Artillery Peak Deposit
Property Overview
The properties in Mohave County, Arizona (purchased in 2007) encompass historical open-pit and underground mines that produced manganese from 1928 to 1955 for delivery to various steel mills and U.S. government strategic materials stockpiles. In 2008 American Manganese Inc. completed the assembly of all target properties in the Artillery Peak manganese district, and drilling and metallurgical testing programs were executed. An updated NI 43-101 compliant Resource Calculation in 2009 indicates a manganese resource in excess of 100 million tonnes, with Indicated and Inferred resources of 10+ billion lb. manganese.
112 patented and 254 unpatented lode mining claims, 12 square miles that include past-producing mines:
- McGregor Pit, McGregor Group;
- Black Crow Mine + Claim Group;
- Love Mine & Prospects;
- The Black Warrior Mine;
- Hurley Mine & Claim Group;
- The Plancha Claim Group;
- (parts of) Rudy Claim Group;
- The Javelina Group (In Section 17 & 18, T11N, R13W);
- Mesa No. 5 and Mesa No. 27
Property History
The Artillery Peak manganese deposit has been worked since 1928 or earlier by enterprising prospectors and miners.
In 1929 investigations of the Artillery Peak manganese deposit in western Arizona were undertaken by private engineers. Estimates for the main part of the district were considerable ranging from 14 to 60 million tons of resource at that time (USGS).
In 1934 The Bureau of Mines tested the deposit and reported it might be amenable to some form of hydrometallurgical treatment.
In 1938 the US Geological Survey undertook in conjunction with M.A. Hanna Co. a detailed study of the deposit.
Thereafter in 1941 the Bureau of Mines undertook to mine the Maggie Canyon portion of Artillery Peak, to obtain material for their metallurgical test plant in Boulder City, Nevada.(Bulletin 936-R)
In 1946 the Bureau of Mines produced an extensive report (Bulletin 463) on the Boulder City test plant. The Bureau reported success in producing manganese metal through electrolysis. This is the pioneering work on the process used today.
During WW 2 mining took place on the various properties making up the Artillery Peak camp.
In the post war period the Artillery Peak manganese deposit was mined for a part of the US Government’s strategic stockpile; the stockpiling ceased 1955.
In 1958 the USGS published “Manganese Deposits of Western Arizona” (information circular # 7843) and placed the regional deposit at 175,000,000 tons grading 3.5 to 4% manganese.
In 1983 Jim Lake of Hazen Research completes his development work on the production of electrolytic metal. Key to the commercial production, through sulfurous acid leaching, is the successful elimination of the impurity Dithionate. A highlight of this report is the successful removal of this impediment.
1988 the US Bureau of Mines report # RI 9150 tested samples from several of the known manganese deposits in the US. The report concludes the samples form Artillery Peak, Arizona returned the highest recoveries in the shortest period of time when subjected to the sulfurous acid leaching process.
In 2007 the Company purchased 90 unpatented lode claims and began its assembly of the patented claims.
In December 2007 a 5000 meter diamond drilling program was undertaken by the Company on the initial holding.
By March 2008 the Company’s holdings reached 180 claims and 17 drill holes had been completed.
The drilling results on the limited portion tested concluded significant manganese over thick intersections.
In June 2008 the Company received the first 43-101 compliant estimate from the 2007/8 diamond drill program.
In October 2008 the Company completes the assembly of virtually all the manganese camp at Artillery Peak. The holdings consist of 112 patented claims and 254 unpatented, covering 12 sq miles.
In April 2009 the Company receives a 2nd 43-101 compliant estimate of resources. The 43-101 is based the 2007/8 drilling ,prior drilling and, surface and underground sampling from reports in Jim Lake’s extensive data base. The study reports 1,068,307,976 lbs of indicated contained manganese and 9,661,091,721lbs of inferred contained manganese.
In August 2009 the Company receives a Preliminary Economic Assessment of the viability of exploiting the reported resource. The report concludes positively, calculating a cash cost of production at 44 cents. The total “all in” cost is calculated at 63 cents lb. The total capital expenditure is calculated at $90,000,000.
In December 2009 the metallurgical lab Kemtco reports a proof of concept on the sulfurous acid method of extraction. The report proves a process based on the early work of the Bureau of Mines, further development work by Jim Lake of Hazen Research and Kemetco. The work is successful in producing Electrolytic Manganese Metal from the samples of Artillery Peak.
