READY RELIEF MINE.
This is the largest and most extensively developed mine near Banner. It has earned considerable fame, not only as a producer, but for the peculiarities exhibited in the formation of its bunches of quartz, which contain disseminated grains and masses of pyrite.
The Ready Relief has several levels, all of which are connected by winzes and shafts. The huge bunches of quartz have, from their peculiar form, been denominated “rolls,” and I know of no better term which would convey a clear idea of their appearance. As a result of close observation made at numerous points in the mine and on the surface at the time of my visit, I formed the conclusion that the “rolls” of the Ready Relief Mine simply represent an exaggerated condition of the same sort of flexing of the schists that has produced the other mines of this district. The facts as observed lead me to the belief that the “rolls” or folds of the Ready Relief Mine, and its extensions, both north and south, are the result of a severe compressive stress upon the schists at right angle to a line running nearly northwest and southeast; that this force was exerted in the form of pressure and not of contraction; that as a result of this pressure there is a tendency exhibited on the part of the contorted strata to form a reverse fault and not a normal one, and that this power expended itself before the rocks were forced to yield to the strain to the extent of fracture, the result being an abrupt crumpling of the schists without disruption.
Along this line of disturbance percolating waters have deposited silica in enormous quantities. The schistose folded masses having been completely metamorphosed, massive quartz replacing the crushed and crumpled crystalline rocks, though the lines of its former schistose structure are in many places preserved.
A sketch of a characteristic section is here reproduced, and it may help the reader to form some conception of this unusual occurrence of gold-bearing quartz. The strike of the country rock is about northwest and southeast, and varies but little from this over a wide area. The rock is, generally speaking, a dark gray, rather close-grained, micaceous rock (argillite), having a dip to the east of about 80°. The succession of folds cut across the dip of the schists at an angle about 45° from the horizon.
It will be noticed that in places several of the rolls lie side by side. Where this occurs the pay shoot is very large. The thickness of the individual rolls varies from a few inches to 5 or 6 feet, and where the folds parallel each other a width of 12 to 20 feet or more is not uncommon. These rolls do not extend longitudinally a great distance, but seem to gradually diminish, being followed by others along the strike of the vein. It seems quite evident that had the stress which produced this folding or crumpling of the schists proceeded much farther an abrupt fracture must have resulted, and the Ready Relief vein would have been a fissure having a dip of about 45°.
At the time of my visit the Bailey Bros. were overhauling their mill of ten stamps and were putting in a 12-foot waterwheel of the Pelton style.
Though large amounts of quartz have been stoped from the Ready Relief there were still thousands of tons in the mine. Mr. Bailey informed the writer that the rock averaged about $15 per ton.
The other claims which occur along the same course as the Ready Relief are quite similar from a geological standpoint, though none of them exhibit the peculiarities of the folds in such a marked degree. Among the prominent mines on this belt are the Hubbard claims, which were being operated in the spring of 1892, the Redman, Antelope, Cincinnati Belle, and some others.