Contact Mining District, Elko County, Nevada, USA.

Claim Information: The War Eagle Claim is nestled in the hills just south of the ghost town of Contact, Nevada. 10.21 miles up a relatively easy dirt road and you are on the claim. The area is beautiful and temperate and easy to reach. This is a lode claim, stretching out the full 1500×600 feet for a total span of just over 20 acres. It runs east and west, along the upper, exposed sections of the hills covering all of the access points to the mines and the lodes beneath. The mine has been staked and documented according to Nevada State Law. The Location Monument is perched in a on an exposed chunk of copper ore which seems to be the standard for the area. All of the markers and monuments are documented with GPS coordinates and time and date stamped images. No witness stakes. Access to the claim is via a worn old mining road that cuts out of the near ghost town of Contact, just off the highway. The road is not difficult to navigate but has some washes and soft sections that will make high clearance 4WD mandatory. There is plenty of room for parking on the claim and it really wouldn’t take much effort to drag a 5th Wheel trailer up here and work the site for a few weeks. **In 1895-96, the War Eagle was mined and shipped 8 carloads of copper that averaged about 24 percent copper, 24 ounces of silver to the tone and 7 percent silica. These mines seem to be among the most important in the area. The topography is rough but not rugged.“ **The War Eagle Lode is about 500 feet outside of a parallel streaked or banded lode or bed 8 feet wide, carrying copper ore in a gangue of chloropal, jaspery quartz, axinite, and garnet in dark limestone country rock with 40 ft of silicified limestone or quartzon the inner or hanging wall side. Siliceous syenitic dikes occur near by- for instance, in the saddle at the location stake about 200 feet to the northwest.”There is seasonal water in the area, and a few small ponds in the valleys. This is high desert land and remains relatively dry and arid throughout the year. The elevation is 7300-7500 ft. In the winter, you will see some snow on the claim, usually less than 6 inches, but it will be slow to melt with the cold of the winter. The temperatures for the region are remarkably temperate. Spring and Fall average a daytime temp of 83 degrees and an evening of 54. High and low records are 91 and 34, although there is no record of method or date of measurements. Winter can get a bit chilly with days averaging 56 degrees and lows dropping down to an average 24 degrees. The summer months are a little warmer, with an average day time temp of 91 and a low of 65. The Mines: The topography is rough but not rugged. **The War Eagle is located about 2 ½ miles south west of the summit of China Mountain, at an elevation of about 7300 feet. The mine is about 500 feet outside of a parallel streaked or banded lode or bed 8 feet wide, carrying copper ore in a gangue of chloropal, jaspery quartz, axinite, and garnet in dark limestone country rock with 40 ft of silicified limestone or quartzon the inner or hanging wall side. Siliceous syenitic dikes occur near by- for instance, in the saddle at the location stake about 200 feet to the northwest.**The lode is open mainly by an inclined shaft 120 ft deep and a 75 foot drift to the northwest on the 25 foot level with a 40 foot upraise at the ends. The work was nearly all done in 1895 and 1896 by TW McArdle. To a depth of 100 ft. the lode is said to dip 70 degrees in toward the contact. But from this point downward it gradually straightens and is thought to turn over and dip normally outward, like the Brooklyn Vein. The mine was last worked in 1899, about 100 tons of the ore on the dump is said to average 7 per cent copper and about 4 ounces of silver to the ton. It consists chiefly of copper carbonates and oxide with a little copper sulphide. NVELK00679 is the lower adit in the small gulch that contains the two mines. The adit is a total of 57 feet from entrance to face. The mine is impressive from the outside all the way in. Outside there are large, extensive copper deposits visible. Faces of rock that are completely blue in color from the amount of copper contained in the host. The mine has a small entrance, due to sluffage from above, but can easily be dug out if desired. It is open, stable and accessible as is. We entered noting the colors of copper and its derivatives are embedded deep into the walls. The adit is cut almost perpendicular to the ore body and stays on a straight line with the ore body to the face of the mine, where the bands of the vein are apparent. Silver is also visible in many sections of the mine, it runs in sporadic pockets as it was seen in the mine. This would match with the historical assessment of the mines and the ores that were shipped. The mine still holds good reserves of silver and copper that is readily apparent throughout the drift. NVELK00684 is the upper adit, however there is no apparent connection between the two mines. The drift is 54 feet deep from adit entrance to face. The mine is cut generally on the strike of the dip as is apparent inside the mine with the layers and banding. This mine has a lot more interesting mineral than the mine below it, with many, many oxidized sections of iron which usually indicate the presense of gold. However, there is not a large reporting of gold discovery in this general area. The oxidized sections will hold the metallics in the mine such as silver and copper. There is a lot going on here and if you were going to start high grading ores, this is where we would start.

Near head of small canyon/watershed. Possibly ephemeral or intermittent. Small tailings pile (15-20 cubic feet) near a mostly closed off adit. *Tailings pile of adit appears to be size separated with larger, angular blocks (~10-15 cm) to the left and right of the main tailings pile that is made of finer-grained material (sand to pebble sized).

*Entrance to adit appears to be naturally collapsed. Surveyors were able to access and explore it to 70-80’. No structures visible but it is clear that the mine followed a copper-rich vein which appears to be 1-1.5m thick at the entrance. Larger blocks in the tailings are rich with malachite, azurite and chrysocolla. Very close to granodiorite contact.

*Mine is 1/10th mile from east-west trending normal fault and 0.6 mile from intersection with a north-south trending normal fault (both of unknown age but mine is 800’ south of contact with Jurassic granodiorite intrusion (145-199 Ma) – likely cause for copper bearing vein. Host rock is white, chalky, limestone (Pmc, Stewart and Carlson, 1978). Bornite and chalcopyrite suspected. Possibly axinite, garnet and jasper in gangue. Vein may be considered skarn (tabular striking north, dipping 70 degrees) faults and dikes with associated intrusions.

The War Eagle Mines were located in 1887 for copper by a German who bonded the property to English Company. Later the ground was several times relocated by others, amount whom WT McArdle, in 1895-96, mined and shipped 8 carloads of copper that averaged about 24 percent copper, 24 ounces of silver to the tone and 7 percent silica. These mines seem to be among the most important in the area.

The Contact District is located in northeastern Nevada approximately 20 miles south of the town of Jackpot and approximately 45 miles north of the town of Wells. The historic Contact townsite and the major historic mines are located just to the west of Highway 93 which connects Jackpot and Wells.

The first discoveries in the area took place in 1870 when James Moran found gold. However, no production took place. Additional gold and copper deposits were also discovered during the next couple of years. In 1872, a prospecting party of three men; Hanks, Lewis, and Noll, located a number of new deposits on China Mountain. This led to the opening of other mines by the end of 1872. Four separate but adjacent mining districts were organized: Salmon, Kit Carson, Porter (Portis), and Alabama. All of the mining districts were later consolidated into the Contact Mining District. Although no town formed, a small hotel was completed in April of 1874. The hotel was built to serve as a stop on the Toano and Idaho Fast Freight Line.

In 1876, an official of the Southern Pacific Railroad located a number of other deposits on China Mountain. A large number of Chinese workers were hired to work the mines on a commission basis. The most prominent of the early mines, the Boston, shipped copper ore to Swansea, Wales until 1880. However, production from this early flurry of activity was quite small. 1897 was a year of great promise. In January, 100 men were employed. By April, the number had risen to 200. The Salmon River Mining Company was formed by 20 miners who contributed $100 each for the purpose of building a 50-ton smelter. S.P. Kemper was elected president and oversaw the smelter’s construction. The smelter proved extremely unsuccessful and only processed 14 tons from the Bluebird Mine before closing.

By 1900, population had dropped to 85. Only five residents were left by 1905. The area saw several revivals in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s with a small town being built over the years, but has never made a big mark on the map. By time the Contact post office closed on August 31, 1962, the town was virtually empty. All told, the Contact district has produced 5.8 million pounds of copper, 360,000 pounds of lead, 127,000 ounces of silver, 18,000 pounds of zinc, and 1,200 ounces of gold.