Information

HISTORY

Discovery of gold in the Cargo Muchacho Mining District is credited to a mule that strayed while members of a California-bound wagon train were camped near the Cargo Muchacho mountains in 1862. When the mule was later found in the foothills, one sharp-eyed man picked up a nugget at the spot. A few pieces of float were found, which were traced to quartz ledges. Over the years, several mines were operated in these mountains. The town where the miners and their families lived was originally know as Ogilby and Hedges, and then later changed to Tumco. One of the mines in the area was the American Girl Mine. It produced a good deal of gold but was closed in the 1930s. For more information on the American Girl and other historic mines in the area see http://www.desertusa.com/colorado/hedges_tumco/du_hedged.html.

RECENT ACTIVITY

In the 1980s Newmont Mining Co. conducted considerable core drilling (approximately $10M) so that the extent of reserves could be ascertained. As a direct result of this determination, full scale gold mining was re-started in about 1989. During the period about 1989 to 1995, the American Girl Mine was mined by the American Girl Mining Joint Venture as part of a large-scale mining operation. Mining activity consisted of both underground and surface mining. During this period, ore containing approximately 428,000 ounces of gold was mined from the American Girl Mine Property. Overall processing recovery was about 70%. so that a total of 299,431.29 ounces was recovered from the American Girl. Because of declining gold prices mining was terminated in early 1999. See http://www.wgint.com/equity.html for additional information.