Show THE QUARTETTE MINE AND MILL AILL SPECIAL correspondence T searchlight nevada june 9 the mighty quartette which has been the pride of searchlight for many years past has been sold by the quartette mining alining company to charles H jonas and B F miller jr this the largest mining transaction that has been consummated in southern nevada includes in addition to the quartette mine the rambler boston fourth of july red iron and john groups of mines the searchlight hospital quartette railroad company searchlight western telephone and telegraph company whose lines cover southern nevada and the entire mine equipment including buildings and homes sufficient to furnish the nucleus of a small city in itself there are tons of stamp mill tail stamps resumed their dropping and the shipping of bullion again became a regular feature of the management the quartette has had a very eventful career since it was located in 1896 by an itinerant prospector namiel john Swick art who traded it for a team of mules plug of tobacco and 5 to ben mccready in turn it became the property of the firm of mccready fisher and hubbard these men commenced operating on their own account sinking a shaft with the expectation of encountering ore at an estimated depth of about feet when this depth was attained they had neither ore nor money to prosecute further development and a more discouraged set of mine operators never met A shortage e of 0 water necessitated the management constructing a seventeen ralle mile single track railroad to the colorado river where a 20 stamp mill was erected and op 0 aerated for a few years until sufficient water was developed in the mine when a new 40 stamp mill was erected in searchlight the equipment on the property at the pres ent time consists of a 40 stamp mill ton cyanide leaching plant and a 75 ton slime plant the quartette mine has produced to date nearly and while it is impossible to get an statement regarding the tonnage and values practical miners employed in the mine freely predict that the mine will produce as much again in the future and the fact that the mill is now working three shifts lends color to this era of greater prosperity to the camp the cyanide plant at the quartette mine was erected for the purpose of treating the IN 41 aa CX P anz PR ii ve tax vt quartette mine and mill searchlight nevada ings which will run between 3 and 4 per ton now being worked through the new cyanide slime plant recently installed by the colorado iron works for mr jonas who was at that time operating the property on a lease two years ago the company discontinued operations on its own account after having thoroughly worked the mine to the 1400 foot level leaving barely tons of mill dirt in insight sight in the mine A lease was given abr jonas by the company on its entire holdings he in turn sub letting various portions of the properties and different levels of the mine to former employees which in most cases turned out most profitably to all concerned con cernell the mill which had lain idle for some time was overhauled in what was supposed to be a final meeting however the miners who were working under charles de pue told mr mccready that their faith in the property was so strong they would continue the cross crosscut cut that was started on the foot level to intersect the vein without any promise of a payday taking their chances on striking a pay shoot the last round of shots fired on december 1 1898 after a months work under this novel arrangement disclosed the ore body the entire face of the crosscut being in rich ore shortly after the strike crocker and hopkins of boston owners of tho the boston and chief of the hills mines combined with mccready and fisher and the quartette mining company was organized hubbard selling his interest accumulated tailings from the 40 tamp stamp mill which has been in operation for years year in the early operation of the quartette properties the management had a model leaching plant which paid a profit on the investment but owing to the primitive methods of this plant like le many others had the slime question to deal with 10 charles H jonas one of the present owners of the quartette properties started the quartette slime plant which has lately been completed by L F le brun reprise repressing t the colorado iron works this plant P treats seventy five tons daily of ore having being bei an average value of 5 per ton values principally gold with per cent copper coppe after being delivered at the bins bin by means of wheelers the product is carried by a belt conveyor to an akins mixer where it js mixed in weights equalling six of cyanide solution to one of solids the solution having a lime strength of three pounds to the to ton of solids the product flows by gravity from the mixer to an akins classi fer the sands equalling 40 per cent of the heads going to the leaching tanks where they receive the usual treatment all pregnant solutions pass by gravity to the zinc plant where shavings are used as a precipitant the sands after treatment are discharged by means of a belt conveyor the values recovered in the leaching process average 86 per cent cyanide consumption being two pounds to the ton 0 of solids treated slimes leaving the weir of the classifier pass through a launder to Q an akins classifier and thickener overflow of the clarifier takes out 45 46 parts of the solution vh which ch is returned by means of a 2 inch centrifugal pump to meet the feed in the mixer thirty per cent of the soluble values of the slimes are recovered in the circuit up to and in the overflow of the clarifier whenever the solution is brought up to the value of 2 which is standard it is bypassed to the lines leading 0 to the zinc plant barren solution being added in its place the underflow of the clarifier is lifted twenty five feet by means of an airlift to an akins agitator which is twenty two feet in height and ten feet in diameter the inflow of the agitator is balanced by a float to equal the discharge which is going continuously to the portland filter the filter tails are taken away with a belt conveyor the average recovered values in the slime treatment are per cent the consumption of cyanide being pounds to the ton of solids treated the power for this entire plant is furnished by a 22 hp fairbanks morse engine with seldom a shutdown for engine trouble the best features of this plant aside from the value recovered is the small amount of water used and the disposition of the copper content which has heretofore been a serious setback in a pliant plant of this character |