Nevada Nugget Hunters

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March 25, 1922 ENGINEERING AND MINING JOURNAL 477

The Pas Region of Canada

Incited thereto by an editorial in the last issue of the Engineering and Mining Journal on prospecting possibilities, which mentions The Pas region, in Canada, I am setting down a few facts as to that country.

Extending eastward from the boundary line between Saskatchewan and Manitoba, at Amisk Lake, for 125 miles, is an area approximately twenty to twenty-five miles wide, composed of pre-Cambrian rocks essentially of a mineral-bearing character. Irregularly, on the south this region, is bounded by the northerly limits of the overlying limestone; and the district itself is composed of large granite areas, massive and intrusive greenstones, schists, conglomerates, and other rock formations.

The country has been glaciated; it has many lakes, and the land areas are covered, generally, either by moss, soil, or swamp. There are no railways, no near bases for supplies, no traveled routes other than those used for a hundred and fifty years, by the fur trader, and before him, by Indians. To the northward, toward the Barren Grounds and Reindeer Lake, lies a great area of banded gneisses, delimiting the more promising formation above noted. It has been reported that in this gneiss, there are bands of schists and other rocks, showing mineral possibilities, but as to this, little is yet known.

No thorough prospecting of the 2,500 square miles of the region has been conducted—it has been utterly impossible. The finds that have been made have been where routes of travel, or game-running have accidentally led to discoveries. It seems unreasonable to believe that all, or any considerable part of the probable discoveries, have been made. One will not find here, as he does in Colorado or Arizona, for instance, the prospect holes of forgotten and ubiquitous sourdoughs dotting every hillside, and exposed in the most difficult or unpromising localities. The quartz veins stick up out of the swamps; the sulphide bodies are soft, and were eroded by glacial action, until they are hidden for the most part, by swamp moss or by lakes; so one finds that the number of gold discoveries is far in excess of the number of copper finds.

Scores of gold-bearing quartz veins have been found and opened, many of them of a character that will make a profit to their owners when facilities for development and treatment are at hand. Two important copper sulphide bodies have been found so far, Mandy and Flin Flon. The first of these is comparatively small, but from it, there have been shipped thousands of tons of wonderfully rich ore. The latter is large, but of low grade, and can be worked only when there are railway connections and smelters adjacent. Mandy ore was hauled thirty-five miles on sleighs, through the forests, loaded into scows, towed down wild northern lakes, and through shallow and narrow channels, and shot down rapids, to The Pas, and thence railed halfway across a continent, to a smelter.

An area covering about 1,600,000 acres of country, whose general geological character is favorable to minrealization, cannot be said to be explored when a few scores, or hundreds of prospectors have paddled up its lakes, shot its rapids, and portaged across its connecting trails during a comparatively brief period, it is a difficult region to examine.

Cumberland House, the Hudson’s Bay post down on the Saskatchewan, is the nearest outfitting point. The trails were made more than a hundred years ago by fur traders; for the benefit of their brigades. Swamps and rock ridges, and dense growths of forest and brush, discourage all wanderings off the paths.

It would be unfair to the region to presuppose that Mandy and Flin Flon are the only important copper bodies likely to be opened in that area; as stated above, erosion probably has reduced the croppings of such deposits, to an extent that hides them in the depressions filled by swamps, muskegs, and the like, and it will be by intensive prospecting only, that they will be unearthed, and it may be that during a period of many years, important discoveries will be made. Even the harder quartz ledges are found but slowly, in unexpected localities, and somewhat continuously.

The Mining Corporation of Canada now owns a majority interest in Flin Flon, having bought the shares held by most of the minor holders. Arrangements may be made for connection by railway, which railway would run through, and open a considerable extent of the district. This would facilitate exploration and increase of activity throughout the region.

One consideration should not be forgotten, and that is, that news stories originating at The Pas, and printed by newspapers outside, are likely to be exaggerated. People there are so anxious for a boom in the region, and so ignorant of what constitutes a mineral discovery of economic possibility, that they play up whatever chances to sound well; and they are misled, innocently enough, by the preposterous tales of prospectors.

Duluth, Minn. DWIGHT E. WOODBRIDGE.
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JANUARY 15, 1921 ENGINEERING AND MINING JOURNAL 109

BY THE WAY

Keno Hill

History seemingly repeated itself at Keno Hill, the scene of the important silver discovery in the Mayo area, in Yukon Territory, about 150 miles west of the great gold center at Dawson. One is reminded of the early days at Leadville, where the placer miners in California Gulch cursed the heavy carbonate of lead that impeded their washing operations, not knowing its nature, or its valuable silver content. In similar manner, prospectors, led by the lure of gold years ago to Duncan Creek, at the foot of Keno Hill, ignored the galena float they found in their sluice boxes, and eventually passed on, leaving their chance to fame and fortune behind them. It remained for Louis Beauvette, a seasoned prospector, to discover the rich silver ore, and stake the discovery claim, on July 10, 1919, on the hill, where years before he had often hunted the mountain sheep. Over 500 claims have been staked.

Keno Hill is a wedge-shaped ridge about eight miles long and five miles wide, lying between creeks, according to Dr. Cockfield, of the Dominion Geological Survey. Its northern slope is rugged, even precipitous in places, and the southern slope is gentler, being controlled by the dip of the strata. The rocks exposed are schist and gneiss, cut by greenstones, and smaller bodies of quartz porphyry and granite porphyry. The main veins of the hill striking N. 30-40 deg. E. and dipping 50 to 70 deg. Southeast, are persistent for considerable distances, and are cut off by a series of transverse fractures at an angle of about 70 deg.

The most extensive work to date has been done by the Yukon Gold Co., which secured options just after the first few claims were staked, since which time it has taken over the six central claims on which silver was first found. These are to be developed by a subsidiary company known as Keno Hill, Ltd. The warning given by a writer in the Dawson News is worth repeating. “The development of a rich camp like Mayo, is certain to attract speculators of a kind who will be more anxious to obtain options, and float companies on terms more beneficial to themselves, than conducive to the welfare of the country.”

You Can Dine Well in Yukon

Childrens’ restaurant is our pet aversion, and in our lighter moments we are fond of comparing the menus of other establishments far and near, with that which it puts forth. In the last two years we have heard how miners were leaving Alaska and other parts of the North; how costs were mounting and conditions steadily worsening. Perhaps things have taken a turn for the better. At any rate, the Arcade Café, in Dawson, puts forth a menu, an “All-Yukon” menu, it calls it, which compares more than favorably with many New York bills of fare.

To quote from it, chicken a la Eldorado is but a dollar a throw; Bonanza Basin dill pickles and Quartz Creek pickles, two bits a portion each. Boiled Yukon salmon, baked Galena Creek greyling, or fried Tullibee, the latter with Twelvemile silver chips, may be had for six bits each, to say nothing of the All-Yukon dinner for the same price. Among the entrées are grilled caribou steak, with Mount Rambler mushroom sauce, at six bits and Lookout Mountain moose steak with bacon, at a dollar. Grilled Keno Hill ptarmigan, a la Axel Erickson, is more expensive, at a dollar, two bits. Leg of Sixtymile caribou with wild current jelly is listed at six bits, and Duncan Creek grouse, a la Louis Beauvette (Louis discovered Keno Hill), at double the price, will conclude the recital, though the half has not been told. The Arcade calls itself “the most famous restaurant of the Land of the Midnight Sun—Mecca of the tourist, and home of the sourdough—Headquarters of the All-Yukon dinner, the meal that keeps the money at home, and proves that Yukon is the great food-producing belt of the continent.”

Comparatively Warm

Keno Hill enjoys a climate that, though not exactly comparable with that of Palm Beach or Bermuda, is such that some in the Far North consider it a not unpleasant place to be in. There, it is said, the temperature seldom ever registers more than 15 to 20 deg. below zero, in winter, though in the valleys below, it drops in cold spells to 50 and 60 below, or even further, sometimes reaching a point where no doubt, even the currency contracts. In spite of its mild climate, however, there will be many who will wait till warmer weather before rushing to the district.

A New Oil Rush

A mechanical engineer in building air castles might be forgiven if he inadvertently reached the conclusion that because this old globe revolves so smoothly there must be a lot of oil around the poles. However this may be, there is a rush up toward the Arctic Circle again. This time it is for oil, not for gold. Prospectors are heading for the Mackenzie River, to the new oil field at Fort Norman. Although winter is closing in, hundreds of adventurers are said to have set out with pack trains and dog sleds to stake claims before the rush starts in the Spring. Indeed, it looks as if the rush had already begun. In order to protect the foolish against themselves, the North West Police are forbidding all to continue who are not fit, or adequately provisioned.

On the Kougarok

Of the Kougarok River near Nome, Alaska, it is said that he who drinks of its waters never tells the truth again. The miners who once swaggered about the Kougarok diggings, drew on their imagination so liberally in dealing with others, that the saying arose “Divide by eight what the Kougarok miners say.”
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490 ENGINEERING AND MINING JOURNAL Vol. 113, No. 12 MARCH 25 1922

Operations in the Cariboo, British Columbia

Prospectors and Operators More Active—Interest Shown in Dredging
Ground of District—Numerous Hydraulic Projects Under Way—Work
Of Perkin’s Gulch Mining Co. May Demonstrate New Channel System

BY DONALD D. FRASER

MORE ACTIVITY was visible in the Cariboo district of British Columbia in 1921, than in any other year since the beginning of the World War. The general decline of prices, together with the prevailing unemployment, has offered a greater incentive to the prospector. For the last five or six years, practically no prospecting has been done, but last Fall, a large number of men started prospecting on the various creeks.

Reports of strikes are continually coming in. Probably the most important one of the year, was on Cedar Creek, in the Quesnel Forks country. This stream is supposed to have been the first creek worked in the district. In 1862, it is said, about $20,000 was recovered from a small area. Although it has been well prospected, little was found until a strike was made last Fall on a bench, about 500 ft. above the creek bed.

An interesting fact is to be noted in this discovery. The gold was coarse and was lying on the bedrock. The material covering the bedrock carried no “wash,” but was composed of fine sediment and crushed bedrock. The general rule in the district is to find 1 to 20 ft. of wash on the bedrock. Advocates of the chemical deposition of placer gold, claim this strike as an argument in their favor. The ground lies low, and is from 8 to 30 ft. deep. The presence of water makes it unfavorable for the small operator.

A Vancouver syndicate, organized by Captain E. Crowe Swords, and known as the Cariboo Gold Syndicate, has secured six leases, and it claims to have interested a California dredging company in the proposition. This syndicate is said to have about 5,000,000 cu.yd. carrying about 50c. in gold which is both coarse and flaky.

HYDRAULIC OPERATORS ACTIVE

The Cariboo syndicate has secured a lease on the ground held by the Roses Gulch Mining Co., Ltd., and has built about two miles of ditch, to bring in water for hydraulic mining. This ground is supposed to be an old channel of the Quesnel River.

The new Cariboo Goldfields, Ltd., has secured several leases on the Clearwater, and installed a new hydraulic plant. The company will work an old channel, buried about 175 ft. deep. The reported values are about 65c. a cu. yd. in coarse gold.

On a bench of Slough Creek, near the Catch, McDougall and Houser are opening a hydraulic pit on what is claimed to be an old channel of Burns Creek. The ground worked was commercially profitable, and should it prove to be an old channel, as supposed, it would pay well if worked by hydraulic mining. A 50-ft. dump could be had, with a short flume throughout the whole distance.

Mosquito Creek and Lowhee Creek, belonging to John Hopp, were worked as usual throughout 1921, and it is claimed with fair returns. The same can be said of the Point ground, on Slough Creek, a large hydraulic mine held by Chinese interests, of Vancouver.

The New Waverly Hydraulic Mining Co. continued its pit in 1921, making good headway. Several years ago this company secured considerable ground on Grouse Creek, which had been worked in a small way, yielding good results. The new company is undertaking to open the old channel at its mouth. It has a well-equipped plant, and is using a No. 6, and a No. 3 monitor, under a 200-ft. head. During the two and one-half years it has operated, it has moved over 600,000 cu. yd. of material, much of which has been a hard clay, which has required considerable powder for blasting operations. As soon as the old channel is reached, the property should be one of the largest producers of the district.

PERKIN’S GULCH COMPANY OPENING OLD CHANNEL

The Perkin’s Gulch Mining Co. has opened, in a new pit near the mouth of its creek, what appears to be an old channel of Lightning Creek. This ground lies in the middle of the stretch of Lightning Creek, about 10,000 ft. long, which is credited with a production of $13,000,000. The progress of this work is watched with interest, for if it proves to be an old channel, it may add another channel system to the systems now recognized. On Lightning Creek, as elsewhere in the district, there are three recognized channel systems. There is a high channel, which is the oldest. Remnants of this are found above the present drainage system.

Through a tilting of the upper country, or through the lowering of the streams in the lowlands, the channels were next cut deep below the level of the high channel. Much of the gold was re-concentrated into the deep ground. This low channel, was in turn buried fairly deep, and marks the present level of the creeks. The channel opened at Perkin’s Gulch lies between the present stream gradient, and the gradient of the old high channel.

The work being done on the old La Fontaine ground, about two miles downstream, appears to be based on similar reasoning. Some years ago, English capital worked this ground. The channel then followed lay about 150 ft. below the creek bed. The operators recovered about $50,000, but finally gave up the undertaking. The ground has been secured by others who at present are financing drilling operations which are being conducted by the Provincial government. It is claimed by the promoters, that the old workings were not in the deep channel, and the drilling is to prove, or disprove, this theory.

The Kitchener mine, on Keithley Creek, financed by Philadelphia capital, has completed its water system, and has piped off the ground, to the head of the drifted ground. Next season it should be in good pay. Considerable interest has been shown in the dredging ground of the district. J. B. Tyrrell and others have examined the deltas of Keithley, Harvey, and Duck creeks, all on Cariboo Lake, for English capital.

A California company has drilled dredging ground which it holds on the Lower Cottonwood River. The results are not known. On the Upper Cottonwood and the Lower Swift, a number of dredging leases have been staked. It is said that the Pat Burns interests are to drill the dredging ground, which they control on the Quesnel River.

The completion of the Great Eastern Railroad to Quesnel has greatly facilitated the transportation problem of the district. Heavy freight can now be landed in Quesnel by the railroad, which is within easy hauling distance of the gold belt.

AN ENTERPRISE OP ANOTHER SORT

On Lower Lightning Creek, there is a property controlled by the Lightning Creek Gold Gravels & Drainage Co., around which appear to be numerous satellites, among them the Standard Finance Co., the Great Cariboo Gold Co., and the Mines Operating Co. It is rather difficult to determine just the function of these various companies, for they have all come into being, through the financing of one piece of ground. The first-named company, was organized in 1896, for $3,000,000 in $5 shares.

Through a private act, the company holds twenty miles of the Lower Lightning, about 2,040 acres. Those in control claim to have spent $1,400,000 on development and equipment. On the ground is an elaborate collection of machinery, together with all the necessary buildings. At various times during the life of the company, some money has been spent in shaft work. One shaft was lost while attempting to break out into the channel; others were lost in sinking. The mining work done, has been negligible.

Operations have been managed from New York, by Charles H. Unverzagt, who has control of the company. The minority stockholders of the company have been fighting him for some time, and have finally succeeded in having the property placed in the hands of a receiver.
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MARCH 25 1922 504 ENGINEERING AND MINING JOURNAL Vol. 113, No.

CANADA

Yukon Territory

Many Camping in Mayo District—New Strikes on Keno Hill Reported

Dawson—Recent arrivals from Mayo report that several new rich silver-lead strikes have been made on Keno Hill. Promising veins have been opened on the Croesus, Crystal Gulch, Gambler Gulch, Slate Creek, and Stone claims. The Slate Creek Company is mining a 5-ft. vein of almost clean, steel-gray galena, to a depth of 65 ft.
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The Yukon Gold Co. has about 3,000 tons of high-grade ore, at Mayo Landing, ready for the opening of navigation. The company has reached a depth of 800 ft. on the Rico claim, and the vein is as strong and rich as on the surface. In another shaft, a mile away, the company has reached a depth of 70 ft. on another vein, and is in good ore.
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The Treadwell interests have confined themselves to development, and have only taken out ore, incidental to such work. They have two shafts down more than 100 ft., and these are to be continued to 300 ft., and connected by three levels. This will block out a large tonnage of ore. The vein averages 3 ft. in both shafts, and assays run from 200 to 500 oz. in silver, per ton.

It is claimed that nearly half the population of the Territory, has assembled at the camps around Mayo, and that this will be greatly augmented during the coming season. The White Pass Railway Co. is making arrangements for a busy season. It is building a new steamer at Mayo, to handle the increased traffic that is expected.
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British Columbia

Early Opening of Yukon River Expected—Placer Mining Experiencing Boom

Victoria — Mining men are on their toes in anticipation of the early opening of navigation in the Yukon, and Alaska, as well as in the active camps of northern British Columbia. The annual flow of prospectors and operators, who have been wintering in Vancouver, Victoria, and Seattle, has started northward. Outbound steamers are crowded already, and the bookings on Canadian, as well as on American ships, scheduled to leave during the next few weeks, have been so brisk as to put accommodation at a premium.

Though Atlin, Dease Lake, Alice Arm, and other well-known and long popular districts, are attracting their quotas, most of the travelers are en route either to the Portland Canal region, or to the Mayo camp. Up to the present, the majority favor the latter district. The rush to that famous silver producing camp close to Dawson City has started early, through a desire to get in over the snow, for when the break comes, it will be some time before the roads or trails are in good condition.
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The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has refused the application of Anna Theresa Boyle, to two placer mining claims on the Klondike River, thus sustaining the decision of a Dawson Mining Recorder. This ends litigation that has been carried from court to court for several years. Some valuable gold property, as a result of the judgment, will go to the Canadian Klondike Co., Ltd.
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The Del Ecuador Mines Co., which has a large block of leases in the Cedar Creek region of the Cariboo, is reported to be arranging to put a dredge on the ground, this year.
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Joseph Tretheway, who recently bonded the discovery claims on Iron Creek, Taseko (Whitewater) River, in the Lillooet district, is reported to have shipped a diamond drill to Williams Lake, by the Pacific Great Eastern Ry. Thence it will be taken across ice and snow by way of Hanceville, into the Whitewater, and set up ready for work, as soon as weather permits. With this equipment, it is proposed to prospect thoroughly, the telluride formation reported to be rich in gold. The accounts of recoveries made from this property by a miner named Taylor, last summer, have created much interest in this region by prospectors.
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On Cherry Creek, a placer and quartz gold mining district, near Kamloops, a Seattle syndicate has staked a number of claims, and already has a crew of men on the ground. Placer ground, it is said, is to be opened up by means of hydraulicking, and some lode prospects are to be explored by diamond drill.
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There is activity of a similar character on Shorts Creek, on the west shore of Okanagan Lake. In this region, however, interest is being manifested exclusively in the placer possibilities.
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It is reported that a Keystone drill will be put to work on the Prince of Wales Mining Co.’s leases on Horsefly Creek, this summer.
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The Indian Mines, Ltd., and adjacent claims, situated in the Salmon River Valley, Portland Canal, have been acquired by G. D. B. Turner and associates. This property is northwest of the Premier Mining Co. The work so far done, shows a vein from 6 to 14 ft. wide, with fair gold and silver values, and in places, considerable galena. The latter is uniformly low in silver. The camp is well established, and development will start as soon as the season opens.
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At Anyox, the Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting & Power Co., Ltd., intends to build a short railway to the site of the dam, which the company is to construct, to assure an ample supply of water for purposes of operation. Recent heavy rains have improved the situation in the district of the Hidden Creek mine, and the Anyox smelter.
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Placer mining is experiencing a mild boom in British Columbia. Much is looked for next summer, from the newly discovered fields of the Cedar Creek district, in the Cariboo.
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A revival in other sections of the province, notably the Omineca and East Kootenay, is anticipated. For the most part, operations will take the form of hydraulicking, but a company already is reported to have started work with a dredge, on the Peace River, and another plans on installing a similar plant on Cedar Creek.
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Nelson — The Gibson Mining Co., which had a group of claims under development on the South Fork of Kaslo Creek, three or four years ago, and which became involved in financial difficulties, and litigation, is being finally disposed of, under the provisions of the British Columbia “Winding-up Act,” with Sheriff Doyle as official liquidator. Final hearing of claims and creditors is to be held at Vancouver, April 3.

Agitation for erecting an ore-testing plant, to be established by the Dominion government, and to he built at Nelson, is being continued by local interests. Vancouver is also a contender for such a plant, and representations from both points continue to be made at Ottawa.

Kaslo—The Kaslo & Slocan branch of the Canadian Pacific Ry., and which affords communication between Kootenay Lake, and the various mining camps of the Slocan, is blocked with snow-slides, between Three Forks and Bear Lake. It is unlikely that traffic can be resumed for several weeks.

Rossland—The Velvet mine, which is situated near the international boundary line between here, and Northport, Wash., has been unable to make shipments lately, because of the cutting off of all traffic on the Red Mountain Ry., by the Great Northern.

Lessees of the I. X. L. property, near here, have recently received returns on about 26 ½ tons of ore, shipped to the Bunker Hill smelter, at Kellogg, Idaho, and which brings the total value of shipments within the last six months, up to $30,000.

Trail—Ore shipments received at the Consolidated smelter, from March 8 to 14, inclusive, totaled 9,153 tons, coming from the following shippers: Mountain Chief, New Denver, 9 tons; Paradise, Lake Windermere, 36; Rosebery Surprise, New Denver, 143; Silversmith, 66; and company mines, 8,899.

Ontario

Sudbury—President J. L. Agnew of the International Nickel Co., of Canada, in an interview at Sudbury, Ont., outlined the new policy of the company, in view of the lessening demand for nickel, for armament and war material. The salient feature, he stated, would be the remodeling of the Exploitation department. Specialists of high standing had been engaged, with a view to broadening the field for nickel and monel (stainless steel) metal parts, as new uses for nickel would have to be created, to make the industry a success. Hereafter, all refining of nickel will be done at Port Colborne, but the resumption of operations at the smelter and mines may be a matter of months.

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