THE MINERALS OP IDAHO 69 



The Flint district is principally noted as a silver district, although 

 the ores contain a little gold. The mines have been operated inter- 

 mittently since 1865. The Rising Star, Leviathan, and Perseverance 

 are the principal claims. 



The Mammoth district contains large quartz veins containing auri- 

 ferous pj'rite, in granite. The production has been small. 



Placers on Snake River in Owyhee County are worked in a small 

 way, the output being 38.35 ounces of gold in 1907 and the product 

 for 190S being valued at $870. 



SHOSHONE COUNTY 



The Coeur d'Alene district, although later better known for its 

 lead-silver ores, began as a gold mining district and produced gold 

 to the value of -$4,710,489 previous to 1906. Native gold occurs in 

 quartz veins in the Prichard slate (Algonkian) and in placer deposits 

 of local derivation, particularly in that part of the district tributary to 

 the north fork of the Coeur d'Alene River and adjacent to the town of 

 Murray. Much of the quartz formerly mined was very rich and con- 

 tained coarse free gold. The veins are narrow and the gold is errati- 

 cally distributed or " pockety." They are commonly very flat lying 

 "blanket" veins following bedding planes in the black slates. The 

 principal gangue is clean white quartz which in some veins, notably 

 the Golden Chest and Golden Winnie (Friday), contains masses of 

 pale brown scheelite. The sulphides commonly accompanying the 

 gold are auriferous pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, and sphalerite. 

 Although some galena is found in the gold veins, these do not grade into 

 silver-lead veins. The two types are distinct, gold being practically 

 absent from the deposits worked for lead and silver. The principal 

 mines are the Golden Chest and the Ophir Mountain mines, including 

 the Yosemite, Daddy, Mother Lode, Treasure Box, and Occident, 

 all on Prichard Creek east of Murray. The Yosemite, which was 

 discovered in 1893, produced $500,000. The Buckeye Boy mine in 

 Dream Gulch produced $25,000 from a pocket of rich ore in 1885, 

 some of the ore containing 550 ounces of gold a ton, and showing 

 coarse native gold. The Crown Point mine in Trail Gulch has also 

 yielded valuable ore. 



Numerous other auriferous veins have been opened, one of the 

 most recently discovered, the Pilot property of John Doctor having 

 produced rich ore containing native gold and gold tellurides. Gold- 

 bearing veins have also been worked to some extent east of Kellogg, 

 on Elk Creek (Gold Bug), Gold Run (New Jersey mine), and Big 

 Creek. These ores are mostly low grade on the average and the 

 mines are now idle. A unique occurrence of gold in this district 

 is in the Stanley antimony mine at Burke where thin, frost-like 

 films of native gold occur coating cracks and rifts in coarse stibnite. 



