OCR Text |
Show WATER IN WESTERN MINES AND PUMPING The following Interesting figures on pumping are taken from the Mining Reporter: The amount of water raised per ton in the "West varies materially. At Leadvllle over thirty tons of water are raised per ton of ore. At Butte about twenty tons of water to the ton of ore are pumped. Cripple Creek at one time pumped forty tons of water to the ton of ore mined, although since the completion of the El Paso drain tunnel this amount has very;inaterlally decrcused. Cripple Creek Is not what may be considered a very wet camp, although some two or three years ago the mines on Raven hill, like the Doctor-Jackpot and the Elkton, had an enormous flow of water to handle. But the tonnage of ore mined Is so materially mate-rially smaller than the tonnage of Leadvillo or Butte that, naturally, the proportion of water pumped to the ore mined Is very much greater than In Butte or Leadville. Still there can be no question that Leadvllle pumps at least twice the amount of water that Cripple Creek pumps. It has been estimated es-timated that It costs about $1,000,000 a year to pump water In Leadvllle. or about C to 7 per cent of the gross output. out-put. Vrhe cost of pumping depends very materially on the character of the machinery used for pumping, ns well as tho care exercised in the operation of the plant. A common estimate for ordinary mining purposes with a fair equipment of machinery Is 10 cents per 1000 gallons raised 1000 feet, or per 1,000,000 gallons raised one foot. A modern triple expansion condensing pumping engine will do this work for about G cents. With sinking pumps the cost would probably be 30 cents, but may be easily raised to 75 cents with careless handling. |