Show mining in white pine county nev 1921 by george H ryan E M on account of high freight rates and the general drop in metal prices which ushered in the year just passed the mining industry in eastern nevada has languished almost to the point of extinction beginning late in the year 1920 the large shipments of lead and zinc metal sent over from european countries for sale on the american market caused prices to sag to an appreciable extent and right along with this the railroads of the countr country Y in in a pa panicky nicky and ill advised attempt to recover from the effects of 6 government ment operation made an increase of 25 2570 in the already high rates which had the effect of thoroughly strangling those businesses which had survived the former rate increase one might even draw a a parallel to mark twains kwains story odthe of the jumping frog 6 and by paraphrasing 6 it somewhat say that the mining t and other businesses furnishing revenue for the rail railroads roa ds were able to continue to jump after swallowing fow 1 ing the fhe first rate shot of 1918 because of the abnormal state stafe of conditions prevailing but when the carriers made the revenue producers swallow the rate shot of 1920 the load was more than they could carry and continue to jump however all these questions will eventually be worked out in the readjustment we are now going through and the year 1922 holds much promise of a revival for the mining in b industry nevada con and con Copp ermines the main producer in white pine county the nevada consolidated copper company closed its mined mine mill and smelter early in the year reducing z them the working force to about men at the mill and smelter alterations and repairs were made to put the plants in condition for resumption suniti on of operations when conditions warranted and at the mine development of the large bodies of direct smelt ing ing ore were continued with the result that now the ruth mine mine is is in in better condition than ever the discovery 0 of f this direct smelting smelling sm elting ore in the ruth is the most important find in eastern nevada as it adds greatly 6 to the importance of this property and points the way to further e exploration along the contact between the porphyry and limestone the jarge amount of surplus copper which was piled diled at the converter at mcgill was shipped during the latter part of the year and the plant is in readiness to resume operations which according to present indications will be early in the present year the pro property petty of the consolidated Copp ermines co at kimberly stopped the pumps and let the water rise in the wo workings aking R resumption 0 of f work at this property is problematical lema owing to the fact that operations on a large scale necessitates the erection of a suitable mill and smelter so until market conditions the financing of so large a project there is not likely to be much activity at kimberly this thi s property has been very ably and systematically developed and there is reported to be a large tonnage of direct smelling smelting sm elting oxidized ore developed and waiting extraction tio n this ore ore has been developed in the limestone near the porphyry cat contact i tact and the depos deposits its have been opened to a consi considerable derAle extent the con copper co also alk has a large tonnage to af of low grade porphyry ore developed by drill holes but until a mill and smelter can be erected this ore can not be exploited boston ely developing new find A find of great importance to the ely district was made in the property of the boston ely company which has been carrying on exploration work in the ely northern ground about a mile west of the town of ely and on the north side of robinson canyon some small deposits of oxidized ore are exposed on the surface of this property but no attempt was ever made to prospect the territory at depth until the present management started a campaign of intensive and systematic development which has resulted in finding z a good sized body of copper ore which can be mined and shipped at a small profit even under tinder the present rates this property is a good example of the way the present railroad rates prevent production ore of this character at the present price could be shipped at enough profit to allow a surplus over development costs if the rates on low grade ores were adjusted so as to encourage shi shipments P there is always a ready market for this class of ore when the large copper properties are producing and operating their smelters shelters sm elters but the value of this ore puts it into the second classification in the freight tariff which in this instance increases the frei freight 9 ht 1971 per ton the variations in the tariff are on 15 and 25 valuation and if the low b grade rade rate were made to apply appl y up to 25 valuation there is a large larg e tonnage ZI of ore coming under this valuation which chieh could be shipped from the eastern section of nevada ely has large zinc deposit the same argument applies to the zinc deposits of the county and to the low grade lead silver ores the ely calumet has opened a considerable tonna tonnage e of zinc in their property about a mile north of ely and have built a road to the mine but under present conditions they can not ship any ore which makes further development a very heavy burden on the owners the old ward mine 18 miles south of ely has a large tonnage of low grade lead silver ore valuable for fluxing flexing and the property started to make regular shipments to the salt lake smelters shelters sm elters the bulk of this ore comes under the 15 classification and after much effort the management secured a rate of 3 per ton up to 15 value and commenced shipments but the increase in smelling smelting sm elting rates due to the increased bullion freight and the high freights freig from other sections of the mining country which prevented the smelters shelters sm elters from getting the variety of ores necessary to successful smelting smelling sm elting resulted in the closing of this mine early in 1921 and it has remained idle ever since only a few men have been retained to do some development operations at cherry creek and hamilton at the old silver camp of cherry creek some development work has been carried on during the year at the mary ann star imperial and black metals the two latter have made some shipments of siliceous silver ore of good grade and recent work indicates that the present year will witness a continuance of production the lower tunnel at the mary ann has reached the mineral zone and exploration work is under why way the star is driving for the downward extension of the gray eagle vein and there is a possibility lity that the company will undertake the milling of the large tonnage of fill and low grade ore blocked out in the mine the imperial has made the largest production of the camp amp and this old bonanza should show renewed life with the resumption of normal conditions M in the ithe old bonanza camp of hamilton in the western we end of the county recent work has been confined almost entirely to the development of the lead silver deposits which lie to the west of treasure hill this ore carries better than half an ounce of silver to the unit of lead which b makes it a very desirable product and the district offers exceptional opportunities the present drawbacks draw backs to extensive and profitable development are transportation and lack of a proper metallurgical process for the concentration of the carbonate ores the transportation problem could be b greatly bettered if a broader and more business businesslike policy were adopted by the eureka palisade railroad which would result in greater revenue to both L producer drol and railroad as the problem of successfully treating the ores at the mines is already in a fair way of being put on a profitable basis while speaking of the mining business of this district district it is well to mention the fact that there ther e is a prospective oil field in the illipah basin northeast of the camp where test holes are being put down with the result that the hole of the illipah petroleum company got a fair sign of oil during the years operations and further development of this field is being watched with a great deal of interest by those familiar with the district in some of the other sections the other localities which have been the scene of mining 6 activity during the past year are at more isolated points 1 1 where the distance from transportation make it necessary to mill the ore at the property chief among these mines are the argus at taylor under bond to the wyoming b mining milling company the lake valley in mine ine just south of the county line on patterson mountain the piermont mine on the east slope of the schell creek range east of mcgill and two or three properties in the old gold cam camp P of osceola at taylor the wyoming company has a mill erected for the purpose of working the old cull dumps which contain a large amount of low z grade silver ore as well as a considerable tonnage of low grade ore developed in the mine this mine was a heavy producer in the and should be able to come back under present conditions I 1 the lake valley company has erected a cyanide its property and will soon be in shape to begin operations this old mine has produced some very rich ore and I 1 has developed a good tonnage of mill ore which should make a good return to the operators the old piermont mine which produced nearly two million in silver in the by treating the ore in an old amalgamation mill has been doing development work lor fr some time arid and has opened some good milling ore in addition to the ore left exposed in the old workings osceola again in the running at asce osceola ola the baird tilford property has been steadily P developed and several mill runs were made on ore ex e I 1 during this work the results have been fairly fair lysa 5 at is factory considering the handicaps under which the ow ers have had to work the mill is at a considerable dis 0 tance from the mine which makes operation unduly ext pensive but it has demonstrated the possibility of profit pr q able production from these gold veins when they ge q Is worked under proper conditions this is possible be W there is water sufficient for milling operations and ana ake P ore i is s of such character as to not offer any great metal t cal difficulties arties capital sufficient to equip some of these f pro and provide milling facilities would undoubtedly e t rn j 11 good return on the investment as the ore is easily and a centrally located mill would make possible the operation and development of much good territory the mariott brothers have been developing one of their groups of gold claims and recently have repaired the ten stamp mill and started to make inake a run on the ore from the property just west of town this mill is equipped with amalgamation plates below which tables have been placed which should prove to be of great value as some of the gold is associated with iron and does not seem to be readily amenable to amalgamation but as shown in the operation of the baird tilford mill the concentrate recovered below the plates would bring the extraction up to a very profitable point it is reported recently that the st lawrence mine situated on the west slope of wheeler peak southwest from osceola is to resume operations in the near future this is a lead silver property reputed to have a good tonnage of ore opened up the muncy creek mines have been idle during the year including the siegle mine and other properties in this locality but with a resumption of the smelters shelters sm elters and betterment of the metal markets this district will doubtless show renewed activity the muncy creek mine has a large larg e amount of zinc ore as well as copper and silver and t the he si siegle egle has a considerable amount of silver ore some of which has been of shipping grade but the successful treatment of this ore at the property would make it possible for production to be resumed mccoy districts new discovery the most important discovery in new territory was in the mccoy district on the east slope of the schell creek range and just south of the piermont district wh which ach the new camp joins the bno brothers began prospecting in this locality in 1920 and early in 1921 were rewarded by I 1 locating the origin of the float they put down a prospect shaft where the blue quartz cropped and followed down along the edge of the ore body for a distance of 70 feet the ore shows to be from one foot to six feet wide and insists insists of a bluish quartz occurring in lenses and shoots along the contact between a rather soft granular blue lime and nd a dark brown shale in the cambrian measures the ore e seems to be a of the upper part of the lime members bember occurring alonga series of N NE E SW S W fractures the e droppings crop pings show to be as wide as 15 feet and in some ns stances instances about feet long the values are entirely in silver no copper antimony or other metals have been found which makes this a very desirable esi rable ore for treatment by values run ary high in some of the assays essays made but the development 10 0 far r would indicate that one might expect an average e 0 of f abo ut 15 to 20 ounces it will require considerable development to fully demon strate ate the e possibilities of this section but this work can be e done at much less expense than in most new districts a there lere is ample water for power purposes and mining timber aber tan can be secured in the higher portions of the mounts bains a short distance from the prospects A great deal of development ament can be done by tunnels from near the bottom of the e canyons running east and west across the direction of 01 the ie contact this condition will be influential in making possible a great beat deal of work by the original locators and will be the illeana eans of proving the merits of the district which at pres atit nl look ok very favorable the contact runs northerly and southerly atherly th erly alon along the eastern base of the range at art an average is accessible able at all times of feet beet so that it access 01 1 the e year it is 57 miles from ely by way of connors pass and about 40 miles from ray siding on the N 14 ry near cherry creek via Schell bourn pass the country rock consists of hard quart loosely cemented granular quartzite thin bedded chist and shale with a soft loosely cemented blue granular lime occurring in rather thin strata and a massive brown shale all cambrian and lying conformably a north south strike and westerly dip these sediment aries are cut by a large dike of diorite cutting across the formation and striking about north south there does not seem to be any along this dike although there is a great deal of hard white quartz associated with it there is a series of NW N W SE S E fis tissues sues about vertical which cut across the formation and are filled with a hard quartz showing a good deal of oxidized iron but so far these fissures have not shown any particular value although further development may show that they make ore where they cross some of the lime strata they are generally from a few inches to as much as 18 inches wide and seem to be very persistent even though white pine county has not made much of a production record during the past year there has been a considerable amount of exploratory work which will result in the bettering of the physical condition of many properties and put them in shape to start when conditions warrant and the present year should bring a great deal of activity in this section of nevada as it contained con many properties of exceptional merit |