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THE SOUTHERN WORLD. DECEMBER 3,1882.
HOLD PRODUCTION IN OEOBOIA.
[See Illustrations on front pace.)
Among the many branches of industry
partially or entirely neglected during the
depression of recent years, which are now
claiming the attention of capitalists, is that
of gold mining in the old mining regions of
Northern Georgia.
The central point of this interest is the
little town of Dahlonega, in Lumpkin
county, although the gold-producing terri
tory is spread through several counties of
the State, and a considerable population
make a scant living by washing over the sur
face dirt around Morganton in Western
North Carolina, the receipts of the branch
United States Mint at Charlotte from this
source being considerable.
The system pursued in Georgia at the
present time is, however, upon a vastly more
elaborate scale than that adopted by the
cradle-shakers of Carolina. Costly ‘‘plant”
for the reduction of the low-grade ore is lo
cated at several points in the immediate vi
cinity of Dahlonega, and an extensive sys
tem of water supply has been perfected by a
specially organized company.
Gold exists in this region to such an ex
igent that one may ‘‘pan out" the roadside
dirt anywhere along his way and find
‘‘color.” "Pockets," however, are not fre
quent, though it is stated that John C. Cal
houn, who resided just across the Carolina
line, not far away, once worked out a mod
erate fortune within a week, through the
labor of his slaves in one of the gulches.
Dahlonega was a mining center before Sut
ter’s discovery in California turned the tide
of emigration and adventure toward the
Golden Gate; and only two years since the
old building, once a mint of the government,
and later a military school, was destroyed
by fire.
Chance, not long since, threw the writer
into the company of a gentleman upon a
south-bound train of the Piedmont Air-Line
Railroad, whose statements awakened a long
expressed but half forgotten desire to see the
workings at Dahlonega. This gentleman
was Col. N. H. Hand, to whose untiring in
dustry and faith in the results is chiefly due
the activity to be seen there to-day.
The pretty Southern town of Gainesville,
Georgia, is the point at which parties des
tined for Dablohega leave the cars. The
project of a narrow-gauge railroad has been
agitated for the past two years, and it is now
not far from a reality. The regulation South
ern means of travel, the saddle, is .found
requisite, and to the equestrian the ride of
twenty-five miles over the hilly wilds of
Northern Georgia is an exhilerating and
welcome experience. The horses are sure
footed, long-winded and sportive, the moun
tain air bracing, and the day all that is per
fect in nature. Steep hills are climbed, and
rivers forded where the swift waters all but
carry our steeds off their feet. Long leafy
vistas of smooth dirt road tempt us to full
gallop, and broken ridges threaten to break
our necks. It is nearly night when we look
down the rich valley of the Chestatee River,
with its sparse farms along its slopes, and see
Dahlonega in the distance.
And now for the mines. Early the next
morning our well-groomed steeds are brought
out into the grass-grown square, where a di
lapidated temple of justice fills the center,
and soon after breakfast our tour of the re
gion begins, under the leadership of a super
intendent of the leading corporation. At
the distance of half a mile from town a mon
ster inverted syphon is seen, conducting the
water supply, brought twenty miles by the
Hand Ditch, down and up the steep sides of
a wide valley. The ruins of a costly wooden
structure built by the predecessors of the
present company for the same purpose, are
to be seen, a monument of a notable lack of
engineering skill. It Boon becomes evident
to the new comer that the chief factor of suc
cess in this region is water. Water tears out
the rock and compost from the dlfls, drifts
it down to the bins in front of the stamps,
turns the wheels of the heavy milling ma
chinery, and washes the pulverized rock over
the plates where the amalgam catches each
little particle of the precious ore. At one
point the water accumulates all day in a res
ervoir at the bead of a precipitous canon,
and after the day’s work is done all of the
loosened rock in the quarry, often fifty or
■I rty tons in weight, is flooded by a sudden,
impetuous and irresistible freshet down
through the troughs and into the jaws of the
waiting mills. By such economic employ
ment of the forces of nature, the reduction
of the rock containing but a very small per
centage of gold is made profitable.
In the soft earth at the foot of the cascades
the mountaineers stand knee-deep, pick or
pan in hand, working among the boulders
for the ore, which is thrown into troughs
leading down a winding valley to the
stamps. The writer wears proudly as a scarf-
pin a bit of pure gold, worth perhaps three
dollars, which turned up in bis first "pan”
—a piece of exceptional luck, however,
which must not be taken as a basis of calcu
lation.
Within the stamp-mill the monotonous
pounding of the iron-shod pestles as they are
lifted and dropped by the cams upon the
shaft of the “battery" is almost deafening to
unaccustomed ears. The rough masses of
ore are thrown into the machine with shov
els, and the unfailing water, trickling down
through the pasty mass, carries it over the
gently-sloping zinc-lined planes where the
vigilant quicksilver is spread. At stated in
tervals this is scraped dff and the quicksilver
dissipated in a retort, leaving a button of
pure gold as a result.
Referring to notes made at the time, the
following facts are given for the benefit of
the reader, who is, however, strongly ad
vised to look well before he leaps, should he
be tempted *to invest in the hazardous but
enchanting occupation of the gold-seeker.
A twenty-stamp mill can crush about forty
tons of ore per day, or say twelve thousand
tons per annum. The ore has been found to
average about $7 per ton, and as the running
expenses, repairs, interest, etc., of a mill of
this capacity are not greater than $1 per ton,
the profits per annum are $72,000. Should
these figures, however, prove fallacious,
through unforeseen disasters, by which the
mill is stopped a portion of the year, it Will
still be seen that after the labor and cost of
starting a mill where a supply of good aver
age rock is convenient, the chances for band-
some earnings are very fair. Aside from
this, large quantities of “free gold" are col
lected from the sluice-ways leading to the
mill, in some instances the revenue from
this source exceeding that of the stamps.
The nature of the ore is a micaceous gold-
bearing slate, greatly decomposed, and
streaked with quartz veins.
Several extensive companies, organized in
New York and Philadelphia, control mostof
the avalable lands, but there are a number
of lesser enterprises, and a recent letter, re
ceived from a gentlemaa at Dahlonega, re
ports that all of the old concerns are doing
well and the new are hopeful.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain
any credible data as to the total amount of
the Georgia gold production per annum.
Some of the companies maintain strict reti
cence as to the results of their labors, but it is
beyond a doubt that ore reduction has been
placed upon a good business basis, and while
the industry may suffer reverses through the
discredit of bogus companies, the writer
knows from visual evidence that theie is gold
in the Georgian hills, and that it can be
made to “pan out,” under judicious manage
ment, with adequate capital, so that ample
returns will be realized from the investment.
In the illustration on our front page, our
artist has presented several characteristic
features of the mining industry of Georgia.
In No. 1 is shown the process of hydraulic
mining; in No. 2, a.gold mill on the river
Chestatee; in No. 3, the method of “flooding
down” the'ore. Of the remaining sketches
No. 4 represents one of the rude but pictur
esque homes in which the miners live; No.
S, the implements used in prospecting, and
No. 6 a twenty-stamp mill of the kind re
ferred to in the foregoing article.
The Atlanta Oomtitutum says that fifteen
minutes before Governor Stephens was in
augurated, Governor Colquitt’s office was in
vaded by Colonel A. H. Moore and an Eng
lish mining expert. The object of the visit
of the gentlemen on Georgia’s Chief Magis
trate was to get him as Governor of the State
to attest to the correctness of the signatures
ot the county court officers of Forsyth
county, whioh was attached to a deed for
four hundred acres of land lying in Forsyth
county. The deed which was thus certified
to, by the court and county officers and the
Governor of the State with great seal of the
State affixed, was from Major A. H. Moore,
of this State to a syndicate of capitalists in
England, and the consideration was one mil
lion pounds sterling.
As the history ot the man bringing about
this result is one of exceeding interest, we
give it as published by the Gorutitution:
Col. A. H. Moore was a Confederate soldier
during the war, and had his attention then
directed to the gold fields of North Goergia.
After the war he became interested in the
milling of ores in Jersey City and there be
came an expert in the metalurgy of gold
om.
His first experiment in Georgia was in river
mining in the Chattahochee river, and after
losing $10,000 he became convinced that the
big profits in Georgia mining was to go into
the hills and find the virgin ore that had
not been worked.
He next made quite a number of discour
aging experiments. His first purchase was
the McClesky mine in Hall county. This
was a segregated vein and although the ore
was worth $20 per ton, be found that it
would not pay to work it on account of its
refractory character, in containing a large
amount of sulphur and other base minerals
that could not be successfully separated from
the gold. After experimenting with other
mines, be found that all or nearly all of the
gold ore in Georgia was pregnant with sul
phur, and as yet no processor invention had
been found to separate the gold from the
sulphur. He then temporarily abandoned
mining, but having a firm conviction that
the Georgia ores were richer than any he had
ever seen or beard of he felt Bure that sooner
or later some process would be discovered to
sulphurise the gold the most and make Geor
gia mines valuable in the world. Instead of
sinking more money in working mines, he
put what loose cash he had in buying op
tions on lands containing gold, being par
ticular to choose only such lands as he knew
to be in the gold belt or where there were
evidences of a continued rein of gofd. After
buying options on the gold fields, he would
sink shafts and cut tunnels sufficient to as
certain definitely the length, breadth and
depth of the veins intersecting the land he
owned options upon. Having waited with
out avail for years for some one to make an
invention that would separate the two min
erals, he determined to save the money he
had put in options by finding a man to in
vent some machine or process for separating
the gold from the sulphur.
He entered into a compact with 8. W.
Bullock, the inventor of a cotton press, hay
press and printing press, promising him a
rich reward if they they could discover some
method of desulphurizing the gold which he
owned in such large quantities, and which
was, comparatively speaking, valueless
They united their interests and shared a
common home; spending years and from
$50,000 to $75,J00 in experiments and manu
facturing different machines for separating
the sulphur and other base metals from the
gold. They come within a hair’s breadth of
success a half a dozen times and did finally
succeed in separating enough gold from sul
phurated ore to put the mines on a paying
basis—that is so that working them they
could make a fair percent, on the money in
vested in opening and working the mines,
but not being content to work on where he
lost more gold than he saved, they only
worked the mines enough to test machinery
they were experimenting with and to get
money to carry on experiments. During
this time Colonel Moore and his associates
were broke half of the time. Often when
necessary to have money he would have to
sell some mine to make a raise. This money
he would put into options of gold bearing
land and in machinery to work other mines
and to experiment with.
While struggling in Georgia he had quite a
number of very advantageous offers to go
West and elsewhere and take charge of other
mines. His faith in Georgia mines being
the richest in the world never flagged for a
moment, not even when ruin stared him
boldly in the face, and adversity met him at
every turn and drove him from his home and
almost into bankruptcy. Just as they
thought success was about to crown their ef
forts Mr. Bullock died.
Nothing daunted by this disaster, before
he had ceased mourning for his dead friend
and associate be commenced looking for a fit
man to finish the work that Bullock had be
gun. Speaking of Dr. Charles, Colonel
Moore said: " Early in 1881 I met Dr. S.
Frederick Charles in Forsyth county, a high
ly educated German, who graduated as a
mining engineer, in Bavaria, and had prac
tical experience in mining in the Hartz
mountains. I found bis case a very similar
one to mine. He came to this country about
80 years ago and located in North Carolina
where he became interested and made
money outofa'North Carolina mine.
During the war as a surgeon in the Con
federate service, he found the ores of North
Georgia much richer than those he was work
ing in North Carolina. After the war he sold
out in North Carolina and moved to Forsyth
county. His first work in Georgia was to
prepare a report on the character and value
of a copper mine owned by Senator Joe
Brown and situated near Canton in Cherokee
county. He found, as I did, that Georgia
ores, while they contained more gold than
any ores be had worked with, were compara
tively valueless unless some process could
be found to desulphurize the gold, and in
stead of working the ore as he intended when
he moved to Georgia, he bought a farm and
fitted up in his country home a laboratory
containing every appurtenance known to
science for analysis of gold ores, and had
been for years devoting bis whole time and
brain to the discovery of some process to sep
arate the gold from the sulphur. I told him
of the experiments made and results ob
tained by Mr. Bullock and myself. He see
ing that 1 was thoroughly interested in the
subject we allied our interests. In a very
short time after this his efforts culminated
in the discovery of a process that settledYhe
knotty problem, and we, by experiments
found, saved double the gold we had by the
old process, and at a very slight additional
expense per ton in working the ore - through
the agency of electricity and the use of silver
cloths—he desulphurized the gold close to a
fine assay. I at once took an option on the
invention which we called the 'Charles pro
cess,' and bad it patented. I also bought at
the same time by option what is known as
the ‘ Charles mine ’ near Frog Town on Eto
wah river. I then made arrangements to use
this process at the McDonough and Franking
mines which I owned in conjunction with a
syndicate of capitalists in Philadelphia. The
process increased the value of these mines
ten-fold. Before the invention of this pro
cess these mines could not have been sold for
a half a million, now they are stocked at ten
million dollars and none of the stock is for
sale. The ten stamp mill that we had been i
experimenting with, is now earning from
$3,000 to $5,000, but the company have al
ready contracted for and are putting up a
300 stamp mill with all modern improve
ments which will in the same ratio increase
the earnings from $90,000 to $150,000 per
month. As soon as practicable we will again
inci^ase the number of stamps. There is
absolutely no end to the ore in these mines.
We have actually built a dam of gold. Every
rock in the dam with which we have built
across the Etowah river contains more gold
than any California ore I ever saw except
pocket ore. We built our dam of gold bear
ing ore because it was the most available
rock we could find and there was no possi
bility of exhausting the supply.
In March of this year I met in New York
Don Carlos Butterfielcban Englishman, who
was in this country r$jm!senting a syndicate
of English capitalists, who wanted to invest -
in American mines. Hearing that I was 1
from the South andacquainted with Georgia i
mines, he told me his business. I told him
I had a mine in Forsyth county, Georgia,
that was noton the market, but I would sell
if I could get my price. lie asked for a des
cription of it and the price. I bad with me
a detailed description of the mine, its loca
tion, with maps giving profiles of different
veins, their length, breadth and character,
and at random named my price at five mil
lion dollars.
I came south thinking little of our convert
sation, in a short time I received, through
an English lawyer in New York, a proposi
tion in substance: that English experts
would be sent to examine my mine, known
as the Charles mine in Forsyth county, Geor
gia, and if the mine was not as represented I
should forfeit six hundred sovereigns, if it
was as represented and they did not buy at
one million pounds sterling, they would fol
felt five thousand sovereigns. These forfeit
ure being made to cover the expenses of the
experts coming here, and my expenses in
opening the mines, so as to show, os I said I
would, one million tons of ore in sight, av
eraging os rich as specimens sent. I signed
this agreement and returned it, receiving in
a few days a telegram stating my proposition
had been accepted. I then re-opened 3,000
feet of tunnels, cutting the veins and expos
ing over four million tons of ore.
The experts came and were satisfied and
the trade was consummated. Two weeks
ago my attorney received ten per cent,
through Mr. Butterfield and the lawyer em
ployed by the English company who de
ducted commissions and expenses from that
sum and asked that the deeds to property be
sent on so that the trade could be consum
mated according to agreement. The deeds
were made out according to their specifica
tions with the court of county officers signa
ture and seal attested by the governor with
the seal of the State of Georgia attachid. As
soon as the deeds are delivered I get 33% per
cent, of one million pounds and the balance
Is to be paid in one year, and is properly se
cured.
Dahlonega Signal: The Fish-trap Mill is
running on ore from the Moore cut. The
foundation for a 60-stamp mill is being laid
for the Keystone Company. The water ditch
to supply^he mine is 15}$ miles long.
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