The Ferris-Haggerty Mine was one of the richest components of the Grand Encampment Mining District in Carbon County, Wyoming. The site was first exploited by Ed Haggerty, a sheep-herder from Whitehaven, England, in 1897 when he established the Rudefeha Mine on a rich deposit in a massive sulfide copper ore outcropping. The production zone is as much as 65 feet thick and averaged 6 to 8% copper (ma
ny of the larger copper mines today, produce ore that typically averages less than 1% copper). High-grade ore mined from the shoot supplied the Boston-Wyoming smelter at Riverside with 200 to 500 tons of ore per day. The Famous Ferris-Haggarty produced around 21,000,000 pounds of copper (Cu) - 147,000 short tons (x) 2,000 lbs. of ore (x) an average copper grade of 7.2% per ton = 21,168,000 lbs. of copper... give or take a few pounds. Ferris-Haggarty Mining Corporation anticipates our future average production grade to run 5% Cu per ton. Some of the high-grade ore yielded 30 to 40% Cu with some silver and 0.1 to 0.4 opt Au. The ore was mined from a zone that was at least 250 to 300 feet long and was developed to a depth of 300 feet in 1903. The workings may have ultimately extended to a vertical depth of production extended to 400 feet and development to approximately 500 feet prior to termination of the mine operations in 1908. Over the last 118 years many geologists, state and federal agencies have studied at length, mapped, surveyed, sampled, tested and analyzed. Probably more than any other historical mine in Wyoming. Several years ago, an Exxon Minerals sampling program in a portion of the underground workings identified significant mineralization. Samples yielded 0.10% to 21.3% copper, 1.1 parts per million to 80 grams per metric ton silver, and 75 parts per billion to 11 grams per metric ton gold. Current Reserves reportedly included 842,000 metric tons (982,500 short tons U.S.) the early 1900's. Records indicate the mine produced more than 9,500 metric tons of copper with some gold and silver from Proterozoic Age quartzite breccia along a contact with a hanging wall felsic schist. Ore shoots were reported to average 6% to 8% copper in the historic mine and to average 6 meters in thickness with swells as thick as 20 meters. High-grade ore yielded as much as 30% to 40% copper (THE MINERAL INDUSTRY OF WYOMING, 1996). Exxon Minerals engineers indicated to the former owner who had leased the mine to Exxon in 1982-1984 that, their geochemical sampling and magnetometer surveying showed that the ore body continued down-dip to at least 4,000 feet. They and others can only speculate as to any other underlying ore deposits that may be deposited in the original deposit at depth. The following reports are from the USGS that date as far back as 1903 and 1904 (COPPER DEPOSITS OF THE ENCAMPMENT DISTRICT WYOMING BY ARTHUR C. SPENCER, USGS Professional Paper No. 25. Some have been written and published into early 2000's. We have included the most relevant to the Ferris-Haggarty Mine as factual data in support of new operations.
