194 



GEOLOGY AND QUICKSILVER DEPOSITS, XEW ALMADEX DISTRICT, CALIFORNIA 



site of the old English camp on Mine Hill, benefited 

 the property by erect ing new buildings, repairing the 

 waterlines, and keeping up the roads. 



In 1935, C. N. Schuette was called upon as a quick- 

 silver-mining expert to evaluate a part of the New 

 Almaden property that was to be flooded as a result 

 of the erection of water conservation dams in Guada- 

 lupe and Almaden Canyons. The sale price of these 

 parcels of land was established without court action, 

 and Mr. Schuette was retained by the owners to pre- 

 pare a comprehensive report on the mining possibili- 

 ties of the entire property. His report served to call 

 attention to the property, and in 1939 members of 

 W. H. Newbold's Sons & Co., of Philadelphia, under- 

 took the promotion of a company to lease and operate 

 it. A new company, known as the New Almaden 

 Corp., was formed, and took over the property on 

 May 1, 1940, with Schuette as general manager. 



The new operation, which was to continue through 

 World War II, was begun by stripping overburden 

 from the top of Mine Hill and the contiguous east 

 slope. (See fig. 124.) This work resulted in the un- 



covering of some minable ore, and by the middle of 

 November 1940 a modern reduction plant (fig. 125) 

 containing a 100-ton rotary furnace had been installed 

 near the opencuts. Furnacing of ore began immedi- 

 ately after the plant was completed, but it soon be- 

 came apparent that the ore in the opencut was capri- 

 ciously distributed and could not be followed to any 

 great depth without removing an excessive amount of 

 overburden. It was therefore decided to make a new 

 attempt to find additional ore in the then inaccessible 

 New Almaden mine, and to achieve this the Day tun- 

 nel and Santa Rita shaft were reopened. This under- 

 ground venture, however, was seriously handicapped 

 by a lack of experienced miners, and although most 

 of the mine at and above the 800 level was made acces- 

 sible and short new workings were driven in the cen- 

 tral stope area, little ore was obtained. Meanwhile. 

 the old dumps, particularly the China dump at the 

 mouth of the Main tunnel, were worked to maintain 

 production, and they were the principal sources of ore. 

 When the dump ore was exhausted, the large San 

 Francisco opencut on the south slope of Mine Hill was 



FIOCRB 124. OpencutB developed on Mine Hill by the New Almaden Corp. between 1WO and 1945. Note landslide descending from face of 



In'rKr wimti' clump in renter fnrcirronml. The <';ir\iil portal of the ol.l Main tunnel is just to tln> rlcht of the (luin|i and above the land- 

 slide pond. Headframe of the Santa Rita shaft, reopened In 1941, ig visible on right skyline. 



