THE GOLD DISTRICT OF COLORADO, U.S.

Grey River Argus, Issue 56, 22 May 1866, Page 3

THE GOLD DISTRICT OF COLORADO, U.S.

In California gold was first found in the sand by the beds of rivers and smaller streams, where it had been deposited after being washed and carried by rains and other natural forces from the mountains, in the quartz of wliich it had previously been contained in an aggregated form. But the aznount of gold contained in .tliia debris, and in the gulches or other places of deposit, is necessarily uncertain. Nor can the amount of gold contained in the conglomerate rock of the mountains themsalves be relied upon. But in Colorado the gold ia found under very different conditions. In the auriferous district of this territory, the mountains consist of a series of irregular, abrupt, and precipitous elevations, rising suddenly from narrow ravines or caisons to the height of several hundred feet, and the rocks composing them are of Plutonic or Metamorphic formation. Here gold is found in veins of iron, copper, silver, and lead, and is nearly uniformly diffused throughoiit these ores. The distribution being so nearly uniform, the yield will be the same from day to day, and hence the ores may be worked as a business, just as iron, copper, lead, tin, or any other mineral is worked. In the variety of rock in wliich gold is found in Colorado, the veins occur in those cracks or fissures known as cleaving planes, and a3 these fissures could only have been filled from below, and are, in fact, filled with minerals which have never been subjected to atmospheric influence, the con/i elusion is irresistible that they are thG' result of the action of internal heat, and that they can have no termination in depth wliich it would be practicable or possible to reach. And, accordingly, it has been found an invariable rule in working the mines of Colorado that the greater tho depth attained, the richer and softer has the ore proved to be. The novel conditions under wliich gold is here found, Avhilc it has not discouraged the miner or capitalist, has involved an immense expenditure of both labor and capital — an expenditure which, could in great part have been spared had science come more promptly to their aid. Up to almost 'the present moment, the entire yield of the mines (in amount) has been expended in costly machinery, in erecting mills, and in other appliances, by means of which, however, not more than from a fourth to a third of the gold has been extracted from the ore. Yet the following statement of the amount of gold from Colorado (taken partly from the reports of the United States Mint of Philadelphia) will show neither the laborer nor the capitalist has been without his reward : — In the year 1859, the yield was equal to about ... ' £800 Do 1800, do do. 120,000 Do IS6I, do do 200,000 Do 1862, do do 1,200,000 Do : - 1803, do do 3,000,000 Do 1864, do do 4, 00p, 000 Do ISGS, do is estimated at ... 6,000,000 The above amounts fall short, of course, of the entire yield of the territory. The following statement of the results of the working in a few of the mines up to Jan., 1864, will not be without interest : — From 334 * eet on one claim -(100 feet) have been taken L 60,000, and the owner of this small extent of lode, knowing its inexhaustible riches, refuses to sell itj though offered fabulous sums. . From thirteen claims on another lode have been taken L 155,200, from eight claims on another 1^86,000^ from six claims on another L 175,000, and from seventeen claims on another L1,000,00Q. Had the several new processes now being introduced for manipulating the ores of Colorado been known and adopted five years ago, j\is not too much to say that '.hese amounts, ' and the gross yield of the \drritory, would have been increased tenfold, for- not only do they enable the miner to get from 90 ■ -•'■■

Ip 95 per cent, of the gold which the ores contain^insiead of from 25 to 334 per cent, as heretofore, bill they enable him to reduce it in large quantities, with greater rapidity, and fit much less expense i}oth in the original outlay, and the subsequent charges. The -following 'extract '-from a message of Governor Evans to the Legislature of Colorado shall conclude this sketch: — "Hie gold mines of Colorado already tested, are found tp. be in better defined, ledges, occurring more closelytogether, extending over a wider district of country, surrounded by better facilities for working, and yield much richer ores than have bsen found many other country in the world. .... . • The improvement in the modes of saving gold from the ores of our mines that have been made during. the past year have given a new impulse to our mining operations ; by these new processes ores that paid but 25 dollars (L 5) per ton by the old processes are readily made to yield 100 dollars (L2O) per ton, while many varieties produce much more largely, and this without greatly increasing the expenses.