Show PLACERS ON SNAKE RIVER signal weiser idaho the idaho placer mining company owners of the valuable placer claims below weiser on the snake river are arranging to begin operation on their property next month E C cleaver who for the past three years has been general manager of the company with head headquarters quarters in this city has given out this authoritative statement the company owns a large number of claims that extend from what is known as the indian ford west of eaton station for seven miles down the river through the small canyon and on the oregon side for five miles and includes the gravel bars and sandy shoals to be found along the bank this company has a gold dredge that is equipped for this special kind of mining of the sand of the snake river where the gold js is very fine and requires careful handling to save the values the dredge works by suction drawing the sand up from the bottom of the river when it goes through a special treatment and is reduced to concentrates of black sand the black sand carries the values of gold and other minerals that are very valuable ablo one of which is platinum which is more precious than the yellow metal mr cleaver stated that his company had been working for the past two years on a special process for treating the sands taken from their property on the river and that during all this time their chemist in chicago had been experimenting on different ways of treatment that would be necessary the chemist aas has at last discovered a secret process whereby all the gold can be taken from the sand after it is separated from the dirt and other foreign materials found the dredge does the work of concentrating the black sand and the chemical treatment is then applied with excellent results the first work done will be the construction of an experimental station that will cost and will be used in connection with the dredge in treating the black sand after it has been concentrated A building will be constructed for the accommodation mo dation of the men employed at the beginning of the work then men will be employed on the start and the number increased as the work proceeds edi if the company meets with the success that is anticipated they will build another dredge and go in on a more extensive scale until they have a large force at work and are able to ascertain what will be necessary to get the best result for many years the claims that are now owned by the idaho placer mining company have been known to contain very rich values in gold no satisfactory process of treating the sand could be discovered that was cheap enough to warrant the work necessary to first get the sand upon this feature alone depended the success of the company |