The Silver Plume Mines & Tunnel Company "The Gold Belt Tunnel"

Silver Plume Mines & Tunnel Co · 1904 · Historical

The property is situated in the Argentine Mining District, about three miles from Silver Plume, Clear Creek county, which is fifty-four miles from Denver

This 1904 document, The Silver Plume Mines & Tunnel Company "The Gold Belt Tunnel", is preserved in the Mountain Man Mining Library for research and reference. Original source: archive.org.

Ve

me

) The Silver Plume Mines & Tunnel Company

Incorporated under the Laws of Colorado

Capital Stock, $1,000,000 Par Vatug, $1.00 a SHARE 600,000 SHARES IN THE T'REASURY

y :

Mines 1n THE ARGENTINE Mininc District, Upper Crear

Creek County, Cotorapo —

T'wo Hunprep anp Firry Acres or Mingrat Lanp In THE Hicuest Grape Minera Zone in THE Worip . fi

Gold... Silber Lead..Copper

Offices Silver Plume And Idaho Springs, Colorado

Introduction.

Did you ever try to write a mining prospectus? The first difficulty you meet is the fact that so many good things have been said about mining enterprises that have proved of very little value, and at once you feel discouraged. You may have a truly valuable mine to write about, but the ''fake'"' said so many stronger and better things about a worthless proposition than you can about one of real merit, that you drop your pen and say, "'What's the use?" But, although the superficial is often made more attractive than the real, yet character will eventually tell, and if you can establish "integrity in business," you will stand a fair chance of holding your own against "the bubbles" and "fairy tales'? of the dishonest, or enthusiastically incompetent.

Men at the head of mining enterprises are often honest and propose to make good money for all their friends and stockholders, but lack in mining experience and business adaptation to so great an extent that failure is recorded. Business men are now seeking investment in

mines as the most satisfactory investment to be had, desiring only to be assured of an honest and intelligent management.

State Senator H. L. Roberts and his associates have personally owned and worked the Mary Etta group of mines, for some time, and have at all times refused to incorporate the property, or part with any stock until they had proved, beyond peradventure, the permanent

value of the property. This is the same course that they have pursued in all other lines of business with which they are connected, taking all preliminary risks, and until development established tinquestioned values.

We will endeavor in as few words as possible to give to the investor some idea as to what prospects this company has before it, as well as to explain why the incorporation was made, and stock is being sold.

The Properties.

The property of Tur Sttver PrumMeE Min- ING hs TUNNEL Co. consists of fifteen claims, viz.: Mary Etta, Julia R., H. L., Maggie L.., Apeliat: O. Roberts, Onia Belle, Colden Star,

Benjamin Franklin, Thaddeus Stevens, Huston's Pride, James Buchanan, Liberty' Bell, Wm. Penn and Stephen Girard—about two

hundred and fifty acres of ground, with two

mill sites covering ten acres, and a tunnel site covering fifty acres, connecting directly with a group of claims on the mountain side above it.

Geography.

The property is situated in the Argentine Mining District, about three miles from Silver Plume, Clear Creek county, which is fifty-four miles from Denver, on the Colorado & Southern Railway, which railway has its terminus at Silver Plume; but track is being laid within one mile of the company's property.

The group of claims is located on the southwestern slope of McClellan mountain, at an altitude of 10,500 feet, the crest of McClellan mountain being 13,500 feet. The altitude at Silver Plume is 9,126 feet, and a wagon road connects the property with Silver Plume, which can be used throughout the year. Telephonic communications can also be very easily arranged,

History.

The history of the Argentine District is of interest, and where the first mining to any extent was carried on in Colorado. The beginning of the great inpouring which created a large and extremely brisk settlement on South Clear creek, which is right across the mountain from us, occurred in the autumn of 1865. In September of the previous year, E.x-Provisional General Steel, James Huff and Robert Layton, while prospecting on the eastern slope of Mc- Clellan mountain, discovered a vein of mineral, afterwards called the "'Belmont.'' Specimens taken at Central City for assay were found to be remarkably rich in silver, some of the ore running as high as $1,000 per ton. This ore was taken from what is known as the Independence lode. An excitement followed, and claims were taken up by a number of prospectors who began operations from the surface. Thus the well-known properties, viz. : Independence, Johnson and others, were worked by shafts, and in one place $300,000 was taken out ina short time. Some difficulty, however, arose in working each claim independently, es-

Idaho Springs, Oolo,, 2/3, 1904,

Hon. H. L, Roberts, Idaho Springs, Colo, Dear Sir:—

Replying to your inquiry as to my opinion of your mining proposition near Silver Plume known as the Mary Etta group, I beg to say that I regard it as one of the best undeveloped prop— erties that I have ever examined, Its location renders it partioularly valuable for the reason that it is susceptible of devel— opment at good depth by the driving of a cross cut tumel, the length of which will be but a very little more than the depth it wilt attain in reaching your vein, Not only do I regard it as a good proposition on account of its location, but more particularly on account of the high mineral values it shows in Gold and Silver, even at the very shallow depth of your present workings.

The advantages of the tunnel vou contemplate, and which is the only way this property should be developed, are manifold; mentioning a few I would say. that from the strike of known veins which have been large producers at Silver Plume for many years, your tunnel must intersect several cf these before it reachés your group, and you naving located 'same as a tunnel site, all blind or undiscovered lodes so cut become the property of your company for a distance of fifteen hundred feet on each side of your tunnel,

The cost of producing from your veins will be less than one-half that of working through a shaft; You will have no water to handle and no interference from weather conditions, The portal of your tunnel being on Clear Creek, you will be able to handle all your milling ore at the very lowest minimum cost, and the railroad being immediately at your mill gives you the same advantages for shipping. Taking every condition into consideration, I don't know of a better mining proposition in Colorado,

yours very truly,

Manager Memphis & Idaho Springs G.M, & M, Oo,

pecially during the winter weather, and led many of the miners to neglect and abandon their claims, until O. EF. Clark consolidated a group of claims, which were named after him, and are now part of the famous Waldorf Mining & Milling Co's. property. Then in 1866 the Stevens vein was discovered, and at that time no railway was closer than 700 miles from the property, so all the mining supplies, provisions, etc., were freighted in from Missouri with teams, at twenty-five cents per pound; but owing to the strong veins and good values, the Stevens mine yielded over $2,000,000, and was one of the largest mines in Colorado, and to-day a large amount of ore is being taken out, besides that which is being concentrated in the new mill recently built by the Waldorf Company. 7

As all this work was done in the early '60s, and as silver reigned supreme in this section of the country until a few years ago, no assays were ever made for gold, the miner believing the ore to carry only silver and lead values. But when the Mary Etta claim was opened up at surface the ore was tried for gold as well

Daisy Gulch, looking down upon the Mary Etta Group

as silver, and, to the astonishment of everyone in the district, the ore was found to carry as high as twenty-one ounces gold to the ton, as well as carrying good silver values. A ereat deal of work was done on this claim, from which shipments were made to the sampling works, and in each case the ore was found to carry as high values in gold as in silver. After this ore body had been opened up, several other lodes were located and taken up by these men, until they have now acquired fifteen claims, which cover a great many thousand feet of welldefined mineral-bearing veins. As this portion of the property is at the head of a small gulch, and above timber line, the owners took up a tunnel site which starts at the base of the mountain, near Clear creek, and also along the grade which has been built by the Colorado & Southern Railway.

As it is a very difficult and expensive task to operate such a property as this above timber line in the winter time, a tunnel has been started and will be driven into the mountain for the purpose of cutting the claims owned by the company at a depth ranging from 300 to 2,200 feet.

C, B, BIRKING, Praesent

GEORGE RILEY, Vice Presioent J. L. LINDSAY, Caster

The Merchants & Miners National Bank

IDAHO SPRINGS, COLORADO, March 2, 1904,

Hon, H, L. Roberts, President, Silver Plume Mines & Tunnel Co., Idaho Springs, Colo,

Dear Sir:——-

Regarding your Silver Plume Mines and Tunnel Co., I have to say your company's holdings are of the very best in this district. In my opinion development will make the same a very profitable

property. Further you are to-he congratulated on the personnel and

managersnt of your good company and property. , The above is written after long and interesting observate ion of your operations and company holdings, Yours very rest., i re Pie ee re

Geology.

The country rock is archzan granite and eneiss, traversed by porphyry dykes. The foot walls, or southern walls, are generally in eneiss schists, while the hanging walls are porphyritic granite; clay slaveges border the veins in some places, and the gangue appears to be constituted of partly decomposed quartz and feldspar.

The veins are true fissure veins, having smooth walls, a gouge and ore in streaks; along these we find large bodies of mill dirt, or low-grade matter, made up of mineralized quartz; thus finding the veins to contain two distinet kinds of ore, viz.: smelting and milling ore.

The ore values in these veins are found in shoots so that in some places we find the value higher than in others, and past experience has proved them to be very frequent and persistent values with depth. The width of the veins varies from three to twenty feet, and averages about six feet. The pay streaks containing smelting ore are, of' course, narrower, but often measure from one to three feet, while

the balance is composed of milling ore. The

ore which has been taken out so far resembles that which is found in Cripple Creek, to such an extent that mining men who have seen it away from the mine declared it came from the Cripple Creek District, the pay streak being composed principally of a white quartz, being heavily mineralized.

The outcrops of the vein are usually strong and carry good values. There are many veins on McClellan mountain that outcrop, and many that do not outcrop, and only a few, up to this date, have been worked to any extent. The general trend of the veins is northeast, with a slight dip to the north.

The mineralization of the veins consists entirely of the quartz, which carries very high values in gold and silver. Chalco-pyrite, a sulphide of copper, and gray copper; tetrshedrite is also common.

The gold values in the ore on McClellan mountain seemed to be confined to one recognized zone, which is commonly termed the Breckenridge and Gilpin county gold belt. This property is located right in the center of

this great zone, which fact can be verified by looking at any geological map of this section of the state.

Development.

The total amount of work done on the Mary Etta group of the Silver Plume Mines & Tunnel Co. is as follows:

On the Mary Bittac. 3:4. 495 feet On the Oo Ronertesc o.< 145, feet On the Gold Belt Tunnel. .125 feet

765 feet Besides the above there are numerous open cuts and strippings of various veins. .

Timber.

The company is very fortunate in having an abundance of good timber, which can be used for both mining and fuel purposes.

VALUE OF 'THE: ORE. While assays of picked specimens have given high results, both in gold and silver, it 1s, after

all, from the mill run on a considerable amount of cre that the best values can be obtained.

One mill run of half a ton gave returns of seven ounces in gold and 402 ounces in silver. Twenty-nine mill runs, averaging 1,875 pounds each, returned a value of fifty dollars per ton. Included in these were large mill runs which gave returns. of $260.30, $145.04,

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$144.24 and $89.69 per ton. These figures being given at the time silver was being quoted at the lowest point. At the present price of gold and silver, the i entire twenty-nine mill runs would give a value 9 of over sixty dollars per ton, or twenty dollars per ton in excess of the average value of Cripple Creek ore. It is confidently believed

Portals of the tunnels on Mary Etta Mine

that as depth is gained on these ore bodies the pay streaks will become more permanent and the values much higher. In a winze which has been sunk on the Mary Etta lode to a depth of fifty feet, the ore body was found to be widening out and becoming more permanent as depth was attained. The same condition prevails in each instance where the sinking has been done, so that there is every reason to believe that the values will greatly increase as depth is attained.

Future Development Work.

The future development of the Mary Etta

claims will be carried on principally in the Gold

Belt Tunnel, which is now in a distance of 125 feet. This tunnel is being driven five by seven feet in the clear, and will have to be driven at least 2,000 feet before the Mary Etta group is reached. The fact is becoming established more and more that the most reasonable way, as well as economical, to operate a property is to work it through a tunnel, if the location will permit the same to be done. 'This company is

indeed very fortunate in this respect, as the

SENATE CHAMBER, Spore o7 Gopopopp,,

Warren A. Haggott,

Tsutenant "Governor,

Hon, H, L. Roberts, President of The Silver Plume Mines and Tunnel Co,, Idaho Springs, Colo, Dear Sir:—

It is with pleasure that I take advantage of the opportunity to sav a word in testimony about the mining property of The Silver Plume Mines and Tunnel Company. I have carefully examined the holdings of this company and I am satisfied that there is no better chance to make valuable and paying mines in Clear Creek County than is to be found in the property of The Silver Plume Mines and Tunnel Company. The many strong metal bearing veins together with the tunnel which will cut these veins at great depths, should make the future of this pronerty, wiion developed, very bright and profitable.

Very truly yours,

Domai; Gobi March 1, 1904,

portals of their tunnel are located only a mile from the railroad, and a few hundred feet from the wagon road, where it is accessible throughout the year. It is at this point that most of the energy of the company will be put. Besides running the tunnel for the purpose of working the Mary Etta group, a great many well-defined lodes, such as the Mendota, Dunderberg, Frostburg, Fenton, and other renowned veins that made Silver Plume famous, are known to cross the line of this tunnel, but the detritus, or wash, being so deep, the lodes can only be found by this tunnel. In the first 500 hundred feet the tunnel will cut at least four of these lodes, and as the company owns 1,500 feet on each side of the tunnel, for the entire length, this in itself is a very acceptable proposition. It will, however, do a great deal of development work in the upper workings of the Mary Etta group during the summer months, at which time the mines can be very easily reached.

Dump of Mary Etta Mine, showing blacksmith shop and portals to Q. Roberts Lode

In looking over the possibilities and the future of The Silver Plume Mines & Tunnel Company's property, it must be said the future looks very bright, for, in the first. place,;the district is one of the best in Colorado, where no such a thing as failure has been known in legitimate mining, in the Argentine section, for all the veins are true fissures, and it has been proven that they go down in depth, and not only do they go down, but the strength of the vein does not decrease, nor do the values, but rather improve, for more gold comes in as depth is gained. This district, of which Silver Plume is the center, has produced more than $60,000,000, of which the Argentine has been the means of providing some $6,000,000 of that amount: and there is every reason to believe that the veins of McClellan mountain will prove as continuous as the well-known mines of Silver Plume, viz.: the "Pelican," "Seven- Thirty," "Bismarck," "Mendota," "Terrible," "Fenton," "Blaine" and "Shiveley" groups, which have been worked continuously for a period close on to thirty years, and the work

FRANK A. MAXWELL U. Ss. DEPUTY MINERAL SURVEYOR

Georgetown, Colo.,..Daa.21she 1903

Hon, H, L. Roberts,

Idaho Springs, Colo, Dear Sir:— I made the surveys of the Silver Plume Tunnel Site and the Gold Belt group of mines situated in Argentine Mining District, Clear Oreek County, Colorado,

The tunnel will develop the various lodes at great depth furnishing the most economical menas of development.

The present workings show the veins to be strong and well defined and likely to prove very valuable with further develop— ment,

I have been acquainted with the district for the past 23 years and consider it a good one for mining operations,

Réspectfully,

fra a, Vikas BC.

U.S. Deputy Mineral Suryeyor,

done on these properties has demonstrated that they continue producing at a depth of more than 2,c00 feet, just as they did at 200, 300 and 600 feet. ca

The present gold values of this property are among the very highest ever found in Colorado, and it is confidently believed that these may be relied upon to increase as depth is attained.

Why Is The Stock Being Sold?

For the past six years the men who now constitute the present directory spent their money in developing some of the fifteen claims at the head of Daisy gulch. After doing considerable work, through which they were able to determine the real value of the ore body, they. saw the advisability of working the property by the tunnel system, and thus secured the property which is covered by the Gold Belt Tunnel. As already stated, this tunnel will have to be driven into the mountain a distance of at least 5,500 feet, and this work will require capital. In order that the work may be prosecuted more rapidly, a plant of machinery will

Intersecting of Mary Etta and Q. Roberts Veins across the gulch from Mary Etta Mine

have to be installed at the mouth of the tunnel. And it is for this reason that the company is offering a small block of their stock at this time. It is desirous of completing the work as rapidly as possible, but it is in mining, as in every other business, it requires capital. A conservative estimate places the cost of driving this tunnel at $50,000, which amount would also be sufficient to do the necessary development work on the group of claims located near the apex of the mountain.

The company owns the entire property without a dollar's indebtedness, and the investor can rest assured that every cent received by it will be judiciously expended. 'There are no salaried officers, and every cent received will ke put into the property. The directory is composed cf some of the most reliable business men in the country, among whom are Hon. H. L. Roberts, W. A. Roberts, Assistant Cashier Miners' & Merchants' National Bank, Idaho Springs; H. H. Noyes, Professional Accountant; W. H. Stephens, Practical Miner, and P. L. Roberts, a large merchant of Cripple Creek. Although these men are not directly connected

with mining, they all have had a great deal of experience in the business and each one of them so far has been successful in all his undertakings.

Ore Shipments.

The following is a list of some of the shipments which have been made from the upper workings of the Mary Etta group. These shipments were sent simply for the purpose of testing the ore, which was taken out in the course of the development work. It will be seen that in every shipment the gold values equaled the silver, and sometimes went a great deal higher.

Value

Pounds Gold Silver Treatment Per Ton 492 1.93 025. .2T O78 °S15.50-.5 20.80 2,190.3 °).00-OZ8. 28 28. 5.50 17.20 O38" 1.20 @as.).:, Po oes. 15.50 48.34 I24 :.3.10-0zs.. 194 0z¢. LS. 50° iagio4 163° 1,320 02s... -S0 ozs. 20.00 54.38 O19: 1.49028. "84-0zs: 20.00 55-72 502° 1.87 .0g8.' FL 3-R8. 19.00 78.55 O19. 1.33 Gzs.. "40 ozs, 19.00 38.50

Pounda

Gold

1.44 OZS. 1.33 OZS. .Q5 Ozs._ 2.67 ozs. 1.35 OZS. 85 OZS. 1.30 OZS. 1.53 OZS. 1.33 OZS. .86 OZS. 75, OZS. 2.20 OZS. .80 OZS. [50 OZS. 4.34 OZS. 1.34 OzS.

Silver

38 ozs. FI OZS. 7O OZS. 204 OZS. 138 ozs. - 62 OZS. IOI ozs. 25 ozs. 20 OZS. 34 OZS: 28 ozs. 161 ozs. oT OZs, 96 ozs. 284 ozs.

'Treatment $18.00

Value Per Ton

A view of Silver Plume showing the dumps of some of the great mines

The dumps are: 1. Ashby unnel—Pay

Rock Mines. 2. Diamond Tunnel—Corry Mines. 3. Pelican Tunnel—Dives-Pelican Mines. 4. Dives Mines — Dives-Pelican

Mines. 5. Baxter Mines. 6. East Baxter Mine. 7.' Dunkirk Mine. 8. Pay Rock Mine. 9. Kalamazoo Mine. 10. Silver Plume Mine. 11. Illinois Mine. 12. Upper Dives Mine. 13. Egan Tunnel. 14. Vulcan Mine. 15.' Snow. Drift Mine. . 16. Corry City Mine. 17. Daniel Peters Mine. 18. Silver Bank Tunnel—Pay Rock Mines. 19. Denver Mine. 20. Wisconsin Mine. 21. Maine . Mine... -22.. Scotia Mine. 23. Back-Bone Mine.