White Hills Mining District, White Hills, Mohave County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
White Hills Mining District	Mining District
White Hills	Group of Census-designated Places
Mohave County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

The White Hills district is located about 28 miles north of Chloride, in the Avestern border of the White Hills, at about 3,000 feet elevation. It comprises an area about 2 miles in diameter and is a part of the Indian Secret mining district, so named because the knowledge of the presence of its mineral was for a long time withheld from the whites by the Indians.

The first discovery of mineral in the district by white men was made by Henry Shaffer in May, 1892, through the aid of an Indian known as Hualpai Jeff, who exhibited a piece of rich silver ore at Gold Basin and showed Shaffer its source, where the Indians procured the supply of red iron oxide with which they adorned their faces. The locality is at the site of the Hidden Treasure mine.

After making several locations, Shaffer reported the discovery at Gold Basin and was soon joined by John Burnett and John Sullivan, who also located what later proved to be some of the best mines. The trio began work and were soon shipping very rich ore, some averaging $1,000 a ton. The camp soon became the largest in the region and reached its zenith in 1894, with a population of 1,200. Within a short time the camp was owned by one company, the White Hills Mining Company, of which the chief men were R. T. Root and D. H. Moffatt, of Denver. A 10-stamp mill was built early in 1904; in large part, it is stated, to work the dumps, which had grown huge. It was a complete success.

About 1895 the property was sold for $1,500,000, according to reports, to the White Hills Mining and Milling Company, an English concern, with headquarters at London and Colorado Springs. With only a moderate amount of ore in sight, this company installed a new, fully equipped 40-stamp mill, which was never worked to its full capacity and is still standing in good condition at the edge of the hills about one-fourth of a mile south of town; an electric-light system, and an elaborate water-supply system, including 7 miles of 7-inch wooden pipe line; a large reservoir and iron hydrants of city style, at a total cost said to exceed $150,000. As the company failed to make its final payment the property was put up at sheriff's sale and bought in by the former owners, Root and Moffatt, who are said to still own it.

The developments in the district, some of which extend nearly 1.000 feet in depth, consist principally of inclines, shafts, and drifts, aggregating probably considerably more than 10,000 feet of underground work. A plentiful supply of excellent potable water, ample for milling purposes, is usually reached at a depth of 400 to 600 feet and is now present in four of the mines.

While in operation the source of power used in the mills was coal hauled from Kingman, and the Joshua trees, or yucca palms, supplied fuel for the steam hoists at the mines. The principal surface equipments of the camp now on the ground, besides the mill, hoists, trams, etc., at the mines, are a large concrete reservoir and numerous, mostly vacant, frame buildings, including offices, stores, dwellings, a church, and a schoolhouse in all but a remnant of the former town, These are situated in the southern part of the district on White Hills Wash and mostly on Main street, which trends nearly east and west, as shown in the sketch map (fig. 21). The place now contains a store and the White Hills post-office, and regularly operates a stage and mail service with Chloride and with Eldorado Canyon, Nev., with which points it also has telephone connections.

The surface is hilly but, except on the east, not rugged, and the district drains westward into Detrital Valley, mostly by small washes and their tributaries.

The country rock is principally light medium-grained gneissoid granite containing garnet with some associated dark amphibolite schist. The schistosity dips to the northwest but varies greatly, the rock being folded and faulted. It is overlain on the east by the Tertiary volcanic rocks, which in turn are capped by younger basalt.

The gneissoid granite, in which all the deposits occur, contains principally orthoclase, quartz, microcline, and garnet. In many places the garnet is abundant, some of it occurring as large phenocrysts, and locally the rock is traversed by 2^-foot bands or zones, fully two-thirds of which are composed of garnets about one fourth of an inch in average diameter.

The Tertiary volcanic rocks on the east consist principally of. gray vesicular altered hornblende-augite andesite, or possibly latite, as they seem to contain much orthoclase and have a trachytic groundmass. They occur principally in an elongated ridge overlying the gneiss on the east and are about 600 feet in thickness. The upper 100 feet is. principally a volcanic agglomerate. This rock is capped by dark vesicular normal olivine basalt, about 20 feet in thickness, which seems to cap also Senator Mountain, Squaw Peak, and other buttes in the vicinity.

The deposits are principally quartz veins, some of which are blanket veins or have a low dip. They average about 3 feet in width and in general dip to the northeast at angles of 20° to 80°. Associated with them locally are considerable manganese and iron oxide. The ore, which seems to be oxidized to the bottom of the mines, contains chiefly chloride of silver with local values in gold, and is usually rich, being reported to average about $200 in silver to the ton. A 19-ton carload of the ore shipped to the smelter in 1894 is reported to have contained 29,000 ounces of silver and 80 ounces of gold. The miners report the best ore to occur in the " white porphyry," which seems to mean the light phase of the granitic gneiss.

The presence of yellow and brown material resembling the altered igneous rock in or associated with the veins suggests that the fissures, which the veins now fill, may formerly have been occupied by dikes of minette or vogesite that the veins have replaced. It is possible that these dikes may belong to the same period as the Tertiary volcanic rocks on the east, which at One time must have deeply buried the entire district, but it is more probable that they are very much older.

The production of the district, which is known to be large, is reported to be about $3,000,000. Prior to the acquisition of the property by the White Hills Mining Company many lessees are reported to have made fortunes ranging from a few thousand dollars to $25,000, each from surface workings. During the first fourteen months of its ownership the White Hills Mining Company is reported to have shipped ore that netted at the Denver smelters $242,000, and throughout the period in which it operated the property large shipments of bullion are reported to have been regularly made.