Show THE PIONEER consolidated under date of august 23 the tonopah miner of tonopah To nevada gives an interesting account of the operations of the pioneer consolidated mine and mill at pio neer nevada it says the operation of the mill of the pioneer consolidated mines company which started this week will do much to revive interest in that camp and also in the neighboring camp of rhyolite both of which have for some time been regarded as moribund but show large bodies of low grade milling ore which can undoubtedly be milled at a profit the camp of pioneer was discovered in 1904 and W J tobin president nt of the pioneer consolidated mines company has been associated socia ted with it as principal owner of the pioneer mine ever since that date the company owns eleven claims situated on what is known as tobin mountain covering the crest of the mountain and the apex of a great vein 50 feet wide which traverses the companas comp anys property for a length of feet surface values in the outcrop were low and it was not until the year 1909 that rich ore was discovered at a depth of 65 feet causing what is known as the pioneer boom at that time the mine was under lease and during the period of leasing ore was wag shipped from the property in carload lots which averaged from 30 to over a ton for one particular car while several carloads gave returns of over a ton the discovery of the rich ore in the pioneer mine started an era of extensive leasing in the camp which was abruptly terminated by litigation over the title to several claims owned by the company to which they established their right and subsequently obtained united states patents to all their property development work was then resumed and large bodies of highly payable ore have been opened up on all levels to a depth ot of feet on the foot level in what is known as the bonanza the ore was mined for a width of over 35 feet all of which was shipped without sorting and gave returns averaging from 35 to 60 aton a ton and as the vein is in places 50 feet wide there are still large bodies of good mill ore left on both walls of the vein at present the deepest workings in ore are on the foot level where the pay shoot in the vein is 27 feet wide ide and will average in excess of 15 a ton with one face of ore five feet wide averaging over a ton P while on the level above this a width of 15 feet of ore is exposed averaging from 26 to 53 a ton in order to determine whether the ore reserves and values justified the erection of a mill J K turner the well known mining engineer of goldfield was engaged to make an examination of the property and reported that ore in sight amounted to tons of the total gross value of IG an average of 1062 a ton and that the probable ore bodies equalled equal led the above tonnage and values and that from the surface to the depth of feet there was a large tonnage of possible ore which would be encountered in sloping drifting and crosscutting while a very large tonnage would also be developed at greater depth in the mine the remarkable feature about this mine is that it has been self supporting from the very commencement after the close of the leasing period in 1910 the company had in hand a very large amount of cash from royalties received from ore shipped by lessees lessels to the value of since the settlement of all litigation development work has been maintained from ore shipments made at intervals until the early part of this year when construction of the mill was proceeded with and the company now stands in the enviable position of a well developed mine with large reserves of payable ore an excellent milling plant all absolutely free of debt for this condition of affairs great credit is due to W J tobin president and general manager of the company who has continuously worked at the property since 1904 without salary and without charging traveling expenses on business connected with the company everything in connection with the development of the mine its equipment and the purchase and construction of the mill has been conducted with the greatest economy with the result that the present mill was purchased and installed for less than and gives every indication that it will be one of the most efficient plants in the state of nevada for the treatment of absolutely free milling gold ores the mine is with an 80 h p electric hoist compressors for eleven drills operated by electric power blacksmith shop assay office and the mine will shortly be opened up on both the and foot levels the latter being the deepest point to which the shaft has been sunk the mill site is ideal enabling everything to be handled by gravity thus assuring economy in treatment and the plant is so conveniently arranged that it can be operated by three men on day shift and one man on night shift from the shaft the ore is crammed feet to the stora storage le bin and passes over a t grizzly to a 7 by 10 inch crusher thence dropping into the battery bin from th s bin the ore is fed into the 10 stamp battery by suspended feeders the stamps are of 1050 pounds we weight za ht with a drop of five inches drops to the minute the crushed ore then flows through a 20 mesh screen over silver plated amalgamation plates going thence to the pierce amalgamators where the float gold is saved the pulp is then carried to spitz kasten hasten from which the sand drops directly into the vats the first being 21 by five feet ii size there are three oi of these leaching tanks and 14 tanks in all of dit dif ferent sizes the cyanide solution after passing from the gold tanks goes to the zinc boxes where fine shavings are used in connection with electrolysis any surplus is returned to the standardizing re tanks 91 A careful test of the treatment of these ores by this process shows that fully 60 per cent of the gold contents will be recovered by amalgamation and a total recovery of over 90 per cent on ore averaging 10 a ton and mining and milling costs will not exceed 3 a ton As the mill has an initial capacity of 40 tons a day which will probably be gradually worked up to 45 tons a day it can be readily seen that the company has excellent prospects of paying dividends at no distant date the operation of the mill is causing a revival of leasing in the district the company has granted one lease to a colorado syndicate that is opening up pay ore on the main vein about feet distant from the main shaft and several other leases have been applied for and it may be necessary to increase the present mill by the addition of more stamps in the near future |