OCR Text |
Show A Little History of Star Mining District From the earliest day in Utah's history, the Star district near Mil-' ford, has been the theatre of consid-j rable mining excitement. Its rugged,! barren, sun-seared, wind-swept moun: tains have been scrutinized for signs of mineral deposits with utmost care j by more than one generation of tire-: less prospectors. Part of the effort has been rewarded. M.uch rich ore! has been shipped from a score orj more of prospects which are little! better than gopher holes. Small fortunes for-tunes have been made by fortunate miners. It Is related that Matt Cullen, pioneer pio-neer mining man, discoverer of the Star district and one of the original: owners of the famous Horn Silver j bonanza near Frisco, mined a wagon-1 load of rich, ore from the Elephant; mine, one of the numerous properties in which he was interested, drove to Salt Lake and on the strength of the showing sold his interest in the estate es-tate of zoological name for $20,000. Other stories of rich strikes equally equal-ly interesting an dother colorful incidents might be related; but times j have changed, as has mining. The, prospector is fast becoming an ex-. tinct species. Mining has become a business of studying formations and exploring at depth for hidden deposits depos-its to which nature has left no clew. One of the most noteworthy of recent re-cent developments in Utah mining Is the consolidation of three well-known well-known Star district properties, the Moscow Mining & Milling, the Red j Warrior and the Beaver Combination and the organization of a company the Moscow Silver Mines company, to take over holdings of the three corporations. Of the three, the Moscow mine, by reason of the richness of its ores and its large production record, is the best known. From the earliest days, the Moscow has been a consistent producer. From the grass roots to a depth of 1300 feet below the surface and a distance of 3000 feet on the diip of the vein, its ore bodies have persisted. So intensive was the mineralization, mineraliza-tion, and so boldly did the ore bodies project above the surface, that mining min-ing in early days was merely a matter mat-ter of following the ore from the grass roots. One of the most productive produc-tive of the mine's many shoots was discovered by a child, who, while playing, picked up a bowlder. Its unusual un-usual weight attracted attention. On examination the rock was found to be rich lead-silver ore, Search for the source from which this float had come resulted in the discovery near at hand, and but a few feet from the boarding house, of the rich "boarding "board-ing house" shoot. The ore was so near the surface that it only had to be "glory-holed." From this deposit nearly $100,000 of ore was shipped. Activity in the Star district has been sporadic. Periods of fevelr.ish activity have been followed by long er periods of quiescence. ADOut twenty twen-ty years ago, when there was a revival reviv-al of activity in the district, the Moscow Mos-cow became one of the first producers Shipments begun iin 1903 were continued con-tinued steadily until 1917. As no records were kept in the early days, the total production of the property is not known; but inasmuch as a total to-tal of $910,570 has been shipped since 1907, it is certain that the property pro-perty has a record well over $1,000,-000. $1,000,-000. It was not, however, until the most advanced mining methods were put into practice by Garrett S. Wilkin, present manager of the Moscow Silver Sil-ver Mines company, on his assuming charge of operations of the old Moscow Mos-cow property, that the famous silver producer was put on a profitable operation op-eration basis. Previously operations while productive, had not been in any great measure profitable. On becoming manager in 1912, and before undertaking to lay out a program pro-gram of development, Mr. Wilkin began a thorough study of the geology geo-logy of the formation. This work convinced con-vinced him that the ore had originated originat-ed from the great quartz-monzonite intrusion lying to the southwest. The mineral solutions had avidently been fed out through the east-west fissures fis-sures into beds of favorable limestone, lime-stone, having a north-south strike. Further examination revealed the fact that the most important mineralization miner-alization lay in two beds about 80 feet apart. These were easy to identify iden-tify because of their relative position With respect to the Mowitza shale, which evidently had acted as a dam to the rising solutions, causing them to back up and replace the underlying underly-ing limestone. Having established this theory of the geology of the ore deposits, work was undertaken. Results were exceedingly ex-ceedingly gratifying. Production became be-came steady and profitable. The two ore beds, the Silver and the Black veins as they are termed by the management, man-agement, proved to be continuously mineralized to the 1200-foot level, a distance of 3000 feet on the dip of the strata. Although some fairly extensive and very rich ore bodies were taken from the Glory and other fissures, it was found that as a rule the mineralization of the fissure type was neicher as extensive nor as rich as that of the two soluble limestone lime-stone beds. Results of planning and executing work on a strictly scientific basis began be-gan to show. Up to 1912 mining in tho Moscow had barely paid for itself. it-self. After 1912, however, the property prop-erty began to prodluce and to produce on a highly profitable basis. From 1912 to 1914 shipments of the mine netted $250,036 after deduction de-duction of all smelter sampling and freight charges as compared with $168,000 for the whole of the previous pre-vious recorded hi -tory of the mine. Dunn,-, a singe eat, 1914-1915, a transii'on peri id when the change was n;ade from comparatively shallow shal-low mining ard uncertain methods to systematic ;v citation of the deep-seated and permanent deposits, shipments netted the company $122-811. $122-811. Carload atter carload of the ore shippedi from the Silver vein assayed -10 per cent lead and 40 ounces of silver. As high as twenty-three cor-loads cor-loads of ore, worth at present metal prices $4000 a carload after deducting deduct-ing all freight and smelter charges, were shipped in one month before the shutdown in 1917. In 1914 the management, finding that mining from the old shaft on the Frisco side had become too expensive ex-pensive and troublesome, decided to sink a deep shaft on the Milford side of the range in order to have a working work-ing entrance nearer the center of underground un-derground activity. A double compartment com-partment shaft, called the Cullen shaft was started. On November 20, 1914, this work was rewarded by the striking of ore in the Silver vein. Completion and equipment of the shaft with a powerful double electric 15 0-horse-power hoist and1 a compressor com-pressor with a capacity of 600 cubic j feet a minute expedited operations to I Cl Cftnaillflratlla ,lofrPOO n f, Trrnll nr. ..ah.. materially reduced costs, pari ar ar 7nfid la(vbs flff -91 o Black and silver, were established. However, development o nthe 1200 proved conclusively that the main veins continued north of the fault, which truncated the ore shoots in the Silver and Black soluble beds, and that deposits fully as rich and extensive ex-tensive could without doubt be opened open-ed in the great virgin territory to the north. But prospecting of this promising domain could not be done without entering the ground of adjoining properties, and only by a merging of !the three properties, the Moscow, the j Beaver Combination and the Red Warrior, could the venture of exploring ex-ploring the formation to the north at great depth be accomplished profitably. pro-fitably. Negotiations to consolidate the three properties began in 1914, and were finally completed this year. ; The Moscow Silver Mines company com-pany has been organized with a capitalization cap-italization of $250,000 divided into '2,500,000 shares to take over ail of 'the holdings of the three companies. Tills new company is headed by Fred J. Leonard, well known pioneer ' Utah mining man. Garrett S. Wilkin is general manager, J. A. Foley, vice president; M. B. Johnson, secretary; treasurer. Thce, with Fred U. Leonard Leo-nard constitute the board of directors. direc-tors. Not only does the new company own an extensive virgin territory, the great possibilities of which have been fully proved! in the developed portion of the Moscow mine, but it starts operations with a full equipment, equip-ment, consisting of electrical hoist, and compressor, blacksmith and machine ma-chine shops, valuable supplies In the way of pipe, timbers, rails and cars, and buildings sufficient to house a large crew of men. Financing of the venture is being accomplished by L. H. Merrltt of the Red Warrior company, com-pany, who is one of the Merrltt family fam-ily which made great wealth out of its iron holdings in northern Minnesota. Minne-sota. Since operations have been resumed resum-ed about a month ago, with, two shifts a day, the fact on the 11-foot drift has been advanced over 100 ft to the northwest, on the north side of the fault plane that cut the ore bodies on the Moscow 1300 level. The formation is the white limestone forming the foot wall of the silvcer bed. Each round brings the face into increasing mineralization as the objective ob-jective vein is approached. Once the faulted beds are entered the management is confident that the mineralization will be persistent as to the south in Moscow ground the Silver and the Black veins were productive pro-ductive of a distance of 3000 feet on the dip of the strata. In no place did the ore pinch down. On the 1300 level lev-el it was cut cleanly off by a post-mineral post-mineral fault. From a strategic standpoint, the position of the new company could hardly be better .It has a shaft sunk 1400 feet deep at a point in the company's com-pany's estate that allows easy and cheap access to the formation at a great depth. Practically all of the development work has been done, As the geology of the ore deposits has been worked out andl the objectives are within close range, the amount of dead work -should be negligible. Moreover, since all of the fixed investment in-vestment on the deep shaft and mine equiprpent has been made, the ore developed by the new company in its virgin territory can be mined at a much greater profit than if this work and expenditure had) not been already alrea-dy accomplished. |