, on the ground that at the depths under consideration, the pressure would be so great as to preclude the existence of matter in gaseous form, but their thinking is faulty because the static pressure of the rock does not affect the free space of the fracture. Once admit that fractures penetrate to the depths where ores originate, and the difficulty of pressure disappears.

Theoretically, at least, the pressure in the open space of the fracture need not exceed that indicated by a barometer. The static pressure of the rock would not affect the opening, but would be transmitted across it, at points where one wall of the fracture, touched the other, or around its ends. Thus, to deny that gases can exist by reason of critical pressures at great depth, is to deny that fractures communicating with the surface can exist. To deny the existence of such fractures, is to deny a channel not only to gases, but to solutions themselves, and thus nullify the present pet theory of ore formation, based entirely on the migration of solutions and solids.

We have considered movement and matter in the preceding paragraphs, but we must bear in mind that in dealing with mines, we are dealing with corpses, in much the same sense as a paleontologist does, when he handles and describes a trilobite. The movements that made the mines we look at, have long since ceased; the matter that formed ore long ago, came to rest. Igneous activity is dead in most mining districts. To study it, therefore, we are forced to go to volcanoes to glean what facts we can. Do gases play much of a role in the igneous activity of volcanic areas? Certainly they do.

We can state the following well-authenticated facts about volcanic activity:

·Lavas contain tremendous quantities of entrained gases.
·The character of the gases emitted, changes as volcanic activity subsides.
·Copper, lead, and silica, have been observed deposited directly by sublimation, in small fractures, in the cooling lava.

Observe that our only opportunity to study igneous activity, in play, is presented by volcanoes, and that we are unable, tacitly, to ignore the role played by gases in considering these phenomena, as has been done in the case of ore deposits, which are also the products of igneous activity. But not in all mines is igneous activity quite dead. At the Huanchaca Mine, in Bolivia, on the 450-meter Level, which was well over 2,000 feet below the outcrop, water bubbled from the rock at 130 degrees Fahrenheit, so charged with carbon dioxide gas, that a special ventilating system had to be devised to rid the mine of it. In the bottom of this mine, we, therefore, still had conditions analogous to the surface conditions attendant upon expiring volcanism, where it has been well authenticated that the percentage composition of expelled gases increases in CO2, as volcanism expires.

The three factors that affect mines— movement, matter, and igneous activity— have now been briefly reviewed, and it remains to elaborate a theory of ore deposition, which will not do injustice to any of the observed facts. This I shall try to do in the following paragraphs.

Underneath the rock-forming magma, from which the igneous rocks as we know them at the surface, are formed, there must exist a matte-magma containing sulphur, and the metals. This matte-magma would consequently be heavier than the rock-forming magma, just as matte in a blast furnace, is heavier than the slag, that floats on its surface. The matte-magma is conceived to be the source of the metals, and sulphur found in veins. Only under extraordinary conditions, do fractures penetrate deep enough to tap the matte-magma. It is for that reason that mines are such rare occurrences, geologically speaking.

Exemplifying this theory, the typical history of the origin and development of many vein mines is somewhat as follows:

·Regional anticlinal folding of the sedimentary rocks to the point of failure.

·Regional faulting (usually thrust) paralleling the crest of the anticline.

·Intrusion of igneous rocks into the broken sedimentary structure.

·Minor faulting (usually normal) of the sedimentary igneous complex along its lines of weakness with introduction of silica into some of the faults, thus turning the faults so intruded into veins.

·Further repeated minor faulting along the already developed lines of weakness causing fracture, re-fracture, and crushing of the silica in the veins, and accompanied by the introduction of the metallic sulphides, provided their source is tapped. In such cases, these sulphides traverse the deep-seated, and tight fractures, in volatile form, and only sublime, or condense, to form solutions near their present points of deposition.

·Finally, post-mineral faulting and intrusion sometimes occur, but they are much less important in character than is generally assumed.

Reference is made to the accompanying sketches, where the stages of the sequence described, have been diagrammatically illustrated. Among the many Mexican mining districts to which the sketches apply are Inde and Velardena, in the State of Durango; Parral, in Chihuahua, and Concepcion del Oro, in Zacatecas.

As this article has been somewhat polemic in character, a fitting way to close it will be to turn to the Socratic method; ask ourselves some questions and see whether we can answer them:

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Q. Why should quartz almost always precede, and not accompany metals, into veins?

A. Because quartz is a mineral that can conceivably be developed from the rock magma, as we know it, and the rock magma, being superincumbent, solidifies, and is tapped by fracture, before the matte-magma can be.
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Q. Why are metals the last constituents to enter veins, and why is their entry so often associated with expiring and quite minor fault movements?

A. Because the rock-forming magma must cool and solidify to a sufficient depth, to make the matte-magma accessible. The rock magma must be a solid structure down to its junction with the matte-magma, before metal from that source can ascend. You cannot crack a syrup, but you can crack a solid, and cracks must extend to the matte-magma, before its metallic gases can escape.

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Q. What is the most easily conceivable form of matter, which could traverse such minute channels in sufficient quantity, to account for the accumulations of ore found near the surface, and yet leave no trace of its passage?

A. A gas.

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Q. Why have geologists, so far, failed to recognize so obvious an explanation of the source and migration of ore?

A. Gases in their upward passage frequently encounter water near the surface, or magmatic steam, and the other gases condense to form solutions, as temperature falls, with release of pressure in the larger apertures near the surface. The phenomena of deposition from solution, which have been exhaustively described by geologists, are really secondary phenomena, superficial in character, but so general in occurrence, as to have interposed a barrier of the commonplace, to the questing sense of their students.

The commonly accepted theory of today is that solutions and solids, containing ore-stuff, as such, had to ascend the subjacent fractures, to reach their place of deposition. The theory of tomorrow, will probably be that the constituents of ore bodies did their traveling through the tight fractures of underlying depths, as gases, and that they only condensed to solution, when they reached the more generously proportioned, and cooler apertures near the surface, where ore deposition occurred. This theory explains why so many mines are shallow, and why, in so many of them, no trace of ore is found in the subjacent fractures, and it also makes clear why no traces can be detected of the corrosion, or schistosity, which would reasonably be expected if non-compressible solutions had been forced through those apertures, under necessarily tremendous pressure in sufficient quantity, to account for the ore bodies found above.
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STUDY, And be FREE from the BONDS of IGNORANCE!

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Conserve The Mineral Lands!!!!
By MILES CARPENTER, Mining Engineer, Tucson, Arizona.

A study of the growing bureaucracy in relation to mining operations on the public lands and some of the obstacles encountered

Distressing as is the present condition of the mining industry, floundering in the mire of slack demand, and low prices for metals, a far greater menace is seen on the horizon of the future, and is the more dangerous, because its full significance will not be realized for a few decades, when the great mines of today have finished yielding up their stores of metal, and the cry goes out for new mines.

This menace lurks in the present reckless dissipation of the nation’s mineral lands.

The National Government, Trustee for all of the people in controlling the public lands, is directly responsible for the situation, and alone holds the power to avert the impending disastrous consequences. The public at large is asleep to the situation. The citizen in touch with the problem, and having the welfare of the nation at heart, can do no less than bring attention to this vital matter.

Nation Without Mining Laws

To understand clearly the present situation, we must review briefly the history of federal mining legislation, as affects metals in the Western states.

Prior to the acquisition of California, and the great Southwest, from Mexico in 1848, there had been no discovery of precious metals on the public lands of the United States, and no need had arisen for mining laws. Although the Mexicans had held this vast area of over 334,000,000 acres for 300 years, they had made no important discovery of gold; but American prospectors in the new land had found gold, even before the Treaty of Peace was signed on February 2, 1848. Ten days later, Cal. R. B. Mason, Military Governor of California, abolished by proclamation, the Mexican laws and customs that had prevailed in the California regions, for the denouncement and operation of mines.

Miners Make Own Laws

There was no United States statute authorizing individuals to appropriate minerals discovered on the public domain, which now contained lands later characterized by the Chairman of the House Committee on Public Lands, as “the richest mineral possession on the face of God’s earth.”

The proposal of the Federal Government to turn over the public lands to the states, has created a great interest in the public land question, and its relation to the future of the mining industry. The sentiment of mining men seems to be that the states have not shown their ability to handle their own lands, and that bureaucracy, as bad as it has proven, is better than political state administration.

Such was the situation in the gold rush of ‘49. From all quarters of the globe, adventurous ones flocked to California. The tide of fortune hunters brought miners from Cornwall, Devon, and Derby; from Spain and other countries of continental Europe; from Chile, Peru, and Mexico. Fortunately the influx held a majority of Americans from the older states, many of whom were miners from the Appalachian region, and all were familiar with the principles of local self-government.

The national government neglected to provide laws to regulate mining, but the miners themselves were not slow to take the matter in hand. There was no law granting the right to mine, but neither was there a law denying this right, so silence was taken as consent. Rules and regulations were formulated, embodying principles taken from mining laws and customs of all the world. These self-made laws carried one feature that could be adopted with profit, by any governing body, when a rule or regulation did not meet conditions that arose, it was promptly changed.

In the 14 years which elapsed between the discovery of gold in 1848, and the passage by Congress of the first mining law in 1866, thousands of miners from all lands, controlled only by their own rules, mined from the lodes and placers on the public domain, a billion dollars worth of the
precious metals, and had millions of dollars invested in plants and improvements, without an expression of assent or dissent from the owners of the land.

Congress Passes Liberal Mining Law

Agitation of the question of mining rights on the public domain reached a serious stage throughout the country, in the winter of 1865. One faction advocated royalty on minerals as a source of revenue, to apply on the immense public debt arising from the Civil War. Another group insisted that no distinction should be made in disposing of mineral lands, and other public lands, while a third group, which proved to be a substantial majority, were in favor of legalizing the same free occupation, and use of mineral lands that the miners had taken on their own account.

The purpose of the bill, as declared in the first section, was that “the mineral lands on the public domain, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and occupation by all citizens of the United States.”

“This was the first mining law enacted by Congress,” says the Americana, “and it is the first instance in history where a sovereign, as owner of the minerals, broke away from the old regalian rights, and made to the citizens, an absolute gift of all the mineral wealth, without condition and without limitation.”

Considering the need of the United States for revenue, the action of Congress was an eloquent acknowledgment that the policy of free and unrestricted mining rights, by 14 years of trial, had proved to be for the greatest public good.

Six years later, May 10, 1872, the mining law was passed that, with unimportant additions, regulate mining today. The liberal spirit of the law is suggested by its title: “An Act to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States.”

This law, the general features of which are familiar to all prospectors and miners, was patterned after the rules and regulation already in use. It met the requirements of its time, and the mining industry continued to thrive. In the words of an official of the Bureau of Mines, “Under the stimulus of these benign statutes, the golden treasure has been mined from the valleys and the mountains, and the country has been enriched beyond the most fantastic dreams of those who placed these laws upon the statute books.”

But despite the boasted liberality, when the miner secured patent to mineral land, he was charged $5.00 per acre, plus the expense of surveying and patenting, plus his expenditure of $500 for improvements on each claim, which made a total cost of about $37.50 per acre, and for his mill site on non-mineral ground, he was charged $5.00 per acre, plus expense of surveying and patenting, plus requirements for improvements and use. Compared with the homestead entryman who is given patent to non-mineral land with no charge whatever, upon the expenditure of $1.25 per acre for improvements, the generosity to the miner is not discernible.

Curtailment of the miners’ field, and restriction of his operations, to a greater or less extent, came from time to time, in the withdrawal of public lands, mainly in the mining regions, for national parks and monuments, Indian reservations, national forests, etc. Most of such withdrawals were wisely made for public interest, and had the approval of the thoughtful miner, even though his personal interest suffered.

New Conditions Arise

Assuming that the mining law was correct when passed in 1872, the first great error in the administration of mineral lands was one of omission, viz., failure to recognize and provide for intelligent handling of the so-called contact-metamorphic type of copper deposits which became important in the ‘30’s.
This type of ore deposit, common in Arizona, with Bisbee as the classic example, became the setting for a continuing struggle to make a deposit consisting of hundreds of ore bodies without regularity, as to size, shape, position, depth, outcrop, or continuity, conform with a law designed to regulate a tabular vein or lode, between walls with traceable strike and outcrop.

An addition to the difficulties, came, in the first decade of the twentieth century, when another type of copper deposit was developed that had not been dreamed of when the mining law was written. This is the disseminated copper deposit, occurring in immense bodies underlying square miles of surface, and usually without outcrop, or semblance to vein or lode. Here ore is steam shoveled from bodies often hundreds of acres in extent, with hundreds if not thousands of acres more, required for plant, water supply, and tailing disposal.

Law Becomes Stumbling Block

The size, shape and characteristics of these deposits of ore could not be changed to fit the law, but how easily could the law have been enlarged to fit these deposits. As it was, the law intended “to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States,” became the stumbling block that threw the miners of two types of copper deposits into years of bickering and litigation among themselves, with their government, and with hostile individuals, seeking to profit from the expenditures of the mining company.

Provisions of the mining law most flagrantly impractical, and directly responsible for most of the difficulties of the miners, are listed as follows:
1. Making a vein or lode the basis of a mining location with length along that vein and width on each side.
2. Requiring actual discovery of mineral in place of each claim at time of location, regardless of geological conditions or size of group.
3. Granting apex or lateral extra rights on all mining locations regardless of the type of ore occurrence.
4. Restricting ground for mill site purposes to five acres for each mining claim.
5. Making actual use of mill site, prerequisite to obtaining patent.

To these direct provisions by law or regulation, must be added the practice of granting homesteads on land adjacent to mining claims, and obviously of value for mining purposes.

How these difficulties were overcome sufficiently that mining could survive, is a story of persistence, and resourcefulness, on part of the miners and mining companies, in fighting their various cases before courts and department officials. Sympathy for the predicament of the miner was almost uniformly shown, and the mining law was stretched and contorted, by decision, and department ruling, to meet the problems that arose.

The first-named provision was, by common consent, ignored. The label “Presumed course of vein” for the center line of each claim shown on the mineral surveyor’s map, took the place of the statutory provision.

The requirement of “discovery” on each claim, has caused the miner untold trouble, needless expense, and uncertainty. Most of the states in the metal mining region have attempted to cure this defect in the federal statutes by giving the locator additional time, and requiring additional work such as excavating a discovery shaft or cut. In Arizona, the locator is given 90 days within which to sink a discovery shaft, four feet by six feet in cross-section, eight feet deep or deeper, until mineral is discovered in place. The Land Department has ruled that “the statute is satisfied when minerals have been discovered, and the evidence is sufficient to justify a person of ordinary prudence, in making an expenditure of labor and money, with reasonable prospect of success in developing a profitable mine.” The courts have kindly supplemented the mining statute, and protected the locator who has no surface outcrop, as long as he was diligently prosecuting his discovery work.

Such concessions have enabled a fair proportion of miners to “get by”, but what feeble gestures of relief to the miner who is up against the necessity of sinking through 1,100 feet of wash and conglomerate, to make discovery of the underlying ore, as was done at Miami by Van Dyke, or drilling through some 400 feet of lava rock to chicken catch

the faulted extension of the great Vulture Gold Vein, as was recently done by Finlayson.

Land office commissioners have come, held sway, and gone, each with his own idea of how this law should be applied, and the mineral examiners have varied widely in their interpretations of what constituted a valid mineral discovery. In many cases, patent has been allowed to mining claims with doubtful discoveries, a practice clearly in line with the title of the mining law, and previous expressions of Congress. In other cases, however, mining claims covering ground desired, and needed by bona fide companies, for mining purposes, have been rejected for patent. The result is a continuing state of uncertainty.

The question of apex rights in mining camps where such rights could not be applied practically, has generally been settled by the miners themselves, each agreeing to claim no extra lateral rights.

As for mill site, the mining law, when passed, presumed a miner working a quartz -vein in the hills, extracting a few tons daily of high-grade ore, which he must crush and amalgamate to recover the gold and silver. Water was necessary for his milling operation, so the law provided that for each mining claim, there could be a mill site of five acres on non-mineral ground, which was usually selected near some stream, below the mine.

From such conditions, to the conditions found, for instance at the camp of Miami in Arizona, 58 years after the law was passed, is such a far step, that it is difficult to realize that both operations belong to the same industry. There is more tonnage of ore handled by one company in the camp of Miami in a single day, than was handled by all of the mining operations in Arizona through the entire year of 1872, and the discarded tailing of that day, doubtless carried more value than the ores of today.

Great as was the extent of mineral ground in this camp, it is far exceeded by the ground in use for mill, power, and shop plants, water supply, and tailing disposal, of the mines proper, to which must be added the railroad rights of way, the smelter, and its requirements for plant and slag disposal. Conditions are reversed. If five acres of mill site were needed for 20 acres of mineral ground when the law was written, 20 acres of mill site for five acres of mineral ground would be more appropriate now.

What industrial company would think of spending money for plant, without first having all of the ground needed for its program of operation, yet the mining company is placed in a position where it must spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to develop ore bodies, and take a chance of getting the ground needed for its operation, a requisite as essential as the ore deposit itself.

Picture the fact of one major copper company paying $15,000 for legal services alone, to induce its government to accept $5,000 for a thousand acres of land needed for tailing storage, well knowing that the same land would be donated cheerfully to individuals who, during three years, would spend $1.25 per acre on improvements.

Or another copper company, after spending millions of dollars on development and equipment, being driven to the extremity of filing mill sites, homesteads, and scrip, on the same public land, to insure getting ground that was absolutely necessary for the mining operation, and hauling tailing in trucks to dump on each five-acre mill site, to show the required “use.”

Or still another company being “stuck up” more effectively than at the point of a gun, for needed land that had been taken from the public domain under the guise of a homestead.

Court decisions and broad interpretations in land department rulings have helped, but have not cured the defects of the mining law. After all the years, there is no well-marked course by which a mining company can proceed efficiently and economically to develop certain common types of ore deposits, with assurance of obtaining ownership to the ground needed to make a successful operation.

Regardless of the intent of the law, the results have usually been that the rich and powerful mining company secured the land needed, the individual miner and small company, struggling for a foothold, suffered and perished under the law.

It is no discredit to Congress to have made no provision in its original law for mining operations, such as exists today, but it is not to the credit of our governing body to have ignored for 80 years, the existence of such enterprises, to the detriment of the industry and public welfare alike.

Mineral Land in Jeopardy

But if legislation to relieve the difficulties of the miner was neglected, another public land law was passed, the ultimate effect of which will drive the prospector from the hills, and let the fires of industry in the metal mining districts of the West, turn to cold ashes.

This is the stock-raising homestead law, which allows homestead entries in tracts of 640 acres on the surface of mineral lands. Just as effectively as the free and unrestricted use of the public domain by the miners drew forth the streams of wealth that built up our nation, the restrictions of this law will dry up those streams of wealth, and slowly force our proud country into picking dry bones, in the dog fight of the world.

Although the stock-raising homestead has been in force for over a decade, the workings of the law are not generally understood. At first glance, the idea seems reasonable. To allow the stockman to take up unoccupied mineral land, and graze his cattle on the surface, reserving the mineral contained to the government, sounds like good economy.

So much for the theory, but what of the practical results? Probably the best examples of the working of this law are found in the vicinity of Tucson, Arizona. Here, in the great Southwest, is a spot which a local newspaper in a special edition has called with much display, the “Hub” of Arizona mining.
On the same spot is an active Sunshine-Climate Club with a yearly fund for advertising nationally, the glories of Tucson. The influx of people as a result of this advertising, added to the normal growth, made an increase of over 10,000 people in the last census period, and precipitated a real estate boom. This boom brought new additions to the city, in every direction, and spread to outlying lands.

Then began an orgy of land grabbing on the public domain, which, with few excaptions, has ignored the boundaries of mining districts, and the existence of mining claims. It is fostered by self-appointed land agents, who, for a substantial fee will locate the homesteader more or less correctly on free government land.

Inducements held out to homesteaders are indicated by the following advertisement appearing recently in a Tucson daily paper, under the name of an established real estate firm:
Farms and Lands for Sale
“We have several choice relinquishments close in that are suitable for growing citrus fruits, that can be had at a sacrifice, as owners are compelled to sell. Have one with oil possibilities. It is a snap. Get your 640-acre homestead before the law is repealed. If you get a good homestead, you ought to clean up ten thousand in the next three years. Save rent, fuel, and not interfere with your job.”

Under such stimuli, homesteads have been plastered over mineral lands and mining claims in every direction from Tucson. The districts invaded include the Pima District, containing the camps of Mineral Hill, San Xavier, Olive Camp, Twin Buttes, and outlying properties. This district ranks third in Pima County as a metal producer, with a record of nearly $9,000,000 worth of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. The North Santa Rita Mountains, with the camps of Rosemont, Helvetia, and the placers of Greaterville, the Catalina Mountains to the Forest Reserve line, Canada del Oro, Tucson Mountains, and even the Silverbell Mountains, where the camp that ranks second to Ajo in metal production, is located.

So closely was the outlying area to Tucson shut off with barbed wire fences or posted with such signs as “PRIVATE PROPERTY, KEEP OUT, NO TRESPASSING” that the city felt compelled to lease 15,000 acres of public land in the Tucson Mountain foothills, so its citizens and visitors might have one spot to go for recreation, and see a patch of desert in its natural beauty. And, so far, the road which the city must build to the nearby Sentinel Hill, secured from the government as a park, has been blocked by “thrifty homesteaders” who demand plenty of cash for the necessary rights of way.

The only mining districts in the vicinity of Tucson that are saved from the homestead epidemic, are those on the Papago Indian reservation. Fortunately for both the miner and the Papago, free mining rights were retained when this reservation was set aside. So here the miner can prospect at will, secure in the knowledge that if he finds a mine, he can get title to the ground he needs for his operation, and to the Indian Mine Development, means a place to work and sell his products. And it may be relevant to remark that the greatest mining activity of the county is now found on this reservation.

Miner’s Objections to Law

It will be argued that stock-raising homesteads, over mining claims, do not prevent prospecting or mining. Theoretically, no, but how do the miners regard the policy?
No lesser authority than Morris J. Elsing, has said under oath, that with a stock-raising homestead on the surface, he could block any mining operation.

The writer has asked a question of more than 50 representative prospectors, miners, and mining men, in the Tucson area. The question was: “Would you enter a hostile stock-raising homestead to prospect?” Every answer was “No,” qualified in a few cases by the statement that if the speaker knew in advance where there was pay ore on such homestead, he might.

This attitude is not to be charged to stubborn obstruction of progress, or balking at something new and misunderstood; it means that the prospecting game will not stand the added penalties that the Homestead Act imposes.

True, the practical working of homesteads over mining claims, or vice versa, is not evident, but it is recognized that it will take years of litigation costing millions of dollars, to establish precedents that will suggest the actual operation of the law, and volunteers have not appeared to start the grist of litigation. Thus far, all of the litigation has been to the end of keeping mining claims and homesteads separated.

Objections to the stock-raising homestead on mineral land, voiced by men interested in developing mines are many, and below are summarized the more important reasons why a prospector would not make a mining location on a bona fide stock-raising homestead:

Disinclination to enter the premises owned and occupied by another, even though it be lawful to do so. To do so, violates the fundamental American principle that a man’s home is his castle.

The ever-present cause for dispute and misunderstanding in the conflict of interest between the surface, and the underground rights. Unless both parties are reasonable and conciliatory, violence is likely, and few prospectors will knowingly locate trouble.

Inability to furnish bond to indemnify the owner for damage to surface and improvements. This bond can be no less than $1,000, and may be more. The typical prospector opines that if he had $1,000 he wouldn’t be prospecting.

The rank injustice of placing the prospector in a position where he may be called upon to post several thousand dollars for the privilege of digging a prospect hole in ground, a whole section of which his government had donated to a fellow-citizen for spending $800 on improvements.

The near certainty of litigation. The respective rights of the owner of surface and the claimant of minerals are not clearly defined.

Inability to enlist capital on the vague rights obtainable. The prospector is proverbially poor until he has made his strike or sold his claims. He can usually do the location work and record the notices on a group of claims, but must get backing from some source, even to start deeper development. On the public domain, when the locations are completed, he has something tangible to sell. Monuments mark the ground, and the duly recorded location notice is his evidence of title. He is in possession of the ground with full right to show his prospective backer what he has, and explain what he expects to find.

On a stock-raising homestead, however, what can he offer for sale? An obligation to file a bond for $1,000 or more, a vague right to enter another man’s premises to prospect for and remove ore, being responsible for all damage done to surface or improvements, and an interest in a probable lawsuit? He might get his “man past these hazards and onto the ground, there to be greeted by the homesteader with the assurance that he won’t try to stop them from wasting their money, but he has been riding these hills for 20 years, and hasn’t seen any ore yet, and one time a geologist turned down the whole district around here. Even though such statement could have been made 20 years ago over the richest ore body of Miami, and though the prospector were standing on the surface of a second Miami, what chance would he have?

The inseparable connection between surface and mineral rights in certain common ore deposits.

If the prospector by some whim of fortune should make a location on a homestead, secure the necessary capital and disclose ore, it likely as not would be a big low-grade deposit which must be worked either by stripping, and steam shoveling, or by caving, and by either method of mining the surface is ruined. This forces the prospector to purchase the surface if the property is to be operated, regardless of price.

Perversion of Law Adds to Menace

The objections recorded above, it must be remembered, apply to the legitimate, stock-raising homestead, an entry made in good faith on unoccupied mineral ground for a home, and stock-raising purposes, and is by far the least objectionable case.

That is doubtless the type of homestead entry contemplated by the sponsors of the law, and the pity is that such are so rare.

Perversion of the law adds greatly to its menace. A large majority of entries under the guise of stock-raising homesteads are made purely for speculation, as suggested by the advertisement previously quoted.
When a stock-raising homestead is granted, over mining claims already located and legally held, but unpatented, it forces the claim owner into a contest before the Land Department, with the alternative of losing the surface rights of his claims. This action might become necessary at a time the claim owner is not able to meet the expense, and thus lose rights he has held for years.

In the Amole (Tucson Mountains), and Catalina Mining Districts, the closest mining districts to Tucson that have records of metal production, the ground, if it were not valuable for mineral, would be valuable for building lots and home sites. By no stretch of the imagination could such foothill and mountainous land be called of value principally for stock raising. Yet stock-raising homesteads have been filed over areas held for years for mining purposes, and still in process of development.

In some cases, homesteads have been filed over mining claims for the main purpose of blackmail. And there are hangers-on around every mining camp who will be waiting to file the new type of homestead over the surface of the mining claims, as soon as ore is found, and thereafter exact tribute from the miner for the use of the surface.
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The law does not prohibit claim owners from locating stock-raising homesteads, and in some cases this has been attempted. Sometimes applications are allowed, and sometimes rejected under conditions that appear identical. If the claim owner is allowed a homestead, he is sure of the property covered by his mining claims and homestead, but he is restricted to one homestead. Mines in the past have been developed by being free and open to one claimant after another, when the required assessment work was not done.

But in the common case of mining claims owned by a corporation, which, in the development stage, usually represents a miner and a few associates, even the protection above mentioned is denied. A corporation is not permitted to make a homestead entry, and any entry made by an individual for the benefit of the corporation, would be void if attacked.

On every hand are pitiable cases where miners have spent the labor oy year in developing claims as their means allowed, to a point where capital could be interested, only to have their hopes blasted by the loss of surface rights, that are just as essential to the mining operation, as is the ore beneath.

Many of the claims now in jeopardy were initiated years before the stock-raising homestead was perpetrated, and were held and worked, relying on the mining laws and customs for title to necessary ground, when the proper time came.

A government that undertook to lead the world in liberality to the mining industry, could not have intended to take from two gray-haired, bony handed mining partners, the ground they had faithfully worked according to law for 29 years, to donate to a homesteader of Mexican blood, requiring only that he make a total expenditure in three years’ time, of less than the value of one year’s assessment work upon the mining claims covered, or cause a 69-year-old citizen, now working for his living in Tucson, to trek 30 miles, night after night, to sleep on the homestead he located, to save the surface of mining claims on which he has spent over 20 years’ time and $40,000 in cash, or force a little corporation with a dozen stockholders to spend thousands of dollars in an effort to save from the greedy grasp of a real estate speculator, claims that have been held for years, and without which the chance for making a mine is blasted, and expenditures approaching $100,000 have been made in vain. Yet such are actual cases.

Public Land for Public Benefit

The public domain belonging to all the people, should be administered for
the greatest good to the public. If the public interest were served by granting stock raising homesteads to a few thousand individuals on mineral lands, the act would be justified, and the mining industry could be left to its fate, but what is the public gain?

If the nation needs more grazing land in the mining regions, such homesteads will add no acreage, because from the earliest pioneer days the surface of mining claims has been free and open for livestock to graze upon. Thousands of cattle in Arizona today, are watered from shafts sunk by the hopeful miner, in his search for ore, and graze at will on the surface of patented mining claims.

If added tax returns be the object, then the law is a failure because one acre of mineral ground pays more taxes than 12 acres of grazing land, and the government should encourage the patenting of mineral ground.

If the object be to secure added settlement of the mining regions, then the law is defeating its purpose by granting too much land in one entry. Within the radius where the value of land is due to its proximity to the city, homesteads of 160 acres would be taken almost as readily as sections, and thus give the sponsors of the Homestead Act four pseudo-settlers where one is now. This feature applies to mineral and non-mineral lands alike, and shows that in the vicinity of Tucson, Arizona, at least, the law is violating the fundamental principle of Republican Government, of the greatest good to the greatest number.

In a spot blessed by nature, with health-giving sunshine, the lands that belong to all of the people are being donated in large tracts, to a few of the people, who, in turn, are seeking to profit ten or fifty or a hundred fold, from others of the people, who, from necessity or choice, require a spot of that land on which to benefit from that sunshine.

On the other hand, is not public interest better served by granting patent to bona fide claimants of mineral ground? As previously shown in detail, the mineral claimant pays in cash to the government, and for required improvements, 24 times as much per acre, as does the homesteader. And when patent is issued, the mineral land is assessed for taxation at $87.50 per acre, which is 12% times greater than the assessed valuation of the same land, if titled as a homestead.

Every time a 20-acre mining claim is rejected for patent, the government must return the $100 offered in payment for the land, and $750 must be struck from the county tax rolls. The government is then willing to make another citizen a present of the same land, if he will spend a total of $25.00 for improvements, and the same 20 acres will then be returned to the tax rolls at a valuation of $60.00.

Here we have a picture of the government paying an examiner to search the rocky hillside, for a technicality on which to reject for patent, a mining claim that some man believed to be valuable for mining purposes, strongly enough to have spent at least $500 for improvements to the end that the national treasury may refund $100, the county tax roll lose $750, the mineral claimant lose his expenditures, and the land revert to the public domain, where it will be donated to some other citizen.

And what reasonable objection could there be to granting patent, under the present requirements for improvements and purchase, and after a substantial discovery of mineral had been made, to sufficient public land for a mining operation? A property that is unprofitable today, may be highly profitable under the changed metal prices and operating conditions of tomorrow. And if, even after complete development the property did not justify payment of the high taxes assessed against mining property, then it would revert to the state via the unpaid tax route, and be subject to re-sale for some other use. In the meantime, the operation benefited the community by being a field for labor, a market for supplies, and a source of substantial tax revenue.

There has been expressed in Congress the fear that mining corporations would obtain large tracts of public land if the mining law were liberalized, but opened the same mineral land to homestead entries where it is being taken by members of the same family in blocks of thousands of acres.

Miner’s Future Not Bright

In the midst of the most general and serious metal depression in the history of the United States, an inventory of the miner’s prospects, show that he will need all his storied hope, optimism, and courage, to face the future. The cream of the rich veins and placers, was skimmed before the close of the last century.

Scarcely an outcrop of any type remains in the Western states that has not been at least superficially explored. Many of such outcrops will doubtless be developed further, and new ore bodies brought to light, but the prospector will find it quite as difficult to locate the necessary capital, as ground, that shows proper promise.

Virgin deposits of the future will be found chiefly under wash formations and lava flows, which means that it will take long-time development, with no returns, before pay ore is found, or conditions disclosed, that might interest larger capital, than the prospector can control.

Unfortunately, these hard physical conditions are only half the miner’s problem. The impractical, expensive and uncertain conditions imposed by outgrown and inadequate mining statutes, still persist, and there is the added specter of a hostile homestead hovering over the surface of every unpatented mining claim on the public domain.

And to complete the vista of a dark and uncertain future, comes the cloud of a nation-wide agitation to turn the public domain back to the states, a plan sponsored by the one chief executive [Pres. Hoover, a mining engineer by trade] who should have known the problems of the miner, and realized the vital influence of his output on the prosperity of the nation. It is proposed, at this late date, to displace the American policy of free and unrestricted mining rights, by a foreign system of segregating surface ownership and mineral rights, on all remaining public land.

A commission to study the public land problem has been in existence for months, and the public is informed from time to time through the press, that the commission is investigating.” But the public of the states most affected knows that the commission has held no hearings in the localities where the public land business is most active, nor gathered first-hand information of actual conditions, on which to base conclusions. It would be unfair to comment on the work of this commission in advance of its final report, but in view of its personnel, and its sources of information and inspiration, even the most optimistic miner could not hope for relief from any of his problems in the recommendations of this commission.

After all the changes, developments and progress that the years have brought, we find the foundation of mining still resting on the prospector. But his task is incomparably more difficult than it was fifty years ago, when the chief requisites of a prospector were good legs to carry him over the hills, keen eyes to discern float, outcrop, or formation, and courage to keep going. He is confronting an eternal question. His life is given to a constant study of ore deposits from books and journals, from contacts with geologists and engineers, and first-hand from the mines where he works for a “grubstake”, and best of all, from the rocks of the hills.

Active national and state geological surveys, and mining bureaus, have been maintained for years, at heavy public expense, to gather and disseminate scientific information, the so-called “big companies” have their scouts, research and technical staffs, but it remains for the prospector to start the operations that bring to light new ore deposits.

For instance, do we find in the original government reports of the Globe Mining District, any suggestion that a few miles westerly lay an area that might far exceed the mines of the Globe camp in mineral wealth? Or do we find any record of the “big companies” paying scouts to tramp the hills that hid the great Miami copper mine, and to ponder on the relations of the Shultz granite, Pinal schist, and Gila conglomerate? Indeed not. It was “Black Jack” Newman, prospector, who recognized the possibilities, and started the exploration, that brought to light the underlying ore that lifted Arizona into the front rank as a copper-producing state. Years later, when the camp was producing millions of pounds of copper yearly, geologists of the state and national organizations, were engaged in mild controversies as to how it all happened.

It is not intended herein to belittle the work of governmental surveys and bureaus, which render necessary and valuable service to the mining industry, but to emphasize the fact that it is the prospector who takes the lead in finding new ore, to keep the industry alive, and all other agencies follow to explain, to develop, and to utilize.

From time to time it has been stated that the development of geophysical prospecting methods marks the passing of the old-time prospector. At the recent mining “Revival” in Tucson—which someone said, should have been called a “Wake”—J. J. Jakoski, in his illuminating lecture, stressed the point that geophysical prospecting is too expensive for indiscriminate use, and is intended rather to follow the prospector and confirm or disprove his theories, and to serve as a guide for scientific development.

Even if the frequent charges of inefficiency, misguided effort, and warped vision, were admitted, the prospector is still the one agent willing to make the effort, and in his graveyard of failures, will arise some monuments of success: paying mines.

To discourage and harass the prospector by restrictive and discriminative legislation, is to blast out the very foundation stones of the mining industry, in effect, to “kill the goose that lays the nation’s golden egg.”

Mineral Land Must Be Conserved

Under conditions like the present when all the metals, except gold, are drugs on the market, it is difficult to visualize a dearth of metals, but the surplus will be absorbed, the present sources exhausted, and new production needed, just as surely as world progress continues. The “comeback” of metals is but a question of time, and if our nation is to hold its place through the centuries, every possible source of metals must be conserved, and encouragement given for orderly development against the time when such metals will be needed.

Today, there pours into our country from Africa, South America, Mexico, and Canada, streams of copper, considerable of which might be purchased cheaper than the production cost of our own material, but who could favor diverting the hundreds of millions of dollars annually, that pays the nation’s metal bill, from our own mining centers, to the mines of foreign lands, even though owned by American capital.

And it takes no great imagination to picture a time when it might be inconvenient to ship in such copper. The very existence of America might hinge on the use of metals which she has, and yet has not. And when such a condition does arise, there will be no time to prospect, develop, and produce the metals, that lie unknown within her borders.

It is recognized that there are many important matters claiming the attention of Congress at this time, but there are none more important to the material welfare of the nation, or deserving quicker action, than the matter of conserving the mineral lands.

The shortcomings of the mining law doubtless are felt more keenly in Arizona than in any other state, and it should be recorded that the representatives in Congress, from Arizona, regardless of party affiliation, have worked faithfully for amendments that would correct the injustices, that the old law is working on the miners of the state.
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STUDY, And be FREE from the BONDS of IGNORANCE!

rehab

THE MINING JOURNAL 3 15 1931

The material excavated in a single year of operation by the Utah Copper Company is greater than the total amount excavated in the digging of the Panama Canal.

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STUDY, And be FREE from the BONDS of IGNORANCE!