Ratcliff Mine

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From the California Journal of Mines and Geology, Vol. 47, No. 1, Jan. 1951:

10 unpatented claims and a millsite are owned by Mrs. W.D. Claire, P.O. Box 5, Trona, California; leased to V.D. and D.H. Claire.

The property was located in 1897 and during the period 1898-1903, 15,000 tons of ore was mined valued at $300,000.00. D.H. Claire (in a 1949 oral communication) estimates total production during that period at $1,000,000 and Murphy* places the production at $500,000 to $750,000 worth of ore. The mine was reopened in 1927 and from 1927 to 1942 $250,000 worth of ore was mined according to D.H. Claire. About 20,000 tons of tailings assaying $5 to $6 per ton (gold at $20.67 per ounce) were cyanided with a recovery of $4.85 per ton.

The main Ratcliff vein strikes north to northwest and dips 45 to 50 degrees west. It is in a narrow belt of metamorphic rock, described variously as biotite schist, sericite schist, meta-quartzite or conglomerate schist. Murphy includes this belt in his Panamint metamorphic complex unit. The vein or zone consists of quartz lenses and masses in which gold is associated with pyrrhotite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite.

The 7 adits and related workings of the mine total approximately 4000 feet in length; the adits cover a vertical range of about 800 feet on the south side of Pleasant Canyon. No. 1 level or adit is about 1800 feet vertically about the camp, which is in the bottom of the canyon.

Two parallel veins on a contact of granite with gneiss contain scheelite. These veins, which are just north of the mill, were prospected by means of a 100-foot adit and a 25-foot winze. Assays of the ore showed 0.02 percent WO3 (tungsten).

In May 1949, work was being started on a lead prospect 500 feet southwest of the mill.

The mine is equipped with a mill which includes 20 stamps, 4 by 6-foot Marcy ball mill, Dorr duplex classifiers, concentratings table, agitators, and zinc boxes.


*F.M. Murphy in a 1929 publication.