Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1915-current, 1915-08-31
DR.. MASON COPPER
ON LONE MOUNTAIN
Resume of Ely Consolidated Opera
tions and Report Property to
Start Up Again

There is report current that the
DIR. Mason group of copper claims at
Lone Mountain is TO start up again
before long. 1t is said that outside
capital Is negotiating for bond and
lease on the property
There are sixteen claims in this
group. They were the first claims 10.
Gated on the mountain. 1t was in 1879
that DR.. j. r. Mason left the Comstock
and opened his drug store in Tusca-
rora.
DR.. Mason began taking his vaca.
tions out on Lone Mountain each sum
mer and spent the time prospecting
He discovered the copper leads and
now for 33 years he has been holding
down the property.
About two years ago the Ely Con
solidated company took bond and
lease on the property. AT that time
DR.. Mason had spent more than $16,.
900 on his own account and had done
several hundred feet of work. He had
large bodies of ore blocked out
The Ely company went to work in
earnest in the dead of winter when
freight cost them two and half cents
a pound from the railroad. They put
up bunk house, cook house. office,
assay office and stable and spent 81,
200 in piping in water.
Altogether the Ely company spent
$4,000. They shipped seven cars of
ore or about 200 tons that ran ten to
twelve per cent copper. But copper
then was low and the profit could not
have been very great.
The Ely company had made DR..
Mason a first payment under the bond.
When the second payment of $4,000
fell due they asked for an extension
of time. The times were not pro.
pitious. The war came on and finally
finding they were unable to finance the
proposition the Ely Consolidated
threw UP their lease.
DR.. Mason in his work had run a
four hundred foot tunnel on the Iron.
sides. This claim lies on the north
side of the gulch. On the south side
lies the Copper Queen. The doctor
had also run tunnel about the same
distance on this claim.
In places the Copper Queen showed
vein twelve feet wide between lime
and porphyry.
The Ely people stopped down all this
ore the doctor had blocked out and
shipped the high grade.
In the Ironsides tunnel the doctor
had sunk a VIM 81 feet following a
four.inch streak of copper ore. At
the bottom Of the winz this had wild.
ened 10 four feet of iron Gaping.
The Ely people also ran an incline
from this tunnel on ore. Bunches of
sulphides are yet to be seen In the
face of this incline and along the
sides.
Several hundred tons of low grade
copper are piled on the dump at the
ironsides.
DR.. Mason had sunk n shaft 85 feet
deep on the Copper Queen in the blue
lime. The Ely company ran cross
wv SSc itVN "tbi llOhi Nht DOttOHl VI
this shaft but missed hitting an ore
chute. AYITW
All the work on the Mason group
is practically superficial and is not out
of the iron Gaping. The ore that Is
found are the noddules that have not
yet been leached out.
This is practically the case with all
copper mines. The ore bodies are not
encountered till the water level has
been passed. All the work on the
Mason group is above the water level.
Large bodies OF ore can hardly be OK.
pected until n shaft is sunk below the
water level to the zone of secondary
enrichment. This may be 400 or 500
feet deep.
The theory of the geologists and
prospectors is that a great upheaval
took place at one time This is plain.