Old Mines of Southern California: Desert-Mountain-Coastal Areas Including the Calico-Salton Sea Colorado River Districts and Southern CountiesFairbanks, Harold W. (Harold Wellman)
History
Old Mines of Southern California: Desert-Mountain-Coastal Areas Including the Calico-Salton Sea Colorado River Districts and Southern Counties
Fairbanks, Harold W. (Harold Wellman)
Geology -- California, Southern; Mines and mineral resources -- California, Southern
The country is somewhat broken up, but no considerable masses of
shattered rock were observed. The croppings are quite heavily stained
with iron oxides of brown and red shades, and this mineralization can be
traced some distance. Two shafts, one nearly 100 feet deep, the other
about 30 feet, have been sunk on the deposit, exposing rocks of uniform
character, all carrying some gold. The width of the gold-bearing zone is
undetermined, but it is thought to be from 6 to 20 feet.
As far as I learned, a “mill-run” had never been made on the rock from
this mine. Mining operations had been stopped and the property involved
in some sort of dispute. The value of the rock was given to me as $8 or
$10 per ton.
THE CARBONATE MINE.
The principal mine of this district, and the one which gave the camp its
fame, is the Carbonate Mine. It was discovered by a man named Collins,
who was working in a lime quarry near by. Collins found croppings of
ore—limonite and manganese—containing silver. He developed the property
somewhat, but it finally passed into other hands, and is now owned by a
Los Angeles company, which has opened the mine quite extensively.
The formation which incloses the vein has a general trend northeast and
southwest, the dip at the main workings being not over 20°. Here an
inclined shaft has been sunk to a depth of 225 feet on the vein. At the
bottom the shaft has attained a vertical depth of about 100 feet. Two
veins of ore, consisting principally of silicious and earthy iron oxide
and black oxide of manganese with carbonate of lime, sometimes
crystallized, extend from the surface to the bottom of the incline.
These veins are very irregular in size, varying from a mere seam to
upwards of 2 feet in places.
The value lies in the lead carbonate and silver which accompany the
gangue minerals. The two veins are curiously formed at contact with
massive blue limestone and mica schist. The schist is from 1 to 4 feet
in width, the ore lying both above and below it, the whole being
inclosed between hanging and foot walls of crystalline limestone. At
various points in the workings is a light-colored, much decomposed rock,
resembling felsite, which has the appearance of having been injected
between the strata in a thin sheet. It is a notable fact that where this
buff-colored, granular appearing rock occurs in contact with the vein an
enrichment of the ore is noticeable, and its absence is marked by the
low value of the ore or no ore at all. In this incline, at a depth of 40
feet, a short drift has been run in on ore of good grade. At 180 feet
from the collar of the shaft the discovery was made that caused this
mine, and, in fact, the entire camp, to become at once the scene of
excitement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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