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Show INTER-MOUNTAI- of these ledges has long been known, exceptions, they have but, with rare low-graat the surface. been very However, not an instance is recalled where the ore has not improved with depth. This record gives an air of certainty to any prospecting proposition. More than twenty years ago some miners operated an arasta on Willow creek, and in this primitive way took out quite a sum of money. But it is only three years since Plowman erected de at Neal. Since the first stamp-mi- ll then some half dozen other mills have started up along the belt. .Estimates vary greatly as to what has been the probable output of the district. A half million dollars seems a conservative figure and it must be remembered the greater portion of this has been taken out in the past twelve months. Some place the product of Willow creek up to date at $200,000. The returns from the Homestake at Neal in the three summers in which the mill has run have about equaled that sum. The value of the ore shipped from the Black Hornet has been about $40,000. This includes about all of the producing mines. Thus it is seen that the Boise gold belt is clearly a prospecting field, but the conditions are such as to warrant the prediction that in a few years Boise will be excelled by very few camps as a gold producer, it simply presents its claims as a promising field to those . MINING REVIEW. N been followed for a wall and opened up seven feet of ore that assayed fourteen ounces in gold to the ton. If there is such a thing as an ideal mining country it is the Boise belt. The hills are low and one can drive a wagon most anywhere, making the cost of roads very light. There is hardly a stick of timber anywhere, and yet lumber from the Payette is delivered at Willow creek for $13 a thousand. And lumber can be secured even cheaper than this at Neal when the road of about twTo miles is completed down to the Boise river. Moreover, Boise herself claims to be the. ideal place for a home, and this is the mining headquarters, not only for the Boise gold belt, but for the entire State. Wood River. Correspondence Mining Review. J. Hailey, Idaho, Jan. 12. Arthur of been who has Wood, superintendent the Bib Camas No. 2 mine and mill, has resigned his position, and William n as an exFlynn, who is cellent mining man, has been placed in charge of this valuable property. of It is reported that Manager Pricevein the Red Cloud has struck another well-know- in that mine. M. Bradley, who has worked faithhas fully on his claim on Deer creek, ore. of vein jigging opened a large The Bassett Brothers, leasers on the Red Elephant, have struck a twelve-inc- h As vein of first-cagalena in the Red looking for properties to develop. yet a stock company is a thing unknown along the belt, and, with one exception, the development so far has been made by home capital. There is a feeling here that this is an auspicious moment in the history of the city. The organization of the mining exchange, and the many inquiries that are made for gold properties lead to the belief that the opportunities presented here will not be long unaccepted. On the eve of this era a number of important deals are now in hand. It is currently rumored that the sale of the Black Hornet to Captain Plummer of De Lamar has at last been consummated at a price not far from one hundred thousand dollars. If this is correct it also means that that much more will be expended in putting the mine in producing shape. The present depth of the shaft is only about 100 feet, and the stopes have been pretty well exhaust. d, though hundreds of tons of low-graore is still on the dump. Captain Plummer will put a large force of men to work in opening up new ground, and in getting ready to mill the ore at the mine. Among other important projects for the future are two foot tunnels in the Neal district. The one on the Hidden Treasure was started by the Howes some time ago, and D. B. Higgins of Denver will begin one on the Daisy group in the spring. It is apparent to any observer that this assistance from outside capital is what the country needs. Nearly all the claims along the belt are held by poor men who have been able to do little more than keep up assessment work. Much of the ore is too to ship, and the owners have not the means to erect stamp mills. There will never be a better time to acquire de six-hundr- ed low-gra- de interests here than now. Another problem that must be met and solved is the treatment of refractory ores. Development has shown that nearly all the mines are base with depth, and the railway tariff is too high to send this pyritic ore to Denver, where the product so far has been marketed. When reduction wrorks are tablislied here that can treat $10 and $12 rock this belt will be outputting at the rate of a million a month. The physical characteristics of the country commend themselves to every practical miner. The Boise are one range of granite mountains hills with porphyry dykes intruding. The ore is usually found between the granite and porphyry. It is in this formation that the biggest strike of the year is reported. A drift on the Homestake cut through one of these porphyry dykes that had ss Elephant. There is an evident reaction and better feeling among the miners here. Gold belt, will They think the Camas 1896. in pan out well D some 9000 feet of present river channel. It is supposed that there are millions of gold lying in the bed of Salmon river for every mile of its distance, and the supposition should be reasonable, as its banks are one continuous deposit of auriferous gravel, and each seasons high water makes new deposits along the shores. The enterprise will require the expenditure of $100,000. With this enterprise in successful operation, the Victor and Slate creek companies takper month, Salmon ing out thousandsmuch-favored will be section river the in the country for placer mining Owyhee County. Idaho Avalanche (Silver City): Banner Group. The bond upon this property has expired and it now reverts back to its original owners Messrs F. Grete, Jr., Dave Farmer and R. H. Leonard, Sr. The parties having the bond during the past year nave crosscut some 350 feet through hard rock, and at the expiration of their bond they had only fifteen or twenty feet further to go (by survey) to reach the ledge; An extension of time was desired, but the owners declined to grant it unless a cash payment was made. The owners will very likely complete the cross-ctunnel this winter. It is 700 feet in length and over something will tap the Banner ledge at a depth of over 300 feet. An Immense ore chute, assaying twelve ounces in gold, has been struck in the Florida Hill. It measures six feet between walls and has been drifted upon for 185 feet. ut Idaho Mining Patents. The report of Surveyor-GenerPine correspondence Elmore County as published in the StatesRepublican: Oliver Sloan, who repre Straughan, man, shows that eighty-thre- e mining sents A. W. Butts, a San Francisco claims wTere surveyed for patent in Idawork capitalist, is pushing men onvigorously ho during 1895. The applications for a tunnel patent with a good force of increased nearly three-fol- d over near Fall creek for the purpose of con- the previous year. The Surveyor-Generveying water from said creek by a states the operations are especially of large ditch onto thousands of acres large in the properties, placers which are to be worked on an although silver mines of known value summer. next scale extensive those and of promising character are C. D. Cameron is running a cross-cu- t either or placed in conworked being of 100 feet on the Daisy mine and tap- dition for renewed activity. level. The ping the vein on the Daisy is a good producer and is owned NEVADA. by Cameron and Andreas Bros. Elmore County. al al gold-produci- ng 100-fo- ot E. P. Andreas, who invested thousands in the early history of the camp, Pioche Record: Teams are at Bristol has secured a lease and bond on the loading the mill boilers for the April Golden Eagle mine, formerly known as Fool companys pipe-lin- e. The water-pip- e is being laid and water will be in the Franklin. He is opening up and town about the 1st of February, as exnew in the propmaking cross-c-developments tunnels to tap the pected. erty by Reports of many good indications, vein respectively fifty and 200 feet but of any particularly rich bodies deep. This work has been in progress of not come so far from assessment ore, thirty days with two men and will conworkers in this vicinity. This class of tinue steadily throughout the year. As work now being ended, development soon as the necessary supplies can be laid in the force in the mine will be work may be expected to lull until the camp contains a custom mill, or a new increased to six men. find stimulates old claimants to further effort. Fremont Cou ity. De Lamar Lode: Upwards of $200,000 Silver Hammer: Fremont county for has been expended on developments on the first time last year made her en- the Jim Crow and Monitor, and in the trance into the circle of erection of the milling plant, the deof Idaho. Eleven thousand counties velopment of water with which to dollars is the amount credited by the operate it involving about half of that Boise assay office, but many thousand sum. Nearly 10,000 tons have been put dollars was not reported. This gold through the mill, however, from which came from the sands on the Snake $650,000 has been derived, while with river and we predict is merely a begin- additional stamps that are now being from the East the earnings in ning of what may be expected in the shipped next ten years to come from the same 1896 will far exceed those of any period since the purchase of the property by source. its present owner. Every modern improvement is to be found on the propSalmon River Placers. from the erty, the ores being Grangeville Cayuse: One of the larg- mines to the mill by conveyed a tramway, while est mining enterprises in the State is a coach with three guards is soon to be inaugurated on Salmon to deliver the bullion productemployed at Milriver. The Horseshoe Bend Gold M- ford, a distance of 170 miles. ining company of Chicago have recentApplication for patent has been redeed a from Francis secured Jenkins ly cently made on the Naide Queen, Gold and others to all the gravel bars, water Cup, Jim Crow No. 2, Golden Eagle the about and appurtenances and Monetary. The rights above Horseshoe Bend of Salmon river. It is mentioned are nearly properties all upon which the object of the company to construct little more than the annual assessment a large cut through the neck of the work has been done. Apart from this bend which will be 13,000 feet long, and it is said that the actual assessment work only has been done on nearly by this means turn the entire river into or300 some course a feet lower than the abandoned locations. The greatest means drain this and to the district since its dis- drawback by iginal qhannel, ut gold-produci- ng |