28 GEOLOGY OF TONOPAH MINING DISTRICT, NEVADA. 



Treatment of ores. The conditions of mining, reducing, and transportation, 

 which will be of great importance to the future prosperity of the camp, have not 

 yet been finally determined, though progress has been made. Several million 

 dollars' worth of ore has been marketed, but at a great cost, for only ore containing 

 gold and silver to the value of $100 per ton or more was profitable up to the time 

 of the completion of the railroad. This ore had to be hauled 60 miles in wagons, 

 and shipped to smelters in California or Utah. Some of the delay in definitely 

 settling upon more economical ways of reduction has been caused by practical 

 *. " experiments that have been carried on. It seems to have been finally decided, 

 however, that smelting is the best method, since any milling process does not 

 recover the full values. A railroad lately finished from Tonopah to Rhodes, a 

 point south of Sodaville on the Carson and Colorado Railway, has made trans- 

 portation to the smelters cheaper. 



Water supply. The water problem is an interesting and vital one to any 

 enterprise in this arid region. At first water was brought into camp on the backs 

 of burros, from wells in the valley a number of miles to the east. Subsequently 

 water was developed by wells in the hills about -i miles north of the camp, and 

 led in by pipes. The supph r , however, was not abundant. Borings in the bottom 

 of one of the desert vallej^s near b} 1 , called Rye Patch, have developed a great deal 

 of water. Rather unexpectedly, also, some of the prospecting shafts in the camp 

 have struck an abundant supply of water, though others are quite dry. Altogether, 

 therefore, it appears that there is abundant water for domestic, mining, and milling 

 purposes. 



fuel and power. The power problem is also important. Coal has not been 

 much used in Tonopah, although since the railroad has been completed the cost is 

 not so great as former!}'. For domestic purposes wood has been used. A variety 

 of scrubby pine (pine nut, pinyon) grows in the mountains and is cut and hauled 

 20 miles or more to Tonopah. Of course this is expensive. Some of the hoists of 

 the mines have been run by steam engines fired with this wood, while others have 

 used gasoline. The balance of favor at present seems to lie with the wood-burning 

 engines in regard both to efficiency and cheapness. In the White Mountain Range, 

 about 00 miles in an air line west from Tonopah, are many mountain streams which 

 have a great fall and on which an abundance of electric power could be generated. 

 The harnessing of this water power and the transmission of the electricity seems 

 feasible if it can be made profitable. 



Coal is found about 40 miles west of Tonopah, in the north end of the Silver 

 Peak Range, and also in Tertiary strata in the mountains farther north. It is a 

 lignite, or at best a very light bituminous coal. It has been thus far rejected by 



