Show the th e ophir mining district of utah ua a h by G C gansl and G A keep the mining district of ophir utah is situated near the southern extremity of the oquirrh range of mountains the camp itself lies about two miles up east canyon on the western face of the mountain range st john the nearest railroad station is forty seven miles from salt lake city via the san pedro salt lake los angeles route and nine miles by stage line west of ophir the mercur mining district camp floyd lies just over the ridge to tb the the district in the spring of 1863 soon after many claims were located by the soldier prospectors of connors army the cottonwoods Cotton woods tintic gintic and st george districts were also first prospected at practically the same time as ophir mr linback states that his claim was located in graveyard gulch about feet from the present town of ophir several men who later became prominent politically and financially made their first stake in ophir during the early both became united states senators from montana in 1868 col E A wall sold his property in dry canyon just north of ophir canyon for mr lineback has lived in ophir ever since his arrival there in 1863 and while his own claims never proved a success he has several acres of valuable fruit land just west of the camp the present town of ophir was laid out by him and another man named moore 4 A V x aa A 1 and A in mgt X 4 7 f e ins run t 0 out at the 04 ji A begun from lk A the lion hill anticline town of ophir at base of mountain south while bingham is some twenty miles to the north in the same range the oquirrh mountains separate rush valley on the west from utah valley on the east A little history the early history of ophir district as obtained from the discoverer of the camp is as follows mr air lineback one of the general connors soldiers while on a months furlough for lough from ft douglas located the first claim in history of the district marcus daly was superintendent for the walker brothers mine but later went to montana and afterwards became U S senator from that state W A dark clark was another of the early mining operators in ophir district and at the present time owns the ophir hill mine an interesting co inci dence concerning dark clark and daly exists in the fact that they married the daughters of a mr air evans of ophir and also that they y lion hill the big mountain to the south of the town has produced several small fortunes in silver from pockets occurring practically at the surface the only producing mines at present are the ophir hill buckhorn cliff and lion hill consolidated properties topography the topography of the district is extremely rugged consisting of bold limestone escarpments thirty to feet in heigh heights th indented by a series of parallel canyons leading to the main east and west canyon known as ophir canyon A small stream flowing down this canyon furnishes the power and water supply of the camp the the east this fact would seem to indicate that a faulting had occurred in the main canyon near the east limb of the anticline another feature to be observed is that the bearing the cambrian fossils on W IF 41 SV 1 4 V the town of ophir showing surroundings photo by Ship lerr main watershed water shed of the country further up however is through a canyon to the northwest 4 structure the geological structure of ophir district is primarily a modified the strata dipping quickly to the east north and west and slightly to the south extending to the southeast towards the mercur district the principal structural feature is a broad anticline whose axis trends N 43 W and passes nearly through the center of ophir the east bast limb of the anticline on the south side of the canyon elul about 15 50 while the west limb pr pj 1540 the dip of the strata is ww grated in the accompanying il illus lustra trai three dykes are observed in the thea two being rhyolite porphyries a and n d m an andesite the differential erosion arosio mar kably demonstrated in the relation 0 atthe he west porphyry dyke to the surrounding limestone this dyke can be traced at intervals from the bold outcrop out crop of the cliff property to within a few hundred feet from the main canyon its direction is N 5 W the black andesite dyke is noticeable on both sides of the main canyon it appears on the hill just east of graveyard gulch with a dip of 75 W and with a general strike north and south the width of the dyke is about three feet on the south side it has a dip of 75 W and a strike N 5 E on the south side this dyke has suffered a displacement of some feet to the south side of the canyon in the east limb of the anticline did not occur at a corresponding horizon on the north side the strata on the south side of east canyon are nearly borizo W ro apposite I 1 the ferous limestone on the upturned eroded cambrian strata the limestone shows in places every graduation from a dark cherty rock to a soft argillaceous shale As the strata on the north side dips more than those on the south side of east canyon the surface exposure of the cambrian is naturally much greater to the north on june hill the first feet is the cambrian quartzite which was brought up by the east and west fault then occurs eighty feet of shale followed by 1200 feet of cambrian limestone and five feet of cambrian shale the upper feet of the hill is carboniferous limestone resting on the cambrian strata and an d beginning just below the cliff mine petrography the south side of east canyon exposes a strata of shale and limestone many of which are highly A brownish ray gray 9 shale six feet thick is inter stratified with the limestone at a point 1100 feet above the canyon bottom the strata on the north side consist of quartzite ozite shale and limestone as previously mentioned the east porphyry dyke is more pink in color than the west dyke and also contains coarser quartz crystals it strikes across the country at about a 40 degree angle with the west dyke economic features the ore bodies in ophir district occur in two ways generally speaking one is a replacement or blanket deposit in the limestone and the other is an occurrence in fissure veins the beds dip from 15 to 25 eesi to the northeast and the fissures have also the same general trend east and west faults cut the north side ti 4 IWIN 4 f a ir acce the LL ar india one ot in this camp V ince 3 peor e r 10 o te jk at K lower shaft at ophir hill mine town of ophir the first 1100 feet are of cambrian lime stones capped by eight or ten feet or cambrian shale above this extending to the summit of the ridge lion hill there rests about feet of carboni and the country throughout is considerably fractured numerous small vertical ore bearing fissures cut the blanket deposits the ore of june hill is silver and lead with some iron and copper present on lion hill many rich pockets of pure silver chloride have been mined practically at the surface the dykes mentioned so far as proven by past mining operations appear to have exerted but little influence on subsequent ore depositions correlation with other utah districts park city mercur and bingham ore deposits all occur within carboniferous strata of wasatch age the park city deposits are either contact or replacement between the park city limestone and the weber quartzite the bingham district consists of a large nion porphyry dyke which cuts across bingham canyon at a slight angle in this dyke copper mineral particles are widely disseminated throughout the igneous mass at mercur the deposits occur in practically horizontal veins much the same as in ophir the lead silver ores of bingham are replacement deposits in lime stones all faults excepting the one farthermost north the north side has been the side in the case under exception the north side has been the up thrown block the quartzite and limestone be being ng in contact chronological sequence of ore deposition although in several instances the small vertical veins proved to be older than the faulting from the fact that they show displacement and continuations along the fault plane the vital point remains however that these veins are most recent than the big faulting which occurred earlier than the smaller faults hence the ophir hill campany was able to prove an earlier n of their ore in its recent lawsuit the ore is of milling grade an iron sulphide and a lead sulphide 8 per cent P ab b and 10 ounces ag forty eight thousand tons have been mined annually tor for the past pas ten years ty tramway and thence lowered to the corn com banys mill the property is owned by hon W A dark clark and while favorably located for operation is a fairly low grade proposition flow sheet at the ophir hill mill the ore is crammed from mine to incline and dropped to the concentrating mill at the bottom of the hill into a ton bin ton bin grizzley blake crusher 1 cast iron shell 2 sizes of punched plate holes 1 inch and inch 3 sets of oversize from these go to separate doubled 2 compartment jigs undersize through the successive undersize from last to callow screen under size callow screen goes to settling tank thence to two 3 compartment jigs two sets of rolls take jig then elevated and sent through six callow 16 A Z ah F J ia n A 7 74 it I 1 A 4 j k IN 7 av mv 4 1 Y 4 t e 50 1 I workings of the lion hill Consoli consolidated datel mining co the ophir hill mine this property is situated just above the quartzite on the north side of ophir canyon about half a mile north of the town of ophir the ore bodies occur as typical replacement deposits in argillaceous limestone and shale five well defined veins are being worked the top vein is from five to six feet in width the big vein is twenty feet wide the middle vein is from ten to twelve feet wide the copper vein is eight feet wide and the blue vein is six feet wide the dip of the beds is 25 degrees in the direction N 30 E the ore occurs in the beds within three well defined shoots known as the wild delirium miners delight and west in many instances the copper and the blue veins run together being separated at most by only three of four feet of shale several east and west faults cut the prop erty one fault having a throw of forty feet and being known aste g fault in Ls I 1 the stand up remarkably well without filling or timbering and in some cases are several hundred feet in extent where the copper and blue veins run together they have been scoped out at the same time the topping was begun from the hanging wall in order to facilitate handling the ore pillars of ore were left at first but later shot out as the was mined when necessary waste ore filling was added to hold the hanging wall after the removal of ore the transportation of the ore is by means of a 1 foot incline driven in the shale A steam hoist is in operation also a small cameron pump when the contact with quartzite was encountered a large stream of water flooded the lower workings the present pump is unable to cope with the situation and an electric pump was recently ordered the lower feet has been flooded and at one time the water raised at the rate of ten feet a day the horejs crammed 1000 feet to a bravi screens oversize from first callow screen back to rolls undersize to second callow screen oversize from second callow screen feeds four wilfley tables undersize from second callow screen passes through other finer callow screens and thence to two settling tanks the settling tanks feed eight more wilfley tables the largest middling products are treated in a heavy set of rolls at the head of the mill and sent through the series of previously mentioned with the ore from the 14 inch rolls the concentrate bins are four in number and have a capacity of tons each the cliff mine this property embraces three well de fined fissure veins with a dip of from 75 to 20 degrees northeast and a strike N 20 E these come together at a distance of 1000 feet from the tunnel mouth there are three tunnels driven along the fissure the lower one being the ore transportation tunnel and the upper two are used in the handling of waste the mine is situated about 1600 feet above the canyon on the north side the ore is transported by an aerial gravity tramway one mile in length to bins at the bottom of the canyon from which point it is shipped by traction engine to st john this traction engine hauls a train of four wagons with a total capacity of sixty tons this method of transportation cost one third that of team haulage the ore occurs as oxide and sulphide and averages 12 per cent ab and 6 ounces ag replacement deposits occur mostly in lion hill consolidated I 1 the lion hill consolidated mining company in its holding embraces a number of the leading properties on lion hill included in the number being the old northern light chloride point columbia and circle all of these have been noted producers in the past the northern light has had a rather checkered career under the ownership of buckskin dark clark now deceased it produced many thousands in gold and silver it has been always responded although no system has ever been followed follow pd in its oper va I 1 7 7 VIA 4 ay ophir hill mill photo ay iy b shifters gray limestone but in some instances have taken the overlying limet sone these blanket deposits are all connected with the fissures demonstrating the fact that the min eral bearing solutions ascended through the fissures and replaced the contiguous limestone A drift arif t has been driven to the west dyke and the contact followed for many feet but no ore values encountered this dyke is some sixty feet thick and the only mineral it contains is pyrite very little timbering is resorted to and a few here and there hold up the aaion and development in the northern light the ore occurred in the form of shoots and large pockets fortunes being sometimes taken from one pocket no greater depth than feet has been attained at any point on lion hill the chloride point consists in a large measure of a large fissure vein in which zones of exceedingly rich chloride of silver occur which often yield many thousands of dollar in value before pinching out by drifting on the vein however these high grade shoots invariably come in again it has long been a favorite proposition with leasers leaders lea sers one of the most successful of whom has been geo st clair mine superintendent for the lion hill consolidated the lion hill consolidated is an occasional shipper of high grade ore to the sa sail j lake market |