Lander
County a small area of dry placer ground has been worked
intermittently. The richest ground lies at the mouth of Copper Canyon
near Galena, and in Black Canyon at Bannock. Much of the gold is coarse
and ranges in fineness from 0.830 to 0.871. The best results have been
found at the edge of the foothills. Dry washers and rockers have been
used, but for the latter, at one camp, water is hauled 5 miles. The pay
streaks are from 2 to 18 feet in depth to bedrock with values from the
surface. Tests have shown an average of $1.34 per cubic yard, and the
lowest value was $0.59 and the highest $57.22. The largest gold nugget
found on one of the Bannock claims weighed 3.51 ounces.
Lynn district.—Dry
washing in the Lynn district of Eureka County has been productive of
considerable gold during a number of years. The placer gravels are
worked in the spring months with rockers as long as the snow water
lasts and after July by the usual dry-washing machine. There are about
7 miles of ravines, gulches, and canyons, which average 25 feet wide
and from surface to a depth of about 10 feet in center of the
depressions. All of the material is probably derived by erosion of the
area of minute auriferous quartz gash veins. Average tests have yielded
$4.50 per cubic yard, and the lowest yield was $1 and the highest $51.
The gold is very fine and is in all shapes and forms, showing but
little erosion. The largest nugget, valued at $21, was found in Lynn
Gulch by Ernest Kappler. In fineness the gold ranges from 0.928 to
0.934. The principal claims are the Gold Dollar, Kappler's Hilltop,
Pedro's Bulldog, Compromise, Five Lone Star, Jingo, and Bunker Hill
groups. About $40,000 in gold has been produced since operations began.
Paradise district.—Dry
placers were worked in 1912 in the Paradise mining district, known as
Dutch Flat, in Humboldt County, 18 miles east of Winnemucca. In extent
these gravels cover 200 acres, or 300 to 2,000 feet in width to 8,000
feet in length. The pay streaks, which are from 6 inches to 3-1/2 feet,
are covered with an overburden of from 8 to 20 feet. Tests have shown
an average of 60 cents in flour gold, rarely coarse, and about 0.940
fine. Experiments are being made with wet concentration to save the
values.
About
20 miles south of Sulphur, on the Western Pacific Railway, at Rabbit
Hole Well, in Humboldt County, a dry placer has been operated by the
use of water pumped from a 50-foot well. The gravel was worked from 2
to 4 feet below the surface and conveyed to the sluice box, 12 inches
wide, 8 inches deep, and about 25 feet long, by scrapers. All the
operations were confined to the surface, although black sand and some
fine colors were taken from the bottom of the well 50 feet below the
surface. As far as tests were made, the best values were found in the
bottom and on the sides of the small ravines, also over the sidehills
for a distance of 5 to 8 miles to the north and west of the Rabbit Hole
Well. About $400 was produced in 1912.
DRY PLACERS IN NEW MEXICO. By V. C. Heikes.
New Mexico has dry placers in the Placitas-Tejon region of San-doval County and in the Las Animas district of Sierra County.
Placitas district.—Placer mining has been carried on in the Placitas-Tejon region of Sandoval County, but on account of the lack of water
