| Show mining for zinc at yellow pine NEWMAN B GREGORY B S IN MINES AND MINERALS in dark clark county southern nevada about forty five miles south and west of las vegas is the yellow pine mining district an area which owing to the character of its ore deposits presents a new feature in the western mining industry ever since the mormons cormons discovered the potosi mine in about 1860 mining of lead silver ores has been carried on in a fitful manner until the advent of the salt lake railroad in recent years the remoteness of the district from railway and smelting smelling sm elting facilities cili ties precluded the shipment of any but the best of these ores the discovery of oxidized zinc ores at leadville four months ago in drifts which had been cut for over twenty years and the oxidized ores plainly disclosed but unrecognized by mining engineers geologists and mineralogists illustrates the limitations of ordinary human discernment and the discovery of zinc ores in the yellow pine district is only another example of such limitations deposits of zinc carbonate and silicate ores equaling any known deposits of their kind in the world occur in the yellow pine area and it waa not until four years ago that the true character of these deposits was accidentally discovered in mining the lead silver ores the miners found dikes of a brittle light colored material which they took for granted was nothing but vein matter and carelessly threw it on the dump piles this vein matter was eventually identified as zinc ore which on being assayed showed a high percentage of zinc an investigation was started innumerable samples assayed and it was discovered to me astonishment of every one in the district that the mines contained ten tons of zinc ore to one of lead outside of goodsprings Good springs the town nearest the mines laines and the few neighboring camps this discovery created almost no ex cit ement because with the nearest zinc smelter some 2000 miles distant and the nearest railroad a dozen miles away these vre ure bodies seemed to be valueless in the face of these discouraging conditions a few of the operators decided to determine the possibilities of the newly discovered ore bodies believing that with the opening up of a large quantity of an ore which is very much in demand reduction works would necessarily be erected thus making of these oxidized ores a commercial product continued development work attracted the attention of the zinc smelters shelters sm elters in the united states and in 1906 the first carload of zinc ore consigned to kansas points was shipped out of the district since that time probably or cars have been shipped to the kansas zinc smelters shelters sm elters and yellow pine mine yellow pine nevada the general average of these shipments has assayed in the neighborhood of 40 per cent zinc when it is considered that this production has been made in the face of high wages almost without the use of machinery a long and expensive wagon haul to jean and other shipping points on the salt lake railroad and a freight rate of 8 per ton results and achievements of the miners of yellow pine district show conclusively the richness of these newly dincov ered zinc deposits A large tonnage of clean zinc ores has been developed in several or the mines but an even larger tonnage of mixed zinc lead silver ores has been found these ores 15 to 20 per cent lead and 12 to 15 ounces of silver to the ton owing to the diali curties attendant upon an effective separation of these metals it was not until 1909 that a market for these mixed ores was established the smelting smelling sm elting companies engaged in the business of manufacturing oxide found this ore to be an especially desirable raw prod act for making a high grade zinc lead pigment and since 1909 a large quantity of 0 such ores have been shipped at a lair margin of profit to the miner goodsprings Good springs operators now find a ready market for all kinds of ore which they produce in contrast with expensive methods of milling low grade zinc ores the ores of this district require merely breaking down hoisting hand sorting and shipment ore occurs practically from the surface to the greatest depth attained by any of the mines feet and will very probably continue downward to water level and beyond not a drop of water has been encountered in any of the mines ana tho the depth of ground water level has never y yat t been determined the country rock is a carboniferous lime stone and is traversed in every direction by porphyry dikes the ore deposits are ara the result of replacement and oxidation in a limestone and are in all cases closely associated with the porphyry the yellow pine the potosi monte cristo prairie flower hoodoo and a number of other mining properties have been producing these zinc and zinc lead silver ores and are now engaged in the development of an increased tonnage closely associated with the zinc deposits but occurring practically free from zinc ore are found deposits of galena and co ca rosite pacos averaging about 60 per cent metallic lead and carrying silver in addition to the production of oxidized zinc ores the mixed zinc lead silver ores and lead silver ores the yellow pine district has produced copper and gold ores copper ores carrying some gold and silver alq ar found generally throughout the district and about 2000 tons of the higher grade ore has been shipped to the amel copper occurs principally as a carbonate but when found in porphyry dikes is in the form of df a sulphide previous to the building of the san pedro los angeles salt lake railroad the production of gold from the keystone and two or three other mines was the chief resource of the district the metal is found in irregular masses of iron oxide or mineralized porphyry and requires a close study of the ore formations due to the extensive faulting to which the region has been subjected in order to avoid losing the ore chutes As an example the keystone mine has been repeatedly closed down the miners thinking the ore was exhausted intelligent crosscutting cross cutting by some more venturesome operator has disclosed a large body of ore this mine was discovered seventeen years ago has produced over and today has sufficient low grade ore developed to keep a large mill running for a number of years the spring mountain range about twenty five miles in length and eight miles in width is included in the yellow pine area and it is in this range that nearly all the mines are located practically every square mile of the entire area has mineral droppings crop pings of some kind the discovery of zinc ores has naturally overshadowed all other resources recently strong financial interests have entered the district taking over fourteen of the better properties and starting construction work on a standard gauge railroad from jean the shipping point on the salt lake railroad to the yellow pine mine a distance of twelve miles switches will undoubtedly be run as needed from this new spur to everything on the east side of spring mountain range in order to eliminate the heavy cost of freight to kansas smelter sm elters sand and wisconsin oxide plants these same interests are putting in an oxide plant at san pedro the photograph shows the derrick ani and hopper at yellow pine mine with sorting table near the foot of the hopper the ore is crammed from the sorting table to loading bins shown at the right and from there is loaded into wagons to be hauled to the railroad at jean the acquisition of fourteen properties practically guarantees to the new company a plentiful supply of ore the construction construct ioa of a standard gauge railroad will almost eliminate the cost of hauling by wagon effecting at once a saving of nearly 3 per ton of ore and the erection of their town oxide plant at san pedro effects a saving in freight charges of about 6 per ton in addition to this the profit derived from froin the manufacture and sale sail of oxide must be considered in the event that this pigment finds a ready market in the western states the saving effected by these im improvements p movements rove ments will certainly exceed 10 per ton should it become necessary to send the oxide to tho central or eastern states to find a market the cost of the freight on the finished product must be deducted from this saving such conditions cannot fall fail to directly benefit every miner and to result in a markedly increased activity throughout the yellow pine area |
