THE LARGEST QUARTZ MILL IN THE WORLD.

Dunstan Times, Issue 507, 5 January 1872, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE LARGEST QUARTZ MILL IN THE WORLD.

Tlie Territorial JEnterprisaOC&lifornian paper) of the sth October has a long and interesting account of a visit to the works of the Union Mill Company on Carson Kiver, now in progress of erection, from which we excise the following:—The writer states that the great dam which is to turn the water of the river into tie flume leading, to the mid is rapidly advancing to completion, and is doubtless the most substantial structure of the kind ever erected on the Pacific coast. The site of the dam has been most judiciously selected. The river at the point where it is being ei'ected is quite narrow, with steep, rocky hills on both sides, which form natural abutments—that ah the north end being as perfect as if formed by art. The clam is a little over 200 ft in length, and the up-stream curve is the segment.ofa circle of 2000 ft before the foundation of the dam was laid a great excavation was made in the bed of the river in order that the whole might be as firm as the hills forming the abutments. The dam is constructed of timbers I4in square, kid about sft apart in rows alternately across and up and down the channel of the river. The spaces- between these timbers is filled with rocks. The water will he carried all the way from the dam to the mill in a flume, it being impossible, from the nature of the ground, to construct a single rod of ditch. A strong force of,workmen is engaged upon this flume, and the timbers of a considerable portion of it are up. Its length will be 4200 ft, and for the greater part of this distance it will be elevated upon a trestlework formed of heavy timbers, framed and braced in the most substantial manner. The mill will be 180 ft in length by 120 ft in width, and its height from the foundation to the top of the roof will be 75ft. It will contain 60 stamps, weighing 9401bs each, and will be capable of crushing from 180 to 200 tons of ore per day. The stamps will each fall 90 timesper minute, and the number of revolutions at which the amalgamating pans are to inn is 95. The pans and all the machinery in the mill will be ofthelatest and most approved style. It is intended that the mill shall be not onl v the largest but the best in the world—the model mill of the universe The ore cars, after their arrival over the railroad track laid upon the flume will be hauled by water-pdwer up an incline to a height of 40ft, where it will be dumped upon screens at such a distance above the batteries- that the fine and coarse material can be carried by means of proper chutes to where it is wanted. The tailings will leave the mill at such a height that they can be carried in sluices to a considerable distance up the river, and deposited in a huge reservoir which will bo coustiucted upon a flat or bar, an acre or two in extent Some of the foundation walls, of the mill are now almost completed, and a strong force of masons and labourers is engaged upon the others. The dam, the flume, and the mill will be finished about the sumc time, the work everywhere being so regulated that this will be the case. Above the dam a tramway is to be built to the railroad at a point a mile or two above down which and along the track upon the flume, as mentioned above, the ore will be conveyed to the mill. Ail the great works of which we have been speaking are being carried on under the superintendence of Mr. Edgington while all plans'n.w.b.e.en made and are being worked out iindef&H supervision of Mr. Fountain. Mr Edgington visits the new mill, dam, and other works every other day, and has besides twentytwo other nulls to look after, though all these are not at present in operatoin one mill is enough to drive a common man crazy, but Abe's head grows sounder in proportion to the increase of his cares. He has not only mills to look after, but 150 head of horses and a small army of men. At the new works we have been trying to describe there are IGS men employed—l3s white men and 30 Chinamen.