Precious Gem stones production in 1907 Page 52



	818	MINERAL RESOURCES.

	Gadsden, superintendent, at the time of his visit to the mine of the New Mine Sapphire Syndicate. The earlier mining operations of the New Mine Sapphire Syndicate consisted chiefly of open cuts, of which probably nearly a mile were made along the outcrop of the sapphire-bearing dike. These cuts were from 10 to 60 feet deep, in one place the dike material being removed to a depth of 90 feet. The ways of the cuts were held apart by stulls as needed. At present the sapphire ore is all obtained from underground workings. The latter consist of a shaft 100 feet deep with drifts in each direction from the bottom. The shaft is located in a smaller coulee or valley crossing the dike. The west drift is about 2,000 feet long and nearly 200 feet below the surface of the hill on the west of the coulee, while the levels above and one of the stopes reach nearly to the bottom of the 90-foot open cut in this hill. The east drift was carried nearly 800 feet, with stopes above at varying intervals. At one place in this drift the dike has been stoped out to the surface. The nature of the dike as exposed in these workings is variable in both richness and size. Nearly barren places occur in the dike where the latter seems to be choked with limestone, between the fragments of which there is but little dike material. The barren places commonly occur where the dike pinches down to smaller dimensions, which changes in size were doubtless caused by the jamming of limestone fragments included in the magma in the narrower parts of the fissure at the time of intrusion. In places the walls of the dike are rough where the edges of the limestone strata were broken during the Assuring and fragments were torn off by the intrusion of the dike. Jagged furrows or elbows in the limestone walls show where such fragments were torn off. In some places a single flat bedding plane of the limestone or steps, including several beds, form the bottom of these furrows, which are somewhat wedge-shaped toward the top. Contrary to reports circulated during 1906 that the work of this company was hindered by the difficulty of disposing of the waste and slums from the sapphire washing, a larger supply of ore was mined and treated during 1907 than ever before. Instead of containing chemicals injurious to vegetation, as claimed by some of the ranchers along the river below the mine, the slums have been shown actually to improve, for raising crops, the lands on which they are turned. Analysis of the slum is also reported to show the presence of nitrates and phosphates, which are helpful to any crop growth. To test this, Mr. C. T. Gadsden, superintendent of the mine, turned the water carrying the slums over portions of the ranch land owned by the company. Oats, alfalfa, and vegetables were successfully grown, both where the slums were turned over crops already planted and where the vegetables were planted directly in thick deposits of slum. In each case vegetation was most luxuriant where the slum was thickest. The coarser sands from the sapphire washings were removed by a sand trap from the sluice ditches, where the grade was low, to keep the latter from clogging up. This was accomplished automatically by a simple device operated by an undershot water-wheel in the sluice. In some respects the method of separating the sapphires from their matrix is similar to that of separating diamonds from the "blue earth" of South Africa. Near the surface and to a depth of 20 feet and more, the dike rock was decomposed by weathering to a yellowish