Red Boy MineAll mine locations were obtained from the USGS place names database. The locations and other information in this database have not been verified for accuracy. It should be assumed that all mines are on private property. |
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State: Oregon
County: Grant
Elevation: 4,747 feet
Latitude: 44.7948698
Longitude: -118.4771701
Type: Gold, Silver
The Red Boy mine is at the head of Congo Gulch 5 miles southwest of Granite. Development of this mine began about 1890. The period of greatest activity was from 1893 through 1903, although work was continued through 1914 (figure 27). The Red Boy mine is developed by about 5000 feet of drifts and crosscuts from three adits and a 300-foot shaft. Swartley (1914, p. 192) shows a plan of the workings.
The country rock is argillite that dips about 15° W. and is cut by numerous highly altered felsite dikes. The dikes are probably premineral but formed in zones of weakness where postmineral movement occurred.
At least five veins have been explored, the Red Boy, Monarch, Blaine, Concord, and Congo. The Red Boy and Monarch yielded nearly all of the ore produced by the mine. The other three, which were worked mainly during the later years of the mine's operation, are said to have been well defined, but few shoots that would pay to mill were found (Pardee and Hewett, 1914, p. 113).
The Red Boy and Monarch veins were explored for distances of 1000 feet and 900 feet respectively. Each has been stoped for a horizontal distance of about 800 feet. Good ore values are said to have held to a depth of only about 300 feet.
The Red Boy vein strikes nearly due north and dips about 80° W., whereas the Monarch strikes N. 30° E., and dips 50° to 55° W. The two join near the south end of the workings, and a short distance farther south are offset an unknown distance along a broad fault zone that contains one of the felsite dikes.
The veins consist of crushed argillite traversed by a great number of veins and stringers of quartz. Width of the crushed zones ranges from 3 to 15 feet. The values, which were generally best toward the footwall, were mainly in the quartz and consisted chiefly of free gold alloyed with much silver, the bullion being 515 to 525 fine. Sulfides, mainly fine pyrite, which made up about 5 percent of the mill ore, were largely contained in the argillite rather than in the quartz. According to data collected by the operators and presented by Pardee and Hewett (1914, p. 113), the combined areas of stopes on the Red Boy and Monarch veins up to January 1, 1902 was 437,000 square feet and the yield 83,000 tons, indicating an average stoping width of 28 inches. The return from this tonnage was $666,322.10 or $8.00 to the ton.
Source: Gold and Silver in Oregon, State of Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, 1968
