SME SoCal Dinner Event - History of the Rand Mining District

Expect a great social event with dinner and an excellent talk on the history of the Rand Mining District as well as its outlook for the future.

ABSTRACT: Gold was first discovered in the Rand Mining district in 1893, resulting in a significant mining boom in eastern Kern and northwestern San Bernadino Counties, California. As this first mining boom subsided in 1904, rich tungsten ores were discovered several miles to the southeast, in what would become known as Atolia. The resulting tungsten mining boom lasted until the end of World War One, when tungsten prices collapsed. The Rand Mining district was then rocked by the discovery of bonanza silver ores just east of Randsburg, near the community of present-day Red Mountain. California Rand Silver, Inc. was formed to exploit this deposit, otherwise known as the Kelly mine. This last mining boom resulted in many properties being developed in the Red Mountain area with nearly all the primary silver production coming from the California Rand Silver (Kelly) mine. This last mining boom ended in 1929 with the low price of silver and the onset of the Great Depression. Minor production of gold, silver, and tungsten in the district continued until the early 1960s. The district was quiet during the 1960s, 70s, and early 1980s. In the mid-1980s, the former Yellow Aster mine area was developed as an open pit heap leach project which continued operations into 2001. Since that time, there has only been minor production (mostly from gold placer deposits)­ as well as continued exploration in the district. This talks describes the history of the Rand Mining District as well as its outlook for the future.

BIOGRAPHY: Sam Shoemaker has over 40 years of mining engineering experience in iron, copper, and gold mine operations, with extensive work in detailed mine planning and mine design for open pit operations. Mr. Shoemaker has consulted on numerous other commodities including platinum, palladium, silver, industrial minerals, construction aggregates, uranium, rare earths, lithium, lead, and zinc. He is an experienced user of various mining software packages including Vulcan, Surpac, Chronos, Evolution, and Whittle. Mr. Shoemaker’s extensive operating knowledge includes not only mining, but geology as well as mineral processing. He is recognized as a qualified person for Canadian National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Shoemaker holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mining Engineering from the Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology in Butte Montana in 1983.

Host or Publisher SoCal Section of SME