BATTLE MOUNTAIN MINES, WEST GROUP, AND OUTLYING PROSPECTS. 487 
the 250-foot level. On most of the levels the fissuring is rather irregular near the 
point where the lode changes from an easterly to a westerly dip, but there is nothing 
to indicate any break in the general continuity of the Dead Pine lode. 
South of Die East-West dike a few small disconnected bunches of ore have been 
found in the Dead Pine lode on the 525-foot and 825-foot levels. Near the Gold 
Coin line the ore has been stoped to a maximum width of 5 feet and to a height of 40 
feet above the 825-foot level. At this height the fissure zone shows considerable 
oxidation and no longer contains paying ore. Although the stopes of the Gold 
Coin come practically up to the Dead Pine line on nearly all levels, there is no sharp 
change in the character of the ore precisely at the line. The difference in develop¬ 
ment in the two mines merely indicates that the Gold Coin mine was able, in connec¬ 
tion with its higher-grade ores, to carry its stopes into ore of somewhat lower grade 
than the Dead Pine mine can profitably handle. 
CHARACTER OF ORE. 
None of the ore formerly mined in the old north workings was seen at the time 
of visit. It contained tellurides from which the gold had been partly freed by 
oxidation. In its general character it probably differed in no essential degree from 
the ore found at the same depth in the granite of the Ajax mine. The ore of the 
825-foot level occurs as a telluride—probably calaverite, with quartz and fluorite 
within the small fractures in the granite which accompany the dominant fissure of 
the lode. The vein minerals occur in the usual manner as a drusy incrustation on 
the walls of the narrow fractures. In the main fissure zone there is usually present 
a streak an inch or two wide, commonly termed “block quartz,” which is used as an 
indicator in following the lode. This streak is chiefly fineh r crystalline quartz which 
apparently owes its dark line to the presence of minute crystals of pyrite. It some¬ 
times has an open or cellular structure and may then contain calaverite, or, if partly 
oxidized, calaverite and free gold. 
VALUE OF THE ORE. 
Little could be learned at the time of visit of the range in value of the ore 
stoped in the northern and hitherto most productive part of the mine. Portions of 
the main lode on the 825-foot level contain as much as 2 ounces of gold to the ton, 
but the average tenor of the ore now stoped is probably below this. Ore worth less 
than 812 per ton can not at present be profitably handled. 
GOLD COIN MINE. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The Gold Coin mine is owned by the Gold Coin Mining and Leasing Company, 
incorporated in 1895 with a capital of 81,000,000. It is situated in the town of 
Victor adjoining the south end of the Dead Pine mine, and includes the Gold Coin, 
Little Montana, Golden Discovery, and other claims. Its shaft house, built to' 
replace one burned in 1897, is substantially constructed of brick, and is the best 
building of its kind in the district. The company also operates the Economic mill 
