6
most serious effort was reported by Silver,24 as summarized
below.
Addwest Minerals began investigating Goldroad in
1991 and acquired the property for $1 million paid over 4
years with a 2% net smelter return. A feasibility study was
completed in June 1993 and a 500 ton/day cyanidation/
carbon-in-pulp mill was constructed. The first gold was
poured in January 1995. Capital investments, respectively,
in mine and mill were $10.0 and $7.2 million, for a total of
$17.2 million, an overrun of nearly 63 percent versus the
$10.5 million budget.
Long-hole stoping was initially tried, but mining soon
transitioned to shrinkage stoping to minimize dilution. A
comparison of the methods revealed that shrinkage stoping
nearly doubled both ore grade and percent ore recovery.
A rough startup was followed by a successful opera-
tion that produced 92,500 ounces of gold. However, high
production costs and a soft gold market led to closure
in 1998.25
PARTIAL PRODUCTION STATISTICS
Table 1 summarizes production from the larger mines in
the Oatman District. The ore tonnages are only available
for some of the properties and the stated values represented
only gold in bullion after milling. Silver contributed less
than 2% to the total values in bullion.
24. Silver, D.B. (1997), “Gold Road Mine: Anatomy of a turn-
around,” Mining Engineering, August, pp. 28–32.
25. Short, H. (2008), “Adopt-A- Mine,” WorldWide Drilling
Resource, November, p. 72.
These statistics are a composite of data provided by
Ransome (USGS), the Arizona Bureau of Mines, and D. B.
Silver.26 Tons have been rounded to the nearest thousand
from data that were reported to the nearest ton, but prob-
ably were less precise. Tons and values have intentionally
not been totalized.
It is important to note that the production in Table 1
all occurred while the gold price was still fixed at $20.67
per troy ounce. Therefore, the amount of gold associated
with the total stated value of $34.61 million totaled about
1,674,000 ounces. The actual number of ounces would
have exceeded this figure because there were scores of
smaller mines.
Also, significant production occurred after 1931 up to
October 1942. It is likely that the Tom Reed mined and
milled another 600,000 tons of ore. Silver reported that
Goldroad had mined a total of 1.7 million tons through
1942, over double the tonnage reported through 1931.
Table 1. Partial Pre-1932 Production Statistics
Mine Years Tons Ore Value, $MM
United Eastern 1917–1924 697,000 13.67
Tom Reed 1907–1931 984,000 13.10
Gold Road 1903–1931 738,000 7.25
Moss Pre-1900 — 0.25
Telluride 1922–1931 — 0.20
Hardy 1870–1906 0.10
Pioneer 1896–1906 — 0.04
26. Silver, Ibid., p.29.
most serious effort was reported by Silver,24 as summarized
below.
Addwest Minerals began investigating Goldroad in
1991 and acquired the property for $1 million paid over 4
years with a 2% net smelter return. A feasibility study was
completed in June 1993 and a 500 ton/day cyanidation/
carbon-in-pulp mill was constructed. The first gold was
poured in January 1995. Capital investments, respectively,
in mine and mill were $10.0 and $7.2 million, for a total of
$17.2 million, an overrun of nearly 63 percent versus the
$10.5 million budget.
Long-hole stoping was initially tried, but mining soon
transitioned to shrinkage stoping to minimize dilution. A
comparison of the methods revealed that shrinkage stoping
nearly doubled both ore grade and percent ore recovery.
A rough startup was followed by a successful opera-
tion that produced 92,500 ounces of gold. However, high
production costs and a soft gold market led to closure
in 1998.25
PARTIAL PRODUCTION STATISTICS
Table 1 summarizes production from the larger mines in
the Oatman District. The ore tonnages are only available
for some of the properties and the stated values represented
only gold in bullion after milling. Silver contributed less
than 2% to the total values in bullion.
24. Silver, D.B. (1997), “Gold Road Mine: Anatomy of a turn-
around,” Mining Engineering, August, pp. 28–32.
25. Short, H. (2008), “Adopt-A- Mine,” WorldWide Drilling
Resource, November, p. 72.
These statistics are a composite of data provided by
Ransome (USGS), the Arizona Bureau of Mines, and D. B.
Silver.26 Tons have been rounded to the nearest thousand
from data that were reported to the nearest ton, but prob-
ably were less precise. Tons and values have intentionally
not been totalized.
It is important to note that the production in Table 1
all occurred while the gold price was still fixed at $20.67
per troy ounce. Therefore, the amount of gold associated
with the total stated value of $34.61 million totaled about
1,674,000 ounces. The actual number of ounces would
have exceeded this figure because there were scores of
smaller mines.
Also, significant production occurred after 1931 up to
October 1942. It is likely that the Tom Reed mined and
milled another 600,000 tons of ore. Silver reported that
Goldroad had mined a total of 1.7 million tons through
1942, over double the tonnage reported through 1931.
Table 1. Partial Pre-1932 Production Statistics
Mine Years Tons Ore Value, $MM
United Eastern 1917–1924 697,000 13.67
Tom Reed 1907–1931 984,000 13.10
Gold Road 1903–1931 738,000 7.25
Moss Pre-1900 — 0.25
Telluride 1922–1931 — 0.20
Hardy 1870–1906 0.10
Pioneer 1896–1906 — 0.04
26. Silver, Ibid., p.29.