The Mother Lode Mine was first discovered in 1891, when Richard Thompson, and William McCormick had uncovered rich copper ore that was associated with gold and silver. As this discovery became made they would soon stake a group of claims that would soon consist of the Mother Lode Property. Even within this time period the properties of the Greenwood Area, were very isolated as the nearest train was over sixty miles away. It was reported that the railway was located in the Columbia River Valley at the end of what was becoming the Kettle Waggon Road.
Once the base metal prices had slowly started to come up in value, the staking rush was officially on by 1898 once again. There was also planning to get rid of this isolation by constructing a railway line to the Greenwood area as several camps were already made. By this time period the group of two prospectors were rather once again on the move when they decided to sell their claims to a mining company. The company who bought these claims for $14,000, was known as the New York Boundary Mines Company. They would also acquire the adjoining properties to the Mother Lode MIne that became known as the Pimrose Fraction. By this time the company would start immediate development on these claims even if the Mother Lode Mine was not rich in ore. It still had resembled a massive deposit zone that was well worth mining for at the time of staking this claimed area.
Another major event was rather occurring in 1898, when the new Midway C&W Extension was rather uncovered within this time period. It would rather make L.W Mayer and its principals in the Boundary Mines Company incorporate the British Columbia Copper Company. Almost all of this reorganization was taking place in the State of West Virginia, that soon had its own capitalization of $1 million. The company was officially registered in British Columbia on April, 28, of that year. Further so this was rather done because the company had other plans to buy out the Boundary Mines Company, and to build its own smelter to extract the copper concentrate from the Mother Lode Mine. Even with this taking place the company would also acquire adjoining claims to this mining operation. These claims became recognized as the Big Ledge, Spotted Horse, Pimrose, Ten Broeck, Don Julio, and the Sunflower Claims. At the time the company known as British Columbia Copper Company had also set out towards developing their own Anaconda Smelter that would be situated beside the ore that the Boundary Mines had stockpiled on Boundary Creek. Transportation at this time was very poor as the CPR had slowly connected a railway line that they called the Colombia, and Western Railway. In addition this railway line was push further into the wilderness of the city they would all Greenwood, and a 6 mile long spur line soon had connected with the Mother Lode Mine.
The British Columbia Copper Company was also a few day away in building a smoke stacks as this development was officially completed on Monday, Febuary, 18, 1901. Even the process in concentrating the copper, gold, and silver was well supplied by the Edwd. P Allis Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. These major pieces of equitment were well suited for the job, and soon became installed by an engineer known as Paul Johnson, and his team. With the mill some what up and running, the company was rather processing the ore that was coming from the Mother Lode Mine. Even investors became interested in this project when the company had soon fired up its second furnace in June of 1902. With the furnaces up,and running, the company was still able to produce 45% of the copper matte. With low indications the copper matter had to be sent to the Granby Consolidated Smelter in order to be converted into 98% pure blister copper, moulded into anodes, and shipped typically to the Balbach Smelting, and Refining Company in Newark, New Jersey, which extracted the silver, and gold. Production from the mine within this time period was strongly known to have treated several tonnes of ore that totalled 160,000 tonnes.
At this point the company was well concerned with costs in having Granby process its matte. So in addition the company was left with no other choice but to insall a Bessemer Converter, which enabled the Anaconda Smelter to swallow 700 tonnes of Mother Lodes ore per a day in order to obtain a little more than a ton of blister. Company officials had also gotten the much needed 20,000 volts of electricity from the Cascade Water, Power, and Light Company's substation at Phoenix. Within that year alone the smelter would also process a huge amount of ore that totalled 210,500 tonnes of ore. In total production the company had obtained a value of $652,000 in copper, $728,000 in Gold, and 68,000 in silver.
In order to obtain the much need mine life the British Columbia Copper Company had to find more copper rich ore in order to keep the Anaconda Smelter running. By 1905, the company decided to purchase more ground that soon included Emma Group, Oro Denoro, Lonestar, and the Washington Mines, just across the 49 parallel in Washington. Further changes soon took place in 1906, when the company decided to remove the Anacondas old furnaces, and had a company known as Power, and Mining Machinery Company install three 700 ton per a day units.
After being finically unstable from reaching its line of credit towards upgrading the furnaces, the company would soon abandoned mining operations in 1907. The closure came upon the company when a huge event had taken place, and North America had soon slipped in a recession following the panic on Wall Street. Soon enough the Anaconda Smelter would be re-open along with its Mother Lode Mine project as this recession became passed in 1908. The value of copper at the time was known to be at 10 cents a pound that would make this company upgrade its smelter once again. Even the huge tramline was shipping a huge amount of copper down the mountain as it was able to handle 2,000 tonnes of ore per a day.
The price of Copper had rose in 1909, when it was known to have valued at 12 cents per a pound in New York. This would allow the British Columbia Copper Company to expand its tramway by resizing two of its three furnaces to handle a capacity of 2,500 tonnes per a day. Even two 15 tonne Baldwin-Westinghouse Locomotives were busy hauling all the slag out to the dump yard from the milling facility. Production almost each day was achieving 45,000 pounds of 99.3% pure blister copper that was poured from the converters for dispatch to the Eastern Refineries. These refining facilities were mainly in charge of extracting the gold content that average 50 ounces of silver, and 15 ounces of gold per a ton of material mined.
All mining operations at the Motherlode Mine became suspended by the end of 1915. Before the closure had occurred the company, and it's workers would hoist a total of 3,000 tonnes of ore from the mine. At the time most of this ore was rather high in grade that produce a huge amount of revenue that totalled $412,000 in bullion recovered. After a short closure the mine was once again back in action on June, 15, 1915. At the time most of the flooding had occurred within the lower levels of the workings. So this major down fall had company officials pumping out the water from this mining operations. By this time the company would commence expansions of these levels when the tracks became relaided, and the working had been prepared. Even the main hoisting system was completely removed within this time period of developing the mining operation. The reason for removing this hoist was because the company was getting ready to extract the ore from the hoist pillar. With this redevelopment occurring the company would place the hoists on the opposite side of the main shaft.
Almost all the ore that became shipped that year was known for totalling 105,085 dry tonnes of ore from the Mother Lode Mine. In all assaying it was reported that this ore had graded 0.037 ounces of gold, 0.21 ounces of silver, and 0.8746 percent copper, 28.5 percent silica, 22.22 percent iron, 17.7 percent lime, and 3.15 percent sulphur. More ore production would soon supply the mills with the right amount of ore as a rockfall from the hanging wall of the Quarry had provided more resources for next years shipment. In addition this would all be handcombed in order to get the most highest grade ore ready for shipments in 1916. All the ore that was shipped within 1915, became stoped out from the underground workings to the south of the Quarry location.
At the time it was also very hard to calculate the ore reserves within the Mother Lode Mining project. The reasoning for this to have occurred was because the ore was being extracted by different mining methods, and in large quantities. With development occurring on the shaft pillar, the company soon had realize that the ore was slowly becoming exhausted in 1915. So with no other choices the company decided to focus on the remaining ore-bodies within the levels, and the pillars. It was reported that the company had guess this mine contained another possible 50,000 tonnes from these sections. Another 50,000 tonnes was also reported to have been found within the quarrying operations that totalled an ore reserve of 100,000 tonnes. At the time it was reported that the mine was owned by two companies who became known as the Canada Copper Corporation, Limited and the British Columbia Copper Company, Limited.
The Mother Lode and Nugget claims came to a sudden closure in 1916, when the mine was being sold off during this time period. It was reported that an option to purchase these claims became granted to a prospector by the name of R.S Leanie, and associates from Vancouver, and Spokane. This whole entire sale had included the mines, mill, and the rights to mine this land.
Once the base metal prices had slowly started to come up in value, the staking rush was officially on by 1898 once again. There was also planning to get rid of this isolation by constructing a railway line to the Greenwood area as several camps were already made. By this time period the group of two prospectors were rather once again on the move when they decided to sell their claims to a mining company. The company who bought these claims for $14,000, was known as the New York Boundary Mines Company. They would also acquire the adjoining properties to the Mother Lode MIne that became known as the Pimrose Fraction. By this time the company would start immediate development on these claims even if the Mother Lode Mine was not rich in ore. It still had resembled a massive deposit zone that was well worth mining for at the time of staking this claimed area.
Another major event was rather occurring in 1898, when the new Midway C&W Extension was rather uncovered within this time period. It would rather make L.W Mayer and its principals in the Boundary Mines Company incorporate the British Columbia Copper Company. Almost all of this reorganization was taking place in the State of West Virginia, that soon had its own capitalization of $1 million. The company was officially registered in British Columbia on April, 28, of that year. Further so this was rather done because the company had other plans to buy out the Boundary Mines Company, and to build its own smelter to extract the copper concentrate from the Mother Lode Mine. Even with this taking place the company would also acquire adjoining claims to this mining operation. These claims became recognized as the Big Ledge, Spotted Horse, Pimrose, Ten Broeck, Don Julio, and the Sunflower Claims. At the time the company known as British Columbia Copper Company had also set out towards developing their own Anaconda Smelter that would be situated beside the ore that the Boundary Mines had stockpiled on Boundary Creek. Transportation at this time was very poor as the CPR had slowly connected a railway line that they called the Colombia, and Western Railway. In addition this railway line was push further into the wilderness of the city they would all Greenwood, and a 6 mile long spur line soon had connected with the Mother Lode Mine.
The British Columbia Copper Company was also a few day away in building a smoke stacks as this development was officially completed on Monday, Febuary, 18, 1901. Even the process in concentrating the copper, gold, and silver was well supplied by the Edwd. P Allis Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. These major pieces of equitment were well suited for the job, and soon became installed by an engineer known as Paul Johnson, and his team. With the mill some what up and running, the company was rather processing the ore that was coming from the Mother Lode Mine. Even investors became interested in this project when the company had soon fired up its second furnace in June of 1902. With the furnaces up,and running, the company was still able to produce 45% of the copper matte. With low indications the copper matter had to be sent to the Granby Consolidated Smelter in order to be converted into 98% pure blister copper, moulded into anodes, and shipped typically to the Balbach Smelting, and Refining Company in Newark, New Jersey, which extracted the silver, and gold. Production from the mine within this time period was strongly known to have treated several tonnes of ore that totalled 160,000 tonnes.
At this point the company was well concerned with costs in having Granby process its matte. So in addition the company was left with no other choice but to insall a Bessemer Converter, which enabled the Anaconda Smelter to swallow 700 tonnes of Mother Lodes ore per a day in order to obtain a little more than a ton of blister. Company officials had also gotten the much needed 20,000 volts of electricity from the Cascade Water, Power, and Light Company's substation at Phoenix. Within that year alone the smelter would also process a huge amount of ore that totalled 210,500 tonnes of ore. In total production the company had obtained a value of $652,000 in copper, $728,000 in Gold, and 68,000 in silver.
In order to obtain the much need mine life the British Columbia Copper Company had to find more copper rich ore in order to keep the Anaconda Smelter running. By 1905, the company decided to purchase more ground that soon included Emma Group, Oro Denoro, Lonestar, and the Washington Mines, just across the 49 parallel in Washington. Further changes soon took place in 1906, when the company decided to remove the Anacondas old furnaces, and had a company known as Power, and Mining Machinery Company install three 700 ton per a day units.
After being finically unstable from reaching its line of credit towards upgrading the furnaces, the company would soon abandoned mining operations in 1907. The closure came upon the company when a huge event had taken place, and North America had soon slipped in a recession following the panic on Wall Street. Soon enough the Anaconda Smelter would be re-open along with its Mother Lode Mine project as this recession became passed in 1908. The value of copper at the time was known to be at 10 cents a pound that would make this company upgrade its smelter once again. Even the huge tramline was shipping a huge amount of copper down the mountain as it was able to handle 2,000 tonnes of ore per a day.
The price of Copper had rose in 1909, when it was known to have valued at 12 cents per a pound in New York. This would allow the British Columbia Copper Company to expand its tramway by resizing two of its three furnaces to handle a capacity of 2,500 tonnes per a day. Even two 15 tonne Baldwin-Westinghouse Locomotives were busy hauling all the slag out to the dump yard from the milling facility. Production almost each day was achieving 45,000 pounds of 99.3% pure blister copper that was poured from the converters for dispatch to the Eastern Refineries. These refining facilities were mainly in charge of extracting the gold content that average 50 ounces of silver, and 15 ounces of gold per a ton of material mined.
All mining operations at the Motherlode Mine became suspended by the end of 1915. Before the closure had occurred the company, and it's workers would hoist a total of 3,000 tonnes of ore from the mine. At the time most of this ore was rather high in grade that produce a huge amount of revenue that totalled $412,000 in bullion recovered. After a short closure the mine was once again back in action on June, 15, 1915. At the time most of the flooding had occurred within the lower levels of the workings. So this major down fall had company officials pumping out the water from this mining operations. By this time the company would commence expansions of these levels when the tracks became relaided, and the working had been prepared. Even the main hoisting system was completely removed within this time period of developing the mining operation. The reason for removing this hoist was because the company was getting ready to extract the ore from the hoist pillar. With this redevelopment occurring the company would place the hoists on the opposite side of the main shaft.
Almost all the ore that became shipped that year was known for totalling 105,085 dry tonnes of ore from the Mother Lode Mine. In all assaying it was reported that this ore had graded 0.037 ounces of gold, 0.21 ounces of silver, and 0.8746 percent copper, 28.5 percent silica, 22.22 percent iron, 17.7 percent lime, and 3.15 percent sulphur. More ore production would soon supply the mills with the right amount of ore as a rockfall from the hanging wall of the Quarry had provided more resources for next years shipment. In addition this would all be handcombed in order to get the most highest grade ore ready for shipments in 1916. All the ore that was shipped within 1915, became stoped out from the underground workings to the south of the Quarry location.
At the time it was also very hard to calculate the ore reserves within the Mother Lode Mining project. The reasoning for this to have occurred was because the ore was being extracted by different mining methods, and in large quantities. With development occurring on the shaft pillar, the company soon had realize that the ore was slowly becoming exhausted in 1915. So with no other choices the company decided to focus on the remaining ore-bodies within the levels, and the pillars. It was reported that the company had guess this mine contained another possible 50,000 tonnes from these sections. Another 50,000 tonnes was also reported to have been found within the quarrying operations that totalled an ore reserve of 100,000 tonnes. At the time it was reported that the mine was owned by two companies who became known as the Canada Copper Corporation, Limited and the British Columbia Copper Company, Limited.
The Mother Lode and Nugget claims came to a sudden closure in 1916, when the mine was being sold off during this time period. It was reported that an option to purchase these claims became granted to a prospector by the name of R.S Leanie, and associates from Vancouver, and Spokane. This whole entire sale had included the mines, mill, and the rights to mine this land.