EXHIBIT 28 (h)
DEEP GOLD MINE
The DEEP GOLD placer mine located in Marble Canyon, Inyo County, California, was
first taken possession of on the public domain by the undersigned in 1981.
1981 original acquisition, multiple placer claims.
1982 Removal of old buildings and area cleanup.
1983 Access road repair by Sierra Construction, Bishop, CA.
U.S. Forest Service approval of Notice of Intent.
1984 Main shaft collar preliminary repair.
U.S. Bureau of Mines field party examination.
U.S. Geological Survey field party examination.
1985 Main shaft headframe reconstruction.
1986 original acquisition consolidated into single 80-acre claim. Main shaft
equipped with 150 feet of new wooden ladders.
1987 Main shaft collar concrete repairs completed.
U.S. Forest Service Plan of Operations approved.
1988 Access road repair and improvement.
Mining crew hired from Bishop to renovate shaft interior.
1989 Steel hoisting guides and steel ladder installed in shaft.
1990 Four tons of debris hoisted from bottom of shaft.
Base of shaft and bedrock tested for gold values.
1991 Magnetometer survey conducted across Marble Canyon.
Main shaft collar barricaded shut.
1992 Seven-traverse magnetometer survey completed to locate magnetic black
sands concentrated in paystreak with gold, also showing old shaft did
not enter paystreak area.
1993 Based on the definitive magnetometer survey, drill sites were chosen to
explore the paystreak anomaly.
1994 Short drill rig roads branching from the mine road will be prepared
using a Bishop contractor. A drilling contractor from either Benton
or Apple Valley, CA will be hired to retrieve samples to bedrock. The
paystreak will be delineated by percussion drill sample evaluation, and
a mining plan will be designed to test the technical and economic
feasibility of different sized operations.
The volume of gold placer values available on the claim can be estimated using
the paystreak width and thickness values reported in the California Division of
Mines Report XXXIV for the Lewis and the IRON Nugget claim groups, both included
in the Deep Gold claim. The average width of the paystreak is 57 feet, and the
thickness is reported at 6 feet. The average value of recovered gold, at $35 per
ounce, was $5.50 per cubic yard.
Taking the 8,000 foot length of the claim as containing the average paystreak,
there are an estimated 101,333 cubic yards of ore. At a gold concentration of
0.157 ($5.50/$35) ounces per ton there are 15,909 ounces of recoverable gold
present. With gold at $350 per ounce the resource has a potential value of $5.5
million.
Ralph E. Pray
----------------------
/s/ Ralph E. Pray, D.Sc.
August 5, 1994
RECORDING REQUESTED BY &
WHEN RECORDED MAIL TO:
Dr. Ralph E. Pray
805 South Shamrock Ave.
Monrovia, CA 91016
AMENDED PLACER LOCATION NOTICE
NOTICE is hereby given that the below named persons have this 29th day of
September, 1986, located a PLACER MINING CLAIM situate on public surveyed
land in the County of Inyo, State of California, described as follows:
Commencing at the NE corner, corner No. 1, the Location Monument,
located 100 feet east of the County Road and 4,190 feet N65E from the
SW corner of section 12, Township 10 South, Range 36 East, M.D.M.;
thence due west 1,120 feet to corner No. 2; thence N77W 2,100 feet to
corner No. 3; thence S63W 2,320 feet to corner No. 4; thence N81W
2,380 feet to corner No. 5; the NW corner; thence due south 440 feet
to corner No. 6, the SW corner; thence S81E 2,380 feet to corner No.
7; thence N63E 2,320 feet to corner NO. 8; thence S77E 2,100 feet to
corner NO. 9; thence due east 1,120 feet to corner No. 10, the SE
corner; thence 440 feet due north to corner No. 1, the point of
beginning, each corner marked by a white-colored monument, enclosing
an area of 80 acres, named the DEEP GOLD placer mining claim.
Locators:
/s/ Ralph E. Pray
----------------------------
Ralph E. Pray 805 South Shamrock Ave.
Ross Pray Monrovia, CA 91016
Maxwell Pray (818) 357-65ll
Thomas P. Sullivan
<---map inserted here--->
DEEP GOLD placer mining claim
Sections 11 & 12, Township 10 South, Range 36 East, M.D.M.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Mineral resources and mineral resource potential of the Saline Valley
and Lower Saline Wilderness Study Areas
Inyo County, California
by
Chester T. Wrucke, Sherman P. Marsh, Gary L. Raines,
R. Scott Werschky, Richard J. Blakely, and Donald B. Hoover
U.S. Geological Survey
and
Edward L. McHugh, Clayton M. Rumsey,
Richard S. Gaps, and J. Douglas Causey
U.S. Bureau of Mines
U.S. Geological Survey
Open-File Report 84-560
Prepared by U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Bureau of Mines
<---US DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR LOGOS--->
for U.S. Bureau of Land Management
This report is preliminary and has
not been reviewed for conformity with
U.S. Geological Survey editorial standards
and stratigraphic nomenclature.
1984
Physiography
The Saline Valley and Lower Saline Wilderness Study Areas are in the
western part of the Basin and Range province and are as close as 20 mi to the
Sierra Nevada. The study areas include the mountainous terrain east of the high
northern parts of the Inyo Mountains, the Saline Range, the southern half of the
Last Chance Range, and the range that extends north and south of Dry Mountain.
Drainage is toward the three closed basins of Eureka, Saline, and Death Valleys,
but there are no permanent streams. The highest and lowest points are Dry
Mountain and the eastern side of Saline Valley, respectively 8,674 ft and about
1,200 ft above sea level. The bottom of Saline Valley just west of the study
area is the lowest place in the northern Death Valley region. The general
topographic trend of the mountains and valleys is approximately north-south, but
significant local variations exist from this trend.
Mining history
Prospecting in the region of the Saline Valley and Lower Saline Wilderness
Study Areas probably began in the late 1850s or early 1860s, as mineral
discoveries were made in the Inyo Mountains as early as 1859 and the Lone Pine
mining district was organized in 1866 (Chaflant, 1933). The rich silver-lead
deposits at Cerro Gordo in the Inyo Mountains, southwest of the study areas, are
reported to have been discovered in the interval 1861-1866 (Merriam, 1963).
Several mines in the eastern foothills of the Inyo Mountains just outside the
study areas were opened between 1879 and 1907 (Waring and Huguenin, 1917),
including the Loretto (copper), Scheelite (tungsten and copper), Opal (lead and
silver), Bedell (lead and silver), Waucoba (tungsten and copper), Bunker Hill
(lead and silver), and Blue Monster (lead and silver) mines (fig. 2). Mineral
production is recorded from these mines for the period 1899-1964; none is
currently operating. The Victor Consolidated mine, located as a gold prospect in
1909, was patented in 1912 and was later operated as a talc mine. The Loretto
mine, developed by an 1,800 ft-deep shaft during the period 1907-1915 (Waring
and Huguenin, 1917), was patented in 1922 and was under exploration as recently
as 1975. Silver- and lead-bearing quartz veins at the Lee, Del, August, Ruby
Port, Emma, Hillside, and Morning Star prospects in the Whipporwill Flat -
Jackass Flats area were prospected probably before 1900.
Placer gold was discovered in Marble Canyon before 1904 (Tucker and
Sampson, 1938). Substantial development began in 1934 and at least three placer
mines just west of the study area were active in 1982.
Silver-lead-zinc deposits in the Ubehebe district, which includes the Lower
Saline Wilderness Study Area, were mined in the early 1900s. All of these mines
are outside this study area. The first recorded production from the district was
of silver from the Ubehebe mine (fig. 2) in 1908. The Lippincott mine was worked
for lead and silver as early as 1908, and the Blue Jay mine, one-half mile east
of the south end of the Saline Valley Wilderness Study Area, produced high-grade
copper and silver ore in 1915 (McAllister, 1955) All were idle in 1982.
Salt deposits were discovered in the playa at the bottom of Saline Valley,
outside the study areas, in 1864 (Bailey, 1902). An aerial tramway across the
Inyo Mountains to Owens Valley was used to haul salt from the deposits between
1913 and 1930 (Ver Planck, 1958). Borax from surficial deposits was mined in
Saline Valley west of the Lower Saline Wilderness Study Area from 1895 to 1907
(McAllister, 1955; Gale, 1914).
Talc deposits northwest of the Saline Valley Wilderness Study Area were
known by the early 1900s and were worked as recently as 1970; Talc deposits in
the Inyo Mountains and small amounts of chalcopyrite. Skarn adjacent to the
Hunter Mountain quartz monzonite in the southern part of the study area contains
copper minerals and molybdenite. Chalcopyrite, specular hematite and molybdenite
are scattered through garnet-rich tactite at the Blue Jay mine, 0.5 mi east of
the Saline Valley Wilderness Study Area (fig. 2). Core from 3,807 ft of drilling
in 11 holes near the Blue Jay mine in 1970 contained a maximum of 2.67 percent
copper and 0.18 percent molybdenum in small erratically distributed pods
(Rumsey, 1983). Small copper-bearing skarn pods exist in nearby parts of the
study area at the Lucky Rich prospect (fig. 2, no. 44), and other prospects
(fig. 2, nos. 46, 47).
Gold
Placer gold occurs in Marble Canyon (fig. 2), and lode gold is known at
many localities in the Saline Valley and Lower Saline Wilderness Study Areas.
Gold-bearing gravels extend for a distance of nine miles along the bottom
of Marble Canyon (fig. 2). Eighteen shafts and 3,000 ft of drifts have been dug
in the gravels west of the Saline Valley Wilderness Study Area. All of the
recently active workings are in this part of the canyon. Three shafts, partly or
completely caved, are inside the study area. The source of the gold in the Inyo
Mountains is not known. McKee and others (1983) speculated that the gold may
have been derived from a pre-Tertiary stream system that originated north of
Marble Canyon, possibly in the White Mountains. Production has been mostly
unrecorded, but at least 329 oz gold and 22 oz silver were recovered from more
than 7,300 cu yd of gravel between 1936 and 1960. Gravel mined during that
period averaged $1-7 per cu yd at a gold price of $35 per oz. The largest single
nugget had a value of $300 (Tucker and Sampson, 1938). Three placer mines just
west of the study area were active in 1982.
Gold occurs in hydrothermally altered shear zones at the Jenny B. prospect
located at the north end of the range that contains Dry Mountain (fig. 2, no.
38). The host rocks are limestone and intensely sheared quartzite at the sole of
the Last Chance thrust. Samples of altered rock collected at the surface contain
anomalous concentrations of boron, copper, lead, manganese , niobium, and
silver. Chip samples from workings on the property contain from a trace to 0.19
oz gold per ton and a wide range of silver and copper concentrations (table 1).
The Leah-Venessa prospect (fig. 2, no. 37), 0.6 mi southwest of the Jenny
B. prospect, has gold in veins in highly faulted calcareous shale and limestone
of the Lost Burro Formation. Chip samples collected across one mineralized zone
averaged 0.099 oz gold per ton (table 1). Geochemical samples collected at the
surface have the same suite of elements as samples from rocks at the Jenny B.
prospect.
Anomalous concentrations of gold were found in rock samples collected in
the vicinity of the Crater mine, both inside and outside the study area (fig.
2). A sulfur deposit, a mercury mine, and numerous mercury prospects exist in
the area around the Crater mine and are discussed later, but no properties have
been worked for gold. However, stream-sediment samples and rock samples from
prospects in this area have high concentrations of mercury, antimony, and
arsenic, which are key elements in the well known geochemical suite
characteristic of epithermal gold deposits (Erickson and others, 1966; White,
1981). Various combinations of these elements were found at mercury prospects
southwest of the Crater mine (fig. 2, nos. 5-10, 12-14), and gold was detected
at four of the prospects (table 1). The high detection limit for gold by the
spectrographic technique used-10 ppm in stream-sediment samples and 20 ppm in
heavy mineral concentrates-is too high to assess adequately the gold potential
in the Crater survey. Epithermal gold deposits also commonly exhibit evidence of
several stages of silicification, brecciation, and stockwork veining. Such
repetitive hydrothermal activity is not in evidence in these areas.
Placer Gold.- Areas 12 and 13 outline alluvial gravels in Marble Canyon in
the western part of the study area. Area 12 contains the gravels that extend
into the study area from the west and can be followed a distance of about 1.5 mi
down the canyon from the west border of the area. Because these gravels contain
mines at several localities along a considerable portion of area 12 inside as
well as outside the study area, the area is assessed as having a high potential
for resources of placer gold at localities that have not been explored by mine
workings. Bedrock is exposed along the bottom of Marble Canyon downstream from
the east end of area 12 to the west end of area 13. Gravel is again exposed in
area 13 to the lower end of the canyon, and these gravels could be expected to
have placer gold that was transported downstream beyond area 12. Significant
concentrations of placer gold, it present in area 13, reasonably would be at and
near the bottom of the alluvium as they are in area 12. Area 13 has a moderate
potential for the occurrence of gold resources in placer deposits.
Vein gold.- Area 5 is in the northern part of the mountains that contain
Dry Mountain and has the Jenny B. prospect at its northeast end and the
Leah-Venessa prospect at its southwest end. Evidence of iron oxides of
hydrothermal origin in the area were detected in remote sensing data. Anomalous
concentrations of boron, copper, lead, manganese, niobium, and silver, mentioned
earlier as having been found at both prospects, is permissive of an origin by
mesothermal mineralization. Despite the modest values of precious metals
identified at the prospects, the area appears to be weakly mineralized and is
assigned a low potential for the occurrence of gold resources.
Copper and Molybdenum
Copper and molybdenum occur in skarn deposits developed in calcsilicate
rocks formed from Paleozoic carbonate rocks adjacent to the Hunter Mountain
pluton near the southern end of the study area, and in small skarn bodies
enclosed in the Hunter Mountain pluton in nearby parts of Death Valley National
Monument. The amounts of copper, molybdenum, and various other metals are low in
these deposits, and the areas containing the skarns are interpreted as having no
recognized potential for resources of these metals. Copper and precious metals
occur in skarn developed in a marble inclusion in the diorite of Marble Canyon
near the north end of the study area (Black Rock prospect, fig. 2, no. 16).
Despite modest metal values at the prospect, the small size of this and similar
marble inclusions indicate that no recognized resource potential exists for
copper or other metals in the area containing the inclusions. Copper without
associated molybdenum has been explored in workings of the Loretto mine (fig.
2), but because mineralized rock at this property does not extend into the study
area the resource potential for copper in the mine area was not determined.
Concentrations of metals (as much as 1,500 ppm arsenic, 1,000 ppm copper, 0.8
ppm gold, 200 ppm lead, 1,000 ppm molybdenum, 15 ppm silver, and 500 ppm zinc)
in veins containing iron oxides and quartz were found in area 9 (fig. 3) in
Burchfiel's (1969) border phase of the Hunter Mountain pluton. Tungsten, boron,
and niobium also were found in selected samples. These veins, the pervasive
sericitic alteration between the veins, and a local stockwork of fine-grained
quartz veins in the granite are indicative of a hydrothermal system probably
related to the cooling of the Hunter Mountain pluton. An audiomagnetotelluric
survey in the area indicated that the alteration extends 1/2 to 1 km in depth.