The gold-producing area of South Dakota is confined to an area of less than 100 square miles, lying in the Black Hills. The gravels of Whitewood and Deadwood gulches were first washed in 1875, and in 1876 the famous Homestake lodes were discovered. At present about 94 per cent. of the total output of the state is controlled by one company, the Homestake Mining Co., the largest producing company in the United States.
Following the exhaustion of the famous Comstock lode, demarcated in 1851, Nevada was of little importance as a gold-producing state until the discovery of the rich deposits of Tonopah in 1900. At present practically all the gold obtained in the state comes from the vein deposits of Tonopah and Goldfield. Divide is a newly developed camp between these two.
There are three main auriferous areas in Arizona: the vicinity of Bisbee and Tombstone, Cochise County; the Oatman district, Mohave County; and the Verde district, Yavapai County. Arizona was one of the few states to show a larger output in 1917 than in 1916. The United Eastern mine, a new property opened in 1913 in the Oatman district of Mohave County, produced heavily and was responsible for the increase. The gold output of Cochise and Yavapai counties is obtained largely from copper ore.
During the sixties and seventies, Montana was second only to California in its yield of placer gold. The most famous placers were those of Bannack and Alder Gulch and later Helena. Much of the present output is obtained as a by-product from copper ores.
Few mines in Utah are worked exclusively for their gold content, the greater part of the yield of the state being derived from copper and lead ores.
Gold is also mined in Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. Small amounts were produced in 1917 in a number of the Appalachian states. Before the discovery of gold in California, practically all of the gold coined in the United States mint came from the mines of Virginia, Maryland, Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas, but since the Civil War their output has not been important. The gold production of the Philippine Islands in 1917 amounted to $1,404,000.
Canada.
—The total gold yield of Canada in 1900 amounted to $28,000,000, but with the exhaustion of the placer deposits it declined to $8,382,000 in 1907. With the development of vein deposits, production increased steadily from this low point, and reached $19,235,000 in 1916, and $15,272,992 in 1917, placing Canada sixth in the list of gold producers. Three provinces, Ontario, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory, yield most of the gold, the remaining provinces producing less than 1 per cent. of the total.
More than one-half of the Canadian production comes from the Porcupine district in Temiskaming, Ontario, developed in 1912. Other producing districts, though of minor importance, are Kirkland Lake and Munro Township, also in Temiskaming, and Long Lake, near Naughton, Sudbury district.[165]
[165] “Production of Copper, Gold, Lead, Nickel, Silver, Zinc, and Other Metals in Canada, 1916.” Canadian Department of Mines, Mines Branch, 1917.