THE MINING AND QUARRY INDUSTRY IQII IOI 



ZINC 



Work on the zinc blende occurrence near Edwards, St Lawrence 

 county, was resumed last year. The Northern Ore Co. recently 

 succeeded to the ownership of the property which had lain idle 

 since 1904 owing to legal complications. It began systematic 

 development of one section of the deposit on April 1st and con- 

 tinued active operations throughout the remainder of the season. 

 As a result the company had at the close of the year about 8000 

 tons of milling ore on the surface, besides a much larger quantity 

 blocked out underground. Shipments of several hundred tons of 

 selected blende were made for experimental purposes, the first com- 

 mercial product ever sent to a zinc smelter from this State. 



The developments on the property give hope that a substantial 

 mining industry may be established. They are considered suffi- 

 ciently encouraging by the company to warrant the erection of a 

 milling plant, on which work has already been started at Edwards. 

 The mill is planned for a capacity of 50 tons crude ore a day, and 

 present expectations are that it will turn out concentrates averag- 

 ing about 60 per cent zinc. Though about one-third of the ore 

 developed last year would bear shipment in crude state, the dis- 

 tance from the zinc-smelting districts makes concentration an 

 advantage and probably all of the output will pass through the mill. 

 This will enable the production, also, of a valuable by-product in 

 the form of pyrite. Some of the ore, furthermore, carries an 

 appreciable quantity of galena which will doubtless be saved by the 

 mill treatment. 



Only a limited area of the mineralized zone has been explored as 

 yet. The work during the past year was directed to the under- 

 ground exploration of a single outcropping lens that had been previ- 

 ously uncovered and followed to a depth of 40 or 50 feet. This has 

 been developed through an inclined shaft following the dip of the 

 ore and by a series of drifts and crosscuts. At the time of the 

 writer's visit to the property in June 1911, the shaft had been sunk 

 about 100 feet and showed a continuous band of ore all the way 

 from 4 to 7 feet thick. According to recent information communi- 

 cated by A. J. Moore, manager of the Northern Ore Co., at 

 Edwards, the conditions have continued favorable with the further 

 progress of the shaft and additional ore bodies have been encoun- 

 tered in some of the crosscuts. 



The ore lens that has been under development is remarkably high 

 in grade, the whole mass being almost solid blende and pyrite. 



