Wide archival black and white photograph of an early 1900s underground silver mine shaft, sturdy timber support frames receding into dark cavernous tunnels with glowing lantern illumination
Wide archival black and white photograph of an early 1900s underground silver mine shaft, sturdy timber support frames receding into dark cavernous tunnels with glowing lantern illumination

The 1960s, 1970s and 1980s: Multiple consultants examine the Pioneer, report favorably, yet the mine never gets built

So, it is apparent that the same zinc problem that killed the mine in the 1880s is what killed it in the 1920s, despite the fact that differential flotation flow sheets were beginning to be developed by that time.

The other thing that must be emphasized at this point is how much the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression adversely affected start-up mines at the time. Banks collapsed and capital dried up. In this financial climate it became virtually impossible for start-up mines to get the money they needed to go into production.

The efforts to re-start the Pioneer suffered the same fate as other mines of its time. When J.S. Coupal wrote his glowing and optimistic assessment in 1927, silver was at about $0.57 per ounce, but as America sank into the Great Depression the price of silver crashed. By 1932 it was at $0.25 per ounce. So not only did the capital to finance the mine dry up, but the product of the mine lost more than half of its value.

Wide archival black and white photograph of an early 1900s underground silver mine shaft, sturdy timber support frames receding into dark cavernous tunnels with glowing lantern illumination
Wide archival black and white photograph of an early 1900s underground silver mine shaft, sturdy timber support frames receding into dark cavernous tunnels with glowing lantern illumination

In the early 1920s J.C. Devine formed the White Metals Mining Company to develop the Pioneer silver mine. Mr. Devine gathered capital and hired a well respected mining engineer, J.S. Coupal, to examine the property and make recommendations as to its development potential. Mr. Coupal would later go on to become the Director for the Arizona Department of Mineral Resources and was well respected for providing realistic assessments as to the economic potential of mineral properties. Mr. Coupal delivered his report in September of 1927.

Mr. Coupal's report was very favorable about the Pioneer. He concluded that the ore had been cut and proven down to 450 feet, and that an average grade of 25 ounces per ton of silver could be reasonably expected. He said that all 3 veins, the Pioneer, the Howard, and the East Pioneer should be able to produce large quantities of good ore and believed that within a year and a half the mine could be in regular production and producing about 200 tons per day of silver/zinc ore.

Soon Mr. Devine started pumping to dewater the mine and had men working to clean out the shafts to get down to the ore. In the meantime his team started cleaning out the upper level drifts and found them filled with good ore that could be sorted into mill grade ore (which would need to be milled and concentrated) and high grade ore (which they could hand sort and ship directly to smelters for refining).

Although the concept of differential flotation had been developed in the early 1920s, it was still in its infancy. Evidently the high zinc content of the Pioneer ores was still giving the White Metals Mining Company problems. The mill and flotation plant couldn't concentrate the oxide ores from the upper levels and the ore from the lower levels of the mine had extremely high zinc levels that seriously hurt the economics of the project.

Wide archival black and white photograph of an early 1900s underground silver mine shaft, sturdy timber support frames receding into dark cavernous tunnels with glowing lantern illumination
Wide archival black and white photograph of an early 1900s underground silver mine shaft, sturdy timber support frames receding into dark cavernous tunnels with glowing lantern illumination
Wide archival black and white photograph of an early 1900s underground silver mine shaft, sturdy timber support frames receding into dark cavernous tunnels with glowing lantern illumination
Wide archival black and white photograph of an early 1900s underground silver mine shaft, sturdy timber support frames receding into dark cavernous tunnels with glowing lantern illumination

In a 1948 letter to Gene Devine (Mr. J.C. Devine's son) a Mr. Roy Hicks, who had worked in the late 1920s at the Pioneer Mine with J.C. Devine said this as for why the mine wasn't successful:

"I was superintendent for Mr. John Devine, your father, at Pioneer Mine, when we got the shaft unwatered to 200 ft we cleaned the old tunnels out and found they had been stoped out we started to tunnel to the Howard and the same time started to unwater to the 400 ft level. We reached the 300, we found everything in good shape and found plenty of ore but run so high in Zinc that was worthless to us then as we were already having trouble with too much Zinc in our concentrates."

"As I remember the assay run from 24 to 30% zinc and 10 to 12% lead. I don't remember the exact on silver but quite a few ounces. I think the reason you have never found any of these assay sheets was because Mr. Devine didn't want the officials to know the mine was so heavy in Zinc which was not desired at that time. We brought some high grade ore to the surface from the 300. Mr. John Devine ordered us to bury it in the dump, and not to go any further with the unwatering. In the meantime we were taking out some high grade and milling ore from number 1 tunnel on the Howard Vein and we discovered we could get in the Howard shaft from number 1 tunnel and went down what we figured was the 200 level and found plenty of ore and it also run in to too much Zinc and Mr. Devine ordered me to stop the tunnel on the 200 ft main shaft that was going to the Howard as he said there would still be too much Zinc at this depth."

"Gene, I feel sure that if we would have had the flow sheets in 26 that we have now, that would be a big mine in Arizona today."

The 1920s and the White Metals Company

Vintage monochrome portrait of early 1900s underground silver miners in heavy canvas overalls and soft caps with carbide lamps, resting against rough-cut stone drift walls
Vintage monochrome portrait of early 1900s underground silver miners in heavy canvas overalls and soft caps with carbide lamps, resting against rough-cut stone drift walls
Sectio Prima

Cuniculi Profundi Veteres

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Historical black and white photograph of an underground miner operating a vintage heavy pneumatic rock drill mounted on an iron column in a narrow subterranean stope
Historical black and white photograph of an underground miner operating a vintage heavy pneumatic rock drill mounted on an iron column in a narrow subterranean stope
Archival high-contrast photograph of narrow-gauge ore carts laden with unrefined silver ore along subterranean wooden tracks inside a dimly lit timbered mine drift
Archival high-contrast photograph of narrow-gauge ore carts laden with unrefined silver ore along subterranean wooden tracks inside a dimly lit timbered mine drift
Methodi Metallurgicae

Technica Saeculi Vicesimi

Fossio Pneumatica

Perforatio Saxorum Durosum

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Vectura Mineralium

Carrucae Ferreae Subterraneae

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Testimonium Antiquum

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Index Historicus

Revertere Ad Chronica

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