Minietta Mine

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The Minietta opened in 1876 but was not extensively mined until 1895.


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

5 claims and a millsite owned by Mrs. Jack Gunn, Independance, California are leased to David D. Baker, Ross Finley and Tom Vignich, Panamint Springs, California.

The ore is principally argentiferous galena in fissures and bedding planes in limestone. Work by the present lessees has been on the St. Charles claim. Here the ore strikes north 40 degrees to 45 degrees east and the dip, which is 45 degrees northwest at the surface, flattens to approximately 22 degrees northwest in the lower adit.

The mine consists of three levels. On the upper level, the ore has been stoped from an 85-foot drift to the surface. The middle level consists of a 65-foot adit. The lower level is a 250-foot adit from which raises and crosscuts have been driven. Total work by the present lessees is approximately 350 feet. By April 1949, 26 cars (over 1700 tons) of ore, averaging 16 percent lead, had been shipped, according to Finley.

In April 1949 a mill was in operation treating the tailings from the old mill. The tailings are pulled over a 3/4-inch wooden grizzly into a bin by a scraper and a double-drum gasoline-motor-powered hoist. From this storage bin, the tailings are transferred by a bucket elevator to a trommel where minus 1/16-inch material passes into four cones for water classification. The cones are 12, 18, 36 and 72 inches in diameter and the overflow from each is treated on a separate 4 by 12-foot Dunham Economy table. The tables are all belt-driven by a Ford Model-A motor. Capacity of the mill is 1 1/2 tons per hour.

Water for all purposes is provided by springs in Thompson Canyon and flows by gravity through 2 to 2 1/2 miles of 2- and 1 1/2-inch pipe. Equipment includes a portable Ingersoll Rand compressor of 300-cubic-foot capacity.

Five men, including Finley and Vignich, are working.