Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

NEWTON COUNTY.

SPRING CITY MINING COMPANY.

The mines of this company are situated in Spring City, Newton county, and have made a very good showing for the year. There are five shafts on the property, producing ore, which give employment to 30 miners. The product of the mines is about equally divided between lead and zinc, that is, as regards value, though in tonnage the zincproduction is double that of lead. The property is doing well, and promises to continue so. The year's output is valued at $42,000.

ST. FRANCOIS COUNTY.

THE CENTRAL LEAD COMPANY.

This company is the owner of 1400 acres, situated in the very heart of this great Flat river basin. Over 50 years ago surface mining for galena was here carried on with the primitive methods then known. In 1876 a diamond drill was procured and a few holes bored to a depth of 240 feet. Some ore was encountered and a corporation organized, but at that time an effort to enlist sufficient capital to undertake development was unsuccessful. In 1890 the company commenced the sinking of a shaft to reach this ore at the 240-foot level, and resumed pros pecting with a diamond drill. In the spring of 1892 the shaft was completed to a depth of 240 feet, but during the sinking of the shaft the prospecting had disclosed the existence of a larger and richer ore body at a depth of 360 to 380 feet, and it was decided to sink the shaft to the lower level. The shaft was completed to a depth of 380 feet in the summer of 1893, and in October the erection of hoisting plant and con centrating works was begun. These were completed in May of this year, and are models worthy of imitation. Although the concentrating works have capacity of but 100 tons of ore daily, and with all the delays necessarily incident to underground development and the operation of new machinery, this company has produced since May to date, September 1st, over 1,600,000 pounds of lead Concentrates, averaging over 68 per cent pure lead, and is now producing over 20,000 pounds daily. The concentrates are shipped to the Pennsylvania Lead company, Carnegie, Pa., where they are economically smelted with silver lead ores.

The ore body on which this company is now working has been developed by diamond drill and drifts, and is known to be 3000 feet long, over 200 feet wide and 23 feet thick. It is extremely probable that

other and perhaps greater and richer ore bodies exist on the remainder of this large tract- the prospecting thus far having been confined to an area of less than 30 acres. The richness of the ore, the regularity of the formation, and the excellent management at this mine justifies the prediction that it will soon become one of the largest producers of lead ore in the United States. The capital stock of the company is $350,000, divided into 3500 shares of $100 each, almost entirely owned in the city of St. Louis. The president is H. J. Cantwell; secretary, C. S. Rogers, and the mine and works are under the charge of Arthur Thacher, a mining engineer of recognized ability, who is ably seconded by his assistant, R. D. O. Johnson.

THE DESLOGE CONSOLIDATED COMPANY,

Of St. Francois county, of which Louis Fusz is president, and John M. Desloge superintendent, has its mine situated about one mile west of Desloge station, on the M. R. & B. T. R. R., from which point a switch has been laid to connect it with the works and mines.

The land on which this company is now operating was first prospected with the diamond drill by the Bogy Lead Mining Co. some years ago, but nothing of importance was done until the present company came into possession. Since that time, however, the value of the property has been greatly increased by the expenditure of a large amount of money in prospecting and developing, and in the erection of the mill, furnaces and buildings with which the property is now equipped. The shaft now being worked is down to a depth of 325 feet, where a large body of ore is being stoped. Another body of ore is found in this shaft at a depth of 250 feet, which is being also quite extensively worked at that level.

The ore is the same as that found in all the large mines of this section, viz.: lead ore disseminated through the solid limestone layers. The ore taken out is crushed at the mouth of the shaft, and taken thence by railroad to the mill for concentration. Their mill has a capacity of 300 tons daily, but it is proposed to increase it to double that capacity in the near future. There are three reverberatory furnaces on the premises, which are, however, only capable of reducing to lead part of the concentrates, the balance being sold.

DOE RUN LEAD COMPANY.

The mines of this company are situated at Doe Run, St. Francois county, the southern terminus of the M. R. & B. T. R. R. The principal part of their ore is now coming from Flat river, where the company has just finished sinking a shaft 450 feet deep.

This is the deepest shaft ever sunk in St. Francois county (very probably the deepest in the State), but promises to make fine returns for the money invested, as it is said to be the richest in ore of any shaft ever sunk in the disseminated lead-ore belt.

The ground is very wet, and a great amount of time and money was expended in prosecuting the work. It was found necessary at 90 feet to make a sump by blasting away one side of the shaft and put in a pump to lift the water to the surface. At 250 feet another one had to be put in, in the same manner. These, with the sinking one, made three large pumps necessary to keep the water away from the workmen; and even since the completion of the shaft, large pumps must be used to keep the mine dry enough to operate.

This shaft is 10 or 12 miles from Doe Run, to which point the ore is taken for concentration. The concentrating plant at Doe Run is a fine one, being second only to that of the St. Joseph Lead Company in capacity and appointments, their smelting being done by the abovenamed company's furnaces at Herculaneum.

The mines produced this year 4500 tons of lead ore.

THE FLAT RIVER LEAD COMPANY.

The property of this company embraces 1295 acres of land, all in one body, and is located in the great Flat River district, St. Francois county, Missouri, 65 miles from St. Louis.

It is bounded on three sides by the following well-known proper. ties: St. Joseph Lead Company (new mines), Desloge Consolidated Lead Company, and the Doe Run Lead Company. Within the past three years a great deal of money has been expended here in prospecting and developing the property. A shaft has been sunk to the depth of 332 feet, from which exceptionally fine ore has been taken from two different strata. Underlying the present workings, there still remains another stratum, rich in value, as has been shown by borings from the Diamond drill.

It is estimated that these strata embrace a total of 20 feet of very rich ore. The working plant is a complete one, embracing hoisting engines, air compressor, air drills, boilers, shop, oil-house, powder magazine, reduction works with a capacity of 100 tons daily, smelter, sawmill, water-pipe line, telephone line, office, boarding-house, twenty company houses, and the towns Leadville and Taylor Place.

The Mississippi River & Bonne Terre railway bisects this property, having the right of way through it for a distance of two miles, and have put in a spur, passenger and freight platform at the works.

THE LEADINGTON LEAD COMPANY,

Of St. Francois county, is one of the new companies of this section, and for the first time reports a product from its mine. The mine proper is situated on part of what was formerly known as the "McKee mines," and is about 2 miles distant (east) from Flat River station on the M. R. & B. T. R. R.

This company was first known as the "Farmington Prospecting and Mining Company," but in January, 1894, changed its name to that shown above. The company has a paid-up capital stock of $150,000, with F. Rodach president, and S. P. Reynolds superintendent.

The one shaft on the property is down to a depth of 350 feet, with cage and ladder ways. They have also a mill of 100 tons capacity, which has been running steadily since last May, and turning out a very fair quantity of lead ore, their report of only one month's work showing 187 tons of clean lead ore ready for market.

ST. JOSEPH LEAD COMPANY.

The St. Joseph Lead company, whose property is situated in and around Bonne Terre, St. Francois county, Mo., is by far the largest producer of lead in the State, and very probably the largest in the world. Its product this year is over 18,000 tons of lead ore, all of which was smelted at their works, and which realized more than three quarters of a million dollars.

The ore obtained is known as disseminated lead ore, and occurs in this mine about 225 feet below the surface. In some places in the mine immense bodies of this ore are found; one, in particular, is considerably over 100 feet thick, and of unknown extent laterally, several hundred feet of it having been explored in different directions.

Beside the mines immediately around the mill, the company is working two other shafts, known as Nos. 7 and 8 respectively, the first being about one mile southwest of the mill; the other on what is known as the Crawley tract, situated on Flat river, about one mile east of the railroad station of that name, to which point it is connected by a switch. Both of these shafts promise rich returns.

The concentrating plant is one of the largest in the country, and all of the machinery used in driving its jigs, crushers, dynamos, etc., is of the best. Ten large Blake crushers, with an estimated capacity of 1000 tons of rock daily, are kept constantly working, to supply the jigs and tables by which the ore is separated from the rock. For a plant of this size very few workmen are to be seen, as from the time

the rock is put into the crushers to the time it is thrown over the dump, it is handled entirely by machinery.

The product of the concentrating plant is carried by the M. R. & B. T. railroad to the company's smelting works, which have recently been moved to Herculaneum, Mo.

MADISON COUNTY.

MINE LA MOTTE.

The mines of this company are situated in Madison county, on an old Spanish claim covering some 20,000 acres, and are at present owned by Mr. Rowland Hazard. These mines are by far the oldest in the State, having been worked continuously for more than 100 years, but continue to be one of its largest producers. It is the only one at present operated in Madison county, and seems to be the southern end of the great disseminated lead ore basin of St. Francois county.

The mine is very dry, and almost all its work done by hand, thus giving employment to about 180 miners. A new shaft has been sunk on the property this year, and about a mile of track built to connect it with the mill and furnaces.

All the ore is reduced to pig-lead, on the premises, and transported to market over the St. L., I. M. & S. Ry. Their product this year was 6,985,985 pounds of lead ore.

JEFFERSON COUNTY.

VALLE MINING COMPANY.

The Valle Mining Company's mines are situated on a line between St. Francois and Jefferson counties, and work is prosecuted in both, the company owning a large quantity of land.

This is the only mine in Southeast Missouri in which zinc is found in paying quantities, and their product of this ore is generally sold to the zinc smelters of Carondelet. Their lead ore is principally found in caves and in the clay near the surface, being, however, of very fine quality, and large masses of it are often found without a particle of gangue or rock attached. This product is smelted in Scotch hearth furnaces, and sent to market over the M. R. & B. T. R. R., which passes over the property. This year's output is 921 tons of zinc and 424 tons of lead ore.

« FöregåendeFortsätt »