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Show ! " REBUILDING A COMMUNITY 1 ' I ; uj-iier sold price and scieutific , Mevement of private industry I wo combined iu breathing new ; S. mto the old ghost town of Mer- '-; in Tooele county, thereby re- ' 1 orinS for the state a huse and rafltabla industry. J 'j.jv9 years ago Mercur was a jlost town. Its huge dumps, miles ' j tunnels and a few remaining r jjllding walls were the only mute I etldence of days gone by when the v jistrict supported a popoulation of 1S0O persons. Today Mercur is nil along the comeback trail, jjines and mills are humming; a own is being rebuilt and approximately approxi-mately 250 men are finding steady implovnieut in a camp which was I sBsid'ered "through" for many I rears. jj Thf accompanying pictures show 1 le huge "dumps" of the old Con-i Con-i olidated Mercur Mining Company ijd the Geyser Marion, together iritk new cyanide plants in which , ie ore is being treated. The Con-VI Con-VI solidated Mercur dump contains ap-jrosimately ap-jrosimately 4.000,000 tons of ore v, iMch it is planned to retreat for ' ie small amount of gold remain- mi;. This has boon made possible by the increase iu the price of gold to $35 an ounce, compared to $20.67 when the district was in its heyday, hey-day, nnd the advancement in gold metallurgy. A method of counter-current counter-current decantation has been employed em-ployed in the mills with a gratifying gratify-ing degree of success, after the expenditure ex-penditure of approximately $500,-000 $500,-000 in machinery, equipment, development devel-opment and supplies. In addition to the tailings several million tons of ore have been blocked out in the Mercur Hill, Golden Gate, Brickyard and Geyser Marion properties. The ore was exposed in reopening several thousand thou-sand feet of old workings in these properties. Hugh pillars and blocks of ore were opened up that were too low grade for handling under the old price of gold and crude methods of treatment, ffluch experimentation ex-perimentation is still being conducted conduct-ed and every effect is being made to keep the district going on a permanent basis. The Mercur district, known in the early days as Camp Floyd, was -. 1 -. .!. w, s.-..'. teeming at the beginning of the silver excitement in 1S70, only to be practically abandoned until the discovery of gold ore a few years later. Records of the United States Geological Survey place the value of production from the dictrict at $19,093,000, only a small fraction of which was ever paid in dividends. divi-dends. Owing to the low grade character of the ore most of the production went for labor, supplies, equipment and taxes, with little left over for distribution. The greatest great-est period of activity was from 1901 to 1907 when such mines as the Consolidated Mercur, Marion, Sacramento, Sac-ramento, Delamar, Sunshine, Daisy and LaCaigle were producing gold. Power and water has been an important im-portant factor in reviving the district. dis-trict. The Utah Power and Light has rebuilt its lines into the camp at a cost of approximately $150,000 and water is pumped into the desert camp from Ophir Canyon, 8 miles away. W. F. Snyder and Sons, and the Bothwell interests both of Salt Lake City have taken the leading part in placing the district back on the comeback trail. |