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Show SALT FLAT NEWS, MAY, 1975 11 A "MVS exclusive by Richard N. Goldberger A secret plan to reactivate the Queei of Sheba Gold Mine situated in the extreme western part of Utah was almost revealed to the NEWS during the mining companys annual stockholders meeting. The meeting was held last February twenty-firs- t, at the Salt Lake City home of Doctor Kenneth Fishier. ' Considerable surprise was leg- istered upon the arrival of a newspaper reporter at this meeting, and a debate ensued as to whether this stockholders meeting was open to the press. When queried by Dr. Fishier1 of his preference in regard to staying or leaving, this reporter chose .the former: After pledging verbally that the NEWS was not opposed to the operation of the gold mine, the decision was made via voice vote to indude .the press for a portion of the meeting. However, it was agreed that when the discussion turned to future plans for the Sheba, the press would have to go. - ; The meeting then opened with directors being nominated and elected by popular vote. Dr. Fishier was installed as president, his wife Pat as secretary-treasure- r, and Rudolf Miller, a moustached stockholder, as vice president. It was panted out by Dr. Fishier that directors usually resign for reasons not made dear. Dr. Fishier also noted that he had personally been paying the assessment bills currently running at about seventy dollars a year and hoped that someday the company might reimburse him. Following that point the Situated on the west flank of the Deep Creek Mountains in western Juab Comity; the Queen of Sheba mine lies approximately 140 air miles from Salt Lake City. For a person requir- -' ing a more specific location, the Sheba is in the Spring Creek Mining District of Juab County, Section 2, Township 12, South Range 19 West. Doc Bailey, a prospector, discovered Shebas original outcrop in the year 1888. This was to become the portal, for the Martin Tunnel. After digging in, further discoveries were made at the Welshman Tunnel and at various places along the outcrops .of the vein. In the latter part of the 1890s, a small mill was placed cm the property. The mill had the capacity of about .fifteen tons a day, and the values were recovered by The recovery was probably sixty percent of the t amalgamation. total gold and silver content Ore for this milling operation was taken from the Martin Tunnel stopes and sub-levstopes at level A stope is a side tunnel into a vein. the ninety-four-foIt has been estimated by blocking out portions of the stopes and also through previous mining analysis of the ore, that the stoped areas contain fifteen to twenty thousand tons of ore. The Bureau of Mines reported that the Sheba sold to the United States Mint 5,061 ounces of gold and 8,835 ounces of silver during the years 1900-191Gold during that era sold at an ounce. dollars twenty ; The milled ore sold at a price from thirty dollars a ton to six dollars a ton. This low figure of six dollars a ton, of which sixty percent was gold, put the adjusted price of gold at $3.60 : par ton. At twenty dollars an ounce, mining operations were not considered feasible, and in 1915 the Sheba dosed. It should be noted that transportation was crude in those days of the animal drawn wagon. The Sheba mine lay idle from 1915 to 1933, until a Utah corporation called the Sheba Gold Mining Company of Salt Lake City took over the property, and mining operations started up again. This company soon slid into the abyss of debt, however, and operations soon ceased. From' Reno in 1935 came a gentleman by the name of. George Fuerman who, hearing about a good deal in west Utah, cleared the debt of the Sheba in return for stock. Additional funds were supplied by Mr. Fuerman to purchase the adjoining BQ1 Nye and Stanley claims. Mining by objective? was initiated by George Fuerman. Geologic studies and additional metallurgical tests were prepared, carried out, and conclusions were drawn. One conclusion extracted was that ninety percent bullion could be with-drawn from the ore. ' The mining of the Sheba has been along a quartzite fissure underlaid by granite. Fractured and elevated by the granite, the fractures and fissures have filled up with the quartz miner. alized with iron oxides and gold and silver. Five tunnels totaling three thousand feet acrosspwith an additional one thousand feet of lineal work done in crosscuts and rafegg, were dug. The Martin Tunnel was driven four hun- dred and fifty feet into the Sheba, vein at a depth hundred and fifty feet below the outcrop. Positive ore, 16,827 tons, whose gold value' was calculated at $11.99 a ton, was geologically blocked out Total value was figured at $201,761.00. Mr. Harry Reid, chief engineer at the famous Getcho Mine corroborated this figure. Fuerman offered half a million shares of treasury stock to the public at fifteen cents a share in the. late 1930s. The installapurpose of such a tender was to1 raise capital for the additional for tion of a fifty ton flotation mill and to pay improvements at the camp site. An Executive Order from President Roosevelt closed the Fuer-man- s gold mines in 1941 at the start of World War II. George daughter met Kenneth Fishier and a romance, though not of mining, blossomed. the Sheba a Today, with the price of gold at $170.00 ton, .calls to the sophisticated mining developer. Speculators and need not answer. . president, in answer to a question, stated that there were 2,500,000 shares of Sheba stock in existence, with Mrs. Fishier holding 1,300,000 shares. In a review of current problems facing the mine, Dr. Fishier noted that the Indiims had on occasion raised a question of access, since in order to get to the Sheba, one must go through part of the Goshute Reservation. Dr. Fishier panted out that since the mine was there before the reservation, he had permission from the government to go through the reservation. A refer- ence to a letter from the Indian commissioner stipulating the right was referred to. I do always notify the local office of the FBI though, whenever I go to visit the mine, added the president. A gaze around the living room discovered a few interesting expressions on the faces of stockholders, offering perhaps a clue to the resignation problem. The highlight of the evening was when Mrs. Fishier unrolled a large map and spread it over the plush carpet. A rustle of excitement went through the stockholders, whose median age would be somewhat over fifty. As the crowd squeezed around the can- - TOOELE COUNTY JUAB COUNTY el ot ; O v so-- ' f vvV 2 v j y '' ui D cP W s A 3 vvxr K. i QUEEN OF SHEBA AND JUMBO PROPERTIES tf ' i 1 . 4. f V ir TROUT CREEK ? 'si4' WSF& vas square, blocked squares and vertical shafts could be seen. After it was explained that the gold ore was blocked out by hand in 158 different locations, it was suggested that this reporter leave, .as the secret dan pertaining to future operations was about to be discussed. That this reporter did, and later on in the evening discussed this affair with Daniel Ellsberg, who was in Salt Lake City on a speaking engagement at the University of Utah. Incidentally, Mr. Ellsberg said he had not heard of the secret plan nor of the Queen of Sheba mine. snow, sleet, rain, hail, and mud The Fourth Annual West Wendover Hare and Hound MOTORCYCLE RACE has been postponed. 5. ; : ! : ! . . e . : ?.V .. Due to unseasonable - of-thre- .x !V; goshute . . . -- . Please watch for a new race date later this year in the Salt Flat News. v |