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Show COBALFS BIG SHOWING IN SILVER PRODUCTION READS LIKE ROMANCE The wonderful silver mines of Cobalt, Ontario, have been attracting very wide attention in the mining world for about ten months, and the climax of interest wss reached recently, when the announcement an-nouncement came that the Guggenheim Exploration company, John Hays Hammond, Ham-mond, and also the McCornicks of Salt Lake had made. large investments there. Coincident with the placing of the large capital which these interests brought to Cobalt there came forth the first really intelligently-prepared statements state-ments for the press regarding the characteristics char-acteristics of the district. From a few of these, published by Mines and Minerals, it has been possible possi-ble to afford readers of THE TELEGRAM TELE-GRAM a most interesting picture in words of this camp, which stands alone and apart as a most remarkable chapter-maker in mining history. Until .Cobalt was discovered nearly three years ago by the railroad con- strnetion gsng thst wss poshing the Government line through to North Bay, the conntry was a wilderness, heavily timbered, and was peopled chiefly by Indian trappers and guides, round Silver Nugget. One of these found a silver nugget ia the soil while chopping, and having his euriosity aroused, later discovered others. oth-ers. An incipient stampede followed from nearest points of population, and ultimately the financing of the camp was assumed by Boston men, to whom the stories were told snd retold until fersonal investigation banished credu-ity credu-ity with which the. statements of the richness of the new diggings were at lust received. And now, in less than two years since mining was inaugurated in earnest, Co-bslt Co-bslt has twenty shipping mines, a total output of over $3,000,000 in silver ore. and sufficient valuea blocked out and in sight in the working ledges to make the eamp a big producer for years to come. Million Dollars In Sight. One million dollars is a conservative estimate of the value of silver ore now held for shipment, snd one of the larger companies has forwsrded throughout the summer at. the rate of $100,000 per month te the New .Tersev smelters. The bonanza of the csrap is the recently-discovered ledge, No. 49, on the ipissmg group, which for over seventy reet along the surface shows a width of thirty to sixty-four inches. This vein assays over 50 per cent silver, and is regarded by geologists who have examined ex-amined it as the mining wonder of the century. It is the purchase of the Gug-genneims. Gug-genneims. A nugget nearlv two tons in weight and containing $18,000 worth ?C- i 5r w?s iaken from th aurface of tfcis Jedge. In less than eighteen months ol active development the company has shipped over $1,500,000 worth of ore to the smelters, at a total operating expense ex-pense of less than $200,000. Fifty Promising Veins. Less than 10 per cent of its 900 acres have been deforested or carefully prospected pros-pected to date, and yet in this restricted area fifty promising veins have been uncovered. An eminent expert is authority au-thority for the statement that if this vein continues in depth but fifty feet, at.lts width, the silver value will easily be $4,000,000. One thirty-ton carload of this ore brought $95,000 net. Some of the mines have shipped tons 2 r tnat would run from 4000 to 8000 ounces, and outcropping nuggets hsve asssyed as high as 10.000 to 12.-000 12.-000 ounces in leaf, plate and native silver sil-ver per ton. ' Total shipments from all the mines show an average assav for the camp of SoO ounces silver per ton. a record which, according to statisticians has never been equaled at any silver camp on earth for a similar period of time. Values Near 8orfaca. Almost without exception values lie near the surface in veins of smaltite nicolite and ealcite, and operating expanses ex-panses are extremely low in comparison with the remarkable richness of the ore. For the most part the veins are vertical ver-tical and narrow, ranging from three to seven inches ia width. Occasionally they vug out to a width of ten or twelve inches, and again pinch in for short distances until they become mere stringers. One strong assurance of continued values as the veins go down is found in the La Rose mine, where a shaft has been sunk 283 feet, and is all the way in ore running fully as high as was the case at the surface. Hydraulic Mining. "While in the matter of prospecting trenching is employed to some extent, one of tha surest methods of locating veins is that employed oa one section of the Mpissiug property. Here a powerful hydraulic plant has been installed in-stalled on the lake shore, and the streams from the three-and-one-half noz-ales noz-ales of the "gisnts" are washing the soil and moss from the underlying ore-bearing ore-bearing ledges. In the hands of a competent shift boss the eonverted ax man is rapidly becoming a good miner. The wsges run from $1.75 to $3.50 per day, according to experience and ability. |