Volume One, Number Two
More Gold Than Rock
Baker City, 1899
Carload of Golconda Ore Causes Stir in San Francisco
Eastern Oregon gold mines are receiving much attention. That rich ore prompted the following article by the "Mining and Engineering Review" of San Francisco:
1899--A carload of ore from the Golconda mine, six miles southerly from Sumpter, Baker county, has just been received for the Selby Smelting Works and another is ready for shipment. It is magnificient ore, much of it being so rich in free gold and telurides as to seem almost fabulous in value. It was struck at the 200 foot level in the mine and is now 12 feet wide, all pay shoot.
The rich mine is the property of J.G. English and John T. English, father and son, who purchased the mine 18 months ago and have operated with only indifferent success until the present strike was made. So rich is it that it runs thousands of dollars to the ton some of it showing more gold than rock. It occurs in slate and not far from a granite contact. On the mine there is a double compartment shaft fitted with steam hoist and now 360 feet deep, and about 2,000 feet of workings all together.
On the mine is a roller mill and bromine and chloride plant, but this is not found satisfactory in working this rich ore and accordingly a 10 stamp mill will be erected, to be enlarged subsequently to 40 stamps, for which there is room in the building.
The Golconda mine is only one of the promising properties located on a mineral belt some 40 miles long and 20 miles wide running through Eastern Oregon. Eight new mills and a big cyanide plant are now being erected in the vicinity of Sumpter and Granite alone. The mills vary from 5 to 20 stamps, while the cyanide plant, which is going up on the Cougar mine near Granite will have the capacity of 250 tons a day. Beside the Golconda, the North Pole, the E and E, the Columbia, and the Bunker Hill are getting mills.
The Ibex mine, which was sold last fall for $65,000, was recently sold again to Eastern parties, this time for $300,000. On this mine a fine shoot of rich free milling ore has also been struck.
Read our other gold mining editions:
[Sumpter, Oregon 1900 | Gold Seekers Rush to California]
[ Oregon: Land of Gold & Opportunity | Dequille Reports from the Comstock]
Bridget E. Smith, editor & publisher
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