GOLD AND SILVER

Gold

From time to time interest in gold mining is revived in the State and money is invested in gold mining ventures. Probably the greatest gold mining boom occurred between the years 1885 and 1888. The following is an extract from a letter dated August 8, 1888, from Dr. J. C. Branner, State Geologist at that time, to Governor Hughes concerning the results of the State gold and silver survey. This survey covered lands in the Ouachita Mountain district of western Arkansas:

"There has long been a popular belief that gold and silver existed in paying quantities in the State of Arkansas. During the last few years, notably since 1885, a great many people have become excited upon the subject of the occurrence of the precious metals about Hot Springs and through the country west of there. This excitement. culminated in 1887-88. In some portions of the State it reached such a pitch that almost every man abandoned his usual occupation to stake off claims and turn miner. Every unfamiliar rock was regarded as a valuable ore or an "indication" of something, and these delusions have been kept alive by assayers, some of whom were, perhaps, sincere, but some of them certainly fraudulent. These same assayers and their dupes have been so successful that they induced capitalists and business men, both in and out of the State, and especially the visitors to Hot Springs, to believe in the value of the region for mining purposes to such an extent that during the last two and a half years companies have been incorporated under the laws of Arkansas with a total capital stock of more than $111,000,000 for the purpose of working the supposed gold and silver mines and ores of the State. As one investment after another has failed to pay dividends the authors of this excitement have persuaded people, whether honestly or fraudulently makes but little difference, that the ores of the region were 'peculiar' and only required some new process to get gold and silver out of them. The repeated adverse reports by competent assayers were attributed to ignorance of the character of the ores. The Lost Louisiana ore was said to contain tellurium, and the gold was said to escape from other assayers in the form of telluride of gold, and this in spite of the fact that no one was able to detect tellurium in it in the minutest quantities.

"Sufficient work has been done in this region by the Geological Survey to settle all these questions beyond dispute. Over 300 openings made in search of gold and silver have been examined and sampled by Dr. Comstock, my assistant in charge of this work, and more than 300 assays and analyses have been made of the mineral. No prejudices have been allowed to stand in the way of the most thorough investigations. To insure safety, careful examinations have been made even when there was evidently nothing to be expected from the material. The ores have been tested thoroughly and by the best methods known to modern sciences, while the chemical work done

in the Survey's laboratory has been checked by some of the best assayers in this country, notably by Dr. P. de P. Ricketts of Columbia College, New York, and by Prof. R. H. Richards of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. *

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"Nowhere in Garland or Montgomery Counties has there been discovered a deposit containing a sufficiently high average per ton in gold to pay for treatment. Indeed it may be said of the gold mines of Arkansas in general that it is very doubtful whether a single one of them has ever legitimately returned a single ounce of gold.

"The results obtained by this survey and here announced do not agree with those reported by Professors Samuel Aughey, Beam, Waitz and others. Those gentlemen claim to use a special formula. in their assays, a copy of which was kindly furnished the Survey. This formula had been tried on their own ores many times, but the results do not differ essentially from those obtained by the methods in use by all competent assayers. Of this formula the opinions have been sought of several of the leading American assayers. These opinions agree that while it will make an assay it has no advantage whatever over the methods ordinarily used. *

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According to T. B. Comstock, who made a silver and gold survey in western Arkansas in 1888 for the Arkansas Geological Survey, it is improbable that gold will be found in Arkansas in commermercial quantities, for the following reasons:

"First, the various agencies which have been at work in Arkansas have not had access to any important supplies of gold.

"Second, the processes of deposition have often acted too rapidly to accumulate the gold in workable deposits.

"Third, the auriferous deposition, if any has taken place, has been spread over such vast areas as to dilute the whole to a condition of extreme poverty.

"Fourth, there have been no special accumulations, even in cases where such must have been formed, if gold had been present in the solutions from which other metallic ores have been locally deposited.

"Fifth, at the time of the formation of the deposits in which gold is being sought, the structural conditions were unfavorable to its accumulation.

"Sixth, the proper mechanical, physical, and chemical conditions have often been present, yet gold is absent from those situations in which all of these conditions have been most favorable to its retention.

"Seventh, there is one more reason for the unfavorable opinion expressed regarding the future of the gold mining industry in Arkansas. It is the invariable absence of gold in the "float" and the

sands and gravels as well as in the large number of secondary deposits, which have resulted from decomposition and degradation of the original accumulations. In some of these, at least, the chances for deposition should be most favorable, but in none of them has gold been found in workable quantities."

Scattered through the Paleozoic sediments of the State are many local deposits of pyrite. Many of these pyrite samples are goldbearing. It would seem that the Paleozoic seas carried gold in small quantities that were deposited with the seliments from those waters. Since the rather uniform distribution of that time, ground water agencies have brought about a slight concentration of the gold in the pyrite nodules. Many of these nodules will assay considerably over one dollar of gold per ton, but as the pyrite itself is disseminated through the rocks rather sparingly, many tons of non-metallic material have to be moved to secure the pyrite. Thus the actual recovery of gold may amount to sums varying from a portion of a cent to a few cents per ton of material mined.

Some of the shales of the Arkansas River Valley of western Arkansas have been found to contain small quantities of gold, some samples assaying as high as three dollars to the ton, although their average would be considerably less than this. Deposits of this character cannot at the present time be worked commercially.

Assays made for gold by the Manglesdorf Laboratories, Little Rock, Ark., of Pennsylvanian shales collected from the vicinity of Booneville and Magazine Mountain showed gold content equivalent to a value of $2.50 to the ton. This is equivalent to about .12 of an ounce per ton.

One hundred eighty-three samples which were believed to contain gold were assayed in 1888 by the chemist of the Arkansas Geological Survey for gold. Out of these samples, 129 contained no gold, only 51 contained traces of gold, and three contained, respectively, .08, .04 and .06 of an ounce of gold to the ton, as follows:

The 183 samples referred to above were taken from Pulaski, Saline, Garland, Hot Spring, Yell, Montgomery, Pike, Sevier, Polk, Scott and Logan Counties.

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Bibliography of Gold and Silver

1867

Smith, John L., "A New Locality of Tetrahidrite, Tentatite, and Nacrite, With Some Account of the Kellogg Mines of Arkansas."-American Journal of Science, Vol. 43, pp. 67-69. Obtainable from American Journal of Science, New Haven, Conn.

1880

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5.

Conrad, C. P., "Silver in Arkansas."-Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. 3, pp. 186-187. Obtainable from McGraw-Hill Book Company, 10th Avenue at 36th Street, New York City.

1888

Comstock, T. B., "Report Upon the Geology of Western Central Arkansas, With Especial Reference to Gold and Silver."-Annual Report of the Arkansas Geological Survey, Vol. I, 1888. Now out of print, but may be consulted in public or scientific libraries.

Branner, J. C., "Arkansas Gold and Silver Mines."-An Official Report to Governor Hughes in reply to certain charges, Engineering and Mining Journal for October 20, 1888. Obtainable from McGraw-Hill Book Company, 10th Avenue at 36th Street, New York City.

Branner, J. C., "The So-Called Gold and Silver Mines of Arkansas." -An Official Report to Governor S. P. Hughes.-Arkansas Gazette, August 9, 1888; also Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. 46, pp. 128129. Gazette reference is obtainable from permanent files, Gazette Building, Little Rock, Ark. Engineering and Mining Journal obtainable from McGraw-Hill Book Company, 10th Avenue at 36th Street, New York City.

Silver
(See also "Gold")

Silver occurs as native metal in veins along with bismuth, cobalt, and silver minerals. It also occurs as a secondary mineral with argentite or galena, and is contained in such minerals as freibergite, tetrahedrite, and galerite. The conditions under which silver-bearing minerals may occur in nature are more varied than those affecting the distribution of gold. There are deposits of silver-bearing ores in the northern and western parts of the State, some of which are deserving of thorough exploration. The silver that occurs in these deposits is in the nature of an accessory ingredient of some other metallic ore, usually galena.

In 1888 the chemist of the Arkansas Geological Survey assayed 181 samples which were believed to contain silver, from Pulaski, Saline, Garland, Hot Spring, Yell, Montgomery, Pike and Sevier Counties. Of this number 152 contained no silver, twelve contained traces of silver, the remaining seventeen samples were as follows: