Page Ten

THE SUMMER DA ILY

Friday, May 25, 1973

Page Ten THE SUMMER DAILY Friday, May 25, 1973

JOHN BURTON, overseer of the Empire Mine in Grass Valley, Calif. compares a picture of how the
mine used to look with how it looks today. With the price of bullion soaring on the international mar-
kets, mining officials believe operations such as this one may become profitable once again.

As price of bullion
soars, California is
hit with gold fever
By JACK SCHREIBMAN
Associated Press Writer
SAN FlRANCISCO - As the price of gold soars to record heights in
the world's bullion markets the yellow bug with the warm, warm
glow is biting dreamers of the elusive El Dorado.
Outbreaks of gold fever are widely reported on the rise in the
old mine fields of the West, including California's Mother Lode coun-
try where $600 million in the yellow metal was mined between 1848
and 1859.
NOBODY, the experts figure, is ever again going to be as lucky
as those old '49ers who could wander up to the Sierra foothills east of
Sacramento and pan maybe $5,000 in gold in three days.
But the international gold situation, with price at $100 plus per
ounce, has renewed interest.
In Juneau, the University of Alaska soddenly is offering an "in-
troductory course in prospecting," in Nevada plans are afoot to mine
four -gold areas and Colorado officials, though skeptical, say they've
noticed increased interest in gold mining.
BUT there is a catch.
As in all mining, the crucial point is to get the gold out and
refined for less than the price of the metal. As production costs rise,
the anchor on mining digs in deeper and deeper until activity stops.
Nevertheless, California's realistic mine and money men appear
impressed with the portents of high gold prices. But they point out
_ that Mother Nature in this state- is exceedingly tenacious about her
gold and won't let it go cheaply.
PAUL HENSHAW, president of Homestake Mining Co., the na-
tion's largest producer. of 407,397 troy ounces of gold last year at Lead,
S.D., disclosed that Homestake is prospecting for new California gold,
"acquiring land and drilling"' for ore samples.
Henshaw held outlittle hope that the individual prospector could
extract his expenses even at today's high prices. le advised that
Mother Lode landowners would be more successful sinking their money
into recreational cabins rather than mineshafts.
See AMATEURS, Page 13
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Surrealistic, satiric war film recounting WW I. Lt.
Michael Crawford, military Don Quixote who never
learns from experience. Lennon, ex-fascist, joins the
platoon in surreal colors and make-up, as each
member of the plataon is disposed of

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