Latitude: 44°24'N
Longitude: 103°51'W
Ref.: Rocks & Min.:60:112. A lead mine. Ore is irregular replacement bodies along jasperized vertical fractures that transect Mississippian Pahasapa Limestone.
Ref: "The Mines Around and Beyond", Joel K. Waterland, 1991, pp. 235 - 247.
Original location date not known, but incorporated in 1881. By 1883, the shaft was 225 feet deep but the mine closed due to excessive ground water.
The mine reopened in 1884. Difficulties with the local smelter (Hattenbach) forced the company to sack ore and ship it to Omaha, Nebraska. BY 1886, new investors and management (including Seth Bullock) expanded the operation with its own mill, purchase of the Hattenbach Smelter, Rubicon Gulch water rights and additional property. The shaft reached 300 feet. However, charcoal was in short supply and the company had to buy coke for $10 per ton. High arsenic concentrations sickened the mercury at the stamp mill and recovery dropped below 33%.
By 1886, the company was running out of ore amenable to amalgamation. The smelter closed after only ten months operation. The company extended the shaft to 400 feet and purchased a diamond drill for exploration. Exploration continued through 1889.
In 1890, the company purchased the Calumet gold mine in the Ruby Basin District and treated a mix of Iron Hill and Calumet ores. By 1891, all ore was shipped to Omaha, Nebraska due to excessive costs in South Dakota. By 1898, the entire property had been leased to W. M. Remer.
Sporadic exploration occurred until 1918, when an investment group began an adit in Silver Spring Gulch. By 1920, it broke into the flooded 300 foot level workings, dewatering all but the 400 foot level of the entire mine. However, the project was abandoned.
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