The data below represent everything available in the MBMG Abandoned and Inactive Mines (AIM) database.

Sites Table
AIM Id Name Alternate Name District County
JF002679 ENTERPRISE; BUCKEYE-ENTERPRISE ENTERPRIZE BASIN JEFFERSON
MRDS AMLI MILS Latitude Longitude Datum
22-074 300430185 46.3972 -112.2922 NAD27
Township Range Section QSection UTM Northing UTM Easting UTM Zone UTM Datum
08N 06W 36 DBDC 5138776 400656 12 NAD27
Average Elevation Elev Units Land Owner 250K Quad 100K Quad 24K Quad
7100 F BUTTE BUTTE NORTH THREE BROTHERS
Property Type Update Date Who Updated
LODE 5/16/1995 CBD
Commodities Table
Commodities Identified
LEAD
ZINC
Agency Info Table
Information
Agency: NF
Region District: R1
Ranger District: JEFFERSON
Forest Service Tract:
Watershed Code: 10020006
Forest or Resource Area: DEERLODGE
Owner: M
Impact: V
Report: ENTRY DUPLICATED UNDER BUCKEYE ENTRY (JF004851) Buckeye-Enterprise The Buckeye and Enterprise mines are treated as one site here. They were apparently worked as a single operation for a time and used the same mill facility. According to Ruppel (1963), both were worked intermittently from 1897 to 1908 through shafts 100-200 feet deep. During this time, a gravity mill at the site (the upper Buckeye mill) was used to process the ore. Volume of dump material indicates more than 8000 feet of workings. Production from the Buckeye since 1902 was 1813 tons of ore yielding 309 oz Au, 18,227 oz Ag, 3425 lbs Cu, 76,590 lbs Pb, and 13,797 lbs Zn (Roby and others, 1960). Tailings volumes suggest that ther must have been substantial pre-1902 production. During World War II, a flotation mill was built in the floodplain of Basin Creek to re-treat the gravity tailings from the old mill. The workings followed a vertical N85W trending shear zone 3-5 feet wide containing veins of quartz, pyrite, arsenopyrite, galena, sphalerite, tourmaline, and arsenopyrite (Ruppel, 1963). The zone is surrounded by a bleached zone of quartz monzonite with quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration products and some gold (see below). Today, the mine workings are on private land, while both tailings piles are on Deerlodge National Forest lands. All workings are caved, and an acid discharge issues from the Enterprise. Dumps on the site are composed mainly of altered quartz monzonite containing from 5-10% pyrite. Tom Kelley, present owner of the Buckeye, provided some information. The estimated 15,000 tons of dump materials from the Buckeye and Enterprise averaged .066 oz/ton Au and less than 1 oz/ton Ag. Our own composite sample (JJBU-1) contained .09 oz/ton Au and 3.02 oz/ton Ag (see map). The dumps do have an impact on the vegetation below, and during snowmelt and rainstorms runoff from the dumps flows directly into Basin Creek. Only a few pockets of the original gravity tailings remain; these were not sampled. Contaminated soil persists at the location of these tails, however. An estimated 16,000 tons of flotation tailings are still present in the Basin Creek floodplain and are cut by Basin Creek. A composite sample (JJBU-2) of this material ran 0.098 oz/ton Au, 1.12 oz/ton Ag, and less than 1% base metals.
Assay Table
Information
Sample Id: JJBU-1
Material Type: WA
Sample Method: COMP
Comments: KQM. QTZ-SERICITE-PY.
Screening Criteria Table
Information
Mill Tailings: Y
Adit Discharge: N
Metal Leaching: Y
Water Erosion: Y
Residence: N
Hazardous Materials: N
Open Adit: N
Visit: Y
Comments: LONN; 6/92

End of report. Retrieved 5/3/2024 3:49:59 PM.

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