Location and History
This district is in the southern Sierra Nevada in central Kern County in the vicinity of the town of Paris-Loraine. It is about 35 miles east of Bakersfield and 12 miles north of Tehachapi. The area was first prospected in the 1850s, but the principal period of mining activity was from 1894 until around 1912. The district was active again in the 1920s and 1930s, and there has been intermittent prospecting since. It is also known as the Amalie district.
Geology
The district is underlain by a large roof pendant of slate and mica schist of the Kernville Series (Paleozoic?) in quartz diorite and granodiorite. There are a number of quartz veins ranging from one to 10 feet in thickness which contain free gold and abundant sulfides, especially silver sulfides. The veins occur in both the metamorphic and granitic rocks. Milling-grade ore commonly averages more than Yz ounce of gold and two ounces of silver per ton. Several ore shoots had stoping lengths of up to 300 feet, and several veins were mined to depths of 600 feet.
Mines
Amalie $600,000, Barbarossa, Cowboy $600,000, Deerhunter, Ella, Ferris, Golden Cross, Golden Peak, New Deal, Zenda 34,000 ounces+.
Bibliography
Brown, G.C., 1916, Kern County, Amalie district: California Min. Bur. Rept. 14, p. 482.
Crawford, J.J., 1894. Amalie mine: California Min. Bur. Rept. 12, p. 141.
Tucker, W. B., 1923. Kern Counly, Amalie mining district: California Min. Bur. Rept. 19, p. 156.
Tucker, W.B., and Sampson, R.J., 1933, Amalie district: California Div. Mines Rept. 29, pp. 280-281.
