GENERAL MINING NEWS OF COLORADO. 485 



thirty inches. Assays of the samples give twenty-nine ounces in silver and sixty- 

 two per cent in lead, and nineteen ounces silver and twenty-nine per cent in 

 lead. The former is a fine gray lead carbonate, while the latter is a hard car- 

 bonate ore. 



Chrysolite. — The manager, Mr. N. R. Clark, has shipped several car-loads 

 of low-grade ore to Denver, in order to give the concentrating machines now on 

 exhibition there a practical test on this class of mineral. The ore which it is de- 

 sired to concentrate is the low-grade oxidized iron of Fryer Hill, as well as min- 

 eral carrying small percentages of lead carbonates in addition to a minimum quan- 

 tity of silver. The latter mineral is about equally divided between sulphurets 

 and chlorides of silver, making it a very difficult production to save and concen- 

 trate by any machine operated on the specific gravity principle, especially as the 

 chlorides almost invariably exist in the low-grade ores in small, thin flakes. The 

 manager stated that if machines were found that would do the work required, the 

 Chrysolite Company would expend a limited amount of its surplus funds in put- 

 ting in concentrating works. Suitable arrangements can be made with Messrs. 

 Cummings & Finn for the old structure formerly inclosing the Raymond & Mc- 

 Kay smelter, and the Chrysolite Company already possesses sufficient motive 

 power to run such works. 



Matchless. — The new strike recently made was a short distance north of 

 the No. 3 shaft, where there is quite an extensive tract of territory yet to be ex- 

 plored. The mineral is a silicious dark sand and iron, filled and coated with 

 chloride and horn-silver. Up to the latest reports, the ore-body had opened up 

 to thirty inches in thickness, and promises to shew to much better advantage 

 stillj with a few days' additional work. No assays have yet been made. 



Robert E. Lee. — Twenty tons of ore are daily shipped to the Argo smelt- 

 ing works, averaging about 300 ounces to the ton. There are now on the dumps 

 of the mine from 3000 to 4000 tons of 30 to 40 ounce dry ore, which eventually 

 will be shipped to the Leadville stamp-mills, as it is unsuited for smelting on ac- 

 count of the entire absence of lead and the great quantities of silica which it con- 

 tains. 



Shields Mine and Mill. — Work has been begun under the direction of 

 Col. A. V. Bohn, the former superintendent. Some ore is taken from the upper 

 workings, but in the lower levels nothing has as yet been accomplished, and the 

 the water still covers the two drifts, extending on the vein, from the incline shaft, 

 and some distance below the main tunnel or adit. The mill has been running 

 again for a week and has ample work before it to insure its steady employment 

 continually. It is now reducing the ores from the Shields. Welsh, Soper, and 

 other mines in that section, all of which are showing increased value. 



PITKIN COUNTY. 



The mills and mines in operation in the Gold Belt show that there is great 

 activity in this district. Two ten-stamp mills and one twenty-stamp mill are run- 

 ning day and night. 



VI— 31 



