Show MINING INDUSTRY IN OWYHEE COUNTY IDAHO at the present time a revival of activity is noticeable in mining circles in and around silver city idaho the home of some of the greatest gold and silver producers that the west has ever been able to boast of and this activity is accompanied by some enterprises that are gigan tic in their dimensions and which promise much for this old and justly noted mining section which is so ably described by robert N bell state inspector of mines of idaho in his work on idaho published the first of the present year in his description of the mining industry indus try of owyhee owahee cou county nty mr bell says onyee county continues to lead every county in the state in the matter of gold production and its two reliable old bonanzas the trade collar 0 11 a r consolidated and the delamar of ore and larger profits during 1904 than for several years previous and their present extensive plans for development that are being carried on together with the great output they are ming making are revealing indications of other ore bodies that may lead revival of interest is reflected in the ahe improved business tone of silver city silver city the county seat of owyhee owahee county is situated on jordan creek immediately surrounded by the rugged peaks of the owyhee owahee range and within gunshot of half a dozen old RO 4 F N Z 4 1 4 L P lat 91 all 0 A AL A 4 L OLE 3 77 A A aw 2 k OR A ca C a tr poorman mine silver city idaho idabo not saying much continue to bring out gold and silver in a manner quite gratifying to their stockholders and persistently refuse to die the death of exhaustion so freely predicted for them two or three years ago not only that but under capable up to date management they have both been made mad e to yield a far better grade to the discovery of the same bonanza values that characterized their early history the persistent staying qualities of the trade dollar and delamar mines have greatly revived faith in the many other unproven mining possibilities of rich promise for which the old district is noted and this 17 veins production h has a s e n riched the commerce of the world with precious bullion to the gross value of silver city is an old established town well built up and contains two good hotels a bank several well stocked general stores schools and churches etc it enjoys a good trade from and is the natural business center for the extensive and ri rich ch mineral territory t that h a t immediately surrounds surround s it A well managed daily stage and mail s service ervice connects this place with murphy the terminus of the boise nampa N a m p a owyhee owahee raiN railway vay which makes the town and district easily accessible all the ahe year around and not an undesirable place to live the most important mining rev revival ival of the year is that in connection with the fur then extension of the sinker tunnel anil and development of the war eagle mountain mines immediately adjacent to silver city this deep tunnel enterprise suspended operations over two years ago on account of financial difficulties after the great bore had been driven in under war eagle mountain nearly a mile and a quarter where the main vein of the war eagle fissure system was tapped at a depth of over 2100 2 feet and over feet below the lowest point of development in the noted old mines that have been worked by shafts from above and have a record of bullion production chiefly gold amounting to when this big tunnel struck this main vein it was found to contain bunches of very fine gold ore but the operation was suspended before connection had been made with the bottom of the works above and before this deep horizon had been given half t ZA W ah 9 S W 0 g 4 7 N sinker tunnel silver city idaho a chance to prove its ore bearing possibilities the old bonanzas above mentioned whose operation ceased years ago are known to contain extensive reserves of ore that may be drained and made available by the completion of this work and should yield very handsome profits under modern methods of treatment old time miners of the district familiar with the lower workings of the old mines are enthusiastic over the resumption of this great enterprise and the mining business revival it is likely to bring to silver city and ow owahee owyhee y hee county work was resumed last september on the cumberland mine on war eagle mountain this property changed hands during the summer and was taken over by the pioneer mines company of cohoes new york the cumberland is a well known property it is located close to and adjoining some of the richest producers on the mountain it has been idle for about three years and was formerly over capitalized equipped and handled in a very extravagant manner all out of proportion to its size it has now passed into the hands of a capable and conservative serva tive management and is likely to prove a winner as it already has considerable development and a good mill twenty men were put to work on this property last september the mill was run fifteen days during november for the purpose of making some tests and produced over worth of bullion it is the intention of the company to supply the plant with electric power next season and in the meantime to keep a small force of men at work excavating ore and exploring the different ore shoots that are already proven to exist in the mine the lucky friday mine situated feet southwest of the cumberland is one of the promising properties of this part of the district and gives strong evidences of future profits for a reasonable capital investment this property has considerable development on a strong fissure vein six to ten feet wide that contains average values of 8 to 12 per ton and a class blass of ore that ought to yield a high percentage of its values by the cheap cyanide treatment the california mine on war eagle mountain is another proposition of much merit and has recently been equipped with a six r teen horse power gasoline hoist it has good showing of ore containing a 0 some of the th characteristics and rich values of the moun 0 tain it is being developed this winter ani ane stands a bright chance of furnishing irr gi f interesting news item in the wa way y of a rich cricq 1 strike in the near future at the addie mine a five stamp mill was a in operation during part of the year op on 0 ore from the companas comp anys property and aa alp treated some custom ore the addie I 1 grou gro U is being developed through a long tunnel 1 e P through which several i prominent ve veins bins tha that I 1 a traverse the property can be explored to ad vantage I 1 the dernier resort mine owned by rob b 11 ert southern is opened by a tunnel febe fee ee long and shows a strong amstrong vein of good miu mill ing ore the sinker tunnel company owns a string of the principal old producers on war eagle mountain from which the great output of was made in the early days of this district that were develop li as deep as 1300 feet by shafts the character of the ores produced by these mines were simple milling ores containing a finely disseminated native gold silver alloy and nearly free from the usual accessory metallic minerals the values of these ores ranged from 50 to per ton for milling ore and from c cents to 5 a pound for shipping ore and a very considerable amount of the shipping class was produced the discovery of other bodies of this bonanza class of ore at the deep level of the sinker tunnel is not improbable which together with its other prospects of profit affords an attractive and justifiable speculative investment 1 the ores and formations of silver district and other districts in owyhee owahee co coy ty belong to the same geological diviak divis and more of origin as do the noted erlof the nevada country to the south which they practically form a part and t c tain the elements that may at any again as they have in the past lead to same sensational disclosures of boganz that are bringing such fame to the ne camps at the present time there are several places in the vicinity silver city and delamar where high v u on the mountains float ore of fabulous ric ri I 1 I 1 ness has been found indicating other ori if inal sources of bonanza ore besides tho i already known and worked these discover descove ies iest however are in some instances an ol 01 0 acquired territory whose owners are no able or willing to develop them their p position and the conditions under which th the occur however are a practical guarante c that the rich virgin ore resources of have by no means all ben exhausted I 1 GEOLOGY AND FORMATION A very large proportion of owyhee owahee cound coun ty south of the second standard parallel including i fully three fourths of its total are areffi consists of broken lava covered plateaus and is mostly a desert country bordered by the state of nevada on the south the owyhee owahee mountains form a typical sert range of deeply fractured eruptive granite practically devoid of timber the granite of this range is later than the carboniferous boni ferous age it is not unlikely that it was intruded through and at the present lie ie partly rests upon a buried series of sedimentary rock like limestone slate and quartzite that contained lead silver as well as gold minerals the reason for this theory is that the quartz now found in the veins of the silver city district and especially in the delamar nine is partly or completely made up of forms a secondary replacement I 1 that has changed atom for atom the V 10 0 F W I 1 0 41 wj X T r 5 af AI addle mine and mill silver city idaho I 1 tance of an entirely different original jeral eral that filled these veins to quartz phout changing the forms of P f original vein filling which in the de par nar mine is is a mass of crystal outlines rc heavy spar and lime spar minerals more commonly associated with limestone and ther other sedimentary formations than with granite and as instances are not uncommon 1 s especially in colorado of a vein in its downward course passing from a rich horizon of pay ore into one of greater depth depth where the vein was practically bar renand en and then at still greater depth becoming re mineralized with paying values again it would seem eminently probable that below the e drainage level of the jordan creek some results might be anticipated in this district or it is hardly likely that the original fill ing of the delamar vein was devoid of precious values and that the same may have been transferred to some deeper level in the fissure at the time its gangue was altered seems highly probable that the trade dollar vein was filled by ascending mineral springs solution freighted with precious values will be plainly evident to any one who has examined its structures and is at all familiar with present day mineral spring phenomena the ore and quartz is built buil buildup tup up in banded wavy lines or crusts after the manner of agate structures with open central cruses and bugs studded with i quartz crystals a and nd crystals of velencia nite an uncommon variety of feldspar the popular theory of the present day in veins of this class is that the precious metals were dissolved from the interior substance of the earth under conditions of intense heat and pressure and conveyed up through fissure vents or cracks in the earth to be precipitated on the walls of occasional open spaces in the fissures in banded layers towards its upper horizon near the surface where the heat and pressure was gradually released that the deepest point in a fissure where the metal values have commenced to precipitate out of the ascending solution in sufficient proportion to form pay ore was still intensely hot and several thousand feet deep below the original surface is demonstrated in several note able instances especially in the deeper levels of the comstock A vein may have been filled with pay ore to a depth of feet below its original crest and subsequently denuded by natural erosive forces during ages of time through the greater part of that depth with probably only a remnant of a few hundred feet of the pay portion of the vein left at the present day which is soon passed through in mining to the original zone of precipitation and the underlying barren gangue of the vein in the silver city district there has been no such deep erosion as is proven from the fact that the granite is not only eruptive of comparatively recent age and contains intrusive belts of sedimentary formations but the veins pass up through the granite and then through the superimposed sheets of basalt and rhyolite lava that are known to be of very recent tertiary age and have suffered very little erosion moreover it has been proven by scientists that the prevalent crystals so common to the veins in the lower levels of the trade dollar and other mines of this district have been formed at a comparatively ti iely low temperature which argues ver very y favorably for continued 10 n and while they may experience barren horizons due to the leaching effect of comparatively shallow water courses there are encouraging 9 indications that rich ore bodies will be found to great depth on these veins the golden chariot vein on war eagle mountain was cut by the sinker tunnel at a depth of 2200 feet below the collar of the golden chariot shaft and at that level has produced some altered gold bearing copper ore and rich native gold specimen ore which is conclusive evidence that the downward limit of of this famous fissure has not yet been reached and while its further exploitation will be quite eapen sive it is certainly warranted after running a cross crosscut cut tunnel feet to reach the vein vein |