Thursday April 16, 9:02 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Brush Creek to Operate Second Mine
Ruby Mine to Be Worked at Lawry and Ruby Sides
GRASS VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 16, 1998--Brush Creek Mining and Development Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:BCMD - news; the Company)
today announced that it is in the process of re-opening the Ruby Mine for full-time mining operations.
The Ruby is a gold mine controlled by the Company in the Alleghany-Downieville mining district of Northern California. The mine, which has both hard-rock and placer targets, produced the spectacular ''Best'' collection of placer nuggets, which was extracted during the late 1930s and early 1940s before the limiting orders of
WWII caused the mine to cease operations. The largest nugget in the collection weighs 52 ounces. The gold is currently on display at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History and also in Oakland, CA as part of the 150th anniversary of the gold rush.
Brush Creek will drive a 530 foot drift to access the Big Bend area of the Ruby Mine which yielded the nuggets. Lewis Huelsdonk, the mine superintendent at the time the mine ceased operation in the early 1940s, was quoted in 1987 as saying, ''It seemed like we no sooner got into the gold when the war broke out and the government closed the mine; we were right in the middle of taking these nuggets, so you can imagine how we felt at the time.'' The Big Bend area has not been mined
since.
Prior to beginning the drive, the Company is re-opening the Lawry side of the Ruby Mine. Work has begun to rehabilitate the Lawry infrastructure. The Company's technical staff has identified prospective areas downstream from the Lawry which Brush Creek has not worked previously as well as a gravel channel nearer the
Lawry shaft, which may be an extension of the Mr. Vernon Channel, which has a profitable history.
Brush Creek General Manager Vern Shepherd stated, ''I'm pleased to be opening our second mining site. We will be mining placer gravel from the Lawry side in the near term and it is our goal to be in Big Bend gravels by this summer.''
Brush Creek is continuing its work in the Lower Brush Creek Mine. The Company continues to remove gold-bearing ore from its 2500 South Wing drift. 300 tons of material from the drift are currently stockpiled.
Brush Creek controls nine historic mines in the Alleghany-Downieville gold district of Northern California, which produced more than 12 million ounces of placer and 2 million ounces of hard rock gold. It also controls more than 4000 acres of potentially diamondiferous ground near La Porte, CA. |
