Bryson Burke Diamond Corporation: Diamond Exploration and Mining in Canada

Mr. Anthony F. Lucas is a native of Austria and is a graduate of the Polytechnic College of Gratz. He has spent many years in making geological investigations and has explored for minerals in many parts of the United States and in other countries. Just before coming to Beaumont, he had been engaged for several years in developing salt deposits in (on islands in the southern marshes of) Louisiana. The first of those mines was developed on Jefferson Island, the property of Joe Jefferson, the famous actor. He expended between $15,000 and some $18,000 on this property of Mr. Jefferson, and the development enhanced its value to about a half-million dollars. Next he turned his attention to Belle Isle, where he developed salt and sulphur mines, and following that he developed the salt mines on Weekes' Island. The salt deposits on these three islands are practically the same---a fine rock salt, so transparent that print can be read through it. How thick the deposit is, Mr. Lucas does not know. He drilled one hole 2,160 feet deep, passing through 1,900 feet of rock salt, without reaching the bottom of it. Belle Isle is located 30 miles from Morgan City and has fine facilities for water transportation. The mines on that island are being worked by a Chicago corporation; those on Weekes' Island by a local company; the Jefferson mines are not being worked.

Mr. Lucas tells an amusing story in connection with his salt exploration. He says when he began work on Jefferson Island, people in that vicinity warned him of failure, telling him that others had bored and found nothing. But he had confidence in the geological indications and persisted in drilling. To carry on this work, it was necessary for him to ship several box cars loads of salt, and this fact being known, the story was circulated industriously that he ws "planting" salt in the ground, intending to sell out to "suckers" - "salting" a salt mine, as it were. But this salt was used in an entirely different way. The boring was done with a diamond drill, the diamonds being set in the end of the pipe. As the pipe revolved, the drill cut a circle in the salt, leaving a core of salt within the pipe. At the lower end of the pipe and inside, there were a number of clamps forced outward by springs. When the pipe was raised these clamps would grip the core and break off, so that it might be taken out of the well with the pipe. In drilling it was necessary to pump cold water into the well quickly to keep the rapidly revolving pipe from melting. Had pure water been used, a certain amount of the salt core would be dissolved so that the clamping device could not clutch it. Being so saturated, that is, brine water saturated to the utmost limit with salt, it would not dissolve a particle of the salt core and the clamps worked all right. And that is how the salt was used which was supposed to be intended for "salting" a mine.