Tucki Mine

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From Mines and Mineral Deposits in Death Valley National Monument, California, 1976:

The Tucki mine is a few miles northeast of Skidoo on the southwest flank of Tucki Mountain. It is an underground mine and was first worked during the 1930s by the Journigan family. A minor amount of production was recorded in 1940 and then the property was idle for about 30 years. Thin quartz veins, containing minor amounts of gold, are found in fractures within Precambrian metasedimentary rock, primarily metaquartzite. In 1974, Russ Journigan and Paul Barnett reopened the mine. Gold leaching apparatus and four steel-lined cyanidization tanks were constructed at the property. Old tailing dumps were leached and processed by the carbon filtration method, and a few dozen ounces of gold were recovered. Barnett and Journigan indicated in December 1975 that they intended to contract to local miners in an attempt to locate and mine gold-bearing rock on the property. Fifteen assay results obtained by the National Park Service averaged 0.06 ounces of gold and 0.4 ounces of silver per ton, or about $12 per ton. These samples were collected from the old workings and from existing tailings dumps.


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

4 unpatented lode claims are owned by Roy I. Journigan, 709 E. Beverley Blvd., Whittier, California and Ed Attaway, Lone Pine, California.

Free gold associated with quartz occupies fractures in a bed of quartzite which strikes N. 55° W. and dips 55° SW. An irregularly inclined (average 50° SE) shaft has been sunk to the 200-foot level and continued as a winze to a depth of 330 feet. Lateral workings consist of 15-foot drifts at the 50- and 100-foot levels, a 40-foot drift driven southwest on the 130-foot level, an 80-foot drift driven south on the 170-foot level, and a 400-foot drift driven east on the 200-foot level. The deposit was first prospected by two adits 60 and 200 feet northwest of the shaft.

The total amount of gold produced to date is unknown, but from August 1940 to April 1941 lessees sold $5,200 worth of ore which averages $20 per ton; assays showed the gold content to range from $12 to $60 per ton. Ore mined since 1940 has been treated in a small cyanide plant on the property. Ore mined before 1940 was treated at Journigan's custom mill in Emigrant Canyon.


An in-depth history provided by the National Park Service: www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/deva/section3b2w.ht...