Peer Reviewed Article The Lovitt Gold Mine,
Wenatchee, Washington, USA – Geological and Historical Review
Graham L Kelsey, BS, MS Geology, CPG-11497 (pictured left), Roger D. Gill, BS, MS Geology (pictured right), Lorne Brown, President and CEO of Lovitt Resources Incorporated (LRC)
Introduction
The Lovitt Mine, owned by Lovitt Resources Incorporated (LRC), consist of 614 acres of mineral rights and patented mineral claims. LRC also owns 100% interest in the MacBeth and Golden King patented claims. The patented claims con- tain the D-Reef gold horizon, which are the company’s cur- rent focus for exploration and development. The property is approximately 1 mile south of the city of Wenatchee, located at the intersection of US Highway 97 and US Highway 2 in central Washington state. The Lovitt Mine borders the south- east end of the former Cannon Gold Mine. Lovitt D-Reef is 0.20 miles northeast of the intersection of Methow Street and Squilchuck Canyon Road (Figure 1 and Figure 2). The climate is arid with hot summers and cold winters. The topog- raphy is hilly with occasional dissected plateaus. Elevations are from 900 feet to over 2000 feet. The property’s south- ern area includes steep hills and or- chards along Squilchuck Canyon. The property’s northern area consists of steep hills and undeveloped rangeland. (Kelsey, G.L., 2019).
Early Mining History
The first geological record of the Wenatchee area was in 1855 by U.S. Army Major V. Carkeek with the Pacific Railroad exploration crew (Gill, R., 1984a; Gill, R. pers. comm. 2020; Power- Fardy, D., 2009; Woodhouse, P.
et.al. 2002). Major Carkeek noted potential for gold in altered arkoses sandstone out- crops near Squilchuck Creek. This dis- covery was the original D-Reef location of the Lovitt Gold Mine. The Squilchuck Creek discovery was acquired by Frank
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Morris in 1884. Mr. Morris engaged Carkeek and staked the Golden King and MacBeth claims. In 1894, the partnership built a five-stamp mill and drifted on the claims at a four-ton per day rate, initiating the Gold King Mine. They netted $1,600 from 217 tons of ore, after 60 days of operation (Lovitt, 1954; Tot, L., 1986; Marr, 1990; Power-Fardy, D., 2009; Woodhouse, P.
et.al., 2002). In 1895, the claims were acquired by Judge McIntosh, of Seattle, Washington. The Wenatchee Mining Company (WMC) purchased the Squilchuck Creek claims from Judge McIntosh in 1898. From 1910 to 1911, WMC extracted gold and silver from the property. From 1885 to 1911 27,433 tons of gold ore with grades between 0.380 gold ounce per ton and 1.08 gold ounce per ton was shipped to the Asarco smelter
Figure 1 - Location Map (modified from LMC and Burgoyne, 1996).
www.aipg.org
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