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Show ; A 'COMSTOCK NEAR HELENA. .A:' - Tremendous Strike in" ..the Bed Mountain. Three months ago,, says the Helena (Montana) Herald, the Red Mountain Tunnel and Mining Company was organized organ-ized for the, purpose of tunneling Red Mountain and mining- the ores encountered. encoun-tered. Last week a body of '. ore was Btruck at a distance of 250 feet from the mouth of the tunnel, and penetrated ninj feet. The strike was immediately report ed, and caused much excitement among the stockholders, as well as formed a general gen-eral subject of conversation. Assays were immediately made of the ore, and tiree different lots ran $109, $143 and. $254 in ' silver,' averaging - nearly $170 per -ton. I This result was hailed with jubilation by i the shareholders, and the stock immediately immedi-ately -went up to $2 a share, at which quotation 10,000 shares -changed hands yesterday. ' - - - 1 Yesterday a surveyor went out to the tunnel and located 3,000 feet on both sides of it on the surface,- when it was found I that the tunnel had tapped the vein at a distance of 100 feet from the surface; At such a depth the strike may be regarded as no mere prospect, and is much more promising than if made from the surface. The company are very jubilant over the strike, and will continue boring the tunnel tun-nel as well as the development of the leads as they are struck. According to calculations calcula-tions there are thirteen known leads yet to be encountered in the course of the tunnel, with numerous chances for "blind strikes," such as the one just madel. Thp ore is of a splendid'character: for ' reduc-p tion, containing iron, besides 2 per cent of lead and 8 per cent copper, the silver being present in the shape . of the black sulphide. . The vein is well defined on the side first struck, - and though they-have penetrated it nine feet the other side .has not yet been reached. - The company own a mill site and water right near the tunnel and will erect works for the treatment of the ore as soon as the developments justify such a proceeding. Old miners who have-examined the new lead pronounce it a big thing, and one old California and Nevada man compared the ore to .that of the celebrated Comstock and prophesied a brilliant future for the new mine. The strike has cau.ed a sensation sensa-tion in mining circles here, and should it fulfill the predictions now being made will transform Helena into a larger and richer mining town than Virginia City was in its palmiest days. |