A GREAT GOLD MINE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3144, 20 November 1922, Page 8

A GREAT GOLD MINE.

For the year 1922, at least so ,it seems at present, Canada is to have the honor of possessing the gold-pro-ducing mine whose: output wilT be the greatest, of any of the entire globe, says the Montreal' correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor. The mine in question is the Hollinger, in the Porcupine area of Northern Ontario. Last year the Bollinger was excelled in production by only two individual mines in the South African Rand and by two other groups of mines operated uvufov owe control. The trovibtas the South African area experienced' in the spring have almost completely banished any possibility of their being' in the running this year on the same scale, so that it is almost certain that for the year 1922 a Canadian mine will lead the world iii gold output. The discovery of this mine was not attended! by the sensational and disorderly rushes which have marked gold strikes elsewhere, audi the Hoi linger has for a decade experienced a consistent and sound progress. Moreover. its situation differa signally from pthei gold regions, inasmuch: as other niines, if not played out in a few years, at least face exhaustion, while the Hollinger faces richer prospects the more extensive development is undertaken. Hollinger history commences when Northern Ontario wasi largely terra incognita, a region of dense forests of spruce and poplar reaching right to the shores of James Bay. Nickel has been discovered in. the Sudbury area, by one railroad in course of construction; silver had been encountered at Cobalt by another, while blasting its right of way: but it was thought positively, up to. 1909, that the extent of Northern Ontario's natural resources had been pretty well determined. In that year Benny Hollinger was a down-and-out. prospector. He had. however, ui feeling that the wonderful uorthland had not yet revealed all her possessions, and that gold was bidden away in that territory which, became known Hater asi the Porcupine area of Northern Ontario, and he wanted to go and hunt it. So persistent was he that friends took pity on ham and grubstaked him for the winter months. He spent a solitary winter prospecting in the north land, but encountered what he believed were surface indications of gold, whereat he considered the lie was promising enough- to stake out, and thereafter he hiked back to the settlement and waited until spring. When the spring broke, other men came along, and the situation looked so good to them that they offered 1 him 1/50,000 dollars for the claim, which he accepted. Other claims were taken up soon afterwards, and the name Porcupine began to mean something in mining circles. Initial development was under way /on the group, when in 1911 it encountered a serious setback. Actual milling was commenced in 1912, and has been continued without interruption ever fein.ee. However, there was nothing sensational or particularly noteworthy about the mine until' after 1916. when four adjacent claims found it advisable to amalgamate, and the total -140 acres l , brought under the one interest, retained the name of the original discoverer, Benny Hollinger. Production since that time has been to an extent hampered by strikes and 1 a labor shortage due to the war, and it is only quite recently that the' Hollinger mine has given any indications) of what its tremendous possibilities are. In ten years of its producing history, the Hollinger litis accounted for more than £50,000,000 worth of gold, which is a, pretty fair decade revenue for a 440-acre patch of forest land, but which, it is believed, will be left far behind in the next ten years. Last year the claim, which Hollinger thought he got a. good price for at 150.000 dollars, returned to the owners 438.598 ounces of gold, worth more than 10.000.000 dollars. The significance of this can be better realised when it is explained that the production of the Government gold-mining area in South Africa, the leading individual gold producing concern in 1921, was only 600.151 ounces. Cold mining in the Canadian North has become an industry much alter the fashion of the production of anv other commodity. The color and romance of Alaskan and Yukon days may be gone, hut gone also are lawlessness, the disorder, the discomfort and wasted effort which characterised mining in those regions. Modern towns go hand in hand with producing mines, and modern trains bring civilisation to their doors and curry away the products of the earth. Around the Hollinger has grown up a bustling town which would, 1 be a credit to any area, fully equipped! with every convenience, even to possessing its own busy stock exchange. The Hollinger mine is a remarkable one in many respects, and its entire operation is the perfection of a smoothworking organism. It is managed and operated in the same economic and efficient manner as any other commercial plant, and has been, described as "an automatic organisation watched by 2000 men." Twelve hundred men work below the ground, the mining being carried on in three shifts of eight hours each. Though the extent of the claims is only 440 acres, 266 veins have been opened up and developed, though the mine is as yet only at the 950-foot level. There are railway tracks at all levels, on which trains of sometimes 100 cars are drawn by trolley locomotives, and over 60 miles of track the ore is brought to a central shaft to be elevated and passed on to the mill. The present capacity of the mine is 6000 tons of ore per day, which is being increased to 7000 tons. Tin- operation of the mill exhibits in a most clear ma unci - Ihe thoroughness of the industry and the economy of its working in every phase. High and low grade ore equally is worked over completely until the last speck of gold is extracted.