Mohave County miner., 1883-05-27
A CURIOUS GOLD IEINE.


 there being no other like it, to ou
 knowledge on this coast. It is caIle e the Banghart mine, and has beeI ,- worked more or less for the pas J. seventeen years. 1t consists of
 combination of claims, separatel, P marked off to different owners. The
 ledge is in a mountain at the head O. : the Mad Mule creek, at an altitude O.
 $500 feet. It is from 160 to 200 feet - wide. The ledge formation is called
 birds-eye porphyry lying between
 well denned walls of black slate.
 In early days Mad Mule Gulch was the richest gulch known in Shasta county. It-paid very largely in coarse gold, some very fine large nuggets
 having been found. When worked
 out, the parties tried to find the
 source of the gold, but finally gave up
 the search no quartz lodges having
 been found
 Mir. Banghart was iA>>the upper
 country, and heard of the coarse
 gold in the gulch. He thought he
 could ind the source of the gold. He
 went to work diligently, bnt 1t was
 two years before he had any luck.
 He then discovered that ther9 was a
 porphyry dike about 200 feet thick ly-
 ing between slate walls; and this dike
 was traversed with seams carrying gold, wherever the seams came in
 contact with the slate walls, but mo-
 where else. The small seams are con- posed Of magapese, quartz sulphurets of iron, and they lie in all direc tioEs.
 In the opinlon Of those who are working the mine, in the original cooling the porphyry shrunk and cracks opened, and the heat from below forced this material up and de- pCsited 1t wherever 1t came in contact 1 with the slate. If they go into the porphyry six inches they do not get any gold. II lies simply where these seams make the contact with the slate. Pieces have been taken out of some of these seams weighing twelve pounds. Last fall piece weighing throe and half pounds was taken out with only traces of quartz. The gold is not found and taken out every day. They track seam, and soLae- times it will run 100 feet perfectly barren. It opens and closes. At points it will be six inches in thick ness, and contains quite a deposit of gold; then 1t will not be wider than 8 sheet of paper, but they keep on following t and it will swell out, and 1 then comes another deposit. The lead has been traced seven miles. Some seams of porphyry are connec ted with the hanging wall, and pay we'll On the hanging wall tons of ore are found. The con- ; .eatrated sulphurets from this run ; Sl .500 to the ton. The streak is about ( six inches wide
 This mine has been run by the | present owners without any money. 1 l. took all they had to buy the mine, { out it has paid It's own expenses. ' they take out two or three 5 thousand dollars Ill an honr. It is all drifting work; they run tunnel in until 1t strikes the slate, and then ,un along the slate. They do the same way on eacn side of the gulch. They lump into the galch, and have no They have eighteen t short tunnels, fifty feet or so apart. 1 The slate comes to the surface. It Is ( partly stopped out between the tun- c lels. These tunnels are run where V they think they can get the best t pay. 2
 Last December, with one man the $ 5 reak being worked averaged $50 ' lay right along, the largest piece ta | zen out weighed nine ounces. The $ largest piece of gold ever taken out t eleven pounds. Some seams t pay well and some pay very poorly. | some only two or three dollars a s lay, others S1,OOO iii an hour. |
 We were shown tA1s week box of q very handsome specimens of pure t gold in what is apparently crystal V ized form. The little pocket from V which this gold came yielded the $ other day eighty ounces, including | what was shown us. There was no | quartz attached to the gold at all. In t fact 1t came out of a bunch of soft t being scooped out with s the hands. (
 The mine is perfectly dry, so no I pumps are used, neither is any timber , used nor any hosting done. The t little tunnels which run in as far as 1