OCR Text |
Show Discovery of Scheelite Adds Millions to the Value of Old Hickory Property; Mill Wili Be Installed . Recent discovery of rich do-posits do-posits of scheelite, more commonly common-ly known as tungsten, in workings of the Old Hickory mine, has added add-ed at least $10,000,000 to the value of the property, according to Edward Ed-ward Sehoo, president and general manager of the Prosper Mining company, operators of the property. pro-perty. This may sound fantastical to many of our readers, but, from what The News knows of the reliability reli-ability and character of Mr. Schoo and of his propensity as a mining man to give deep study to everything every-thing he says or does and to "keep his feet on the ground", we have every reason to believe what he says. Hundreds of thouands of dollars of this scheelite has been lost during dur-ing past mining operations at the Old Hickory, it is apparent, both during wrk under Schoo and that of two or three decades ago, when the property was last worked. To insure against this loss in the future fu-ture and to fully capitalize on the new value of the property, a small mill will be erected immediately by the Prosper company. The site chosen is located on highway 91-W about five miles north of Milford and due east (and down hill all the way) from the Old Hickory location loca-tion in the Beaver Lake mining district. While the first unit of the mill will be of only 30 tons capacity, it will be possible to add to it as found advisable. To be in operation in about eight weeks time, the concentrator mill will be equipped with crusher-classifier and rolls in a closed circuit with tables and magnetic separator as special equipment to handle the scheelite. The greater part of this ore comes in crystallized form, which makes concentration more simple than most ores. At the site chosen for the mill ample water can be made available and near the point is a permanent siding of the Union Pacific main line. The present quotation on schee-lite-tungsten ore is 523 per unit of 20 pounds, . though during the World war the price went up to $100 a unit. According to Mr. Sshoo, there is a large quantity of ore in the Old Hickory going 2 and Refining company going 31e or better, one sample tested by the American Smelting and Refining Re-fining company going 31 Cc, while another, tested by the United States Bureau of Mines, went 15. Even the 29r ore would bring $46 a ton. First definite knowledge of the presence of scheelite at the Old Hickory came about through a spectograph analysis of a sample made by a Los Angeles concern, which brought a report of a major part tungsten and iron with fractional frac-tional amounts of molybdenum and tin as component parts. Further Fur-ther investigation showed that the scheelite ore may be detected readily through use of a special mineral lamp which gives off ultra-violet rays from a quartz tube, bringing out definite coloration color-ation when flashed on this ore either in place or after being mined. Use of this lamp has shown the richest deposits of scheelite in the Old Hickory to be in the face, at the east end of the old open cut workings and in the shovel face toward the south from the cut. By a fortunate coincidence, coinci-dence, it is believed that little of the scheelite has been lost in late shipments from the mine. Purchased less than a year ago from the Barton interests of Beaver for a nominal sum, with a view only to the copper, silver and gold possibilities of the property, the Old Hickory mine, with this startling discovery, bids fair to set the pace for new mining activities ac-tivities in the western part of Beaver county and bring our mineral min-eral resources to the front in a manner not even dreamed of. In order to devote proper attention atten-tion to the new activities of the company, shipments of copper ore to the smelters will be curtailed sharply for the time being, but the company may well rest on its laurels after what has been accomplished. ac-complished. Beginning work last February, the Prosper concern has, during less than ten months time, shipped 76 cars of ore, a breakdown of smelter returns showing 400,000 pounds of copper, more than 14,000 ounces of silver and 100 ounces of gold to have been shipped during that time. In addition to brandnew trucks and compressor equipment purchased pur-chased by the Prosper people for use at the Old Hickory, a new half-yard shovel was secured, the first power shovel to be installed for use in southern Utah mining operations; and this has helped to i m a k e possible the remarkable showing made by the company. Directors of the company are now in Salt Lake City, negotiating for the purchase of mill equipment. |