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Rare-Earth Mineral Deposits of the Mountain Pass District San Bernardino County California

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Rare-Earth Mineral Deposits of the Mountain Pass District San Bernardino County California Rare-Earth Mineral Deposits of the Mountain Pass District San Bernardino County California GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 261 Rare-Earth Mineral Deposits of the Mountain Pass District San Bernardino County California By J. C. OLSON, D. R. SHAWE, L. C. PRAY, and W. N. SHARP With a foreword on History of the Discovery at Mountain Pass, California By D. F. HEWETT GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 261 A geologic study of the district and its rare-earth-bear ing carbonate rocks. One deposit, the Sulphide Queen carbonate body, is the greatest concentration of rare-earth minerals now known. Some data are given on radioactive minerals^ principally thorite and mona%ite UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1954 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Douglas McKay, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY W. E. Wrather, Director For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D. C. - Price $3 (paper cover) FOREWORD HISTORY OF DISCOVERY AT MOUNTAIN PASS, CALIFORNIA By D. F. HEWETT The region near Mountain Pass, San Bernardino completion of the Union Pacific Eailroad (Los Angeles County, Calif., has been the scene of at least three cycles and Salt Lake Eailroad) in 1905. A real mining boom of prospecting for minerals; the discovery of deposits began during the war years of 1917-18, and under the containing large amounts of rare-earth minerals in influence of the high prices obtained for copper, lead, April 1949 marked the beginning of the third cycle. and zinc, prospecting and production reached a new The first cycle began about 1861 when a horde of pros­ peak and many mines were then active that have been pectors swarmed over southern Nevada and southeast­ idle ever since. Mining activity declined after the war ern California, following the decline in discovery and but the higher price offered for lead during 1924 again production of gold along the western slope the Sierra stimulated search for lead deposits. In September 1924, Nevada. In 1854 lead ore was found in the Yellow Pine Fred B. Piehl of Goodsprings, Nev., and associates district (Potosi area) on the west slope of the Spring prospected for lead deposits on Sulphide Queen Hill, Mountains in southern Nevada. In the early sixties, sank several pits and shallow shafts, and located four prospectors began to explore southward into California claims. Small amounts of galena are present on the and in 1865 enough discoveries had been made near dumps but no ore was ever shipped. Clark Mountain [fig. 1] to warrant the organization In October 1924, D. F. Hewett of the U. S. Geological of a mining district, Clark district. Soon thereafter, Survey, having finished the study of the Goodsprings the New York and Providence districts were organized district, Nevada, began the study and mapping of the in the New York and Providence Mountains. By 1870 Ivanpah quadrangle, an area of about 3,900 square miles many silver-bearing veins had been discovered and ex­ near the center of which the Mountain Pass district lies. plored on the north slope of Clark Mountain, 10 miles Field work in the part of the quadrangle near Mountain north of Mountain Pass. During the next 25 years, Pass was begun in October 1926 and continued through these mines yielded about $5,000,000 worth of silver. the winter. The large area of pre-Cambrian crystal­ It is reported that during the height of activity, the line rocks that extends north and southeast of Moun­ population of the Clark district was about 500; in 1895, tain Pass was mapped and studied; within a square mile only 50 persons remained. All that now remains of the south of present U. S. Highway 91, three large bodies of principal town, old Ivanpah, about 8 miles north of syenite, an unfoliated intrusive rock, were mapped. Mountain Pass, are the walls of several adobe houses. The large body of shonkinite and syenite which lies a In this .first cycle, copper deposits were found and mile north of the highway and in which the Birthday explored at and near the Copper World mine, 5 miles veins are now known, was not found in 1926. In the west of Mountain Pass; lead deposits were worked at fall of 1926, the only active mine near Mountain Pass the Mohawk mine, 4 miles west; and gold and copper was Wade's antimony mine, about 2 miles north of the deposits on Mineral Hill, 4 miles southeast of Moun­ Birthday shaft. tain Pass. In all of these areas activity declined during In 1933 the rise in the price of gold induced prospec­ the early nineties. There was a slight revival after a tors to search for gold-bearing veins, and in December branch of the Santa Fe Railroad was built from Goffs to Fred B. Piehl returned to the Sulphide Queen Hill and, Barnwell in 1892, to permit exploration of the gold veins finding a good assay for gold in rock from a shallow at Vanderbilt, near Barnwell, which lies about 20 miles shaft northeast of the hill, located 3 more claims adjoin­ southeast of Mountain Pass. Theretofore, all supplies ing the 4 previously located for lead. This shaft later needed for mining were brought by wagons from San became the Sulphide Queen shaft. Most of the work at Bernardino, about 200 miles west. the mine, including development of the shaft (now 365 The second cycle of prospecting in the Clark district feet deep) and numerous levels, was done by J. C. How­ began in the late nineties and was stimulated by the ard during 1939-41 under an option to purchase from IV RARE-EARTH MINERAL DEPOSITS OF THE MOUNTAIN PASS DISTRICT, CALIFORNIA the owners, Piehl and his associates. In 1941-42, about Through May and June, other veins were found $12,000 worth of gold was produced but no work has nearby and more claims were located. Through J. W. been done since then. Wilson, a friend in Las Vegas, Nev., Hewett learned of The third cycle of prospecting and discovery may be the discovery on May 29 and asked the owners to send said to have begun in late March 1949 when Marty Hess, specimens, which they did in mid-June. As one result,. an engineer, appeared in Goodsprings, Nev., to give a Hewett visited the area on July 15 and with Wood­ talk on the search for uranium. Hess's visit was spon­ ward, Watkins, Simon, and Schenk, examined the exist­ sored and financed by Donald Cameron of the Nevada ing openings: several shallow trenches and one 8-foot Department of Education. Among those present in shaft on the original Birthday vein. The material in the schoolhouse when Hess gave his talk was Herbert each of the pits was very radioactive and other areas S. Woodward, an engineer employed locally. In re­ nearby also showed noteworthy radioactivity. Even at viewing the occurrence of uranium, Hess mentioned the that time, it seemed that considerable bastnaesite with common association of uranium and cobalt, an element some thorium-bearing minerals must be present in the that was known to occur widely in ores of the Good- local area. springs district. After the meeting, Woodward dis­ Later in July the identity of the mineral, bastnaesite, cussed with several of the local miners the idea of was confirmed in Pasadena by Hewett and by min­ searching for uranium with a Geiger counter in those eralogists in the U. S. Geological Survey laboratory in parts of the district known to contain cobalt minerals. Washington, D. C., and arrangements were made for a P. A. Simon, owner of a service station and motor court program of geologic study and mapping in the Birth­ at Jean, 8 miles southeast of Goodsprings, offered to day area by the Geological Survey. Geologic mapping buy a counter for an interest in the enterprise. of the Birthday area was begun on November 3, 1949, After two weeks spent in testing the dumps of many by W. N. Sharp of the Survey and Lloyd C. Pray, of prospects and mines and finding nothing that was radio­ the Geology Department, California Institute of Tech­ active, Woodward became discouraged. He confided his nology, Pasadena, who also was employed by the Geo­ discouragement to Fred B. Piehl, who suggested that, logical Survey. By November 18, enough had been before giving up the search, Woodward examine and learned about the nature and extent of the veins and test specimens of minerals and rocks at his cabin, col­ their associations to warrant a public announcement, lected from a large area in southern Nevada and adja­ and a statement by the Secretary of the Interior was cent parts of California. To their surprise, specimens released to the public on November 18. Soon there­ of lead and gold ores from the Sulphide Queen Hill after, a similar announcement was made by the Cali­ were radioactive. Woodward and his wife quickly pro­ fornia Division of Mines. ceeded to the Sulphide Queen mine, a mile or two north­ There were at least two results of these announce­ east of Mountain Pass, and soon found that much of ments: representatives of several large mining com­ the material on the Sulphide Queen mine dump and hill panies soon sent engineers to examine the discoveries, nearby was radioactive. Because the ground was held and some of these made offers to purchase the Birth­ under the original lead and gold claims made by Piehl, day group of claims; and many prospectors soon vis­ Woodward searched the hills that lay a mile or more ited the areas nearby to search for similar veins.
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