Show PLACERS ON COLORADO RIVER in an interesting article on the placer ground of the colorado river published recently in the bulletin of searchlight nov nev frank A doherty says sas concerning the Kerest in erest being recently manifested in the placer deposits on the colorado river I 1 will say that an examination made during this week has convinced me that these deposits represent a possibility that no one in this vicinity ever conceived of and it was entirely through an accident that anything of this nature was known to exist california owes its greatest gold production to placer also its greatest profits on account of cheap methods of reduction and this great field which has been at last opened up to the slumbering eyes of lie he prospector bids fair to increase nevadas output to an illimitable extent it has been stated in the history of the oldest of the gold hunters of this region that it was impossible to save the gold in the colorado river you might have believed it yourself as you have had it eternally dinned dinnee into your ears As we all know hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent trying to make the colorado river pay and the successful method has not as yet been practically applied but in the case of this deposit the values are all saved in the rocker or pan and whatever one can save in rocker or pan will stay in sluices or on amalgam plates the deposit is reached by a three hour drive about twenty two or twenty three miles northeast if of searchlight by a wagon road that will bear m much uch repair and as the drop is about feet the return trip cannot be made in much less than six houry hours the present interest manifested in these deposits was occasioned by some experiments on the sands of the river made by mr C J E F holland and myself about two months back at that time we examined the black sands as they were exposed on the banks of the river also sampling the river waters and the solids pumped by the centrifugal irrigation pump at the riverside ranch we obtained assays essays of from 23 to 58 cents on the solids and the river waters assayed 4 cents per ton about five years ago raymond rice and party exploiting a new patent amalgams amal amalgamating gama 1 device located on a bench about eight miles north of the riverside ranch from which they secured good bannings pann ings the machine was tried but without success mr holland was experimenting with an invention that by electrolysis separated the metals from the waters as they were treated by his machine concentrating the product upon the plates and then by reversing his magnetic poles and throwing the product back into a small quantity of water ator made a product as much in excess of the original as the plates would hold then by the cyanide process the values were saved A short time ago mr rice and his as socrate located the bench from which he obtained the rich bannings pann ings and the surrounding country was rapidly located A party interested in the property including myself nry self made a trip to the diggings this week and from my personal observations I 1 have deduced the following the location upon which the recent strike is situated rises from the present level levea of the river to a height of about twenty feet it is composed of a conglomerate mass of gravel and small rocks the black sands and free gold being intermingled the rocks are all worn perfectly smooth showing the distance that they must have traveled and being more or less impregnated with values these the values were thrown off on account of the friction and mingled with the gravel this conglomerate mass extends over hundreds of acres and I 1 would not attempt io 10 state what was the cause of the deposit but would advance the theory that some centuries ago this was the real bed of the colorado river and that the deposit was backed up by some strong formation and as the deposit was banked up diverted the course of the river to its present channel and that by its erosive action caused the river to sink to its present level an examination was made of the big tom placer the name of the claim located by mr rice and his partners A crude rocker or cradle of the 49 type tape has been rigged up for experimental purposes ten two iwo gallon buckets of the gravel and rock were rocked through the cradle approximately one fifth of a yard the cleanup clean up showed a mass of black sands and free gold that in the opinion of the expert miners who were gathered around ran about 15 or 65 cents to the yard the black sands hung heavy in the pan and the values in them can only be estimated by an assay it is claimed that they contain some platinum |