| Show E V SMALLEY ON MER CUR Mr E V Smalley did not like the action of the TransMississippi congress con-gress on silver hut he was most favorably fav-orably impressed with Utah and her resources In a letter dated at Salt j Lake City July 21 he says 1 The development of the Mercur mining min-ing district in Utah will soon make this one of the chief gold producing I states of the Union This district has labored for years with the problem I how to get gold out of Its ore Assays showed long ago that gold is present I in the ore and in large quantities but none of the processes of reduction was effective The old standard quicksilver I amalgamating process proved of no avail Many experiments were tried I and one mining company after another abandoned the field in despair Finally Fin-ally the cyanide of potassium process was discovered and after its success in Germany was introduced in the United States It solved the problem for the Mercur ores but not at once for the first experiments with it showed that the solution of cyanide of potassium and water employed did not percolate readily through the finely powdered ore mass which came from the stamp mills It was not until a coarser crushing was tried that the chemical substance worked freely and extracted all of the gold He says there is still good ground to be had in the Mercur district and that it is certain to be all occupied during the present summer and he is of the opinion that the district will produce ten million dollars wofth of gold before be-fore it is exhausted Mr Smalley makes this rather amusing comment The possession of this rich treasure in the center of a strong silver state is already I al-ready beginning to exercise an appre ciable effect on public opinion Many people think it is the part of wisdom to talk less about the depreciation of silver and go to work and get out of the ground some of the abundant stores of the more valuable metal Utah is still a strong silver state In its sentiment I senti-ment but the people dq not propose to I allow the silver craze to keep them from developing the great wealth of gold which they possess within their borders The people who think It Is the part of wisdom to talk less about the depredation de-predation of silver seem to be wise I enough to keep their thoughts to themselves them-selves Mr Smalley is saying kind words of Utah so no unkind word of him shall be said here |
