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SPRING HILL MINE, AMADOR, AMADOR COUNTY. 



Cash capital $18,000. 



The Spring Hill Mine is situated on Amador Creek, about three-fourths of a 

 mile from the town, to the westward. 



The lode comprising this mine was located in 1851, by Rice & Co., who com 

 menced operations on the vein in 1852. 



It is from this year that the mine must take the date of its existence, for during 

 that period the first mining improvements were instituted. 



From 1852 to the beginning of 1855, the lode was worked with variable suc 

 cess by the original owners.- This was attributable to the loose manner in which 

 the mechanical and engineering departments were conducted, and the lack of 

 application of those means that were available and most effective during that 

 period. Mechanical skill and a sad want of knowledge of the requirements of 

 mining engineering marked its progress for three years, at the end of which time 

 the mine was in a condition little better than valueless, and the motive power 

 nearly on a par with the subterranean workings. The whole appearance of the 

 property was that of a "present" interest only, and each department of its con 

 duction was but a reflection of the same image, too frequent still, even at this time. 



The result of the above operation was the disposition of the property at a mere 

 song, a moiety of its true value, which took place in the latter part of 1854. 



At this period a new company came in possession of the entire property by 

 purchase, and commenced the first improvements that partook of the character 

 of permanency in the slightest degree. Their first movement was to place the 

 mine in something like a safe working condition, which required a heavy outlay 

 of capital in addition to the purchase, they being obliged to repair the defects of 

 the workings of previous years. This done, they then commenced the extrac 

 tion of such ores only as could be removed without subsequent injury resulting 

 to the mine, and secured their excavations, as they proceeded, in a permanent 

 manner. In the course of these workings, from their directions and the relative 

 position of the older excavations, it became necessary to cut the latter, in order 

 that easy and efficient communication might be had with the reduction works, for 

 the transportation of the material of the lode; and in pursuing this course it was 

 not unfrequently that the old works, as they approached them, would give way, 

 from the total insufficiency of the artificial supports that were placed in them. 



Thus, after encountering obstacles of the above character, the company have 

 succeeded in not only placing the mine in a safe and accessible condition, but have 

 also taken from the lode an amount of ore sufficient to meet their outlay in repairs 

 and other improvements, and a handsome profit on the capital investment. 



Since its occupancy by the present company a new building has been erected 

 over the mill and wheel, and another for the accommodation of their men em 

 ployed, which is twenty-six by fifty-two feet, at an aggregate expense of $3,500. 

 The dead work consists in driving their upper adit one hundred and fifty feet, at 

 an expense of six dollars per foot, and the sinking of the eleven-fathom shaft at 

 its termination, at an expense of five dollars per foot, which in their aggregates 

 amount to $1,230 more. 



The improvements on the mine for 1856, and which are in course of construc 

 tion by contract, are one adit of ninety feet, at seven dollars per foot. This adit 

 begins at the north shaft of the old workings and runs diagonally into the hill, 

 and when on the vein will afford a line of level about five hundred feet in length. 

 A new sixty-horse-power engine is in process of erection to replace the dilapidated 

 machinery now in use, and a heavy Chili mill in connection with the former, the 

 whole of which will be driven by a sixty-horse-power. 



