Middle Camp District – La Paz County, Arizona
The roads are mostly dirt from Quartzsite and will require a high clearance 4WD to access. Surveyors made it to the claim with a full-size truck no problem.
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Large historic gold mining operation just outside of Quartzsite, Arizona. The mines are all cut along a series of dark gold veins that can clearly be seen in the mountain side. The veins range from 3' to 9' as documented by local geologists and USGS. Many of the mine openings connect via trenches. Gold forms differently than would be expected as is found in dark ores with hematite and other iron-based minerals. Old reports note 3 veins that are large and gold bearing. Only the center vein has been worked in earnest. When the mine was shut down by the War Act there was over 30,000 tons of ore blocked out (reserves) on the center vein. Average return of 3 OPT in gold. In today's value, the reserves in the Great Bear Mine are worth over $112,000,000 (Million) Large camp onsite at one time to support the mining operations. Evidence of buildings, headframes and much more. Strangely undisturbed despite its proximity to Quartzite. This may be due to the remote access. Road access is good, but slow going and will require high clearance and 4WD. The road would need work for large dumpers or trailers. This Mine could benefit small miners or larger mining companies. Small miners could high grade the workings and get 10-15% of the available and exposed ore. A Larger company could re-open the workings and extract 100% of the ores and likely discover other deposits. There are also two veins which have been sampled, but unworked, they are thought to be over 3000' in length and from 3-9 feet wide. This would require a Notice of Operation and bonds but would provide the greatest return on investment.

The Middle Camp Mining District is some 7 miles west of Quartzsite, north of Interstate Highway 10, on the east side of the Dome Rock Mountains. Angular gravels, plus boulders, lie on schist with the average depth of gravels being 16 feet. The average tenor of gravels runs about 0.05 ounce of gold per cubic yard, with occasional rich channels occurring on bedrock. Since gravels are weakly cemented at depth, some of the gravel has been mined by means of shafts and drifts, then processed with trommels or crushers, plus dry washers. Wet jigs and spiral bowls have also been used with success. There is considerable black sand which carries some chromite and platinum-group metals. It is estimated that there are 1,500,000 ounces of placer gold under an area of approximately 1,300 acres, only a fraction of which has been produced to date.[2]

From a 1930s report,

The main vein has been developed over the past 8 years by the owner, a man with insufficient financial resource to carry on proper development work, who has leased the ground to parties who largely "high-graded" and shipped the better grade ore. However the work done has evidenced the continuity of the gold ores from 1500 feet along the strike in adit drifts to which the topography of the surface of the lode lends itself favorably, with average height of backs of about 150 feet. With the average width of the lode or vein being 3 1/2 feet, there is a block of partly developed ore of some 30,000 tons available down to the bottom of the lowest level which is the 100-foot shaft, i.e. 150' x 1000ft. x 3.5'. In places the vein has widths up to 6 and 8 feet wide. The assays over long periods of lease operations show an average gold value of $12 to $15 per ton and quite frequently values of as high as $100 or more per ton in gold are obtained. All work so far has been in the oxidized zone.

A record of one test run of the ore at a small mill gave: Heads $15.60, Recovery $14.15, Tails $1.25, and 20 cents unaccounted for, or about 90% recovery. This was secured by using amalgamation plates and concentrating table. Another tonnage run showed Heads $14.07 and Tails $.70, or about 95% recovery. Still another showed heads of $14.38 and tails $1.42.[1]

The gold lode occurs in a schist-gneiss complex and extends more than 3000' end to end lengthwise, on the property and beyond. The gold. deposits are in a strong shear zone consisting of fault fissuring in medium grained schist. The latter is crushed, silicified, and ferruginated and a very strong fault system is evidenced, with apparently three distinct, parallel gold bearing veins or lodes; only the middle one having as yet been opened up to any extent. The gold occurs almost entirely as fine to coarse grains and is not the thin type usually found on the cleavages and fractures in schist and shale deposits. It seems to have been introduced into the schist through the medium of iron bearing magmas ascending through the joint planes ,laminations and fissures in the crushed zone of shearing and depositing with the iron mineral. during the alteration and replacement processes that took place in the schist. It is distinctly not a quartz lode. The gold bearing schist is abundantly mineralized with the oxidized iron minerals as hematite, limonite and siderite.

Large gold mine worked exclusively for gold. Historic reports speak of 3 veins. The center vein is worked and accessed by an adit with stoping and drifting work. The actual mines do not match the historical maps and lend to the idea that substantial work has been done since the maps were created. Visible gold can be found in some dark sections of the iron-bearing rock. Note that historically gold was found in quantity, from .5 OPT to over 5 OPT. This value in gold exclusively. The mines are clear and open for the most part and expose the veins reported in the 1930s. The mine is remote and takes some work to get to. A large patent mine to the southeast has blocked road access from the highway and the mine is only accessible from the north.

A significant amount of work was done prior to 1941, there is no recorded history after this time. It is considered likely that the equipment was looted from the mine during the closure forced by the War Act. This theft likely did irreconcilable damage to the claim owner and prevented further development.

Gold could be worked from the visible veins with hand-held tools as it has been for the last century. No water so processing will have to take place elsewhere.

Federally Registered Mining Claim ID:AMC442193