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Show TIMELY METHODS ROUT MERCUR GHOSTS ..;. j flMercur Ca-Tyon S'vr'-v - ; j"!i f . . ; Eoom Days ; ; N , By GEORGE W. SNYDER CAMP FLOYD, an earlr. military -,post in the Oqnirrli mountains, six miles soutli o Great Salt Lake, gave Its name to a district which has never ceased to astonish metallurgists by the diversity and complexity of its ores. Mercur, one of its subsidiary camps, has been a Teritable test .tube o mineralogy. There nature outdid herself la de-vising de-vising obdurate .combinations of : metallic elements and the miner countered by working out no less Ingenious solutions of he-r metallurgical metal-lurgical and mechanical problems. It was the lure of Mercur's gold which led to the general use of cyanide in leaching, to the building build-ing of the first long distance electrical elec-trical transmission line and to the development of vacuum filtration. Discoveries began in 1896. Finding Find-ing of a vein of antimonial silver In the Sparrow Hawk brought ex-soldiers, ex-soldiers, farmers and prospectors to Lewiston canyon. Exposures of cinnabar (sulphide of mercury) and gold added to the excitement. One Capt. Shaw built a mill In the canyon in 1872. Some silver was saved. The gold, however, was elusive. Assays were good, but the claylike ore containing it would not yield to any known method of treatment. Mill changes proving Ineffectual, Capt. Shaw gave up the struggle and the little town became a "ghost" camp. North of Camp Floyd lead mines and nmelters sprang up, but Mercur Mer-cur slumbered. Then, in 1S90, some Nebraska farmers were induced to invest in the gold bed. The Mercur Mer-cur Gold Mining & Milling Co. was organized. Less than 20 of the gold was saved by the small pan-nmalgamation pan-nmalgamation mill installed at Manning. Cyanide saved the day. This chemical was being tried experimentally ex-perimentally at Denver. Tests of small samples from Mercur proving prov-ing encouraging, a carload of the ore was forwarded. More than 85 of the gold was recovered. A 50-ton 50-ton cyanide plant started at Manning Man-ning in 1892 was able to show a profit and in 1S93 its capacity was doubled. Two years later Capt. J. L. Del-amar Del-amar bought the Golden Gate group, next to the Mercur claims. Pyrite, sulphur and carbon in his ore made trouble. Two years more, and experimentation proved that with finer grinding and roasting roast-ing the base ores could be cya-nided. cya-nided. Belamar built the Golden Gate mill in 1897-8 and, In 1899, effected a consolidation with the Mercur company under the name Consolidated Mercur Gold Mines Co. The two companies had produced 1,045,138 tons of ore at a profit of $2,190,901. During the 11 years following, Con. Mercur milled 3,-137,757 3,-137,757 tons with a gross value of 1 110.245,175 and paid ?1,235,000 In dividends. Extraction was at the rate of 76.7. After the closing of the Golden Gate mill in 1913 the camp languished. lan-guished. In 1917 the mill machinery machin-ery was sold, houses were moved away and the railroad torn up. Mercur was a ghost town again. Adjacent properties had been operated for years with varying success. The Sacramento, just south, had paid $30S,000 in dividends, di-vidends, chiefly from profits on its quicksilver ore. The Geyser and Marion mines had united in 1897 to form the Geyser-Marion company. com-pany. Until 1900 their respective mills ran to capacity and about $100,000 was paid to stockholders. Thereafter little was done until 1933-4 when a cyanide plant was completed and a steam shovel turned loose to scoop up low grade gold ore in quantities. Four miles south of Mercur the Sunshine Gold Mining Co., with a 50-ton mill was operated with indifferent in-different results. The Con. Mercur took control in 1908 and incorporated incorpor-ated the Boston-Sunshine company. The mill was remodeled and in the 14 months ensuing $19,500 was paid in dividends. The nearby Overland property treated $2.20 to $2.40 gold ore in a 500-tbn mill, but was unable to finance its operations opera-tions and closed down in 1902. Beginning in 1933, new life was infused into the Mercur area by the W. V. Snyder & Sons Co. The Snyders and associates built a plant at Manning to leach the old Manning and Mercur dumps. The issue hung in the balance when the increase in the mint price o gold. ; from $20.67 to $35 an ounce turned the scale. Snyder & Sons immediately imme-diately closed a deal for the purchase pur-chase of the Con. Mercur properties prop-erties under a lease and option contract. Incorporating the Lewis-ton Lewis-ton Peak Mining Co., they arranged for the removal of their Manning plant to Mercur. Leasing operations opera-tions in some of the Mercur claims were very profitable and, with the prospective recoveries from the old tailing dumps, another period of prosperity for the twice ghost-haunted ghost-haunted camp could be foreseen. The recent era of activity has seen the payrolls of the district rise from a few hundred dollars In 1930 to approximately $15,000 per month, which is steadily increasing. increas-ing. This means about 130 men employed on company account, with 75 to 100 lessees also producing. produc-ing. Food and mining supplies to the value of around $6,000 a month are procured locally and from Salt Lake City, while electric power at a cost of $3,000 a month is consumed. con-sumed. Insurance and taxes of various kinds, together with miscellaneous mis-cellaneous expenditures, account for another $3,000 monthly. It ls estimated that $35,000 to $40,000 a month is being put into circulation circula-tion instead of nothing at all. |