Elmore County Idaho Gold Production |
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FEATHERVILLE DISTRICT
The Featherville district is in T. 3 N., R. 10 E., along the South Fork of the Boise River.
This placer district has only a partial production record. From 1922 to 1927, dredging operations produced a total of 32,777 ounces of gold (Ross, 1941, p. 48). No additional production data were noted except for 1951 when 33 ounces was reported.
NEAL DISTRICT
The Neal district is in Tps. 2 and 3 N., R. 5 E., about 15 miles southeast of Boise, near the Arrow-rock Dam.
This district, discovered in 1889, was noted chiefly for its lode mines, but small amounts of gold were also produced from intermittently worked placers. Since 1911 the district has been virtually inactive.
Estimates of the early production vary widely. Lindgren (1898, p. 699) noted that about $200,000 worth of gold was produced from the district between 1889 and 1896. Ross (1941, p. 49) later estimated that $2 million in gold was produced, but much of this could have been produced from 1906 to 1911, when the district was fairly active.
The predominant country rock is granodiorite of the Idaho batholith. It is cut by numerous dikes of porphyry and lamprophyre, and the veins seem to be closely associated with the lamprophyre dikes. Vein minerals consist of quartz, pyrite, gold, galena, sphalerite, arsenopyrite, and local garnet, in altered granitic rock (Ross, 1941, p. 49).
PINE GROVE DISTRICT
In the Pine Grove district, which is in Tps. 1 and 2 N., Rs. 9 and 10 E. near the town of Pine, gold and silver have been produced from lode mines and on a small scale from placers.
The principal mine was the Franklin, which produced $750,000 in gold and silver before it was closed in 1917 (Ross, 1941, p. 49). No other details on history or production are available.
The country rock in the Pine Grove district is granite, presumably of the Idaho batholith (Ballard, 1928, p. 18-19). This is cut by numerous northeast-trending dikes of diorite, rhyolite, and diabase. The veins occupy a zone 1.25 miles wide that trends north-northwest. The upper parts of the veins are oxidized and contain free gold and iron and manganese oxides. Primary ore contains pyrite, galena, sphalerite, and some arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite in a gangue of quartz.
ROCKY BAR DISTRICT
The Rocky Bar district is in T. 4 N., R. 10 E., near the town of Rocky Bar. Placers discovered in 1862 on Bear Creek produced from 1863 until about 1873 (Ballard, 1928, p. 22). The gold in the placers was traced to lode deposits which were quickly developed; the principal mines were the Elmore and Pittsburg. According to Ross (1941, p. 47), the quartz mines of the district produced about $2 million in gold and silver and the placers, about $2 million in gold to 1882. Ballard (1928, p. 25) estimated a total production of ore worth from $3.25 to $3.75, million, presumably in gold, from the Elmore and Pittsburg mines alone. About 1900 the district became inactive and remained so except for small operations-in 1938 and 1939, which yielded no gold.
Granitic rock, part of the Idaho batholith, forms the bedrock here, as in most of the other gold districts of Elmore County. Numerous aplite, rhyolite, diorite porphyry, and mafic dikes, all trending east-northeast, cut the granite (Ballard, 1928, p. 22). The major veins strike eastward and consist of quartz gangue and auriferous pyrite. Small amounts of galena and sphalerite are in some veins.
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