Show tungsten i in n the coeur dalene the wallace miner published in the heart of the great coeur dalene district of idaho in a a recent issue printed an article on tungsten ores in general and a strike in the pony gulch section in particular which contains much that is of interest and value the article is as follows colonel chester T kennan came up from spokane tuesday and went at once to pony gulch where he recently made an import ant discovery of tungsten so many inaccurate statements have been made regarding this find that colonel kennan who is an expert on ores of tungsten and their manner of occurrence was asked to make a statement regarding it and tungsten ores in general colonel kennan said tungsten unknown to miners tungsten ore scarcely came into commercial importance until about the year 1900 and although the tungsten mineral scheelite was encountered in quantity in all the gold veins of the north side which were mined to any extent the gold miners did not recognize it did not know what it was in fact but called it heavy spar and considered it an abundant nuisance as it frequently scraped their amalgam plates carrying off the quicksilver amalgam gold and all along with the tailings into the creek thereby causing large losses in gold milling all the mills in the district were seriously hampered in their operations by scheelite elit if scraping the plates this showing conclusively that scheelite is widely distributed in the gold veins of the north side scheelite in golden chest the mine muckers duckers took pains to cob out some of the coarse pieces of scheelite and throw them in the waste but as scheelite occurs right in the gold ore it was hard to separate it by hand picking as most often the pieces containing scheelite would also be rich in gold yet at several of the mines notably at the golden chest after the rise in the price of scheelite the old dumps and were partially worked over and long ago discarded scheelite picked up and shipped to market the golden chest shipped about worth thus obtained A rich zone of scheelite occurred in the klondike shoot about feet long of this mine from which it is estimated that at present prices about worth of scheelite was mined and wasted by the early operators this shoot was also rich in gold but the curious fact is here noted that flip ohp scheelite itself does not carry gold the gold being in the quartz and associated iron minerals tungsten minerals scheelite is the richest and most ale mineral of tungsten when pure it runs 80 6 trioxide and the scheelite from the coeur dalene district is the purest and freest from deleterious substances yet found A prem premium jum of 10 per unit has beati paid over current pric prices es for this scheelite on account of its extreme purity there are four commercial minerals 0 of tungsten dungs ten scheelite s ch e elite 31 huebne rite and the three latter are termed the dark minerals of tungsten containing cont ain i iron and manganese in varying amounts and ranging in color from dark reddish redd isil brown to black while scheelite the light colored tungsten mineral is a calcium tun sante aud and may be any light color even snow white but it ii is most usually found cream color as in the coeur calenes dA lenes occurrence the manner of occurrence of tungsten minerals is quite peculiar a type of occurrence all their own they have not been found to occur in large solid bodies of mineral as iron minerals for instance occur nor yet have they been found to occur as ernly distributed in connection with vein or r deposit as gold silver and copper they may be found in any rock formation but are primary minerals and originate at depths in the igneous complex they are not infrequently encountered impregnating igneous rocks in a fissure or shattered zone as is found in colorado or they may occur alone or associated with other minerals in veins or deposits they occur in zones of scattered disconnected pieces or deposits as bunches pockets chunks kidneys inlets ve chimneys lenses and stringers good field for prospecting the coeur dalene district has never teen prospected for tungsten mineral all the scheelite so far found having been encountered incidentally in gold mines and in the gold veins and gold placers except in two instances about two years ago a contact scheelite vein or zone was found along an igneous dike on the mother lode property on prichard creek and a few weeks ago I 1 had men prospect for a scheelite vein which I 1 believed crossed pony gulch and found it this is also a contact vein in ili quartz and quartzite lying beewen slate and quartzite with several igneous dikes running nearby and parallel to it it appears to dip at an angle of about 45 degrees southwesterly and strikes north about 20 degres west this vein was uncovered in the creek bottom and has been stripped for about thirty feet in length at the north end of the stripping the vein appears about four feet wide and at the south end about ten feet wide the scheelite in accordance with its typical or native manner of distribution la Is irregularly distributed through the gangue in specks grains P chunks and ve inlets ori on seams account of its irregular distribution trib ution it is quite impossible to estimate by sight right the percentage of scheelite carried and it is likewise impossible to arrive 1 I at accurate estimate by land hand sampling and an assaying the hand samples often a elect of the ore which exhibits to the I 1 eye no 0 scheelite on the outside when crushed and panned yields a good string of scheelite showing that the scheelite was on the in ic i side of the rock gangue or matrix wh ahei the scheelite thus permeates the gangu gang rock of the vein it is a good indication of cf richness in the ore on the other hand should it only appear in the cracks then there is not likely to he be so much schee scheelite litell ii the vein it is so heavy it can be panned in a gold pan the same as gold I 1 mm believe 10 per cent by weight of scheelite in this vein as far as it has been stripped would bea be a guess not far out of the way at present prices I 1 per cent in a vein of this size would wood pay handsomely As a comparison easily m u der stood each 1 per cent of scheelite inthIS in this vein is worth about thirty times asmuth as as if it were lead galena instead of schee lite much scheelite was encountered in placer mining in pony gulch gold pays for mining A peculiar and important advantage have in the coeur daleanes dA dAl lenes enesp where the W t sten occurs in gold veins is that the pl gov veins are good pay veins for the gold and the scheelite as a byproduct can them tie fore be produced practically free of cost 0 other known tungsten district at low prica can compete with this kind of tungsten ing in the scheelite being in the gold ore necessarily mined with it and the set lite is recovered by concentration ini in the j mill when this district gets into to full diw opy aaion it is bound to become one oa of the 0 dt 0 stable and permanent producers ten 4 |