Show ameri american can fork D district I 1 str id BY GEO H RYAN EYAN A survey of activities in the american fork mining district utah for the year 1917 shows more work accomplished and with greater results than were achieved during any year since the old miller made its record productions under the tyng lease in one respect the history of the camp is is similar to a great many others the first discoveries were made where the ore came to the surface and very little work was required to mine it and being a soft carbonate containing very high iron and low silica the smelting smelling sm elting problem was easy the first discovery was the miller on miller hill which soon developed into one of the largest and richest bodies of lead carbonate known up to that time the ore ran well in silver and carried more than one half ounce in gold this find stimulated prospecting in the district and the early prospectors naturally turned their A mining engineer newhouse salt lake city building attention to the same formation in which the miller was found resulting in the opening of the dutchman at the eastern base of miller hill which produced large amounts of carbonate ore the early activity resulted in many discoveries of sulphide ore in fissures cutting the under underlying I 1 yi n g quartzite b but U t with the then existing methods of reduction this character of ore was not so desirable consequently the development of this class of deposit received little att attention er altion the decline of former activity in the district is marked by the exhaustion of the carbonate ores from the easily accessible linie lime beds while the return of interest and rejuvenation of the district is due to recent disclosures of large and profitable bodies of sulphide 3 ores in the quartzite deep exploration has been made easier and faster by the advent of electric brought in from the snake creek station seven miles distant the extension of the line over miller hill to the Belor ophan in mary ellen gulch will put the power through the center of the district and make it available to several properties now operating by hand the road up the canyon from american fork is not steep which makes it possible to haul big loads each way and with the exception of a few steep pitches which could be removed at small cost it is one of the best canyon roads in the cottonwood amerl ameri can call fork region the county kept a crew of men on the road during the entire open season which put the road in very good condition despite the heavy traffic by widening the grade and eliminating the steep pitches the road could be kept in good shape for truck transportation at a moderate cost the pacific mine the property which really blazed the trail to the possibilities of developing commercial ore bodies in the quartzite is the pacific now operating under lease to the american fork exploration company the and two callow screens A hardinge conical ball mill grinds the jig tailing which is distributed to the tables the coarse to the Wilf leys which also take the undersize from the callow screens and the fines to the double deck Dei the concentrates are carried by water to the de watering bin where the water filters out leaving the concentrates cen to be loaded from chutes into the wagons the mill is putting through about tons per day the ratio of concentration being about 7 to 1 the tailings run to a series of settling ponds where the clear water is decanted off and returned to the stream the property is well equipped with bunk house boarding house assay office and cottages all built to insure the utmost comfort during the winter months the Belor ophan in mary ellen gulch another promising discovery of both mill and shipping ore was made in the Belor ophan in a well defined fissure in the quartzite this property is being close to two and one halt half million all taken from immense bodies of oxidized lead silver gold ore occurring as a replacement of the limestone along an east west fracture zone crossed by northeast southwest fissures dipping northwest extensive faulting has displaced the sedimentary strata leaving an unexplored block of ground between two faults which terminated the eastern end of the original and the western end of the tyng ore body development in this block of ground is being carried on and recent developments tend to show that the connecting link between the two developed ore bodies will be opened with very little more work in addition to this work some ore has been shipped from the old which gave returns of from 27 to 90 per ton also the development work in the shale opened a good grade of sulphide ore along a well defined fissure striking northeast and dipping northwest which proves the continuation of the mineralizing mineral izing fissures below D c ea A AJ I 1 ak W miller hill in american fork canyon showing workings of miller mine and at left property of the texan mining co northeast slope of photo by geo H 1 1 ryan new tunnel was finished last year and drifting on the vein opened some remarkable shoots of milling ore as well as a great deal of shipping ore both lead silver and copper silver over feet of drifting on the vein and raises up to the old tunnel have opened enough ore to justify the erection of a ton mill which went into commission in november of this year the will average about six or seven feet in width while in some places it ls is as much as eighteen feet between walls at one place a good copper silver vein branches off into the hanging wall and is ia as much as three sets wide at another point a branch vein contains clean solid galena running well in silver both these ores are shipped direct while the lower grade from the main vein is put through the mill milling practice i the process is wet concentration by jigs Wilf leys and Dei classification of feed is made through four revolving operated under lease by the same interests owning the pacific lease not much work has been done since striking the ore as the winter season was beginning causing a delay in operations until next spring it is planned to do extensive development on this property the coming year and judging from present indications the lessees lessels should be able to develop an similar to the pacific A test run of ore from the beloro phan fissure through the pacific mill showed that it is an ideal concentrating ore the power line will be extended from the pacific in the spring and the property thorough t ly equipped for development work the miller mine the old miller on top of the hill between the Belor ophan and pacific is being operated under lease and bond by the miller mine development company this property was the scene of the first discovery in the district and to date has produced more than half of the camps total output the miller production has been the limestone future development will be centered on getting into this ground at depth by driving a tunnel on a known fissure in the quartzite work will be continued through the winter and in the spring an active campaign of deep development will be started the globe mine on this property lying on the south side of mary ellen gulch and south of the beloro phan recent work opened up a body of carbonate ore running high in lead and silver the discovery was made by manager john cleghorn who traced float up the hill and then ran a shortcut through the wash and landed right on top of the which occurs in a well defined northeast fissure dipping northwest A short tunnel was then run in in below the first work showing the ore in place in the fissure which is a bout about four feet between walls the ore shows to be going down strong and as the discovery is in a lime stratum overlying the principal ore bearing lime the chances for opening good sized replacement bodies in the more favorable stratum make this a most important discovery the south park this property comprising a large group of claims east and northeast of the pacific and extending into dry fork has been working steadily during the past year in the tall la 1 11 the dry fork tunnel encountered a small stringer of 0 ore which was followed and which opened up into a vein about ten feet between walls A good streak of shipping ore is showing in the vein running high in lead and silver with some values in copper the big vein was not encountered until after the snow came and on account of having to build a road and erect buildings and ore bin the management decided to wait for spring for further development and avoid the possibility of having the improvements prove ments interrupted by the bad weather the south park discovery is in a section of the camp hitherto unproductive and will be a great incentive to more diligent prospecting in the eastern section miller hill extension this property lying south and southwest of the pacific and comprising the old scotchman and mountain dell groups is being operated by the knight inte interests or of provo the main tunnel starting just above the creek bed at the eastern foot of miller hill and running northwesterly was started by J C jensen and associates under a lease but early in the year the owners took the work over and recently have made some very important discoveries the tunnel was started to catch the southwest extension of the pacific fissure which it was calculated would be reached between the 1500 and 2000 foot points near the point where the pacific fissure would be cut a vertical fissure showing galena was encountered and what appears to be the main fissure corresponding in strike and dip to the pacific was run through about seventy five feet farther in drifting and raising on the vertical fissure showed it to be probably a branch of the main fissure so work was concentrated on the main fissure which is being followed north and south and a raise is being driven from the south drift the vein is from two to six feet wide with well defined walls and shows occasional stringers and bunches of galena and chaleo pyrite continued development along the vein will undoubtedly disclose ore shoots similar to the pacific the main tunnel is being put in first class shape for heavy traffic and the system of ventilation recently installed has done away with the gas trouble and the air in the headings is clear and fresh the property is well equipped and will continue active development all winter the bay state to the east and southeast of the miller hill efte extension sion and lying on the east side of the main canyon the bay state has a group of twenty four claims six of which are patented A total of 2700 feet of development work has been done on the property which has been working steadily during the past year and has shipped some ore the principal development has been on a northeast fissure which has mineralized a stratum of dark blue fine grained cherty lime containing a fossil coral which identifies it with the lime in which the cardiff ore occurs in big cottonwood and which lies or more feet above the lower ore bearing lime that contained the enormous replacement bodies in the miller the flagstaff in alta and the carbonate in big cottonwood ton wood the lower strata on this this ground are covered by glacial drift in the bottom of the canyon but the creek cuts down through this in one place on the west side of the ground exposing the shale dipping southeasterly and striking northeast so there cannot be much variation in the regular sequence of the beds across this part of the formation extensive faulting has taken place at two different periods one strong north south normal fault dipping east at about 55 degrees shows bunches of drag ore partially oxidized in raising on this fault a nearly horizontal fault with very small easterly dip terminates the first one A short distance above this second fault is another nearly horizontal fault which terminates one of the fissures as well as the mineralized bed the ore is a mixed galena and carbonate carrying silver and some zinc in finely disseminated semina ted crystals associated with barite and also in the form of carbonate in common with nearly all other ore deposits in the district barite is associated with the ore and also is the principal vein filling away from the ore the management plans to sink to explore the lower ore bearing lime and expects good results where it is intersected by the min eral izing fissures which show so much evidence of in the overlying strata this property is not equipped with power as yet but plans to install machinery in the spring work will be carried on actively during the winter months the whirlwind on this property joining the miller hill extension on the southwest steady work during the past year has put the tunnel into the mountain to the 1000 foot point at about feet the tunnel passed from the lime into the quartzite where an east west fault has displaced the south block of ground downward for about feet before cutting the fault the tunnel went through a large mass of greatly metamorphosed lime having the consistency of a tough gumbo the evidence of stratification is almost L completely destroyed and it would be hard to determine the nature of the ma aerial but for the presence of an occasional fossil at about feet the tunnel cut a dike of fine grained porphyry cutting northeast at several places pa aces small stringers and bunches of iron pyrites occur through the metamorphosed lime accompanied by small amounts of galena at the foot point drifting was started both ways from the tunnel on one of these iron seams an and 1 I where the stratification is not destroyed it is found to conform in dip and strike to the bedding plane the lime at this point being near the fault is tilted much steeper than the average dip of the beds anywhere in miller hill the breast of the main tunnel is in quartzite showing iron pyrites sprinkled all through the rock from present indications the management expects interesting developments during the ensuing year work is being continued in the main tunnel under contract borussia bredemeyer these two properties lying on the north slope of miller hill are being operated under lease and bond by dark clark keenan considerable work has been done this year and some ore shipped the development is on fissures in the quartzite which judging from their strike and location must have been connected with part of the ore deposition in the limestone on the miller the lessees lessels got the old workings opened up and a chute built down the cliffs so the ore could be handled easily but being located on the north slope of the hill where the snow drifts badly their operations had to be suspended for the winter months with the improvements planned for the coming season the property should be in shape to operate throughout the year the bog this property consisting of a group of patented claims across the canyon north from the miller hill is being operated under lease to the earl eagle interests some very good ore was shipped during the fall from the main workings and the lessees lessels have started a 1400 foot crosscut tunnel to tap the bog fissure about feet below the present tunnel mineral flat this property consisting of a large group of patented claims lying in the basin at the head of american fork canyon is being developed by a long tunnel which will cut several well defined fissures the main objective is the japan fissure which produced some ore from surface workings in the early days As soon as this point is reached it is the intention to drift northeasterly along this and other fissures to their intersection with the cottonwood fault work has been carried on continuously during the past year and will continue through the winter the property is well equipped with mine buildings and its own hydraulic air compressor plant this old property lying in mary ellen basin between the Belor ophan and globe was ivas worked under lease by the green leasing company come ome very good ore was taken from surface workings along the |