Wilkerson reported in 2021 that the Morning Star Mine is a 1,000-acre mine in the Ivanpah Mountains, north of Kewanee camp in San Bernardino County 65 miles southwest of Las Vegas in The Mojave National Preserve. It was first opened in 1907 and was and episodic producer . Extensive development began in the early 1940’s but was curtailed by the War Production Board Order L-208.
The Vanderbilt Gold Corporation obtained the property in 1964, conducted an exploration program in 1974 and began underground mining in 1979. At this time ores were trucked to the Vanderbilt mine, across the Ivanpah Valley for processing. Additional drilling discovered larger low-grade reserves in a zone 104 feet thick with ore grades ranging from 0.1 to several oz/ton Au. Studies were conducted to determine if this generally low grade material could be developed through solution mining. Instead, in 1984 open pit mining began and lasted until 1993.
Today, the mine property is owned by Vanderbilt Gold Mining Company of Las Vegas, Nevada. The claims were not patented and today the mine area is managed by the National Park Service. Regional geology around the mine is mainly made up of several large plutons and igneous dikes intruding into the bedrock. The major tectonic feature in the area and ore-localizing feature is a thrust fault striking North 20 degrees west and dips 32 degrees to the southwest.
The Ivanpah Granite is the host rock of the mine was intruded by the dacite or diorite dikes. There were two periods of mineralization. Remaining mining
improvements or features including a water-filled deep and steep-sided open pit, a collection pond, leaching pads and waste rock piles. There is a stratification in the heap leach piles reflecting variations in heap leach technique. During the early heap leaching phase, the ore was agglomerated with cement. It was later learned that this was not economically advantageous and later heaps are constructed using run-of-mine (untreated) ores. Main ore minerals at the Morning Star are gold and silver. There were also secondary sulfides and oxides of copper, zinc, and lead.
Historic production (1907-1943) was from $2 to $15 per ton in gold, average grade $4 to $6 per ton. The ore has 25% gold and 75% silver. In 1990, reserves were estimated at 4,700,000 tons with a grade of 0.05 oz/ton Au. The remaining unmined portions of the deposit likely contain significant minable precious and base metals at current commodity prices.
[Other mine properties were offered by Wilkerson located in San Bernardino County, California:
https://www.i2mconsultants.com/downloads/corp/BAXTER_AND_CAVE_CANYON_MINES_CAVE_MOUNTA.pdf ]
and the American Perlite Quarry, in Inyo County, California:
https://www.i2mconsultants.com/downloads/corp/American_Perlite_Quarry_Inyo_County_Cali.pdf ]
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