Los Angeles herald., 1909-04-19
MINES DEVELOP
AT VONTRIGGER
BIG COPPER PROPERTY NOW
SEEMS ASSURED
WATER DEVELOPMENT SOLVES
PROBLEM
Region Abandoned by German Fifty
Years Ago Reveals Vast Possible
ities-Chemical Process to
Treat Ores

Among the many camps OF the south
western mining region none Is attract
ing more attention than the property
belonging to the California Gold and
Copper company located one and half
miles northeast of Vontrigger station
on the Barnwell & Searchlight branch
of the Santa Fe railway.
| In 1858 a German named Vontrigger,
| passing through the desert searching
| for mineral, was attracted by the huge
outcrops of copper ore few miles
southeast of the New York mountains,
and made locations covering the ore
| bodies whose outcrop stood boldly
above the ground. He did considerable
development work on the ground, but
situated over 200 miles from the nearest
town, San Bernardino, and surrounded
for leagues on every side by terrify-
ing, waterless, treeless desert, he aban~
doned the prospects and moved on to
more promising fields.
| About seventeen years ago A. III.
| Cram, who was prospecting in that
country. observed these same crop
pings that had interested Vontr -gger
thirty-four years before To him the
| huge outcrops of ore looked promising
and he staked numerous claims and
began the work of development. For
several years he did the assessment
work unaided, but later interested
others. The prospect developed so we'll
corporate and to proceed with the de-
velopment of the claims on more ex-
| tensive scale, and the property was in
corporated as the California Gold and
Copper company.
The construction of a branch rail-
! road from Goffs to MARVEL had added
value to the property. This road has
since been extended to Searchlight,
| New, and runs within one and a half
miles of the mine at Vontrigger sta
| tion.
Develops Water
| AS there was little or no water avail
able in that part of the country, 1t
was decided to endeavor to develop
! water in the vicinity. There being
| evidences of water at the blackberry
mountain, eight miles from the mine,l
| tunneling operations were started
there, and after driving a total of 1850
feet fine flow of water was developed
which has been carried in steel pipes
to the mine, where it is delivered un-
der about 1s0O-foot head. The normal
| flow of the water supply is twelve gall
Ions a minute, 1900 gallons a day,
| which 1t Is believed can be increased
| if necessary by further development.
Since incorporation four years ago
a large amount of development work
| has been done. There are two great
| zones of copper ores on which three
shafts have been sunk. On one of them
the main shaft is down 317 feet. and
on the other two shafts, 100 and 100
| feet, respectively, have been sunk.
| These great zones of mineral are from
200 to 300 feet wide, as exposed on
| the surface and in the crosscuts run
from the shafts, one of these being in
ore for 300 feet. All told over 2600 feet
of underground development work has
| been done.
The formation is granite, limestone
and quartzite. and the country in the
vicinity of the mine is intersected by
dikes of diorite and porphyritic rocks.
The mine yields some water. but 1t is
unfit for use and is heavily charged
with copper and strongly acidulated.
Makes Several Shipments
Several large shipments of ore have
been made from the property of the
California Gold and Copper company
to smelters. One of these shipments
returned by carload lots per cent
copper with a little gold and silver.
Another lot ran 1913 per cent copper
with some gold and silver. There is
great deal of ore which will run from
10 per cent up to 40 per cent. but Mr..
Cram claims only an average copper
content of or per cent.
The camp Is equipped with about
twenty strong, substantial buildings.
consisting of store, boarding houses,
rOOmlnB mouse, DUNK mouse and other
houses for the miners employed by the
company.
The company is at present installing
new electrical plant which will be-
come commercial success as soon as
it is erected at the mine. The process
is a chemical one, aided by electricity.
which will reduce the copper ores at
about one-third the cost of smelling.
The cost of the new plant will be
in the neighborhood of $4,000. The
ores are chalcopyrite, and the usual
secondary products of it's alteration.
among them being bornite. black and
red oxide, nalachite and chrysocholla.