NEVADA MINING

Nevada Mining That IS

General Nevada Mining Administrative Bodies

http://minerals.state.nv.us/forms/admin/adminrpt2004_0824.pdf

Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology

775.784.6991 x1333

nbmgsales@unr.edu

www.nbmg.unr.edu/sales.htm

Mining Law of 1872

Pop Quiz: How many millions$ in Au did Switzerland buy from Nevada last (2004) year?

A: $658 million

http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/07/12/75347.php?sp1=rgj&sp2=Business&sp3=Business&sp5=RGJ.com&sp6=news&sp7=business

And where did it go from there?

Yes, Nv is world’s third largest Au producer.

Some thought the status of Nv as a producer was on the wane. Does Cortez strike change your opinion?

Nevada Mining That WAS:

Nevada Ghost Towns

Nevada Historic Districts: Carson City, Reno, Virginia City

Nevada Mines

The Antimony King Mine in Bernice Canyon, Nevada, was discovered in 1907 in quartz host in association with gold, silver, and tungsten. The ore was fine but shallow, production was not fully ramped until 1957, when it produced over 1100 tons. However, the ore played out the next year and the mine was abandoned.

Nevada Mining Camps

Bullfrog District

Shorty Harris helped locate the Bullfrog strike.

Tonopah District

From:

http://www.tonopahnevada.com/TonopahHistoricMiningPark.htm

and the Tonopah Historic Mining Park Brochure:

Silver! Gold ! It's burned like a fever in the hearts of men and women everywhere.

The Tonopah Historic Mining Park is on the site of Belle and Jim Butler's original mining claim which started the rush to Tonopah making it the "Queen of the Silver Camps". This strike in 1900 brought the United States into the 20th century. Many mining and processing techniques developed here are still used in mining today.

In the spring of 1900, Jim Butler was camping around Tonopah springs. As the story goes, his burro wandered off, and while searching for it, Jim picked up some promising looking ore. He continued his journey, showing samples to others, but they showed little interest in them. He returned to his home in Belmont, Nevada and told a young attorney named Tasker Oddie about his discovery. Tasker had a friend who taught chemistry in Austin, who had the samples assayed and the ore proved to be valued at over $200 a ton (1900 dollars). At the behest of Jim's wife, Belle, they traveled again to the site of the original find and filed eight claims, removing several tons of ore. For a on quarter share, Wilse Brougher hauled the ore by horse and wagon to Austin then by rails to Salt Lake City for smelting. That first shipment netted the partners $500.00 which was used to buy equipment needed for further development. As venture capital was difficult to obtain, Jim Belle, and their partners implemented the unusual concept of mine claim leasing ;by the :foot:. These lease, which were sealed by a handshake, gave the lessor %75 of all profits from his claim and greatly speeded the development of the district. Many of the miners got rich under this arrangement. The practice quickly spread to other mining districts. The butlers eventually sold their interest in the properties to a Philadelphia financier, who formed the Tonopah Mining Co., with assets of over one million dollars. Tasker Oddie formed the Tonopah Belmont Development Co. and between these two companies produced over half of the previous metals from this mining district. History tells us that production form the mines form this district produced in excess of five million tons of ore. At today's market, the value of previous metals produced would be in excess of $1,200,000,000 and a few cents (and there were NO TAXES!)

Nevada Mining District That COULD Have, SHOULD Have been:

Saga of proposed and defeated Oil Dry Clay mine (montmorillonite; ‘swelling clay’, adsorb, large surface area) project in Hungry Valley

Nevada Today

Nevada Press

Las-Vegas Review Journal

http://www.reviewjournal.com/

Elko Daily Free Press

http://www.elkodaily.com/

Reno Gazette-Journal

http://www.rgj.com/

Nevada Appeal

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/

Ely Times

http://www.elynews.com/

Reno

History of building at xxx first street: Bill Simons and his Calvada Real Estate own the building

Simons said the building has been in Reno for more than 100 years and has been in his family since the 1940s. It was once a machine shop that turned out slot machines, then the Simons family real estate office for 20 years followed by a stint as the Eldorado personnel office. Following that, Molly Malone’s bar occupied the space for 15 years before the Blue Lamp’s short run

Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park

Willow Creek Basin was a major stopover for freighters that used this road to travel from Pioche, Nevada, to the railroad town Toano, Nv. (1870-1876). Silver ore was discovered in 1972 when freighters were looking for oxen that were grazing in the Willow Creek Basin Area. The horse and oxen freighters, known as 'Bullwackers', named after their sleeping cars ( not sure how one would get much quality sleep eye on these things ) would turn out their horse and oxen along the good grazing riparian area along willow creek. John Henry and William Ballinger discovered Ag in Ward gulch in 1872 and by 1876 Ward had two roasting furnaces to process ore. The six charcoal ovens were built in the mid 1870s to make charcoal to feed these roasting furnaces. Hewed by Italian masons, they measure and impressive 30 ft. by 27ft consumed 35 cords! Of wood to produce 30 bushels of charcoal at $600 per ton! Per batch, or 24c a bushel. Of course, charcoal was replaced by coke made from coal.

The Ward Mining District, located two miles north of the park developed and small mining continued for several years. In April 1875, the Martin and White Company from San Francisco invested money to extract silver ore, bought up several small claims and built smelters.

The beehive shaped ovens locally replace the older pit system of producing charcoal because the ovens were a more efficient way to reduce Pinyon Pine and Juniper into charcoal. The Ward Charcoal Ovens were operational from 1876 through 1879, the silver boom years of Ward mines. The ovens were eventually phased out completely due to the depleted ore deposits and shortage of available timber.

The Ward Charcoal Ovens served diverse purposes after their functions as charcoal ovens ended. They sheltered stockmen and prospectors during foul weather, and had a reputation as a hideout for stagecoach bandits. Today the ovens continue to represent a unique and fascinating chapter in Nevada mining history.

Information collected from:

http://parks.nv.gov/ww.htm

and the State Park self-guided trail brochure.

Nevada Mining That Was:

“The Constitution of the United States to-day came to the rescue of Clarence Dunn Van Duzer, Representative in Congress from Nevada,” wrote The New York Times in a front page story on March 4, 1907. Van Duzer, absent from his office for over a year, had returned to Washington, D.C. on his last day in office to sign a pay warrant for his mileage in the amount of $1,100. An attempt to forcibly arrest Van Duzer on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol was thwarted by a Capitol police officer who claimed that the U.S. Constitution prevented a member of Congress from being arrested. Van Duzer disappeared without collecting his money.

Van Duzer’s political career skyrocketed after he was admitted to the State Bar in September 1898. Elected Humboldt County District Attorney the same year, he ran for the State Assembly in 1900 as a Democrat. Van Duzer easily won the race and was appointed Speaker. When his mentor Congressman Newlands ran for the U.S. Senate in 1902, the Silver-Democrats picked Van Duzer to run for Nevada’s lone house seat. Now calling himself a native Nevadan, Van Duzer scored his third political victory in six years and returned to Washington, D.C.

Like his father before him who established the Van Duzer mining district in Elko County in 1869, son Clarence was obsessed with mining and getting rich. He had pursued a number of mining ventures while living in Winnemucca and Golconda and also published three magazines--The Nevada Magazine, Nevada Miner, and Mining and Industrial Review.

Source: http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/nsla/archives ; (May, 2006)

The Historical Myths of the Month Reno Gazette-Journal

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