Mine Tales: Transportation issues hindered Black Hills mining

Mineralized outcrops reported by U.S. Army scouts stationed at Fort Whipple in Prescott in the 1870s initiated a quest among prospectors to the area between Jerome and Prescott, which became known as the Black Hills Mining District.

Despite exploration attempts finding shallow copper deposits and subsequent recorded claims, mining was hindered in the area because of transportation difficulties. These were later resolved with the building of wagon roads to points of rail for ore transport to the smelter.

The Yaeger Mine, located 12 miles southwest of Jerome at 5,400 feet in elevation in the western foothills of the Black Hills, was the most noteworthy mine in the area, with an extensive shoot of high-grade bornite ore along with chalcocite and oxidized copper minerals.

By 1903, the Yaeger Canyon Copper Co., was established to prospect in Yaeger Canyon, the ore of which was recorded as averaging 6 percent copper to the ton. Silver and gold were also mined as byproducts, with a ratio of 0.65 ounce of silver to the ton and 1 percent of copper. Prior to becoming governor of the Arizona Territory, Richard E. Sloan served as vice president of the Yaeger Canyon Copper Co.

Work at the Yaeger Mine halted from 1907 to 1917 due to metal prices and smelter closures.

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The property was acquired by the Shannon Copper Co., in 1918 for $125,000 and managed by A.L. Ferris. Tasked with dewatering the mine, which was producing 18,000 gallons of water daily, the Shannon Copper Co. opened the mine’s inclined shaft to the 1,300-foot level while improving the mine’s 750 feet of drifts at a cost of $75,000.

Ore was shipped to the Humboldt smelter until the mine closed in 1922 with the exhaustion of the ore deposit. That final year, 800 tons of copper-silver ore were smelted.

The Shannon Copper Co., netted $1.5 million during its brief operation of the mine. During the mine’s operation from 1890 to 1922, figures show that 10 million pounds of copper, along with $52,000 worth of gold and another $77,000 in silver were credited from the Yaeger deposit.

Later production proved minimal under multiple owners who attempted to exploit the mine’s ore dumps and tailings. Some fine mineral specimens collected in the ore pile at the Yaeger Mine included massive bornite, along with azurite, malachite and chalcocite.