Hydraulic Mining

Where it is practicable, this is the simplest and most inexpensive method of placer mining. The mechanical equipment requirements consist only of pipe lines and giants. One feature, however, that is frequently overlooked in hydraulic mining is the matter of dumping facilities. This should always receive careful consideration. It often happens that there is not sufficient grade to provide a tailing dump and mechanical means have to be provided accordingly. Occasionally a mechanical tailing elevator is used, consisting of a line of dredge buckets, a centrifugal pump, etc. The hydraulic gravel elevator, however, has found more general favor, especially where there is ample water under sufficient head to operate the elevator successfully.

The hydraulic elevating method is applied with excellent success in placer mines where the boulders are so large that it is impossible to handle them with a dredge and where the bed rock lies so flat there is insufficient grade to provide a tailing dump.

Hydraulic Elevators

The Empire Hydraulic Elevator is the simplest and the cheapest apparatus for lifting gravel, that has so far been devised. There are no working or moving parts in the elevator to get out of order and all parts are extremely heavy and ruggedly built. The action of the hydraulic elevator is simple—water under pressure passes through the lower nozzle and upward through the curved throat piece. The energy from this jet of water is sufficient to raise a large amount of gravel and a much larger amount of water, which enters at the intake or suction side of the elevator. The discharge from the elevator is carried upward and usually dumps into a sluice box which is placed high enough to carry away the tailings and to provide sufficient dump to keep the mine workings clear.

Successful Hydraulic Mining in Colombia, S. A.

Before the advent of the Empire Elevator there was not one hydraulic placer mine operating at a profit in Colombia, South America. Some ten years ago we equipped the La Clara Gold Mines on the Porce River with a number of our Empire Elevators. Since that time every successful hydraulic mine in Colombia has adopted such elevators and today one finds any number of these mines operating at a good profit, whereas before they had been failures. The design of the Empire Elevator is an evolution of the ideas of practical miners combined with those of our own engineers. The design, materials and workmanship are such as to insure the greatest capacity and efficiency and the longest life of service; at the same time every provision has been made for easy and rapid repairs.

The Empire Hydraulic Elevator

These elevators are built up on a wrought steel frame with mild steel plate riveted to it. They are lined throughout with manganese steel, and the throat proper is also of manganese steel. The elevators are split longitudinally so as to facilitate removal and replacement of the lining and the manganese throat.

The nozzle butt flange for receiving the nozzle is an accurately machined and polished steel forging; the nozzle is of forged tool steel, highly tempered and polished. With this hardened steel nozzle a solid round jet of water is maintained for a much longer time than is possible with the use of any other material; and this type of nozzle, furthermore, is not readily broken by the impact of boulders. The all-steel construction of the housings make the elevator unbreakable, and the manganese steel linings resist abrasion longer than linings of any other known materials.

By using Empire Elevators the operator obtains a far greater yardage with less water than is possible with any other type. The following list gives the principle sizes of Empire Elevators which we carry in stock. These elevators, however, are always subject to modification in detail which will adapt them to your own individual requirements. We also build larger sizes to order.

Empire Elevators are patented and infringers are hereby warned.

Empire Elevators have two additional sections extending beyond the manganese steel throat. The first section is called the reducer section; the second one the tower piece. Both these sections are lined with manganese steel throughout their entire length and the outside housing is split longitudinally so as to allow for easy replacement of the manganese lining when worn. We recommend that two or three sections of special raiser pipe be used on the discharge end of the elevator. This raiser pipe is of extra heavy high carbon steel and will resist the unusual heavy wear that ordinarily occurs in the first few feet of discharge pipe adjoining the elevator.

Other Things That We Do

We also build Water Lifters or Elevators to order to meet particular conditions. Our well-known Empire Giant, is used in most of the hydraulic mines in Colombia. We carry the No. I size in stock and make the other sizes to order.

Hydraulic Equipment

We make a specialty of building hydraulic pipe lines, and our plant is equipped with machinery designed and built by us for this particular purpose. The illustration shows a section of pipe that is II feet 3 inches in diameter and made of 9/16-inch plate and the horizontal seams are all double butt strapped, triple riveted. This pipe line which we believe, is the largest ever built, is four miles long and requires over ten thousand tons of plate in the making.

We carry in stock a full line of Air Valves and Steel Flanges, together with a large amount of sheet material, and we can usually make prompt deliveries of any desired hydraulic mining equipment. We build sluices and riffles of high carbon steel plate, thereby insuring long life and low operating costs. If you will submit a general plan of your contemplated operations, we will furnish a complete design covering all your requirements and will quote you prices accordingly.

Diamond Mining Machinery

For many years we have built diamond washing and saving machinery for diamondiferous placer deposits, such as are found in Brazil and various parts of Africa. For this purpose we build jigs, trommels, conveyors and in fact any and all apparatus for diamond recovery from placer ground.

Boilers

The Ludlum Water Tube Boiler is another one of our products and we would be glad to make quotations on same to any one who intends installing a modern up-to-date power plant, especially if high steam pressure is required. The Ludlum Boiler is particularly noted for its high efficiency and large steaming capacity.

Construction Work

Looking through this booklet one will observe that we have been unusually successful in taking entire charge of the construction work of our dredges in foreign countries under most difficult conditions, doing this work in a remarkably short time and at very low cost. We have competent superintendents whom we can send to any part of the world to take entire charge of transportation and erection of any work that we may turn out. This is another feature that helps to insure the success of your enterprise.

Dredge Parts

If you require repair parts for any other make of dredge besides our own, we can readily furnish them to you if you will send us a sketch or a drawing of your requirements. This, of course, includes manganese steel buckets, tumblers, pins, nickle steel shafts of large diameter, in fact any or all parts for your dredge. We have special equipment for turning out nickle-chrome steel bucket pins at low prices. We can furnish screen plates of any dimension and with any size of perforations at very low cost. These screen plates are made from a special high carbon steel and all holes are drilled and reamed to a heavy taper, thereby preventing clogging up of the holes. All this work is done on a machine designed and built by ourselves for this particular work as illustrated above.

We can furnish special high carbon liner plates that are unusually tough and durable, also steel angle iron riffles of any dimension required. Please bear in mind that our plant is located on tidewater at New York which affords us unusual facilities for all export shipments.

Portable Power Plants

We herewith illustrate our Ludlum Dynamobile, which is a self-contained, highly efficient, portable electric power generating plant. It consists of our Ludlum boiler, and a steam turbo-generator set, together with feed pump, condenser and switch-board; in fact, an entire power plant completely mounted on a truck. Wood, coal or oil may be burned as fuel in this boiler, and the entire plant will use only about one-third of the fuel that is generally consumed in a portable outfit.

General Plate and Machine Work

In our plant we have every facility for fabricating heavy steel plate and structural steel work of every kind and for doing large and heavy machine work. We can build
any special machinery to order and can assist you in the designing of same if you so desire. We will be glad to submit quotation on any specifications that you may have covering this class of work.

Foreign Correspondence

In corresponding, any of the foreign languages may be used, and in cabling any of the codes may be used. Our cable address is “NYECO., New York.”

Patents

Notice is hereby given that most all of our specially designed apparatus is amply covered by numerous patents in the United States and in foreign countries.

Financing Placer Enterprises

There is little difficulty in financing a placer project if one has secured a favorable report from a competent mining engineer. Too often this matter is neglected, and the promoter accordingly meets with discouragement and disappointment because he cannot offer the possible investor any other data on which to base judgment than the mere assertions of a few casual observers. There are quite a few responsible companies that are willing to finance a good placer project, but they usually require some definite proof of the value of the property. We, ourselves, spend considerable money every year in investigating dredging ground, and we have found and taken up some satisfactory and profitable projects in the past. We are always ready to give consideration to any promising project.

For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the financing of mining enterprises, we would state that almost any of the well-established companies that undertake this business would want to take over the management of the operations. This is necessary in order that they may protect their investment and have the business under their control. Sometimes the owner, vendor or promoter of the property is engaged by the operating company as a general manager or in some other capacity that will enable the company to avail itself of his first-hand knowledge of local conditions on the property.

Sometimes the dredging land is obtained by a direct purchase for cash, but more often it is paid for partly in cash and partly in stock issued by the operating company.

Occasionally dredging ground is handled on a royalty basis, and this method works out very satisfactorily if the royalty is based on the gross bullion output of the dredge. When, however, as has happened in some instances, it is based on the net earnings, all kinds of questions and disputes regarding the operating costs and the net earnings are likely to arise, and there are very few instances where the plan has worked out satisfactorily. Sometimes when the royalty basis is adopted, a cash payment to the owners of the property is included and may be paid when the contract is closed.

In some instances when the contract is made for operating under a royalty, an arrangement is made for the return of all or part of the capital investment to the operating company before the owners of the ground receive any royalty. Then again this is sometimes modified by the payment of the royalties being deferred and the royalties accumulating until such time as the original capital investment or part of it has been taken out and returned to the investors, after which royalties to the owners of the ground for double the regular amount are paid—one-half of this being applied to the deferred or accumulated royalties and the other half being applied to the ordinary or regular royalty. The payment of the double royalty is continued until all of the deferred or accumulated royalties are paid up and after that the ordinary royalty is paid during the remaining life of the contract.

This plan works out very satisfactorily especially when the amount of the investment or at least a certain fixed sum is agreed upon in the beginning as the amount to be taken out and returned to the investors before any royalty is actually paid.

Another plan that works out quite successfully consists in the purchase of the property for a fixed sum but on a kind of partial payment plan; payments, according to this plan, are in the form of a royalty or percentage of the gross output, and such payments are continued regularly at predetermined intervals until the full purchase price is paid.

The amortization of the dredging equipment and the land should always be given careful consideration when formulating a plan for financing. A few remarks on this subject are contained in the second paragraph of page 12.

In closing, we cannot place too much emphasis on the proper prospecting of your property and if this is not done and the owner has little evidence of worth to offer when presenting his project, the would-be purchasers will regard it as a big risk and will expect an unusually large reward or share for their gamble or they may refuse to consider the property at all. If on the other hand, the owner has valuable evidence in the form of a report from a reliable engineer based on proper exploration work, he is then in a good position to name his own terms because of the fact that there is always a demand for desirable dredging ground.