Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
Mining Company had formed, a small copper ore
massive sulfide deposits occur in fragmented volcanics
smelter operated intermittently from 1911 to 1917
and sediments of the Rogue and Galice formations,
when 17,000 tons of ore yielded 260,000 pounds of
Rich placers along Jumpoff Joe Creek and the
copper, 7,000 pounds of lead, 1,500 troy ounces of
upper Grave creek watershed north of Grants Pass are
gold, and 48,000 troy ounces of silver.
responsible for most of the gold from the Greenback
At the northeastern end of the Galice district
district, in operation since 1883. Occurring in sedi-
near Canyonville in Douglas County, gold and silver
ments and volcanics of the Galice and Applegate
mineralization in the Silver Peak region had a recorded
formations, gold, copper, zinc, pyrite, and chalcopyrite
production of 6,620 tons of ore between 1926 and
are part of the Smith River and Applegate terranes
1937. Of this, 735,000 pounds were copper, 22,000 troy
that are ophiolitic in nature. Placer mining on Grave
ounces were silver, and 500 troy ounces were gold.
Creek produced $20,000 in gold, while the rich Colum-
Minerals in the Silver Peak region were uncovered in
bia placer on Tom East Creek yielded more than
1919 on property owned by the Silver Peak mine, and
$400,000. From September, 1935, to November, 1938,
3,256 tons of ore were shipped out over the next ten
the Rogue River Gold Company operated the largest
years. A Swedish citizen is reported to have located the
dredge in the history of Josephine County upstream
Gold Bluff mine here, but he was not allowed to claim
from Leland in this district. Approximately 115 acres of
the $7,000 in gold dust extracted because he was not
a
gravels were worked before dredging ceased in 1939
United States citizen. The Silver Peak area mainly
only when the massive build up of loose gravel made it
produced copper, although a total of $216,000 in gold
impossible to reach fresh bedrock. Equipped with sixty-
was taken from the mine prior to 1930. New operations
five
7 1/2 cubic-foot buckets, this electrically powered
here to extract copper, zinc, silver, and gold were
behemoth could handle 5,000 cubic yards in 24 hours,
begun in 1991. Minerals in the Galice-Silver Peak
district are associated with island arc rocks of the
Western Jurassic and Yolla Bolly terranes in which
Mineral districts of the Klamath Mountains (after
Ferns and Huber, 1984)
