A new breed of miners are setting the stage for either an old-fashioned gold rush or just another letdown in the Tintic Mining District.
The prospectors this time around aren't bearded men armed with picks who lead pack mules around with a rope. They are two competing multimillion-dollar corporations headquartered in New York and Salt Lake City. They are staffed with geologists and engineers armed with maps and charts revealing potentially lucrative underground ore deposits.Still, there has to be a little luck in hitting the mother lode.
"It's the mining business. If we knew, we wouldn't have to spend all these millions drilling," said Adren Underwood, general manager of Chief Consolidated Mining Co.
New York-based Chief Consolidated and Centurion Mines Corp., of Salt Lake City, are in a race to see if they can return Tintic to its glory days as one of the top producers of precious metals in the nation. More than $4 billion in gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc have been mined from the district the past century.
"I think for the first time we're going to see that district start again. It's going to happen," said Spenst Hansen, Centurion chief executive officer.
But others who have observed the district for years don't share that rosy outlook.
"I'm a little pessimistic on the prospects down there," said Scott Smith, president of Gold Standard Inc., a Salt Lake-based mining exploration firm. He gives the district little, if any, chance to boom again. "It's a long, long, long ways from anything like that."
Smith offers several reasons for his dim view: The mines have been worked for so long without profit, there are no smelters to buy the ore and the metals market is depressed.
All the talk about bringing the district back is designed to sell stock, he said.
Some of the industry giants such as Anaconda and Kennecott pumped millions of dollars into the once-rich earth the past decade only to come up empty-handed. And the companies working the area now have had more than their share of false starts.
Chief Consolidated owns 14,500 acres of patented mining ground in the Tintic Mining District. Centurion owns 10,000 acres of patented mining ground. They share common boundaries and can't help running into each other occasionally. Both publicly traded companies are sinking exploratory holes deep into the earth.
By Centurion's calculations, early miners removed only 25 percent of the ore throughout the district.
Smith doesn't buy it.
"There's no minable ore down there," he said. "The Tintic is more of a historical situation than a mining situation."
Centurion is a relatively new player in Utah mining. It began buying available mining claims and property in 1979. Its motto is, "If you don't own the land, you're just a tourist."
The company has made 162 acquisitions. Its holdings include some of the more famous and once valuable mines in the district including the Bullion Beck, Centennial Eureka and Mammoth. Most of them were closed 70 years ago, although other companies operated them on and off.
"We've been patient. It has taken us since 1979 to get here. We always had a checkbook at the ready," Hansen said, estimating Centurion has pumped about $10 million into its projects.
In addition to refurbishing decrepit mine shafts, Centurion is remodeling a host of buildings for corporate and mining offices in Mammoth, three miles south of Eureka. It hired a former MGM and Disney movie set builder to turn the 120-year-old McIntyre Mansion, built by the Mammoth mine's early owners, into plush offices and living quarters. The company also drilled a well and in-stalled a water system.
All this might seem overly optimistic for a company that hasn't struck gold yet. But Hansen, whose father and grandfather worked the Tintic mines, doesn't doubt Centurion will shout "Eureka!" at Mammoth. "It's fantastically rich piece of property," he said.
Hansen wouldn't predict when production will start because sometimes it's viewed as a failure if the goal isn't met. He figures Centurion will be removing about 400 to 500 tons of ore a day in the next year or so.
"We're moving as fast as we can," he said. The company has about 30 employees and recently hired two mine managers, a significant step toward actual production.
Hansen's counterpart at Chief Consolidated Mining Co., Leonard Weitz, also is excited about the prospects of a comeback in Tintic, admitting that "of course I'm prejudiced."
"There's sort of been a metamorphosis. There's quite a bit going on," the chief executive officer said.
Formed in 1909, Chief Consolidated was prosperous until its primary mine closed for good in 1957. But the company now is putting itself in position for another boom, although it initially faltered somewhat.
The company announced two years ago a joint venture with Canada's Akiko Gold Resources for a $4 million drilling program in the Burgin mine several miles north of Eureka. Leonard Weitz, Chief Consolidated chief executive officer, said the company planned to be in full production with at least 400 employees this year.
Although that hasn't happened, the company is drilling in two mines - Burgin and Chief No. 2 - and has plans to open the Trixie this year. Two other mining projects are on the drawing board.
The company also recently shored itself up by forming a partnership with Korean Zinc Ltd. Like Centurion, Chief Consolidated expects to hit a rich vein somewhere.
"It's not dead by far," Underwood, the general manager, said. "I hope it goes. It looks good."
The Burgin mine closed in 1986. Geologists estimate that it contains at least 23.9 million ounces of silver, more than 275,000 tons of lead and some 90,000 tons of zinc. Gold also may be in the mine. Weitz has said the current mine reserves are worth an estimated gross value of $400 million.
According to the company's 1995 annual report, it could take another two years and $20 million to $30 million before the Burgin is fully operational.
Underwood, who has been with Chief Consolidated 25 years, is just happy to be underground again. For years, the company leased its rights to huge companies such as Kennecott, Anaconda and Asarco. All of them pumped millions of dollars into mining but ceased operations because of low metals prices.
"Our company is finally out of the renting business. Now, we're in the mining business," he said.
Smith, of Gold Standard, said he thinks Chief Consolidated has done a good job. "I give them a fighting chance," he said.
Weitz also suggested that should Chief Consolidated's mining operation take off, the company could get into the development business with some of its vast acreage. Eureka is only 20 miles from I-15 and about 35 miles from rapidly expanding Utah Valley. Mining could attract workers from all over.
"One of these days, the real estate boom is going to move away from the interstate," he said.
Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on whether there really is any gold left in the Tintic Mining District.