Can Science Find Pay-dirt Here?

Can 'Miracles' of Modern Methods Vanquish "Insurmountable Obstacles of Old-Timers and Make the Gold Mines of the State Produce Again? --- Experts Are Gambling That the Answer is 'Yes!'

By Leo Faust

Paradoxical as it may have seemed at the time, the biggest boost the gold miner ever got was when President Roosevelt took this country off the gold standard, for that action led to an increased price for gold. It jumped from $20.67 to $35 an ounce. And the result has been the greatest gold mining boom in all the ages. Everywhere, in this country and in every other country, old fields are now being combed over and the search is feverishly on for new fields.

The world is, and always has been, gold-hungry. And like music, gold speaks a universal language. Likewise from earliest recorded times until now it has been the universal medium of exchange, a common denominator understood by all peoples anywhere and everywhere. All values are measured with a golden yardstick and gold is the open sesame to about all that any of us want. It is just possible the President had something like this in mind when he gathered in all our gold and started buying more, and was willing to pay a good price, too--in printing press money.

However that may be, Virginia has a large interest in all this. This and other Eastern States were at one time not only the only source of our gold supply but in the aggregate the total amount taken from our mines here totaled several hundred million dollars. For some 30 years prior to the breaking out of the War Between the States gold mining here was a flourishing industry and played a large part in the economic scheme of things. then it passed into memory.

For more than three quarters of a century the once active gold mining areas throughout the Appalachians in the United States have been idle. After so long a time they are now showing signs of coming to life. And should the prediction of accredited geologists be fulfilled, this is destined to again become one of the world's important producing centers of gold.

From both the material and the scientific angles the Appalachians are intriguing. The geologist tells us it's the oldest of mountain ranges. This system extends from the upper reaches of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. There it takes a dip and is again found in Brazil, in South America.

Likewise we are told that what is now the Piedmont, that area extending generally along the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is all that remains of a mountain range at one time several thousand feet high.

In this system in Canada are found many of the great gold mines. In this same system in Brazil are found many famous gold mines, one, the San Juan del Rey, is probably the outstanding of all gold mines. It has been operated continuously for something like a century and a half. It is more than 8,000 feet deep and is still in production. In Canada the mines are several thousand feet deep.

Between these two great producing areas lies that section in the United States, all in the same system, rock for rock with both Canada and Brazil. Our geologists call attention to this in casting the horoscope. They also know that all of the gold produced in our section of this great system was obtained from the oxide ores above the water level and that no serious effort has been made to follow these gold-bearing veins below the water level. And that is the crux of the whole situation.

Science Now Laughs at Old-Timers' Difficulties

These are the substantial reasons upon which the geologist makes his deduction when he predicts this as a future source of gold supply. He also points out that the veins here are in the pre-Cambrian and in close proximity to the granites. He contends that with the depth here the result should be the same as it has been in the deep mines both to the south and to the north. And the same authority tells us that the mines here were abandoned because of the then "insurmountable difficulties." These were both physical and scientific, principally the latter. There was then no known way to treat the sulphide ore below the water level and mining machinery was crude. It was not because the old-timers ran out of ore.

When a few years ago Henry Ford bought a gold mine in Virginia that was news. It soon developed, however, that Mr. Ford had no intention of turning gold digger. All he wanted out of this gold mine was an old pump. He bought the mine to get the pump, and when this was taken to his museum in Dearborn, Mr. Ford disposed of the mine and the "boom" was over.

That pump is an enormous affair and must have cost a great many pounds sterling. It is a Cornish pump, the only one of its kind in America. It was brought to Virginia a century ago and was installed in the Vaucluse gold mine in Orange County, then owned by British interests. At that time this was one of the most prominent of the American mines, and like the others was worked to the water level and then abandoned.

Of all the stories having to do with these "lost" gold mines, none is more interesting than that of the old Waller mine. It was "lost" in that area between Richmond and Washington over which the armies of the North and the South fought so long during the War Between the States. And it was a famous old mine, too.

Reported to have produced some $2,000,000 from its discovery in 1831 until it was shut down when the war broke, it was known the world over at one time in its history as the richest gold mine in America. And its rediscovery and reopening after being filled with water and silt for three-quarters of a century is probably destined to mark the genesis of a gold mining revival, not alone in Virginia, where the mine is located, but throughout the entire Appalachian areas.

Waller Mine Once Country's Richest

The richest gold ore ever found in the Appalachian system is reported to have been taken from this mine. According to official records on file in the Goochland County courthouse and which were made by the English engineers who operated the Waller mine, some of this ore ran more than $2,000 to the ton, and all of it was high-grade ore. Shipments of gold bullion from this mine to London were in the news of the day.

The Waller mine is located about 40 miles up the James River from Richmond. It is about in the center of the area designated on the official maps as being the gold-bearing area of the State. The Virginia Geological Department says this contains about 4,000 square miles. It is one of the largest gold-bearing areas in the world and its potential possibilities for future gold production are illimitable.

Virginia official records show the Waller mine was owned by an English company and that this concern paid the owners 35,000 pounds or $175,000 for the property. The headquarters of the company was in London and a member of the British House of Commons was chairman of its board of directors. It was known as the Waller Gold Mining Company. It was capitalized for 70,000 pounds or $350,000, and a share value of one pound.

The stock was traded in on the London and continental exchanges and shipments of gold bullion from the Waller mine in Virginia to London were of international concern.

The operation of this mine goes back into the days of slavery and many of the mines were worked with slave labor. It goes back to a time when the placer miner's gold dust was a common and a welcome medium of exchange and when gold scales were a necessary part of the merchant's equipment.

The stories of "high-grading," that is the miners stealing the rich ore, run true to form, as has been the record in all rich gold mines. From these stories which have come down it is learned that this developed into quite a racket and the loss to the owners must have been sizable. Evidently a rather energetic member of this racket was Bill Easton, a slave who worked in the Waller mine. The record shows he bought his freedom with the gold he stole from time to time and saved until he had enough to buy his way out of bondage. Contemporary account books show a good slave was worth about $2,000. If this one slave could get away with that much there must have been a lot of stealing and there must have been a lot of rich ore in that mine. It is interesting, a side light on the times, that these same account books show nails were a dollar a pound and whisky sold for 50 cents a gallon.

Now, after a lapse of time approaching a century, these Eastern gold fields are attracting attention. And these old gold mines, ghosts of an earlier and colorful day in the history of Virginia, are being looked up. Here and there effort is being made to reopen some of these old properties, and there is reason to believe that there is a situation in the making which could easily attract national attention.

(Continued Next Sunday)