The formation of the ore deposits in the Calico District has been a
subject of much discussion, and the question has received the closest
study and thorough investigation. In my opinion, the ore deposits were
formed through the agency of percolating waters carrying mineral
solutions, which deposited their contents along fault planes and in
certain zones of the country rock, where its brecciated and crushed
state offered superior conditions for the deposit of the silver ores and
the accompanying baryta. That all of these ore deposits have a common
genesis I do not doubt, whether they occur in the liparite, in the tufa,
or in the “mud” overhanging country rock, as is the case at the
Bismarck, Humbug, Waterloo, and some other mines. The form of the
deposits differ somewhat, it is true, for we find the reticulated veins
in the King Mine; the segregated deposits in the Odessa and Waterloo;
the fissures in the Langtry, in West Calico, and the impregnated deposit
in the Humbug. However, all the deposits of the district, of whatever
form, I believe are due to a common cause, having been deposited in
their various forms from mineral-bearing solutions which derived their
contents from the neighboring eruptive rocks (the liparites and tufas),
part of the material doubtless arising from great depth, and a portion
coming from the adjacent inclosing rocks by what is known as lateral
secretion. It is almost an impossibility to find in the Calico region a
piece of rock that does not contain more or less silver, from a fraction
of an ounce per ton upward.
The phenomena of ore deposition was very thoroughly investigated by
Messrs. Louis Janin, E.M., John Hays Hammond, E.M., Ross E. Browne,
E.M., and Wm. Irelan, Jr., State Mineralogist, at the time of the
lawsuit of John S. Doe vs. Waterloo Mining Company. These gentlemen all
agreed upon the origin of the ore deposits, and their opinions coincide
with my own and are in accordance with the ideas expressed above. The
wide difference in the size and form of the many ore bodies does not in
any manner conflict with the theory that in each instance the primary
cause of the deposit was a fracturing and crushing of the rock masses
and the subsequent infiltration of mineral solutions, which precipitated
their contents in the zones and crevices thus prepared for their
reception.
[Illustration: _SKETCH SHOWING
DISTRIBUTION OF ORE ON THE SURFACE IN THE
SILVER KING MINE
AS IT OCCURS BETWEEN THE FAULT PLANES
CALICO MINING DISTRICT
SAN BERNARDINO CO. CAL.
COPIED FROM EXHIBIT “R”
COURT RECORDS IN THE SUIT OF
JOHN S. DOE VS. WATERLOO MINING CO._]
In the Silver King Mine occurs a perfect network of veins, concerning
which Mr. Hammond testified: “At the time of the uplifting of the
liparite, or at some subsequent time, a fault occurred, which separated
a wedge-like mass of liparite from the main mountain mass, and this
fault plane was generally conceded to be what might be termed the foot
wall of the mineral belt, or zone, or lode. Contemporaneously with this
faulting a second fault occurred, which separated the overlying brown
tufa from the liparite, which fissure forms the overhanging wall of the
mineral deposits of the Silver King Mine. At the same time cross
fissures were formed in the liparite mass between the two main fissures.
Thus there was a main fissure or plane of contact between the brown tufa
and the liparite, and a similar fault plane between the segment of
liparite broken off and the main mass of the mountain. Between these two
main fissures, and throughout the whole mass of this segment of liparite
were innumerable fissures, some similar and equal in size to the main
fissures, and others forming a finer system of fissures and cracks,
extending through the rocks in all directions, leaving it in a broken
and disintegrated, and in many places an almost pulverized condition.
Although these finer fissures generally had a parallelism with the two
main fissures bounding this segment of rock, yet, in many places, these
finer seams or fissures run in every direction through the rock, forming
a network, or reticulated mass. The mineral-bearing waters have
deposited throughout this mass, from wall to wall, the minerals now
found within this zone in the form of baryta, carrying silver. The
finding of baryta in the shattered planes of the liparite, which is
entirely foreign to the rock itself, is sufficient evidence that a crack
or space must have existed prior to its deposition, from the solutions
which penetrated this broken zone of a once massive rock formation.”
[Illustration: _CROSS SECTIONS OF
SILVER KING MINE
TAKEN FROM COURT RECORDS IN SUIT OF
JOHN S. DOE VS. WATERLOO MINING CO._]
[Illustration: REPORT STATE MINERALOGIST
W^M. IRELAN, JR.
STATE MINERALOGIST.
VERTICAL CROSS SECTION
SHOWING THE FORMATION OF THE
SILVER KING LODE
CALICO MINING DISTRICT.
SAN BERNARDINO CO. CAL.
COPIED FROM EXHIBIT “P”
COURT RECORDS OF
JOHN S. DOE
VS.
WATERLOO MINING CO.]
[Illustration: STATE MINERALOGIST’S REPORT
W^M. IRELAN, JR.
STATE MINERALOGIST
_SKETCH MAP SHOWING THE FAULT SYSTEM
OF THE CALICO MINING DISTRICT_
PARTLY TAKEN FROM A MAP
BY
W. LINDGREN, E.M.
BY
W. H. STORMS, E.M.
ASSISTANT IN THE FIELD.]
The Odessa Mine offers good illustrations of impregnated masses, as does
also the Waterloo. In each of these mines, as in many others, the ore
bodies are found in bunches or pockets, varying from little deposits of
nominal value to great ore chambers containing thousands of tons of pay
rock. In these cases, as at the King Mine, a system of faulting planes
marks the general strike of a mineral-bearing zone or lode, but the
great rock masses of tufa, in which these ore bodies occur (and also of
sandstone in the Waterloo), are quite loose and porous in texture, and
undoubtedly the ore bodies in these mines resulted partially, at least,
from the impregnation of the rock with the mineral solutions which found
an easy passage along the fault planes that had cut the rocks in every
direction.
In the Waterloo Mine one of the fault planes exhibited a regularity
seldom seen in any mine. It coursed through the light-colored, soft tufa
in an easterly and westerly direction, was perfectly true, and as smooth
as any hard-finished wall could be made by the most skillful artisan.
The fracture was of knife-blade thinness, and its sides were coated with
dark red iron oxide. It dipped to the southward at an angle of about
40°. At one time it was considered to be the hanging wall of the lode,
but a miner broke through the wall to cut a hitch for a timber and it
was found that the overlying rock beyond the slip was ore-bearing also.
Stopes in this mine were frequently over ten sets in width, or over 60
feet. At the eastern end of the claim some extremely rich ore was mined
from a belt of jasper, a metamorphosed clay shale, which by heat and
pressure had become an intensely hard, fine-grained, flinty rock, yet
some of this jasper contained over 1,000 ounces of silver per ton.
In West Calico, 2 miles west of the Waterloo, is the Langtry group of
claims. The principal development is on the west end of the Langtry
Mine. The Langtry may be called the anomaly of the camp, as it is a
fissure vein pure and simple, or, more strictly speaking, two fissures.
The strike of these two fissures, which are 60 feet apart, is nearly
parallel, but they will undoubtedly meet in depth. That on the south
side dips northerly, while the other pitches toward the south slightly.
Both stand at a high angle, and it is doubtful if they will converge
inside of 250 feet from the surface. The veins are composed principally
of a coarsely crystallized baryta with quartz, containing brown iron
oxides, lead carbonate, ochre, manganese oxide, and chloride of silver.
The average value of the ore was about 22 ounces per ton. The veins vary
from a thin seam to over 10 feet in width on the north vein, having an
average width of 3 or 4 feet. These veins occur in the “outside” or
“mud” country, which lies along the flank of the southern slope of the
Calico Mountains. The mud shales and argillaceous sandstones here lie
nearly horizontal, the veins cutting them at an angle closely
approximating 90°.