Show wonderful gold cobalt ore in the standard mine by R kc K casper sumpter oregon I 1 aug 22 1904 strange things come to the notice of the man whose business it is to travel about mining camps whether it be as a mining engineer prospector or mining correspondent different mining camps sometimes present strange phenomena in the way of formation in which the precious metals are found it is not so very long ago that gold was not looked for or even believed to exist unless it occurred in certain well defined formations all of which were laid down in works on geology and mineralogy all that has been changed of recent years and all ancient theories have been upset up set even the most technical mining men of today admit that gold is where you find it and it has been found according to a high authority in every kind of formation excepting only in sedimentary gypsum and that authority went so far as to say that it might even yet be found there here in eastern oregon there is situated a mining property which carries a strange combination of metals nothing like it has even come to the notice of the writer in all ail his travels which have extended over most of the mining districts from british columbia to southern mexico and it is doubtful if there is another similar proposition in all the world it is a gold mine carrying a high percentage in cobalt besides oiiver silver copper and nickel it is situated in the dixie mountains in the quartz burg mining district of the sumpter gold fields A short history of the property may not be out of place in the early days a frenchman named juneau after whom the alaskan town of that name was called came to quartzburg Quartz burg and located the property in question he did some development work and opened a chute of high grade cobalt copper ore and erected an old fashioned mexican smelter by which he reduced it to matte which was transported by pack horses miles across the mountains to umatilla landing thence down the columbia river river and across the two oceans to france the shipment netting him handsome returns notwithstanding the great expense ati attached ached thereto subsequently some profitable shipments were also made to germany owing to the extreme difficulties connected with the long and costly transportation the property was worked in for a time and then allowed to lapse eight or ten years ago the property was again taken up since which time systematic development work has been done and the disel disclosures which have followed make it the most unique mine of its kind known to to raining mining history three groups of mines known as the standard copper ridge and willie boy and embracing twenty two full and fractional claims have been merged into the standard consolidated mines company over a mile of development work by tunnels shafts and drifon drifts has been done and al ai the present writing and the immense bodies of gold cobalt copper ore in sight make it one of the largest properties in the state of oregon and promising jor for it a world wide reputation the following are some of the tests made of the product dr H H nicholson consulting engineer of the standard company and well known in the mining world produced the following result per cent silica sulphur arsenic 2018 iron oxide 1728 aluminum oxide 12 calcium oxide carbon dioxide cobalt nickel 75 gold silver the values reduced to dollars are as follows gold at 20 cobalt at nickel at total fr the analytical chemist of milwaukee writing from his laboratory last month says the result of an assay on a carefully averaged sample of ore including the gangue matter from the standard mine shows in gold and over 12 per cent in metallic cobalt I 1 regard the standard as a wonderful mine because it produces besides gold silver copper and nickel remarkable quantities of cobalt the ore which occurs in solid continuous in masses asses ia very interesting to me not only on account of its rich quantities of gold but because it is so high in cobalt that it may truly be called a gold cobalt ore and as such it is almost unique in the history of mining and metallurgy in all my experience as a mining engineer chemist and metallurgist covering a period of almost 45 years both in europe and america this is the highest grade of gold containing cobalt ore that I 1 have ever seen or heard of the following figures are taken from 0 original ri 19 certificates of shipment of copper ore on file in the office of the secretary of the company th this is ore was taken from tunnel no 1 as the lower workings were not then open in its selection a copper ore was sought as the matting plant desired this metal and the results indicated what the copper ore near the surface will yield in three metals no effort was made to save the cobalt in the matte smelter or compute its value in shipping ore the cobalt shoots were avoided as much as possible experience with cobalt proves that this metal alone would make the standard a great mine cobalt is one of the rarest metals there is but one mine in the united states besides the standard that produces cobalt except as a very light product byproduct by that being mine la ia motte of missouri which outputs cobalt and nickle principally the latter the entire production of the nation for the year 1901 was only pounds the supply for this country is imported from germany and france in a refined state the metal is worth a pound being used for pigment purposes in ore the metal is worth about 1 a pound in the standard mine mine ore has been mined carrying high as 20 per cent cobalt which at the market quotation for the metal in ore would make the ton worth or if the cost of transportation is taken into consideration 8 to 10 per ton less but the average of standards cobalt ores is not so high that being a very high rate it has been found that when the 4 of cobalt comes in gold values increase materially and the greatest depth yet attained revealed the best ar of cobalt mined there high grade cobalt gold boid ores were shipped to germany with the following results Koenig laches Blau farben werk germany no 1 gold 8 oz silver 10 oz copper per cent nickel 6 per cent cobalt per cent total value per ton no 2 gold 45 oz copper 3 per cent nickel 5 per cent cobalt 11 per cent total value per ton these values are representative of the shipping high grade copper and cobalt ores the limited supply of cobalt heretofore has prevented its use in industrial manufactures fac tures to a large extent in the united states and has confined its use almost a I 1 mo s t wholly to the arts in germany however where the supply is larger it is used extensively as an alloy for toughening steel par UNION SMELTER R COMPANY SUMPTER R ORE OREGON GON values of actual shi shipments lot GOLD SILVER COPPER TOTAL no ounce value ounce value per cent value 61 june 23 1900 1061 1064 1354 92 july 17 1900 1106 1511 im september 5 1900 17 83 85 1116 september 8 1990 69 1180 93 1950 32 2 3 september 14 1900 7 1400 56 1012 august 10 1900 1 1 16 6 80 2138 1 total assays essays six shipments average values ticul arly at the krupp gun works at essen were the supply sufficient it would almost entirely displace nickel in its various uses as it gives a much prettier and durable finish to with the supply of cobalt from the standard mine alone there enters into the industrial world in this country a new metal the ultimate uses of which can not yet be estimated it was with pleasure that I 1 learned on my arrival here that my old friends killen warner stewart had secured this property upon a previous visit I 1 had been told about it and had seen the ore but supposed the statements were exaggerated and the ore supply limited and I 1 was surprised upon visiting the property to see the immense bodies of ore that have been exposed in the mine I 1 was glad that these gentlemen had become interested in it inasmuch as they have financed a number of the best enterprises in the district among which are the sumpter smelter and the railroad from sumpter to bourne now in process of construction st the ground owned by the standard company covers approximately a mile square the management is conservative honest and capable and the money that has been raised for development purposes is being spent in a legitimate manner from a careful investigation ti of the property I 1 am of the opinion that it is one of the most remarkable mining propositions in the country 0 |