Se aceasta

ESTES ETT

(see Fig. 4). The recovery was roughly a dollar per square
foot of ground worked. In 1939, three test-shafts were sunk
in the valley-bottom to the south of the ground worked in 1938.
The recovered gold from one shaft, about 5 feet square, gave a
value of almost 3 dollars a square foot on bed-rock. In the
drag-line excavation made during the summer of 1939, the value
of recovered gold per square foot on bed-rock was even higher.
Complete information is not available. On lease No. 402 im-
mediately down-stream from lease No. 345 the gold values are
considerably less than those on the Peacock lease. In certain
sections worked in the bottom of the creek, the recovered gold
was equivalent to a value of about 50 cents per square foot of
bed-rock cleaned. The fact that this value is considerably
lower than those on the Peacock lease needs some explanation.
It evidently must be related in some way to the origin and de-
position of the gold.

Origin of the Placer-Gold. The primary sources of the

placer-gold are in the rocks that outcrop in the drainage area
of Wheaton Creek. Because of the coarseness of the placer-gold
on Wheaton and Alice Shea Creeks it is believed that the gold
on each is close to its source. Moreover, the difference be-
tween the gold on Wheaton Creek and that on Alice Shea Creek
indicates a distinctly different source for each. The variety
of gold on Alice Shea Creek alone suggests different sources
for each type and that it all did not come from the same vein.
There is little support for the belief that gold found on
Wheaton Creek migrated down-stream from a source on Alice Shea
Creek.

Slate and serpentine are the two rocks that outcrop most
extensively. There are innumerable quartz veins and stringers
in the slate. All the samples taken of quartz veins assayed
nil and no gold-bearing quartz veins have been reported from
the area. Despite this, and in view of the fact that the large
gold nuggets contain quartz, it is believed that much of the
placer-gold has come from quartz veins in slate or other sedi-
mentery rocks. Although the sedimentary rocks now outcrop in
two main belts and in numerous small areas in the serpentine,
it should be recognized that formerly, before Wheaton Creek
cut to its present level, slate and other sedimentary rocks
outcropped over the entire area.

No quartz veins were seen in serpentine nor was there
any evidence of sulphide mineralization. In fact, some quartz
veins in diorite, traced to a contact with serpentine end
abruptly at the contact. Consequently, the numerous quartz
veins in the slate belts lend strength to the belief that some
were auriferous even though none are known to carry god: 40n

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