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Show i INTER-MOUNTAI- N MINING REVIEW. The Maxlield is a silver-lea- d producer MINERALS OP THE MERCUR GOLD the United States. The best crystals the past season shipped BELT. usually occur in cavities in a gangue and during of milky quartz, calcite, barite, etc., about COO tons of ore. Fifteen Written for the Mining Review, and are generally attached to crystals men are now engaged on development which line the work, running a level into ground beor of barite calcite, 1IY MAYNARD RIXBY. cavities. Orpiment is closely associated longing to the company adjoining the While no minerals have been found in the ore with the realgar, and occurs patented claims. Work is to be retunnel, which will about Mercur which have not hereto- as a coating and in small tufts of sumed on a 6000-fofore been discovered in various parts minute prismatic deep yellow crystals. require two years for completion and of the United States and other coun- Orpiment in crystals is very rare, as it will strike the vein at a depth of 1500 or feet. tries, a number occur in the camp, generally occurs either as a coating, which in some respects are unequaled in a foliated or fibrous form, and the THE PRECIOUS HETALS. elsewhere. The silver veins of the old mineral itself is rare in the United crystals of camp have long been neglected, and I States. Occasionallyarefairfound in the United States Mint Director Preston am not informed as to the minerals in calcite and barite handsome stalactites has made an approximate estimate of them, except as to stibnite, a sulphide various mines and toward the northerly the output of gold and silver for 1895 of antimony, which occurs in a mas- in the properties d good-sizeend of the bell. A few by States and Territories. Utah stands sive form. been have The great gold discoveries have at- masses of native sulphur and in the third in silver and tenth in gold production, while Idaho is fourth in silver tracted much attention to the camp, found in the Sunshine mine colored quite and fifth in gold. The figures are as and there is a great variety of opinion Malvern, some of it selensulphur follows: as to its minerals and formation. The brown and resembling in found One of the rarest minerals Silver, Gold, form of gold present in the ores of ozs. e fine attrac-tivSource. value, district is the very $ 1,500,000 Alaska those mines which are now being the Mercur bright-gree- n variscite, a hydrous Arizona 1,000,000 2,067,100 treated by the cyanide process, has 154,700 15,600,000 been has California aluminium. of It 22,000,000 15,000,000 Colorado been often, and I think erroneously, phosphate found in clay canyon and at other lo- Idaho 4,000,000 2,790,700 this While chloride. to a be reported 35,000 40,000 rock in nodules the isolated in Michigan 14,500,000 sort of gold may yet be found in some calities 4,392,700 Montana near the surface It occurs in nodules Nevada 622,600 1,700,009 to not has it region, exceedingly dry 154,700 1,075,000 inches or New in ten Mexico to diameter, up eight in to exist been proved 7,700 2,200,000 my knowledge shell of which is yellow Oregon outside the 1,200 316,200 So. States. is but Appalachian ore artificially formation, any core the of 82, a which surrounds 4,255,000 South Dakota made in the laboratory for various variscite, 206,000 Texas n Some nodules Utah bright-greematerial. 8,233,000 1,352,300 uses. are composed almost entirely of the Washington 11,600 300,000 The gold is probably in an impalpably .' 500 25,000 All others which has the same variscite, yellow is reported fine metallic form, and. it as the green It has a $52,614,000 51,000,000 Totals that this has been shown, by placing composition hardness of about 4, which makes it The Director of the Mint is of the the ore under a miscroscope capable of capable of receiving a very good polish, opinion that the estimate for the gold hundred diameters, several magnifying and might be made into ornaments for of Oregon is $600,000 too high; when the metallic gold is seen scattered use where not be subject to product would it too high; of South through the ore. much wear, but is of no value as a of Montana, $250,000 too high, and that The term liquid gold as applied gem, and finds its use as an Dakota, $400,000 greatest by some to the form of gold in the interesting mineral in public and pri- when the final figures are compiled the ores of the Mercur and Tintic districts, vate collections. production of gold by the mines of the is a decided misnomer. A portion, at has been stated that this is the United States in 1895 will be found to It have been from $46,000,000 to $47,000,000, least, of the Mercur gold has been only known occurrence of this mineral, shown to be metallic, as it has been but this is not the case, as it has been and the silver product about 46,000,000 extracted by amalgamation. found at Cat Eye mountain, Montgom- fine ounces. Cinnabar, a sulphide of mercury, w'as ery county, Ark., and in The product last year "was $39,500,000 colored finely discovered near the surface on the pieces in Columbus district, Nevada, as in gold and 49,500,000 fine ounces of silproperty now known as the Mercur well as in Saxon Voigtland ver. (Variscia.) mine, and from this discovery the mine, whence it takes its having been and later the town took their name. originally discoveredname, MERCURS DEAL OFF. in that country. This mineral is found in a silicious The variscites of the Mercur district gangue, heavily impregnated with iron are, however, Capt. De Lamar having failed to take in probably unequaled ovides, and also in a white barite. It size and beauty, and Utah justly claims up his option on the Mercur mine, and varies in color from a bright cochineal a he and the owners having failed to for reputation among minerologists a to red a liver brown, is usually in magnificent and many rare agree upon the terms of an extension soft powdery form, and has been minerals and crystals of the option, it is safe to say that the formations. wrongly called by many a red oxide deal is off, and there are stockholders of mercury. The red oxide of merMINING BY ELECTRICITY. who do not mourn. It is a difficult time cury is only artificially manufactured, to float projects of this magnitude, and and, like chloride of gold, is not known The Maxfield mine, located in Big himin mineralogy. The name cinnabar is of Cottonwood canyon, a few miles from Capt. De Lamars failure is, as he self has admitted, no reflection upon East Indian origin and was originally this city, will be the first mine in Utah, Reapplied to the red resin called dragons and one of the few in the world, to be the merits of the property. As the view has pointed out, the retention of blood. operated entirely The by electricity. of the mine by Utah peoOther interesting minerals are the of which Hon. W. F. James the ownership company, will eventually result in greater losulphides of arsenic, found abundantly Is the ple principal stockholder, has al- cal in the Golden Gate mine, the red monoadvantage than would its sale to a amount ready expended of large sulphide called realgar, and the yellow money on a foreign syndicate. The company has has preliminaries, completed now resumed the payment of dividends, called orpiment. The name a dam and much of the heavy work, and it is understood to be the intention realgar is from the Arabic Rahj el but the operations have been conducted ghar, meaning powder of the mine, so to mill quietly that the public has heard of the management increase the while the word orpiment is a corrupto 500 tons, and the golden tion of the Latin auripigmentum, or but little about them. The plant will capacity be completed during the coming season, stream of profits will be diffused to its allusion in color, golden paint, the arteries of local commerce. and because it wras then thought to and will cost in the neighborhood of through dewill Foreign capital is desirable for the contain gold. Realgar is found at the $40,000. Three hundred horse-powof properties that would Golden Gate mine, both in massive be developed and transmitted from the velopment form and in fine bright red prismatic dynamos to the mine, where motors otherwise lie idle and unproductive, perserverence and pluck crystals, reported as large as three-fourt- will be used! to operate the hoist, pumps but when the of an inch and even larger. In and air compressors. Electric lights and money of home people have placed is far crystal form this mineral is quite rare will also be placed throughout the a mine upon a profitable basis, itcontrol in this country, and these are doubtless mine. It is expected to effect a great better for the West that its should remain in local hands. the finest specimens ever discovered in reduction in the operating expenses. ot tri-sulphi- de er hs |