HISTORY OF THE NEW ALMADEN MINES 



193 



FIGURE 123. Square-set timbering used at New Almaden to support 

 walls of a stope raised to the surface. This type of timbering was 

 used to support the ground only in the deep parts of the mine and 

 near the surface where the silica-carbonate rock is leached and ocher- 

 ous. From L. E. Bullmore collection. 



Tathum as mining superintendent. Under the direc- 

 tion of Tathum and Drew good ore was found in the 

 Senator mine and hauled 7 miles to the Hacienda for 

 reduction. But any profits that may have resulted 

 were quickly used by Nones on various other projects, 

 such as an electric railroad, a chain of stores in San 

 Jose, and an elaborate mill to make fireproof paint 

 from burnt ore. In 1912, even though the Senator 

 mine was producing and part of the property was 

 sold for farmlands, the Quicksilver Mining Co. was 

 declared bankrupt. 



In 1915 George H. Sexton, who ultimately gained 

 complete control of the property, obtained a 25-year 

 lease and appointed W. H. Landers, a specialist in 

 quicksilver mining, as general manager. Landers re- 

 opened the Senator mine with John Drew again in 

 charge, and installed near the mine a 40-ton Herre- 



shoff furnace and an electrolitic dust precipitator. 

 This was the first time that either a Herreshoff fur- 

 nace or an electrolitic precipitator was used at a quick- 

 silver mine, and they both proved very successful. 

 Encouraged by the stimulus of the high wartime price 

 of quicksilver, Landers also undertook the reopening 

 of the Day and Deep Gulch tunnels to gain access to 

 the Mine Hill stopes. As mechanical concentration 

 of quicksilver was then in vogue, he also installed 

 elaborate shaking tables, ball mills, and flotation cells 

 at the mouth of the Day tunnel, below the Randol 

 dumps, and at the Senator mine. On the declaration 

 of war, in 1917, however, Landers left to join the 

 armed services. 



Edmund Juessen, who succeeded Landers, found 

 that the concentrating equipment functioned perfectly, 

 but as the little ore available could be treated more 

 cheaply by furnacing, the ball mills were junked. 

 Juessen then devoted his energy to the building of a 

 60-ton Scott furnace at the Senator mine, which was 

 barely able to keep the 40-ton Herreshoff supplied. 

 This not only turned out to be an ill-advised expendi- 

 ture but was nearly disastrous. Under the supervi- 

 sion of Robert Scott, inventor of the Scott furnace, 

 the new furnace was completed in 1918, but because 

 of several innovations it did not function properly. 

 An 80-ton brick ore bin, superimposed on the furnace 

 and supplied with ore by a conveyor belt, was torn 

 down and replaced by a wooden bin, and, after other 

 alterations, the furnace was first fired on May 7, 1919. 

 It remained in operation only until the end of the 

 month, when it caught fire and ignited the entire re- 

 duction works. By the time Juessen left, early in 

 1920, the Herreshoff had been rebuilt and production 

 resumed, and under various operators it remained in 

 production until March 11, 1926, when the Senator 

 mine closed down after having yielded about 20,000 

 flasks of quicksilver. 



Shortly after the Senator mine was closed down, 

 George H. Sexton, the president and principal stock- 

 holder of the New Almaden Co., Ltd., died, and a 

 prolonged period of litigation ensued. As a result 

 of a court decision the title of the mining property 

 passed to Mrs. Mary Lord Sexton, and a mortgage 

 on it was held by William Lord Sexton. The prop- 

 erty made no recorded production in 1927, which was 

 its first unproductive year since 1850, except for the 

 early period 1859-60 when the mine was closed by an 

 injunction. From 1928 through 1935, however, lessees 

 retorting ore from old dumps and recovering quick- 

 silver from beneath the old furnaces at the Hacienda 

 reported a small annual production. In the latter 

 part of this period a C.C.C. camp, established at the 



