Order L-208, A Gold Mine Waiting to be Mined Again

Ever hear anything about the War Minerals Board Order L-208? If you haven't, and you are a gold prospector, it is something you will want to learn about, because it can lead you to a good, abandoned gold mine!

It turns out that during world war II, the US government ordered all non-essential mines (i.e., gold mines) to close and focus all efforts on the war. After the war, many of these commercial gold mines that were producing gold at a price of $35.50 per ounce when closed during the war, never reopened because many did not come back from the war, lots of the closed mines and mills fell into disrepair, many flooded, and after the war, our country focused on infrastructure, rather than gold. 

So, imagine you found one of these old mines in Arizona. Today's gold price (2/23/2022), according to the blogspot "Searching for Gold" is $1,908 per ounce, or nearly 54 times higher than it was when during World War II. So, nearly every L-208 mine likely is commercial at todays price! 

These and other mines are described, in a new book available on Amazon entitled, "Gold in Arizona". And there are many other gold anomalies described in the book, including those associated with detachment faults. So, the book provides information on dozens of detachment faults and prospects in these unusual types of faults that run from the northwestern part of the state to the southeastern part of the state.

Kindle version on Amazon

It took a few years, but finally, Gold in Arizona - A Prospectors Guide was published in December, 2019. After researching gold deposits in Arizona, it is clear to me that Arizona is not only the copper state, but would better be known as the Copper-Silver-Gold state. 

Hard to believe, but Arizona has produced much more than 500,000,000 ounces of silver and 16,000,000 ounces of gold along with all of its copper, zinc, lead and turquoise. So, in this book, many of the old mining districts are described with many of the mines. And, there are many deposits that have been overlooked, and many that have only been partially prospected.

Ezra 8:27

Gold in Arizona - A Prospectors Guide

The 2019 book edition on Amazon

Well, it took me long enough! Was beginning to think I would never finish this book on Gold in Arizona - but I did and it is now available at Amazon in both paper back and kindle. BUT, the paper back book is more up to date as I first tried my hand at publishing through Kindle (my first kindle book), and then after months of working with Amazons book templates (which were a pain in the neck), I finally finished a copy of the paper back book with updates, index, and additional editing. 

When I started writing this book, I was primarily trying to educate myself on Arizona's geology, which is different from the geology of Wyoming, Montana and Colorado that sit within, or long the flank of the Wyoming Craton (very old continental core). But I did have past experience in basin and range geology in Utah and New Mexico, where I had received part of my education as a geologist. 

The 2020 Kindle Edition

Thus, as I began compiling this book on Gold in Arizona, I never thought I would come across so many mines and prospects. Hundreds and hundreds - so many that I could not include them all in my 377-page book.

Actually, I could only get a limited sampling on mines because there are so many. What I did was look at the many, many districts and focused on the important characteristics and some of the more impressive mines. So, if you visit those districts on Google Earth, or by using the AZ Top Maps App on this blogspot, you will be taken to some of the more interesting mines that are listed with GPS coordinates in the book, and provided with ideas on how are where to prospect in these districts. 

Gold in an Arizona rhyolite 

One of hundreds of examples of detachment faults in Arizona. Note that
this one, like many others in the state, has a mine adit dug in the footwall
for gold. Both the footwall (the rock below the fault) and the hanging wall
 (the rock above the fault) may be mineralized in gold in these types of
deposits described in the book.

Is there any gold and silver in Arizona? You bet there is! Arizona produced considerably more than the 16-million ounces of gold and 500-million ounces of silver described in production statistics for the state.

In addition, there are relatively recently recognized gold deposits associated with what are known as detachment faults found over a giant region running from one side of Arizona to the other - and most of these are only partially explored with large regions remaining unexplored. And there are lots of the wet and dry gold placers. Yes, Arizona is known for copper, but it is also a significant source for gold.