Show WILBERT MINE DRAINED BY TUNNEL after nearly eighteen months of steady driving the wilbert mining company operating forty miles from arco idaho has its lowest level by a new transportation and nd train tunnel the new adit gives the company a work ing entry with a depth of 1100 feet on the dip of the vein eliminates all hoisting and pumping and reduces expenses greatly g beatly re atly twenty three hundred feet of tunneling za and feet of raising were necessary to reach the lowest level of the mine the foot level according to H S knight who is directing ina operations for the company compa riv although the old workings ings 6 were filled with water there was no drainage until the last round of shots was put in the raise for four or five hours the water ran steadily out of the tunnel the wilbert ore body was fairly fairl y worked out down to the level on the level however the north drift followed a full face of ore for a distance of seventy five feet at this point in development the cost of power converted officials to the realization of the need of finding sonic some cheaper method of draining the mine As a result it was decided to move the company s camp to the other side of the mountain where an excellent tunnel site existed driving of the tunnel started in march 1922 has been steadily pushed ever since about six feet of ore averaging 35 per cent lead and an ounce or two in silver was opened up on the level on the upper levels in places the ore body had a width ranging from twenty five to thirty feet ore on the upper levels averaged per cc cent nt lead and 23 ounces of silver on account of the distance irom from the railroad the company has always al ways operated a mill this plant however was destroyed by fire in september 1918 if work on the level to be undertaken immediately proves that the ore bodies are as persistent and as large as on the upper levels it is probable that the company will build a new plant |