| Show the silver king ki ng consolidated consoli dated mining mi ni n company com i its a poor mining camp that has but one life the best of them have as many i re incarnations as the proverbial feline and all but the poorest have two or three come period was ushered in about a year ago when the silver king consolidated mining company developed an ore shoot so magnificently rich and extensive as to rank with 7 lee ak 0 ps tr I 1 V SN arx G all A A ov W old 14 0 S 4 ig photo by Ship lers salt lake city utah surface plant of the silver consolidated mining company at park city baag acks in them after their first booms pass into to history the camp of park city utah is one of the e best its fourth epoch which may be designated the silver king consolidated the historic discoveries of the region forty two years had passed from the time the ontario made the first great strike in the district all those years prospectors and miners had been scanning the surface and plumbing the depths of the earth yet this splendid ore body underlying many acres of ground had lain undetected beneath 1500 feet of country rock hoarded by nature against the time when the other deposits of the camp should have become an old story for an industry which owes its existence to optimism and faith mining is some times strangely conservative A majority of miners are always in haste to write finis after every great mineral development it was so at park city when the ontario reached the summit of its productiveness the consensus of opinion was that it had taken everything in the district worth taking but in 1886 the daly waxed great and popular opinion was obliged to concede that the ontario had not swallowed all the ore the discredited prophets saved their faces by pointing out that the daly mines were on the ontario zone and claiming that this zone at least contained all the really big 0 ore re bodies their theory was not seriously questioned until 1889 when it was completely demolished by the discovery in woodside gulch of an outcrop of an ore system altogether independent of the ontario daly zone the silver king contact deposits once more the public accepted the hasty conclusion that the final big strike had been made and the extent of the producing area definitely established fortunately however there are mining men in whom the pioneering spirit is still strong who refuse to accept a conclusion merely because others do this type was represented at park Q city ity by solon spiro what craig chambers was in the ontario period J J daly in the daly period and keith and kearns in the silver king period spiro has become in the fourth epoch of mining prosperity at park city the east slope of hhaynes Thayne Th aynes sf canyon the center of mineral production had shifted first to the south then to the northwest spiro turned his eyes still further west to the uninviting east slope of hhaynes Th aynes canyon his undertaking was far more adventurous than that of his predecessors ces sors droppings Crop pings of rich silver ore had the riches of the served as guideposts to ontario and silver king and the daly ore T r ax i 01 ae MR 4 top of no 3 raise from 1700 level silver king consolidated roof and wal walls Is are of solid boll d ore president spiro and director on the job photo by Ship lers salt lake city could be easily surmised from the trend of the ontario vein there were no droppings crop pings where spiro began work and no established ore bodies striking in that direction he selected the locality in preference pr eferen ce to more inviting fields purely on geological geologic al grounds the formation he had r reason eason to believe was similar to that of the silver king having the same ore bearing lime lie he based his faith on this lime and directed all his energies toward reaching it probably no mine maker at park city had more difficulties to contend with since there was no outcrop and no ore bearing fissure near the surface there were no glittering specimens to encourage investors for hundreds of feet the shaft did not show a color and to make matters worse water began to pour in pumping was added to the expenses of operation and to the burden of the manager upon him devolved the double responsibility of replenishing from his own inexhaustible supply the faith of wavering stockholders and of obtaining the cash and credit absolutely essential to the prosecution of the work it was a herculean task for one man and he was constantly told that he was wasting his time and energy because there was no ore in that part of the camp had spiro heeded the derision of experienced riene ed miners and the advice of his more timorous friends silver king consolidated doubtless would be held up today as a horrible example of the folly of mining without a preliminary showing of mineral the miners would still shake their heads and declare it useless to look for pay rock outside the ore belt and park city would be entirely dependent upon the remaining resources of its old mines for celebrity as well as for material returns 41 1 1 AA al 1 rip vv ke I 1 1 W 51 9 A R bedded ore forming east wall of north 1635 level silver king consolidated photo by ship ers salt lake city there is of course a possibility that other interests would have taken u up th thai work at the silver king consolidated i spiro had quit and carried it to a success but this owing to the becu conclusion ful of the ore deposition is unlikely i r nature the liar IQ niffie mineral ral could easily have been missed drifts run rull through the property above the ore h orizon horizon and the deposit and d below far as is now known is not connected so with th outly outlying ing ore bodies its horizontal dimensions with the boundaries of nien men c conform to call forth the so closely as remark claims the he that if the placing of the ore had been left to the discretion of the management ment it cou could id hardly have been fitted in more neatly an epoch making discovery the ore so far disclosed in the silver king consolidated makes an addition to the resources and producing area of park city which well may be termed epoch making not only is the ore vast in tonnage but it conform in dip and pitch to the fissure block maintain a practically even thickness of four to six feet as far as they have been opened feet to the north and sev enty five feet to the south in neither face is there an indication of pinching or of deterioration teri oration early in his explorations harry A lee the consulting engineer forecasted correctly the economic geology of the formation and was enabled to carry on a development campaign in which there has been virtually no blind work or lost motion every extension has accomplished the purpose for which it was intended and contributed to the ultimate object of the operations cheap extraction the apex of the ore shoot A sixty foot drift from the shaft on the J A V X 14 va x xv e U A ia 4 W 61 4 F za R i WM ilk za face of north drift 1650 level ore from roof to Fo otwal silver king consolidated photo by Ship lers salt lake city is remarkably uniform in its distribution and alid free from gangue A disinterested visitor who declared it to be the largest continuous body of high grade silver lead ore he has ever seen touched upon its salient 1 uniformity and continuity an east west fault fissure displacing the lime and quartzite strata fifteen or twenty feet et but closed at the top by an unbroken bed of black lime and shale forms the source and axis of the ore deposits the uplifted ted ore bedding to the north overlaps at the fissure the depressed bedding to the south forming arming a vertical ore block from alty y two to forty feet in height and about 1000 00 feet t long on its pitch from the shaft at a the e 1500 level to the boundary line at tha 1700 level the Q north and south beddings which 1500 level uncovers the apex of the ore shoot and terminates at the west against the black lime hanging wall the ore is picked up by the 1550 level about ninety five feet west from the shaft and appears on all sides of the drift from that point to the hanging wall which on this level is feet from the shaft two raises in ore connect the 1550 level with the 1500 1600 level two drifts sixty feet apart the fi first starting fifteen feet above the 1550 level and the second on the level have been driven north on the bedding the 1700 level extends feet from the shaft four raises to feet apart run up from the level into the ore A drift in ore connects raises nos 2 3 anaa and 4 and an incline from the 1550 level descends in I 1 ore to a connection with raises nos I 1 and 2 the arrangement gives a good circulation of air and provides for the gravitation of the ore into tram cars at the th e 1700 level by commencing sloping operations in the beddings at the lowest point to the west mr air lee will be able ab ae to use the waste for back filling thus disposing of it without cost and saving expense for timbering simultaneously with the development of the ore body prospecting has been continued to the south on the 1550 and 1700 levels resulting in the determination of several east west fissures in the quartzite which promise to make ore in the contacts above commercial ore in some quantity has been obtained by following the main ore bearing fissure in quartzite on the 1800 level approximately dry tons of ore have been marketed by the company from the development work above the 1700 every lot has shown nearly the same percentage of metallic contents silver runs from 50 to 55 ounces to the ton lead from 27 to 30 per cent gold 05 to 08 of an ounce and copper from 14 to 19 per cent it may be said that there is no second class ore in the mine perhaps two or three mine cars in one hundred may be so rated but this is due to the intermixture of waste with first class as occasionally happens in breaking and loading the ore surface improvements the surface improvements at the silver king consolidated have kept pace with the developments at depth owing to the extent to which the tonnage was demonstrated ahead it has been possible to estimate accurate accurately lythe the future power and labor requirements quire ments of the mine these have been anticipated by the installation of suitable machinery and the construction of adequate living quarters the most important mechanical feature is an electrical air compressor built by the allis chalmers company and set up late in 1914 A direct current synchronous motor drives the compressor which has a capacity of 2600 cubic feet of air per minute the equivalent of horsepower the machine can be so adjusted as to carry any part of its maximum load with a proportionate reduction of the power required for its operation the machine was put into service in november it replaces two steam compressors and does away with steam power for all purposes save the operation of the hoist the compressor machine shop smithy and carpenter shop have been placed in small structures apart from the main shaft house but connected with it by tram lines under cover one hundred or even more men can be comfortably cared for in the bunk house built in three sections near the shaft house the rooms are large airy and easy to clean there is a pleasant reading and recreation room shower baths lockers locker sp hot and cold water electric lights and other modern conveniences have been provided A gravity system supplies the mine with water for all purposes and a complete system of drains carries away sewage from every building the ore is transported to the sampler at park city by teams at some seasons of the year hauling is impossible owing to the condition of the roads but these periods are short and the difficulty will be removed eventually by the improvement of the road or the adoption of other means of transportation the rate of ore production the rate of production from the silver king consolidated depends more upon the state of the silver and lead markets than upon the mine engineers who have examined ined the property and noted the ease with which fifty tons of ore can be broken hoisted and hauled daily have volunteered the be handled could that tons opinion without taxing g the twenty four hours every the working overcrowding physical facilities or over spaces in the mine As a variation of a few cents per unit in the selling price on such great quantities difference in of metal makes an enormous the net profits of the company production is regulated with respect to market conditions A demand equal to that which prevailed before the war in europe and promises to arise after that war would increase the profits on ea each ch hundred tons of ore shipped by more than 1000 so that the annual increase in earnings on tons daily production would be believing the present market at or very close to the bottom the silver king consolidated soli dated has purposely limited its output to a tonnage sufficient to meeting operating and dividend requirements conserving its metal so far as possible for the better days to come |
