HYDRAUULIC mining all the year round is the latest stunt in the search after the precious metal that is to be triediIn the Atlin district.
Announcement of this somewhat startling innovation in gold-mining was made to-day by M. Jean de Lamare of Paris, the managing director of the Societe Miniere de la Colombie Britannique, which owns several miles of valuable claims on Boulder Creek. M. de Lamare arrived from London and Paris yesterday and will spend a few days in the city before going north to superintend an early start on the season's operations.
The mining company which M. de Lamare directs has already spent several hundred thousand dollars in the development of its claims on Boulder Creek, but that will be a mere bagatelle compared with the amounts which will be expended if the plans outlined by the company are carried out this summer. M. de Lamare will be joined here in a few days by M. E. Obalsky of Paris, a noted French mining engineer, who is going north to pass upon
a plan for securing an all-the-year-round water supply for the company's mining claims.
M. de Lamare outlined the company's plans to a Province representative at
the Badminton to-day. "We had a poor season last year, due chiefly to the shortage of the water supply," said M. de Lamare. "But the returns which we got for the short time we were
able to run showed conciusively that the claims are very rich. So in order to secure a sufficient supply of water to tide over the dry seasons, I am taking an engineer north to report on a plan to construct a large dam across the outlet of an immense natural reservoir situated some distance up the valley of Boulder Creek. The undertaking will also require the construction of a big flume down to the claims.
"In any event whether we build this reservoir or not, we intend to establish a more permanent camp and continue mining operations all winter in future. I expect to spend the next winter in Atlin directing operations. No, I do not think we shall require thawing machines. I satisfied myself on that point before I left the North last fall. The winter work will be mostly tunneling. It will enable us to get a vast quantity of pay dirt ready for hydraulic operations as soon as we have the water in the spring."
