Stake in copper and gold mine south of Saltese purchased

SALTESE - A long-idle copper/gold mine south of Saltese may see new life.

According to a Nov. 1 press release from Kent Exploration, Inc., a mining firm called Archean Star Resources has entered into a letter agreement to earn an 80 percent interest in a mining lease on the historic Monitor Copper, Gold mine in Shoshone County.

The site is across the ridge south of the Silver Lake area near Saltese.

Kent Exploration owns 10 million shares of Archean Star, according to the press release.

Archean reports that historic production records from past underground exploration and development work at the Monitor Mine indicate that 1,562 tons of concentrates were shipped to the Tacoma smelter in the early 1900s with average reported smelter returns of 14.92 percent copper, small amounts of silver, and a reported high gold value of 2.2 ounces per ton.

Mineralization at the Monitor was reported to have occurred primarily as deep, continuous, high-grade vein systems with shoots of bornite and high-grade chalcopyrite with values of 7.46 percent up to 30 percent copper and variable widths between 10 and 20 feet, according to the press release.

Ore was loaded on trains at the Adair station on the Milwaukee road. The site is now part of the popular Route of the Hiawatha bike trail.

According to the press release, Archean says that historic development work on the Monitor Mine reportedly included a 700-foot shaft and approximately 1,000 feet of development crosscuts and drifting on five levels.

Adjacent to the Monitor and approximately 1,000 feet northwest of the shaft and at 240 feet lower elevation lies the Richmond mine adit, according to the press release. The Richmond vein is projected to strike the Monitor vein about 1,800 feet from the Monitor shaft.

Historic assays from the Richmond vein, according to the rpess release, are approximately 12% copper, 1.1 ounces per ton silver, and between 0.12 to 0.3 ounces per ton of gold.

All surface workings of the Monitor were destroyed in the 1910 fire. According to the press release, work recommenced on the Monitor with the development of a mile-long drive that reportedly accessed the 10-foot-wide Monitor vein about 1,00 feet below and 2,000 feet west of the Monitor shaft. Work reportedly stopped during the Great Depression. Historic mine production was reportedly limited to developmental ore from the drifts and some stoping above the 200.

According to Archean inorder for it to earn an 80% interest the company must spend $2.1 million over three years and must issue three million common shares of Archean.