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The Virginia City (Nevada) Enterprise, of October 24, says: ‘The Consolidated Virginia Mining Company are beginning to open up and lay bare some of the secrets of the northern end of the great Comstock lode. teir location 18 proving a most fortunate one; yet, strange as it now ap pens the same ground lay idle for years. twas then in the shape of several small claims, upon which work had ceased after the first excitement of the early days of Washoe. ‘These ‘claims were knocked about in the market, and nobody was found to purchase them or even look at them. Upon all of them a considerable amount of work had been done at the sur face and in a line with the Ophir and the croppings of the Gould Curry. But lit tle pay ore was found in any of the claims, and the companies owning them became discouraged and discontinued their pros pecting explorations. At that time the opinion very widely prevailed that where nothing of value was found on the surface, nothing need be looked for below, and the owners of the set of small claims lying be tween the Ophir and the Gould Curry sorrowfully came to the conclusion that by bad luck a barren portion of the great ledge had fallen to their share. Years ago, in these columns, long before there was any Consolidated Virginia Mining Company, we urged these small compan ies to unite and sink a large prospecting shaft on E street, just east of Piper’s Opera-house, but no attention was paid to the suggestion—at least not by the men who then aet the ground. All that we then predicted in regard to this piece of mining-ground has now been verified. There was a fault, a slip, in the lead above, and the whole weight of the deposit was thrown further to the east. Although we have spoken of the break in the lead as a fault or slide, it was really in places more of the nature of a*pinch,” and this was what cut off the old Ophir deposit at a cer tain depth. Now they are reaching the great lode on a new and sound line, and being below the disturbing influences mentioned, are finding a continuous body of ore. ‘This body is now known to ex tend from the Gould Curry through the Consolidated Virginia, California and Ophir, to the Union Consolidated. It will be found in the Union Consolidated, and probably beyond. The heart of this por tion of the Comstock, in our opinion, lies to the eastward of the gas-works, and probably almost directly under the point where General Thomas H. Williams some time since was engaged in boring with his diamond drill. We think he “smelt it’ when he began boring there. The Con solidated Virginia Company are on the upper edge of the great deposit lying un der the basin in which are situated the eastern suburbs of the city, and are now beginning to reach some of the rich ore it contains. In the early days many of our miners were of the opinion that, in the course of time, a point in the lead would be reached where would be found almost solid silver. At the further depth of four or five hundred feet in their mine the Consolidated Virginia Company may reach a point where the ore will lack that litue of being solid silver. ‘There appears to be lying far down in this portion of the lode a perfect mountain of silver ore. Spe cimens brought up from the drift running into the Consolidated from the fifteen hundred-foot level of the Gould Curry are even now almost solid masses of’ sil ver, ‘he reporter of the Gold Hill News, who visited this newly-opened section of the Consolidated Virginia mine day be fore yesterday, gives the following ac count of it: “The drift, after reaching the Consoli dated Virginia south line, and being con nected with the fifteen-hundred-foot level of that mine by an air-winze, the Gould Curry drift being thirty-eight feet lower down than the south drift from the con solidated Virginia shaft, was pushed di wey ahead to prospect the ore vein on that level. Hardly shad the line been crossed before the drift encountered a body of rich sulphuret ore, second to nothing of the kind now known to exist on the Com stock lode. The drift has penetrated this body of ore one hundred and ten feet,with every indication of its extending the en tire length of the claim, and even into the California ground. To attempt a fair de scription of the rich character of the ore is almost useless, the sides and face of the drift being one littering mass of sulphu rets, mixed with the richest character of vory sides. Much of the ore is being sack ed, and a portion of the noel pamalig de partment of the Mariposa mill is to be set apart for its reduction, its extreme rich ness often requiring the use of 600 and 600 pounds of quicksilver to a charge for a single pan, where only 200 pounds is used in working the ordinary class of ores. No cross-cutting of this body has yet been at tempted, as all the air forced in by the compressor is required to drive the Bur leigh drills in the face of the drift. The exhibition of the precious metals display ed in the face when a blast of half a dozen holes is discharged is simply grand, and one that would cause the eyes of a miser to weep with joy. Two upraises have been made, 100 feet apart, for air connec tions with the 1,500-foot drift south of the shaft, both of which passed the entire dis tance through the same rich character o f ore. ‘The future prospects of the Consoli dated Virginia, judged by its present de velopments, are not only almost without an estimate, but every drift run, in fact almost every stroke of the pick made, seems to be adding to its already immense wealth,”
Newspaper Details
Marshall Clark County Herald
Marshall, Illinois, US
Wed, Nov 25, 1874
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Charlie H.
USA 16 Jul 2026
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