OM15AntimonyCaKernCountyAntimonyPeakMine

The Weekend Miner

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California

Kern County

Antimony Peak Mine : (34.52.49N by 119.06.46W - #3) (Antimony)

Coordinates are for the general ore body of this underground, past producer.

A Location Guide for Rockhounds in the United States, Robert C. Beste, 1996, p55:

Located 12 miles west of Sunset and 5 miles north of Cuddy Valley (shown by the USGS at 34.49.27N by 119.01.20W on the Cuddy Valley map), this mine is a source of Antimony and related minerals.

County Report 1, California Division of Mines and Geology, 1962, ppg 56 & 59 : Location: Sections 9, 10 and 11, T. 9 N., R. 21 W., SBM., on north and northeast slopes of Antimony Peak (34.52.37N by 119.06.41 - USGS Pleito Hills map; the peak has an elevation of 6.848 feet), 8 miles northwest of Frazier Park. The mine us accessible by trails from San Emigdio Creek (35.03.31N by 119.10.46W - USGS Conner SW map), Pleito Creek (35.02.48N by 119.04.25 - USGS Coal Oil Canyon map), and Pleito Ridge. The ownership in 1958 was shown as Kern County Land Company, 2920 H Street, Bakersfield, California. Ownership was indicated to be five (5) patented claims.

The San Emigdio antimony deposits were probably first worked by Indians as the source of pigments for making paintings which can still be seen on sandstone in the vicinity of Antimony Peak. The deposits were probably known to the early missionaries and may have been mined by them. W.P.Blake, who examined the deposits in 1853 and again a few years afterward, reported the remains of old smelting works. Claims were staked at the mine sometime between 1872 and 1878. About 1878 the Boushey Brothers erected a small concentrating plant and smelter in Sam Emigdio Canyon and commenced mining the deposits about 1 ½ miles to the east. Sixty tons of metallic antimony was produced in 1882. Later the Anglo-American Association was formed; it is reported to have shipped several carloads of metallic antimony to New York during 1885. Intermittent mining continued until 1892, when the Kern County Land Company purchased the property; since then lessees have mined the deposit during two brief periods. One group of lessees mined and shipped five or six carloads of ore during World War I, and in 1941, Charles B. Fife, a lessee, shipped five tons or ore which contained 35% antimony. It is estimated that no more than 600 tons of metallic antimony has been produced from the mine since 1882. Most of the ore mined before 1900 was carried by pack animals 1 ½ to 2 ½ miles to concentrators and smelters in San Emigdio Canyon. Metallic antimony from the smelter was hauled in wagons to Bakersfield, then by railroad to other point.

At the San Emigdio Mine, stibnite (antimony sulfide - Sb 2 S 3 ) and antimony oxides are found in siliceous lenses, which are irregularly distributed along a very poorly exposed shear zone in quartz diorite. The shear zone strikes N. 40 o W., dips about 55 o SW., is from a few feet to 100 feet wide, and is at least 2,700 feet long. It lies along the north side of Antimony Peak beneath a shallow, soil-covered depression. The soil overlying the shear zone, however, is commonly paler than that overlying the quartz diorite. The antimony-bearing lenses are most abundant on the southeast third of the zone. They are along both walls of the shear zone. They are along both walls of the shear zone; some of them extend diagonally from one wall to the other. In general the long axes of the lenses are parallel to the walls of the shear zone.

The lenses are as much as several feet in width. Some of them pinch out abruptly within a few feet downward, or marrow to a few inches in width. Stibnite is the principal antimony mineral, but much of it is altered to red, white and yellow oxides of antimony. In general the lenses are composed of a mixture of quartz diorite and quartz containing isolated crystals and veinlets of the antimony minerals. The higher-grade ore contains fine-grained stibnite in quartz. Calcite, pyrite and arsenopyite are present locally in the wall rocks. The ore commonly contains traces of copper, lead, silver and gold.

Surface trenching and sampling conducted in 1941 indicate a reserve of between 3,000 and 9,000 tons of metallic antimony available from 19 lenses in the shear zone along a horizontal distance of 2,100 feet and a vertical distance of 800 feet. The 19 lenses have an average length of 80 feet, an average width of 8.5 feet, and contain an average of 2.5% antimony. The highest assay obtained was 30.88% antimony across 1½ feet of a 49-foot trench across the southeast part of the shear zone. Ore mined before 1900 has been reported to contain 30% to 40% antimony, $4 to $16 dollars per ton gold and a like amount in silver.

When the property was visited in 1958, most of the mine adits were caved and the sample trenches cut in 1940 and 1941 were indistinct. The dumps were overgrown and the adits could not be coorelated with previous descriptions of them. Apparently five crosscut drift adits, ranging in length from 45 to 600 feet were the principal workings.