Show electric gold mines co making producer at weepah W cepa h BY JAMES F OBRIEN tonopah To nevada april 23 in the low rolling hills of the weepah district to the southwest of lone mountain and twenty three miles in an air line southwest of tono pah the electric gold mines company is developing ve a mine that bids fair to prove one of the big gold producers of the country this is the opinion of a number of conservative mining engineers and aid practical mine operators who have examined the property within the last few weeks the ore at the electric is not of the sensational sat ional high grade type that made goldfield famous though high assays essays are not unknown but there is a large tonnage of low grade ore that should be easily worked at a good profit there are two vein systems known as the electric and the fissure veins that traverse the six claims of the electric gold mines company there has not been much work done on the latter but the electric vein or mineralized zone has been exposed by shafts prospect holes and trenches foi for a distance of over 1500 feet in length from surface prospect holes it would appear that the mineralized zone is at least feet wide though the greatest width so far exposed at depth is seventy one feet but neither wall is in sight in this crosscut from the bottom of an eighty five foot shaft As to the ore and values found in the different workings the following is taken from the report made by leon M hall a consulting engineer of repute after a recent sampling and examination of the electric mine engineers report is favorable the ore shoots are apparently distributed over the entire area but it is safe to say that the entire area is sufficiently well mineralized to assure a large tonnage for many years A crosscut has been driven in ore from the bottom of the main shaft for a distance of seventy feet without exposing either the foot or hanging wall and at no 4 shaft at a point about feet to the south of the main shaft a crosscut was driven forty seven feet without finding the walls or getting out of ore of a commercial value similar conditions hold true tor for shafts no I 1 and no 2 with crosscuts cross cuts respectively ively eighteen and twenty one feet in length these workings are all in ore both sides and bottom while all of the dumps are of similar material and can be cleaned as ore of a commercial grade elsewhere in his report mr hall says sacs the assay values obtained from samples taken from i the workings on the electric V vein in r run n f from rom 1 to 5 50 0 per ton with fr from conw 6 to 8 as a fair average of the general run of the ore exposed in the electric vein system that is the average value still claimed by frank E horton president of the company though it is known that much higher grade has been found since mr hall made his examination when the visit was made to the electric mine for the purpose of examining and gathering data for this article four samples were taken from the different deeper workings for assay this was to satisfy personal curiosity the assays essays were made by young of reno one proved to be genuine high grade and so much better than the average claimed by hall and horton that the exact figures will not be given here lest they prove misleading the other three ra ran n 2080 and 2120 respectively an average of 1566 per ton operating costs will be modest with goods running to the electric f from born tonopah To goldfield and mcleans station with ample water for milling and domes domestic tic purposes purposes less than six miles away with an electric power line and a telephone line that can be tapped within four miles of camp and the tonopah and goldfield railroad but ten miles distant the conditions for economical mining and milling are excellent mr hall figures the cost of mining and milling the ore with adequate facilities at not to exceed 4 per ton but sol camp who developed the elkton mine at cripple creek and later the january mine of the goldfield consolidated and who is now in charge of the electric believes he can cut the estimates on mining costs very materially camp says that the big ore body can be mined by the glory hole method and that a very few miners can keep a mill of large capacity steadily supplied with ore hoisting equipment being installed A good hoist is now on the ground and it is mr camps intention to sink the main shaft or feet after it is installed and to drift and crosscut until the limits of the ore are more definitely determined As stated before the values have increased appreciably preci ably as depth is gained but even if there is no increase in width and value another or feet in depth will greatly increase the value of the electric mine if the vein persists that it will pers persist st to depth there is no doubt in the minds of mr hall and others who have studied the geology 1 there is not space to reproduce in full mr halls report on the geology but the following sentence taken from it tells the story stork the structural characteristics characteristic stara 4 are those that accompany de deep ep seated perma nent vein formations the concluding paragraph of mr air halls full report is the most important perhaps to those interested in the mine and is as follows if the veins improve depth or even maintain their present values the mine is sure to rank with the big producers as depth and development bring to light the latent possibilities of this district distri cV frank M ish who bought a half interest in the san francisco and oakland baseball clubs with money made in goldfield and who also was a pioneer of cripple creek is another of the old bunch that has become enthused over the showing in the weepah district he has secured a group of claims adjoining the electric and though the baseball season has opened he has been here for some days arranging for their development his friends will realize that it takes something big to keep him away from a vall ball game when his own club plays |