Show immediate need of geological research work that will aid prospectors in finding new mines by letson balliet mining engineer it is a recognized fact that there is urgent need of immediate and widespread geological research on the subject of occur ance of minerals and oil that new mines must be found to take the place of those which are being depleted and new oil fields must be discovered to take the place of those which are being exhausted is obvious unfortunately the political commissions and bureaus such as state and government geological surveys are not thorough prospectors they are in effect publicity agents for the big mines and statisticians of past performances the face of doubters and unbelievers believers un in its ex istance but after christopher C had found it americus came over and wrote essays and poems about it later when the promoters of the century wanted to put over their colonization and real estate deals they used americus literature in the prospectuses prospect uses and publicity campaigns similarity rily the political geologists slip into every new oil field and mining district and write essays about it after some one else has discovered it in fact if we study the mineral and oil maps published by any of these political AN OUTLINE OF THE TONOPAH MINING DISTRICT nowhere in any of their bulletins do these political geologists recommend urge urge 6 nor even give any information to encourage investment of money in in new fields or beyond narrow limits of proven producers columbus discovered america but americus vespucio slipped aped over here afterwards and wrote it up in descriptive prose and verse and so they named the country america instead of after its real discoverer americus V have the guts to start out to find a new and unknown world in bureaus we find the early maps with one or two small areas marked oil productive A narrow ring around the productive area will be marked probable oil while another ring rin a short distance outside of that will be marked possible oil and the remainder of the map will be tinted blue and marked impossible area are a and yet year after year new autho authorities cities showing new maps are published by the same productive areas in what they had previously declared to be impossible area government reports do little to encourage prospecting always we find pages b and pages b of 1 geology 1 n an and description devoted to the big mines and the producing oil wells that are harvesting their already discovered crop and do not need the publicity for their development while discredit is actually given to the prospective efforts to extend the productive area if it is not utterly ignored big mines and oil companies have their own high salaried able geologists and engineers and do not need the essays of these americus vespucio I 1 geologists an who come afterward and write upon things already known often these political publicity geologists will borrow the maps and data of the privately employed geology geologists ests for copying and for reference in preparing their write ups for the official bulletins therefore these political bulletins contain mostly just what the big operators want published often propaganda from their own offices and very little or nothing to direct the prospector into new fields so fla flagrant rant has been the neglect of research work to find new deposits to take the place of the present producers when they have exhausted their resources that even dr georoe george e otis smith of the U S geological survey who was recently appointed by president coolidge b to stud study y the oil resources of the naval reserves and public lands has dared to comment upon the facts selecting a few terse sentences from dr smiths article we ve quote the following b in reference to oil which is equally propos ap to mineral deposits new fields must be found a greater per cent of that which is found must be recovered and what is recovered must be used more effectively perhaps the greatest and most immediately pressing need is for progress in in oil finding t prospecting b there are large areas where we are groping blindly we have not yet gained an adequate understanding b of the laws that control currance occurrence oc and distribution of oil not minerals only as we gain a better grasp of these laws will it be possible to guide prospecting the oil industry is like topsey who never was born but just up in these and other statements lie he recognizes that the value of official bulletins to posterity must come by making them a guide to prospecting and not by having them as mere essays on oil the depleted has beens co control atrol of government publicity tacitly admitted in several columns of analytical corn comment ment on the situation we find near the close of his article he says 1 I have meant to make clear that we have reached the point where the progress in oil b geology 1 y is in effect obstructed and that the discovery of new pools and fields which will be greatly needed by the country in the very near future is seriously impeded by lack of further knowledge of the principles controlling the origin and location of oil such investigations which are obviously of b great ultimate benefit to the public would appropriately be conducted by a government bureau for prospecting which should place the results of investigations its in the hands of the industry and public without discrimination nor opportunity for monopolistic control if this is not a left handed admission that the big mines and oil companies do control the information published in these political bulletins it is at least an admission that they do not give adequate information and encouragement to prospectors for fin finding dincy and developing new deposits I 1 thoroughly aree a agree ree with dr smith that the political bureaus should delve into research work to aid in finding new fields instead of confining thern themselves selves as essay writers on what has been found it is primarily essential that all research work should be absolutely neutral this is not a condition that exists with many if any of the political geological bulletins there is just as much opportunity for influence to be exerted for monetary fees to be passed and better jobs offered by the big companies to have printed in the bulletins just what they wish vish to see printed as there was in obtaining oil concessions in the tea pot dome and there always has been that condition surrounding official bulletins the tea pot dome was not the only district where big interests were able to get what they wanted through government departments to the detriment of the little fellow on the outside take any geological report state or government ern erni ment nent and see how much you will find in it to help the prospector and the little fellow on the outside struggling to develop a new find compared to the pages and pages of laudi tory description of the operations and results by the big interests and yet the general public swear by these official reports are the geologists in the employ of political bureaus the only men inen who ever went through technical schools are they the only ones who are honest or correct are all others outside government employ dishonest or do they know less than those thase who are on political payrolls Tono Develop development merit aro arouses uses interest e much T keen interest is bein being taken by za geologists eol 6 ois in the recent and continuous sensational developments in the tono pall pah district it is not a speculative stock market sensation hence it is not a matter over which the public press and market traders would stampede tonopah development has proven that there are enormous bodies of ore that will yield an element of profit at depths below 1500 and 2000 feet I 1 wish to repeat the word enormous for ore bodies that are 15 to 30 sets wide 75 feet to feet are truly enormous the values run from 15 to 18 a ton in silver in most of the deep mines it will be necessary to handle from to gallons of water per minute I 1 state these facts to show that tonopah is no place for small money operations deep sinking to 1500 or 2000 feet and probably greater depths with a pumping problem and a grade of ore that requires large tonna tonnage 11 1 e is no place for the ambitious stock company that has but a few hundred or few thousand dollars and depends on stock sales for its operating expenses the surface equipment for such a mine is out of reach of the ordinary illy advised stock company A pumping job from deep levels means 1440 minutes a day of pumping or drowning the pumps with expense to the mine afterward and it is no job for the novice I 1 tell you this because I 1 do not wish to have promoters of incompetently financed companies use this to lure small investors into stock purchases in operations that cannot possibly reach the ore with their financial plan in the bil big established companies operating in the deep ore areas their stocks are sound investments on their productive p reductive abilities no new operations should be started except on a budget prepared by competent engineers and as an object lesson permit me to say that a 1500 foot shaft timbered piped and equipped with hoist compressor fans pumps shop tools drills mining tools lateral development cars etc should not be started with less ahll the big risk of the stock company would lie if in the dissipating of its capital stock at low prices without raising sufficient funds to obtain results I 1 do not wish this figure as a budget for any new operations but only as a warning barnin against investing in incompetently financed sch schemes enies that might be attempted under the shadows of the big mines that are rapidly growing greater success is not based on what is started but upon what is finished and there have been hundreds of starts with only a few finishes it is a safe rule in mining to be sure that you invest only in enterprises that are financed to finish and not merely one that is financed to start mines cannot be worked out in lifetime Tono deep mines will never be mined out within the life of any one now interested in them the productive properties will be extended into new areas both east and west of the upheaval zone or a half dozen new operations will be built up tip on the ore deposits beyond the lines of the present operators but they must be ably financed with big capital the values and the ore are there and sooner or later they will be put on the surface for the benefit of mankind I 1 cannot conceive the idea that no one will ever take them out if there is an element of profit to be made by taking za eighteen miles east and lone mountain ridge eighteen miles west prospectors and desultory development have found ores of similar character to io tonopah ores in both the hanabah and lone mountain folds but there has been no extensive nor scientific development of either as yet these three ridges run practically parallel in a northerly and southerly direction about eighteen miles apart with their crests approximately 2000 feet higher than the bottom of the synclinal valleys between them both valleys have a long dip to the southward and both have underground drainage streams on bedrock the peavine leavine creek flows down the valley to the west of the san antones and the amargoso amargosa osa river has its source in the ralston valley to the eastward of the san antones the bottoms of both of these synclinal valleys have been fractured and intrusions of igneous flows have shoved themselves through near the foothills foot hills of the ridges mt oddie was the center of northerly and southerly shrinkage stress either simultaneously with or subsequent to the main uplift stress which placed a theoretical torque on mt oddie resulting in in a severe block faulting zone T MT 0 04 A A I 1 A I 1 N W t aa I 1 1 0 o 0 IZ L ir 4 X OW u 1 jq b lilii D 0 r ON t 0 C b p M 0 C 0 0 s STRATUM 0 4 d 15 II 11 TE T E P e 0 I 1 baw C eky 41 cr LL CC C C Z 0 07 phav V 0 DYNAMIC 0 F ar 0 TONOPAH MINING DISTRICT IDEAL IZ E D BALLIET the deposit from the ground and putting it into circulation some one some day will equip to take it out on the basis of tons a day tons a year with 18 ore yielding 8 profit such a mine would show profit while the same ore on a 50 ton a day basis carry its overhead or pumping expense tonopah is therefore a field for big operations and not for w a rabid stock market of wildcat promotions hence it will never again have a sensational appeal to the speculative masses basses but will be of interest only to private capital directed by executive ability and engineering b t skill geology of district is made plain geologically tonopah is situated over the crest of an fold known as the san antone range the original discovery was made on a blow out of ore on the western slope of mt oddie one of the peaks in the san antone mt oddie is situated on the center line of weakness and fracture of the main fold of an east and west stress which lifted the san antone range and the hanabah range under tinder the mountain it was in this upheaval zone of block faulting where the original discovery was made which brought the ore bearing fort formations nations so near to the surface that erosion erosion exposed it as an outcrop or blow out from the se segments ments of veins found in the blocks of the upheaval zone tonopah has already produced upwards of mainly silver the ort ore in these segments was bottomed in the original discovery at a depth of feet and in others at depths of SOO and 1200 feet depending on the surface elevation and the contour of the upheaval lines but nevertheless they bottomed on a formation into which they sunk several diamond drill holes for a distance of 1500 feet without enc encountering ore thereafter the was considered barren barre n and development was discontinued whenever was struck k whether this was a proper conclusion to reach I 1 am unable to say but this fact stands out that at goldfield twenty six miles away practically all the ore was found in there is a difference however for tonopah had a silver ore and goldfields Gold fields ores were all gold ores I 1 am not con I 1 vinced that prospecting for fissure veins with diamond drills is a safe practice eliminating for the purposes of this article the structures of hanabah Han apah lone mountain and goldfield because it is too wide in its scope to be comprehensively covered in a text of this length we will confine ourselves to the area covered by the official map of the tonopah district the map accompanying this text is from the U S mineral survey s official map of properties in the tonopah district the circle which I 1 have drawn upon the map represents approximately the base of mt oddie and the upheaval zone of block faulting the direction of the theoretical torque caused by the transverse stresses is indicated by the two arrows within the circle do not jump at the conclusion that this was an actual twisting but realize that it was an irregular stress in a northerly and southerly direction opposing 1 the main east and west stress that wrinkled up the mountain ridge there was therefore an easterly and westerly stress that forced an upward movement of the blocks with a shearing in motion at an angle across the main stress which I 1 have arbitrarily illustrated as a theoretical torque to convey the idea As the ore was first struck on the west side and was followed eastward first it became a common phrase to say that the ore laid in step faulted veins thrown to the southward as the work left one block and encountered the next mistakes of early geological calculation moreover an early geologist stated that the ore came up that block faulted the upheaval zone zon e in mt oddie and made the ridges run diagonally away from the circle drawn on the map what sketch maps show the lines AB A B AC A C AD A D and AE A E all terminate within the circle and AC A C and AE A E are the |