Mine Tales: Mohave County mine is still cash money

Mohave County is well-known for its gold-mining operations.

One is the C.O.D. Mine in the Stockton Hill District. Today it consists of a 600-foot deep shaft, along with 1,700 feet of tunnels. The land occupied by the mine 12 miles northeast of Kingman includes 13 Bureau of Land Management claims encompassing 260 acres at about 4,900 feet in elevation on the east side of the Cerbat Mountains.

The country rock is composed of granite and gneiss mixed with quartz. The C.O.D. Mine, named for the phrase “cash on delivery,” was owned by J.H. Johnson, who is said to have paid his employees only after the ore was sold.

The C.O.D. Mine produced 4,000 tons of high-grade surface ore from 1878 to 1885, with a recorded production of $500,000 worth of gold by 1892. Until 1901, the silver averaged 160 ounces per ton, with gold averaging 2 ounces per ton. Lead, also mined at the site, averaged 15 percent to the ton.

Henry S. McKay organized the C.O.D. Consolidated Mining Co. in 1901. Refined processing on-site began with a 40-ton mill installed in 1902, with additional surface equipment consisting of three Bartlett concentrating tables, two rock crushers, a steam hoist with a 40-horsepower engine and a 50-horsepower engine and boiler. Unfortunately, declining silver prices and poor management forced the mine’s closure six months later.

A succession of mining companies worked the property over the next several years, including the Fletcher Mining Co. and the Taggart Mercantile Co. Mine owners including M.B. Dudley and P.H. McLaughlin operated the C.O.D. Mine for good profit through 1912.

Mining at the site has continued intermittently since, with some ore processed and shipped from the mine dumps. Years of neglect reportedly led to the main shaft caving in and filling with water by the 1950s, with 57,000 tons of ore blocked out, or “exposed,” in the underground workings.

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Nelle Clack, a partner in the C.O.D. Mine in 1959, reflected on how miners’ bunkhouses were located at the nearby Rico-White Eagle Mines. She prepared meals for the miners consisting of bacon, eggs, oatmeal and dried fruit for breakfast, while dinner was beans, canned vegetables, meat and milk.

Wrapped meat was preserved by hoisting it up on a high pole with a rope and pulley in the cool of the night for the following day’s meal.

Although the distance from the bunkhouse to the C.O.D. Mine was a mile, miners were content with the jaunt because of the quality of meals served in Clack’s camp. During Clack’s ownership in the late 1960s, the mine was rehabilitated, including new timbers and a steel headframe.

Recent operators of the C.O.D. Mine include Alanco Ltd., which mined a lead concentrate at the site during the 1980s. The concentrate was shipped to ASARCO’s El Paso smelter. The company’s return was in the precious metals acquired from the operation.

In 2009, US Canadian Minerals Inc. reported potential silver-gold reserves of $490 million from the Rico Vein which extended underground the C.O.D. Mine more than a mile in length and averaging 6 feet in width.

An old underground map of the C.O.D Mine workings was recently discovered by ARS Mining, an investment organization. Housed in the Mohave County Museum, the map verified high silver and gold assays at the 500 foot level of the C.O.D. Mine.