History

A Brief History of the San Juan Ridge Mine

Since 1977, the San Juan Ridge Taxpayers Association (SJRTA) has organized a community response to various companies and plans that sought to mine for gold in the North Columbia Diggings, a 2000-acre private property situated between the South and Middle Yuba rivers in the heart of the Ridge community. For the first 15 of these years, the community faced the possibility of open pit mining.

In April 1992, the CEO of Siskon Gold Corporation, Tim Callaway, approached the SJRTA with his company’s proposal to open an underground mine in the Diggings. The all-volunteer SJRTA weighed in on every aspect of the proposed mine operation plan, creating and strengthening conditions pertaining to water, noise, monitoring and bonding to cover costs for any damage caused by the mine. In June 1993, the Nevada County Planning Commission certified the Environmental Impact Report and use permit for the mine in a single hearing.

In order to reach the gold-bearing gravel that lies 300 to 500 feet below the surface, Siskon began digging an 1,800-foot long decline tunnel. In June 1994, the tunnel intercepted a bedrock fracture, causing a nearby domestic well to go dry. Siskon replaced the well.

In September 1995, mining operations intercepted a huge underground fracture, flooding the mine and endangering the underground crew. Neither Siskon’s pumps, nor the settling and filtration ponds could handle the enormous discharge between one to three millions gallons per day—that was issuing from the fracture. This catastrophic discharge continued for months, scouring the bed of Spring Creek down to bare bedrock and pouring into the Yuba River. Siskon eventually succeeded in plugging the leak with massive amounts of concrete.

By January 1996, the drained fracture had caused a total of 12 wells to fail, including those of Grizzly Hill School and North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center. Siskon deepened or replaced all the wells. Some of the replacement wells failed and Siskon drilled a second well. As water quality was poor in some of these deeper wells, filtering or treatment systems needed to be installed. The incident was a huge setback for the mine and Siskon incurred great expenses to remedy the situation.

At the beginning of its operations at the North Columbia Diggings, Siskon’s stock price was $5.38 per share. By July 1996, Siskon was in financial trouble. The company sold the timber rights on its 2,000 acres of land for $450,000. Its stock price dropped to $2.50 per share. In March 1997, Siskon miners hit unstable ground, squeezing the floor of the mine upwards, endangering the workers and the stability of the entire mine.

In August 1997 the mine folded. As the mine and the aquifer began to refill with water, so did local wells. But this brought new problems to some wells. Tests conducted in September 1997, showed that the well supplying Grizzly Hill School had sky-high levels of iron, aluminum, nickel and manganese, as well as sulfate, turbidity, color and odor, all exceeding California standards for public water supplies. The corporation paid for bottled water and a water treatment system, but today, since bonding money ran out years ago, the school pays many thousands of dollars per year to maintain a treatment system that provides drinking water to students and staff.

By the time the mine folded, Siskon’s share price was 2.3 cents and dropped even further in the following months. Investors lost everything, while that year, CEO Tim Callaway received $791,000 in severance pay plus a salary of $178,700. Subsequently, Callaway became owner of the entire property.

History of Siskon Mine

– Summary of a presentation by Liese Greensfelder and Kurt Lorenz –

On January 24, 2006, Wolf Creek Community Alliance hosted a talk by Liese Greensfelder and Kurt Lorenz on the history of the Siskon Mine on the San Juan Ridge. The audience came to learn from the experience of the San Juan Ridge community— experience that might be useful as the Grass Valley community responds to a proposed re-opening of the Idaho-Maryland Mine.This summary of the presentation was written by Connie Sturm.

In April 1992, the CEO of Siskon Gold Corporation, Tim Callaway, approached the San Juan Ridge Taxpayers’Association about his company’s plan to re-open a mine in the North Columbia Diggings. Siskon’s proposal was not the first; our community had been struggling with mining proposals for the previous 15 years. Times have changed since the 1800s when mining was going full-bore here. People have less tolerance for the kinds of social and environmental disruptions that mines cause.  Read more…

History of Mining on Spring Creek and Shady Creek

North Columbia, California mining crew working
Mining crew working. North Columbia, California. (Plumas County Museum)

San Juan Ridge is between the Middle Yuba River and the South Yuba River. Fifty million years ago there were a series of gold bearing (auriferous) streams here in what geologists call the Tertiary Period. This was prior to the formation of the Sierra Nevada. Possibly 20 million but certainly by 10 million years ago the northern Sierra was uplifted and tilted to the west. This was a gradual process that caused the Yuba and other streams to flow generally westward. In the process the westerly flowing streams eroded portions of the tertiary streams releasing gold into the Feather, Yuba, Bear, and American River drainages. The streamside gold that was the impetus for the gold rush was, in large part, eroded from the ancient streams beds.

Meanwhile segments of the tertiary channels were left intact as gravel beds on present-day ridges. In many places there is a volcanic lava cap covering the tertiary gravels but on the lower San Juan Ridge, between North Columbia and French Corral, the lava cap has eroded away. Easy access to tertiary gravels combined with sufficient water to mine them facilitated mining in the area. The headwaters of Spring Creek and Shady Creek are near the junction of two large tertiary streams “where the auriferous gravel deposits are extensive” (Mac Boyle 1919:100, Lawler:1989).   Read more…
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