Quartz Mining in the Klondike
The Klondike News,
Dawson, N.W.T., April 1st, 1898
Although quartz mining is yet in its infancy on the Yukon river, it is a lusty child, and bids fair to develop into a giant that will astonish the modern world.
The early prospector on the Yukon did not look for quartz, knowing that
after he had found it he would be compelled to spend several weary years in looking for capital to develop his find, and that in all probability he would never be able to get machinery to the scene of his discovery. But of late large mining companies have been formed, and extensive development of the many known quartz leads adjacent to the Yukon River will be actively carried on.
One of the largest and strongest of the recently formed companies is the
Eldorado-Bonanza Quartz and Placer Mining Company, of Toronto, Canada, who own an immense property in the Klondike. This includes nine quartz claims, or a hundred and ninety-three acres of quartz mining ground and two million six hundred thousand feet of placer ground.
The directors residing in Dawson are among the best known of the many practical miners there, and their names afford a sufficient guarantee that their properties are of the best.
Such men as Aleck McDonald, the Berry Bros., M. J. McNeil, and Dr. Carper do not need an introduction at our hands.
Messrs. McDonald and McNeil having been in Alaska for many years, have had ample opportunity to examine its mineral resources, and have selected only the choicest locations offered in the mining market to add to the holdings of this company.
Heretofore it has heen impossible to work without powder and machinery,
but with the advance of civilization and the increased facilities for transportation these may be had in abundance and development will be quite rapid. The quartz veins are rich in
free milling gold, with well defined walls.
The water supply is all that can be desired, and fuel will be in abundance, there being plenty of timber and many coal deposits along the Klondike and Yukon Rivers.
Quartz claims Plunger, Regina, Victor, Globe, Anaconda, and Aetna, of the Eldorado-Bonanza Quartz and Placer Mining Company, are located seventeen miles from the mouth of the Klondike River, at the junction of Eldorado and Bonanza creeks, covering the entire mountain from Eldorado Creek to Skookum Gulch, and extend north to Bonanza Creek on either side of this mountain. This richest placer ground in the world is found yielding coarse rough gold and large nuggets, mixed with quartz, showing it to have been broken off the ledges and that it has traveled only a short distance. These placer claims have a deposit of gold that has been ground from the quartz and carried down into the benches and creeks. There, three and a half feet thick is the gravel and broken quartz that is almost one half gold, and a very common occurrence is to wash a pan of this and get from $100 to $400 to the pan, and there has been as high as $600 found to the pan in the richest pay streaks, which may be from fifty to two hundred feet wide. The bucket they use in raising this gravel holds about six pans, and two men can raise from one hundred to one hundred and fifty buckets a day if everything is in readiness, so they have very little extra work to do.
The placer claims on Eldorado Creek, opposite the quartz claims of the Eldorado-Bonanza Quartz and Placer Mining Company, have produced the enormous sum of $4,500,000 in two seasons. Adjoining on the north there has been taken out in the same time $1,250,000, and from Skookum Gulch, adjoining on the west, $353,000. The largest nuggets found in the Klondike district, in fact, the largest ever found in Alaska, have
been found at the mouth of Skookum Gulch and on Eldorado Creek. A short distance above its mouth three placer claims have only been partially worked, and many million dollars more
will be taken out before the final clean-up, which will be several years hence.
Development of the quartz claims is being pushed forward as fast as conditions permit. A tunnel is being driven through the mountain from the Bonanza side, about fifty feet above the creek bank; the work is progressing at the rate of about three
feet per day. At this writing one hundred and fifty feet distance has been gained. This tunnel will diagonally cross-cut the vein at a distance of about two hundred and fifty feet from the entrance, and at a depth of about five hundred feet from the surface.
Quartz claims Eureka, Last Dollar, and Eldorado Queen, are located on the east side of Eldorado Creek, opposite placer claims Nos. 44, 45, 46 and 47. A well-defined vein extends through these claims, of blue quartz twelve feet wide, running northeast and southwest; another vein nine feet wide crosses this at right angles. Both these veins show free gold and of a very high grade. A shaft will be sunk on this property in the Spring as
soon as powder and material can be had, and work pushed as fast as possible. As there is a scarcity of powder, it is impossible to work this property until the boats get in next Spring, but it promises to be one of the best quartz properties in this region.
The placer claims on Eldorado Creek just below these veins are very rich, and all coarse gold. They produced last season over one million dollars, and are scarcely touched as yet. Quartz claims in the Northwest Territory of Canada are fifteen hundred feet long and six hundred feet wide. In addition to this, the company has two mill-sites of five acres each, which are located on the veins, making one hundred and ninety-three (193) acres of quartz claims. A large stamp-mill will be erected on the property as soon as the same can be brought into the country, and it will be erected in such a manner as to be kept in operation continuously throughout the entire year.
Placer claims Nos. 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, and 65, below Discovery claim, on Henderson Creek, are owned by the Eldorado-Bonanza Quartz and Placer Mining Company. Gold was first discovered on Henderson Creek in May, 1897, and for the time it has been worked, it is making a good showing. Bedrock is from 18 to 24 feet from the surface and carries about three and a half to four feet of pay gravel, running from $.50 to $3.00 per pan, and as work is carried forward where the pay streak is located it is averaging fully as well as Hunker, Dominion, and Sulphur creeks.
Henderson creek empties into the Yukon river, three and a half miles below Stewart river, and is about seventy-five miles long, heading in the same range of mountains as the Left Fork of Stewart River (or McQuestion's Fork), which, so far, is the only tributary of Stewart River known to carry gold in paying quantities. The claims are
well located, 500 feet long and 600 feet wide, each making 3,000 feet long of placer ground. There is plenty of water and a good fall, so no trouble will be had in ground sluicing. The method of working placer claims in this country is different from that in the United States, as the ground is frozen the entire year, and the gravel is covered with about one foot of moss. There is also from four to fifteen feet of "Muck" that covers the gravel. If it is more than 10 or 12 feet to bedrock, it is worked in the winter by burning the ground and sinking shafts to bedrock, then by drifting and taking out only the gravel that pays, piling it up and washing it out in the Spring. If bedrock is near the surface the gravel is stripped of moss and muck and ground sluiced in the summer.
Reindeer Creek empties into the Yukon River, six miles above Indian Creek; it is about thirty miles long, running parallel to Henderson and Indian Creeks.
Placer claims Discovery, Nos. 1, 2 3 and 4 above Discovery, and Nos. 1, 2, and 3 below Discovery, making 1600 feet long and 500 feet wide of placer ground on Reindeer Creek, is also owned by the Eldorado-Bonanza Quartz and Placer Mining Company. These claims can be worked the entire year, and will probably pay as well as any on Bonanza or Eldorado creeks, which pay from $100 to $1000 per foot. No claim on Eldorado from No. 1 to No. 47, inclusive, can be bought for less than $1,000 per foot, and some ask
much more for their claims. The company intends to develop and work all claims as rapidly as possible, and expect to be able to have them paying dividends in a short time. These
placer mines, together with the quartz mines owned by the Eldorado-Bonanza Quartz and Placer Mining Company, place it far in advance of any company so far organized in Alaska or the Northwest Territory of Canada, and they invite all those who would like to become interested to call and inspect the titles of the properties, consisting of transfers, deeds and abstracts of titles, as issued by the Gold Commissioner for the Dominion of Canada.
The company has many samples of ore and coarse gold and nuggets which
will be shown to visitors, and any information pertaining to the Northwest Territory will be given with pleasure by the officers of the company, who have been in Alaska and are thoroughly acquainted with all its resources.
The Eldorado-Bonanza Quartz and Placer Mining Company has incorporated under the laws of the State of Missouri, with a capital stock of $3,000,000, the shares selling at $50 each, and the same can be had at the company's principal office, at 216
Sheidley Building, Kansas City, Mo., U.S.A.
