The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1906-05-11
GREAT COFFEE DEPOSIT
AT ELY CLEARLY DISCUSSED
(By Fitz- Mac.)


Ely. New, April 10.-In the rough
outline the geology of the Ely copper
deposit appears to be quite simple. The
Egan range in which 1t occurs has re-
ceived more than one reconnaissance
study by the U. S. geological survey.
but they have been extremely brief and
cursory and none of them has ever
touched upon our great copper deposit.
The range as charted on the reconnais-
sance map which accompanies Spurs
eos. Descriptive Geology, as con-
sisting mainly of rocks of the carbon
iferous age with a small portion of
granular eruptive.
The Egan is a ~north-south range of
moderate elevation that courses across
White Pine county near the center
The great copper deposit lies in an
east-west fault zone that extends from
foothills to foothills, a distance of
about twelve miles, and is mineralized
the whole distance, though the more
valuable part of the deposit Is not at
present generally reckoned as more
than seven miles in length, and in my
own estimates for the newspapers on
the extent of the deposit I have adopt
ed $4,000 feet as the length-this quite
arbitrarily and without any reason ex-
cept the desire to render the astounding
and unparalleled volume of the deposit
half way b%elievable by keeping the di-
mensions as low as possible.
The Egan range has. in general, a
synclinal character and at this point
that character is very distinct so that
the range here consists of an east rim
and a west rim and an interior basin.
The east rim, bold and rugged. is
deeply cut by Ely canon which is the
drainage outlet of the interior basin.
The west rim is lower and less ragged
and is not cut by any drainage outlet.
but the wagon road crosses a divide at
a point called Pilot Knob. eleven miles
west Of Ely, and at an elevation above
Ely of about $500 feet-perhaps not
over 1900. The grade of the road
thence to Ely is moderate.
Pilot Knob is the center of the deep
est developments on the deposit, and. so
far as rumor may be credited, of the
richest ore. The land there is owned by
the Giroux company and the policy of
strict privacy permits nothing to be
known by the public.
This fault zone that completely
crosscuts the range was never probably
a fault plane simply, but a zone proper,
a belt, of considerable width. that lies
between two ragged and irregular fault
lines ranging from a few rods to 1000
feet apart. They probably started at
Ely canon on the east fiank as a single
line and diverged as they extended west
ward.
The rock that covered the surface at
the time of this faulting is a limestone
of the carboniferous series and is reck-
oned to nave an aggregate thickness of
about 1000 feet. 1t is not one massive
bed but a great number of beds or
strata that differ as much from one an
other in composition as 1t is possible to
do and still retain the character of lime
stones.
1t is dangerous to generalize on ore
deposits. Not one shadow of doubt can
exist tina the richest ores ever found in
the Ely district will be found where
some of these claims have been located.
But that doesn't tell the whole story.
The ore bodies though rich may be
small and they may lie so deep that
they are not worth going after. On the
other hand there is good reason to hope
that they may not lie very deep and
that the volume may be large enough to
make m~illionaires of many poor pros
pectors.
The theory of enrichment by leach
ing from above would of course knock
any chance of enrichment from above
where there was nc possibility of leach
ing from above. 1 may be wrong but
I feel confident myself that the richest
ore bodies in the camp will be found IN
the lime beyond the lines of contact.
We rave now in sight an ore body in
this great Ely copper deposit $4,000 feet
long by 5000 wide of an ssume work.
able thickness of about $50 feet, that
carries an average of 3K per cent cop