desert calendar - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

Goldfield, Nevada . . .
Goldfield Consolidated Mining Company
has disposed of all its shares in
the Goldfield Deep Mines Company,
it was disclosed in the firm's annual
report to stockholders. At one time
Consolidated held well over a million
shares of Deep Mines. The company
never played an active role in the
Goldfield Deep Mines operation, al-
though some of its ground was explored
as part of a Deep Mines program.—Tonopah
Times-Bonanzja.
• • •
Pioche, Nevada . . .
Ferro manganese will be produced
from the Combined Metals Company
mines at Pioche for use by the Pioche
Manganese Company in its operation
at the Basic Magnesium plant in Henderson,
Nevada. Furnaces for smelting
the ore are being installed, and
future plans call for construction of
a smelter, possibly of lead and zinc
ores. Whether the establishment of
the processing unit at Henderson will
have capacity to accept and treat manganese
ores from the northern part of
the state has not yet been determined.
It is believed that the Pioche
mines will be able to supply enough
ores to reach capacity.—Caliente Herald.
• • •
Wendeii, Arizona . . .
General Services Administration will
establish a manganese ore collection
depot at Wenden, to be used for the
purchase and collection of the vital
defense metal of which there are large
reserves in the Wenden area. Construction
of the depot is expected to
begin almost immediately. The government
agency also is considering the
establishment of a beneficiation plant
in the same area.—Wickenburg Sun.
• • •
Winnemucca, Nevada . . .
Virgin Valley district of northern
Humboldt county, which has produced
some of the best gem opal in the
United States, was found in 1950 to
contain uranium minerals. ''But," the
U. S. Geological Survey now reports,
"the uranium content ranges from .002
to .12 percent, insufficient to warrant
economic development at present
prices. The possibilities of finding
economically minable material by additional
exploration of known uraniferous
layers are not considered good."
—Humboldt Star.
24
Trona, California . . .
While serving with the Marine Corps
in the Barstow, California, area, Geologist
Eugene Lawrence spent spare
hours prospecting on the desert. Now
his exploration has paid off with a
tungsten mine 26 miles southeast of
Trona. He has three men assisting in
the operation of the mine, which he
has named the White Dollar.—Mining
Record.
• • •
Tonopah, Nevada . . .
Historic Smoky Valley, adjacent to
the Round Mountain gold district and
70 miles north of Tonopah, is the
scene of active tungsten exploration.
Warfield, Inc., is developing a scheelite
deposit on the Tungsten View
claim of the Meyers-Thomas property;
Newmont Mining Corporation has
started exploration work on a group
of claims in Ophir Canyon, and numerous
prospectors and small operators
are active in the region.—Pioche Record.
• • •
Reno, Nevada . . .
Although selection of a site has not
yet been made, Kaiser Corporation has
announced it will build a new Nevada
mill to process fluorspar, a critical
mineral in the production of aluminum
metal. Some of the fluorspar will
come from the recently-acquired Baxter
Mine near Gabbs, the announce-
ment said, but the mill will be of sufficient
capacity to handle additional ore
purchased from other Nevada deposits.
—Pioche Record.
• • •
Lackawanna, Nevada . . .
The Baltimore Camas Mine's tung-
sten mill at Lackawanna is installing
machinery preparatory to beginning
processing operations. The mill has
been set up principally for tungsten
but with additional equipment will be
able to handle other ores, probably
lead and zinc. It will serve mines
within a radius of approximately 400
miles.—Ely Record.
• • •
Yerington, Nevada . . .
Stripping operations have been
started at Anaconda Copper Company's
development at Yerington. It
is estimated that between seven and
10 million yards of overburden will be
removed before production of the copper
ore gets under way.—Battle Mountain
Scout.
Battle Mountain, Nevada . . .
Early development of the Nubian
turquoise mine in Klondike, Nye
county, is planned by Norman L.
Heikes of San Francisco and Burton
Riggs. The Nubian is said to contain
a rare occurrence of gem-quality turquoise
in which the deep blue of the
stone lies in a black matrix of silver
ore. The property was discovered in
1924 and has been worked intermittently
since that time.—Battle Mountain
Scout.
• • •
Indio, California . . .
As part of the $65,000,000 expansion
program that will increase Kaiser
Steel Corporation's pig iron output by
50 percent and raise steel ingot production
by more than 11 percent, ore
mining at Eagle Mountain, 75 miles
east of Indio, will be stepped up.
After major additions to the mining,
housing, ore crushing and separation
facilities at the mine, it is expected
production will increase 50 percent.—
Date Palm.
• • •
Benson, Arizona . . .
A new mill for the processing of
fluorspar ore will be constructed at
Benson "in the very near future," according
to Morris Albertoli of Owens
Valley, California, representative of
the Lone Star Mining Company. Fluorspar
ore is being stockpiled at the
company's Lone Star Mine, in the
foothills of the Whetstone Mountain
range six miles west of the Apache
powder plant, for processing at the
contemplated mill.—San Pedro Valley
News.
• • •
Shiprock, New Mexico . . .
Purchase of uranium mining rights
on the Navajo Indian reservation in
the four-corners area of Arizona, New
Mexico, Colorado and Utah has been
announced by business partners of
Senator Robert A. Kerr, Democratic
presidential aspirant. Properties and
equipment of the Navajo Uranium
Company, including an ore sampling
plant at Shiprock, have been acquired
by the Kerr-McGee Oil Industries of
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. — New
Mexican.
• • •
Silver Peak, Nevada . . .
Daily development at Mohawk
Mine in the Argentite district 10 miles
west of Silver Peak in Esmerelda
county gives rise to speculation that
the silver-lead mine eventually will
become one of the biggest producers
in that part of the state. Seven men
presently are employed at the mine,
and timber is being hauled in to build
a camp for 20 more workers.—Pioche
Record.
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