Mercur, After 1973
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This page was last updated on February 2, 2026.
Mercur Revival, 1973
A timeline of major events in the Mercur mining district, originally known as the Camp Floyd mining district.
Interested researchers are directed to online newspapers, especially Newspapers.com. A search for "Camp Floyd Mining District" gives a wide variety of results.
Getty Oil (1974-1985)
December 2, 1973
The bankruptcy court in Reno, Nevada, authorized the trustee of the Steen estate "to enter into lease and option to purchase agreement involving the sale of mining property near Mercur, Utah, to Getty Oil Co." (Provo Daily Herald, December 2, 1973)
(The above is the first reference of Getty Oil in relation to either Mercur or the Camp Floyd mining district.)
In 1973, Gold Standard, Inc. began consolidating the fractured land position at Mercur and secured an exploration agreement with Getty Oil Company. Getty continued land consolidation and conducted an extensive drilling campaign, resulting in the delineation of reported reserves of 15 million tons at 0.09 ounces gold per ton, although the accuracy of this estimate is in question due to the methods used.
In later years, subsequent mining by Getty and Barrick, who processed a total of over 34 million tons of mineralized material proved an average grade of 0.06 ounces gold per ton from the Main Mercur area.
Construction of an open pit mine and 3,000 tons-per-day carbon-in-leach mill complex began in 1981. Commercial gold production began in April 1983 with a targeted production rate of 80,000 ounces of gold per year.
From 1973 on, Getty Oil Company consolidated its land position (ownership or rights) at Mercur, and Homestake Mining Company consolidated a large land position around the historic underground mines at South Mercur. Getty's work ultimately led to the development of the Mercur open pit mine and a Carbon-In-Leach (CIL) mill complex in 1983.
Getty Oil Timeline
January 5, 1974
From the Salt Lake Tribune, January 5, 1974.
Gold Standard. Inc., Salt Lake City, has announced a joint venture program with Getty Oil Co. that would try to revive gold production at Mercur, Tooele County. Gold Standard president Scott Smith said that Getty and Gold Standard hold undivided interests of 75 percent and 25 percent respectively.
Getty is the operator and is responsible for all exploration, pre-development work and expenditures, he said. Getty crews are now drilling in the area, he said. Exploration is expected to take about two years.
The work is being carried out on properties acquired by purchase, by lease, or by options to lease or purchase within the Camp Floyd Mining District. Success of the venture presumes development of a low grade, disseminated ore body that could be mined by open pit methods, a sustained or increased price in gold, and the solving of metallurgical problems associated with the Mercur ores, he said.
Newmont Mining Co. did some drilling in the area three years ago with inconclusive results.
(Gold Standard, Inc., had been organized in 1971 by Scott Smith.)
February 8, 1974
From the Tooele Transcript, February 8, 1974.
It has been reported that Gold Standard Inc., a Salt Lake City based mining exploration company and Getty Oil Co. of California have agreed to a joint mining project in what is known as the Camp Floyd Mining District of Tooele County, which encompasses the town of Mercur.
A company spokesman said that Getty Oil will hold a 75 percent undivided interest in the project with Gold Standard holding the remaining 25 percent. Getty Oil will be the operator with responsibility for all exploration and pre-development work.
Preliminary drilling has already begun and extensive exploration is planned. The venture is an attempt to revive gold production in the area that saw the old mining town of Mercur gain world fame at the turn of the last century.
Gold was discovered in the Oquirrh Mountains in 1872 and the town of Mercur was founded soon after. But it was not until 1890 with the then new cyanide process that the problem of getting the gold out of the ores was solved.
The first gold cyanide plant in the U.S. was installed there in 1892 and the Golden Gate Mill began operations in 1899 for the Consolidated Mercur Gold Mines Company. During the 11 years that followed over three million tons of gold ore was processed by the mill. These tailings and the mill foundations are all that remain of the thriving town of Mercur today.
However gold mining operations were still profitable there as late as the early 1940s.
The company spokesman pointed out that over the past year the price of gold has tripled. Couple this with Mercur's impressive past history of gold production and you have the reason for the renewed interest in the area.
Geologists have indicated that the area has a very favorable geologic environment for wide spread gold deposits. And the companies hope that with modern techniques not only can past ore bodies be enlarged, but that totally new ones may be discovered and exploited.
The agreement between Getty Oil and Gold Standard required many months and resulted in the many mines and individual, properties in the area being gathered into one unit. This is the first time the entire gold district has been compiled into a unit and can be treated as a whole so mineral exploration may be undertaken on the entire camp. The camp is made up of hundreds of claims, some dating back to the 1880s. These are now held by the companies through leases and options to purchase.
Some of the mines included in the agreement are: Golden Gate, Sacramento, Brickyard, Geyser, Marion and the Lulu.
The Mercur ores have always been beset with problems. The removal of gold from the host rock has plagued operators from the beginning. Because of this difficulty the U.S. Bureau of Mines has reported that the tailings from the Golden Gate alone contain perhaps 200,000 ounces of gold left by past operators who were unable to recover it.
Getty Oil and Gold Standard hope the new processes developed over the past 30 years will enable them to economically process the tailings. They also believe new ore can be deve1oped.
1976-1977
Beginning in late October 1976 and continuing through mid January 1977, Getty Oil Company, Combined Metals, and the heirs of Charles A. Steen filed a civil law suit against several property owners holding property within the Camp Floyd Mining District. (numerous legal notices during late October 1976 through early January 1977)
The defendants were as follows, in addition to "all persons known and unknown claiming any right, title, estate, lien or interest in the real property described" (the property was not described except in the original summons on file in the Tooele County courthouse).
DeLamar's Mercer Mines Company
Lewiston Peak Mining Company
Snyder Mines Incorporated
Mercur Gold Mining & Milling Company
Wonder Gold Mining Company
Salt Lake & Mercur Railroad Company
Geyser Marion Gold Mining Company
Sacramento Gold Mining Company
(In later notices, the individuals who were directors of the above companies were also listed as defendants. Except for two or three of the companies, all were defunct corporations and their directors deceased.)
(During August 1979, Getty Mineral Resources, the Getty Oil subsidiary that was developing the Mercur gold mine, was also in a joint venture with Coastal States Energy company to develop the new Skyline coal mine near Scofield, Utah.)
July 15, 1980
"Getty Oil Company may revive the silver and gold mining industry at Mercur, but operation will not begin until 1983 at the earliest." "The company is considering underground as well as open pit mining for silver and gold and possibly the recovery of other metals and minerals such as lead and zinc." There were discussions with Tooele County concerning Getty employing up to 120 person, and the impact it would have on Tooele County and Tooele City services and the few remaining residents of Mercur. With all the feasibility and environmental studies yet to be completed, and state and local reviews that have to be completed, it might be 1985 or later before mining starts at Mercur." (Tooele Bulletin, July 15, 1980)
December 11, 1980
"Getty Oil has resumed exploration drilling in the Mercur area after near a decade of inactivity, and may have enough information in a couple months or so to day whether it has a mine." "Getty, by far the largest of the potential operators, has merely indicated that it may file a mining and exploration plan." "The Mercur is a partnership venture with Gold Standard Co., Salt Lake City, which held the claims and brought them to Getty's attention several years ago." (Salt Lake Tribune, December 11, 1980)
March 10, 1981
"Getty Oil filed applications today for permits that could lead to gold mining in Mercur Canyon. The applications were filed with the Tooele County Commission, the state of Utah and the Bureau of Land Management by Getty Resources, a subsidiary of Getty Oil. Company officials emphasized that the proposed project is still under study and no decision has been made to actually begin operation. Initial development would involve less than 300 acres of sparsely vegetated, semi-arid land located in the southern Oquirrh Mountains, 25 miles southwest of Tooele. If the company proceeds with the project, construction could begin later this year and full operation of the mine could start by 1983." (Tooele Bulletin, March 10, 1981)
October 2, 1981
Davey McKee Corporation was awarded a contract by Getty Mineral Resources company to build the new Mercur gold mill. A photo in July 1982 showed the area to be cleared and mill construction well started. (Salt lake Tribune, October 2, 1981; July 25, 1982)
(In February 1982, the Getty Oil subsidiary developing the Mercur gold mining project was changed from Getty Mineral Resources, to Getty Mining Company. The last reference to Getty Mineral Resources Company was in January 1983.)
February 1982
There were law suits from heirs of the original mining claim owners, attacking a the condemnation action Getty Oil was using to gain ownership of the various mining claims in the Mercur area. The heirs were unhappy with what Getty was offering to pay for their mining claims; 19 acres in one case, and 90 acres in another. (Salt Lake Tribune, February 17, 1982; February 18, 1982; March 6, 1982)
(The story of two women from Las Vegas standing in the way of the big evil oil company in Utah was picked up by Associated Press and syndicated nationwide in many, many newspapers.)
(The two law suits were settled in early May 1982, with Getty paying a slightly higher purchase price.)
March 23, 1982
"Initial production is scheduled to begin in July 1983, according to a Getty news release." (Tooele Bulletin, March 23, 1982)
August 19, 1982
The following summary of electric service to Mercur comes from the Lehi Free Press, August 19, 1982.
Today, Utah Power and Light Company crews are building a new power line with a refined technique, from Tooele to Mercur to provide electricity for a new major Getty Oil Company gold mining operation.
Twice devastated by fire; twice rising from the ashes, Mercur was pretty much abandoned with the dismantling of the mill in 1918 Then, again in the early 1930s, the camp was revived by Combined Metals Company gold mining operations that lasted until the early days of World War II when the federal government took gold out of production.
With its latest rebirth, Mercur is in the midst of Getty Oil's engineering and construction activities. Mining and milling operation will begin early next year. The operation is expected to recover 80,000 to 85,000 ounces of gold yearly; upwards of a third a billion dollars.
The electrification of Mercur began in early 1898 after electric industry pioneer Lucien L. Nunn was attracted to Utah because of the potential electrification of Utah mines. Nunn built a small hydro plant near the mouth of Provo Canyon and proposed his plan to bring power to the mining camp to Captain Joseph DeLamar, owner of the mining properties in Mercur.
The line was successfully completed and on January 7, 1898, was energized. It was one of the first 40,000-volt transmission lines in the world and, at the time, was by far the longest. It led to Mercur being recorded as the first completely electric mine and mill in the history of the industry. Even the insulators on the line made history. They were glass insulators designed especially for the 40,000-volt line and, since they were used near Provo, became known as the Provo-type.
That first transmission line was built by the Telluride Power Company and was, at least in part, responsible for the birth of Mercur. Utah Power and Light Company is a direct corporate descendant of the Telluride Company, and its new 44,000 volt transmission line will, at least in part, be responsible for Mercur's rebirth.
March 30, 1983
The mill of the Getty gold mining operation at Mercur began production on Wednesday March 30, 1983. Using about 90 employees, the mine had been stockpiling ore since November 1982. As testing and training at the mill began, 100 more employees were added to work at the mill. "The mill, which is run by latest state-of-the-art equipment is responsible for the crushing of the usable 10 percent of the mined rock into a minute 200-mesh particle mixture. The gold is not visible at this point but the thick mud-looking liquid is quite valuable. Carbon leach is added to the mixture, which acts as a magnet to attract the gold. The 'pregnant' carbon is sprayed into screens of steel wool from which the gold is stripped off and melted. It is then poured into 500-ounce bullions. These leave the plant with a gold purity of 95.5 percent to be further refined elsewhere." (Tooele Transcript, March 31, 1983)
June 16, 1983
Getty Oil Company announced that it would formally merge its 10 mining operations in the United States, Chile and Australia, including the Mercur gold project, into a formal subsidiary to be called Getty Mining company. The merged company was active in the exploration and mining of coal, gold, lignite, copper, uranium and oil-bearing dichotomous earth. (Tooele Transcript, June 16, 1983)
August 4, 1984
From the Salt Lake Tribune, August 4, 1984.
It was Gold Standard, Inc., and its founder, Scott Smith, who put together the 9,000-acre package in 1972 that is now the Mercur Gold Mine 40 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Getty Mining spent more than $100 million on exploration, engineering, building and development. The first gold was poured in April 1983.
And while Getty moved boldly ahead, it could not have dreamed that the parent Getty Oil Co., would get in a internecine struggle last year that was to eventually result in its acquisition by Texaco Inc.
Texaco, unlike some petroleum companies, has not gotten into owning mining companies and on Friday, Mr. Smith noted that Texaco now has appointed First Boston Corp, to find a buyer for Getty Mining.
(The acquisition of Getty Oil by Texaco was announced on January 7, 1984, when Getty directors agreed to the sale, and the transaction took place on February 17, 1984. Texaco paid $4.07 billion in cash for 35.1 million publicly held shares submitted during its tender offer, and $5.68 billion for the 9.3 million Getty shares held by the J. Paul Getty Museum, with Texaco offering to buy 3 million outstanding Getty shares at $128 per share, or $384 million. -- Salt Lake Tribune, January 7, 1984; February 18, 1984)
(Getty Mining company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Texaco, Inc.)
(During 1983, the Mercur mine produced 30,000 ounces of gold. During 1984, the production was 80,000 ounces of gold. -- Salt Lake Tribune, March 16, 1985)
May 16, 1985
"Texaco Inc., Thursday announced the conditional sale, pending governmental approvals, of Getty Gold Mine Co. to a wholly owned U. S. subsidiary of Barrick Resources Corp., Toronto, Canada." (Salt Lake Tribune, May 17, 1985)
("American Barrick was formed in July 1984 by the combination of three mining companies, including Barrick Resources Corp., itself an amalgamation of other mining interests. The company currently [1987] owns all or part of six producing gold mines in Ontario, Quebec, Utah, Nevada and Alaska. It also has interests in gold exploration and development projects." -- St. Louis Post Dispatch, April 19, 1987)
June 1985
In 1984, Texaco acquired the properties of Getty Oil company in a deal valued at $10.1 billion. Texaco sold its interest in the Mercur gold project in June 1985 to Barrick. At the time of the purchase of Getty by Texaco, there were 240 people employed at the Mercur mine.
Barrick (1985-1988)
In June 1985, a subsidiary of American Barrick Resources, predecessor to Barrick Gold Corporation acquired the Mercur mine from Getty. Barrick immediately increased the mill throughput to 4,000 tons-per-day and added a dump leach facility to increase production. The mill capacity was further increased to 4,500 tons-per-day in 1986, which raised annual production levels above 110,000 ounces gold per year.
In 1988, Barrick added a 750 tons per day autoclave to pre-treat refractory material for the CIL mill circuit to treat refractory material, and in 1991 the mill and autoclave capacities were increased to 5,000 tons-per-day and 875 tons-per-day, respectively. After these upgrades by Barrick, the mine produced over 100,000 ounces of gold per year until 1995 when the economic reserves were exhausted.
Operations at Mercur from 1983 to 1985 (Getty) and 1985 through 1995 (Barrick) indicate three different processing streams were used; gold-bearing oxide ore was processed via a carbon-in-leach plant, gold-bearing refractory sulphide ore was processed via an autoclave pressure oxidation circuit followed by carbon-in-leach, and low-grade gold-bearing ore was processed via a leach-heap. Over 27 million tonnes of ore were processed and over 1.3 million ounces of gold were produced during this time.
The refractory feed included over 1.5 million tons of low-grade historical tailings of the old Golden Gate mill which were mined to expose the underlying gold mineralization in the Golden Gate pit and for environmental remediation.
Barrick initiated the first of three dump leach facilities in 1985. The alkaline pressure oxidation autoclave circuit was added in February 1988 to pre-treat the refractory gold mineralization associated with sulfide minerals and organic carbon. The sulphide materials were mined as open-pit overburden.
The autoclave circuit was discontinued in February 1996 due to the exhaustion of refractory ores at that time. Active mining was halted in March 1997, but the oxide circuits from the CIL mill continued to recover gold until April 1998.
Barrick closed the mine in 1998 due to low gold prices, and substantially completed reclamation of the Mercur site.
Barrick Timeline
June 7, 1985
Barrick Resources Corp. of Toronto, announced its intention to acquire Getty Gold Mining Co. from Texaco, Inc. (Salt Lake Tribune, June 7, 1985)
June 18, 1985
"Barrick's latest acquisition is the Mercur gold mine in Utah, being bought for an undisclosed sum from Getty Mining Co., an indirect subsidiary of Texaco Inc. of White Plains, N.Y. The sale is part of a Texaco program to sell non-oil and gas assets acquired with the purchase of Getty Oil Co. The Mercur purchase will close June 28 — when details will be disclosed — and Barrick will take possession of the property July 1." (Toronto Globe and Mail, June 18, 1985)
July 12, 1985
From the Salt Lake Tribune, July 12, 1985.
Frank D. Wicks, former U.S. operations manager for Getty Mining Co., has been appointed vice president and general manager of the newly formed Barrick Mercur Gold Mines Inc., a subsidiary of the Toronto-based Barrick Resources Corp. Barrick established Barrick Mercur Gold Mines to operate the Mercur gold mine at the south end of the Oquirrh Mountains in Tooele County.
On May 16, Barrick conditionally purchased from Texaco Inc. the Getty Gold Mine Co., which owned and operated the mine. The sale was part of Texaco's plan to dispose of assets it acquired last year in the $10.1 billion purchase of Getty Oil Co that did not fit with its long-term strategy. On Wednesday, Texaco announced the sale of four coal properties in Utah and Colorado it acquired from Getty.
Mr. Wicks was the project manager for the construction of the Mercur mine during 1982. He was promoted to general manager for the mine in 1983. In 1984, he was promoted U.S. operations manager for Getty Mining.
Besides his new duties at the Mercur operation, Mr. Wicks will coordinate all of Barrick’s domestic U S. activities.
(The formal name of the new company was Barrick Mercur Gold Mines, Inc.)
October 1985
Barrick began its heap leaching program at the Mercur gold mine. The process was expected to add 15,000 ounces of gold to the annual production. (Salt Lake Tribune, October 1, 1985)
(After buying the Mercur gold mine in 1985, Barrick entered into a massive expansion of its holdings, including the Goldstrike mine near Carlin, Nevada, and the Holt-McDermott mine in Ontario, expanding its gold production capability from 115,000 ounces from just the Mercur mine in 1985, to a projected 344,000 ounces from all properties in 1989. The expansion was funded by selling gold futures, which stockholders objected to, fearing that any profits would first go to retiring the debt instead of dividends.)
(In 1987, a legal battle began between Barrick and Gold Standard, Inc., the Salt Lake City exploration company that had in the early 1970s assembled the group of mineral land parcels that became the Mercur mine. Barrick had leveraged its gold production to fund its expansion program, ignoring the fact that the Mercur project was in fact a joint venture with Gold Standard, with Gold Standard being entitled to 25 percent of all proceeds from the Mercur project. In December 1986, Gold Standard started legal action against both Barrick and Texaco, seeking to take full ownership of the Mercur mine, and all gold production since the startup in 1983. Barrick offered a minimal settlement that Gold Standard refused. Any legal action against Texaco included navigating the roadblocks of Texaco's then-current bankruptcy.)
(The suit and subsequent counter-suit, and an add-on suit, progressed through the court system until Barrick settled with Gold Standard in April 1993, buying the company's 15 percent interest in the profits from the mine, paying a reported $5 million. Gold Standard continued its suit against Getty Oil and Texaco, claiming fraud. In September 1993, a Tooele County jury found in favor of Gold Standard, but the jury's verdict was overruled by the court judge. Gold Standard appealed the judges decision to the Utah Supreme Court, and in January 1996, the state supreme court found in favor of Getty and Texaco, canceling the $404 million in damages awarded by the jury to Gold Standard. -- sources include a wide variety of Salt Lake City, Tooele, and Toronto newspaper stories from April 1987 to January 1996)
November 3, 1987
Barrick Installs Autoclave For Refractory Ore -- From the Salt Lake Tribune, November 3, 1987.
American Barrick Resources Corp, Toronto, will begin treating refractory ore in an autoclave to be installed at its Mercur gold mine at the southern tip of the Oquirrh Mountains. The 12-foot-diameter, 50-foot-long, 1,500-ton steel vessel, looking like a giant propane tank, was built in Canada. "The autoclave operates like kitchen pressure cooker," says Frank Wicks, vice president and general manager of Barrick Resources USA, the company's U.S. subsidiary.
Refractory ore has a high content of sulfur and carbon that holds the gold in a tight molecular bond that makes it unusable in the normal cyanidation processes. The refractory ore, now stockpiled, will be subjected to pressures of 460 pounds per square inch and temperatures of 225 degrees Centigrade. The pressure and temperature will break the sulfur and carbon bond, freeing the gold to be passed into the regular cyanidation process. The sulphur is oxidized to become sulfuric acid, which in turn is neutralized in the naturally occurring limestone of the ore.
"We expect to have 90 percent gold recovery from treated refractory material compared to 20 percent if it were untreated," Mr. Wicks said. Most of the mill feed is oxide ore which needs no treatment. However, the oxide ore gold grade is thinning. The addition of capacity to treat the refractory ores will enable Mercur to maintain its gold production at a 116,000 ounce annual rate, he said.
Mercur currently treats 4,250 tons of oxide ore daily. Some 750 tons of refractory ore daily will be treated in the autoclave, bringing total ore processed to 5,000 tons daily. The mine and mill employ 200.
The Mercur gold project was developed by Getty Oil Co. at estimated cost of $100 million on land principally packaged in the early 1970s by Gold Standard Co., Salt Lake City. Operations began in 1983. Getty was later acquired by Texaco Inc., which later sold off the mine and mill operation to American Barrick. American Barrick operates gold mines in Canada as well as the United States. Gold Standard has begun litigation against American Barrick as well as previous operators in dispute over contracts.
The autoclave was made by Victoria Machine Depot, an old-line Victoria, B.C., company whose products range from pressure vessels for the mining and forestry industries to submarine hulls for military and civilian use. The autoclave cost $750,000. Transport and installation, however, will bring total investment to $7 million, according to Mr. Wicks.
The autoclave was shipped by barge from Victoria to railhead in Washington state, then hauled by special railcar to the St. John's rail siding west of Mercur. It is to be transferred by a special 96-wheel truck rig eight miles up Mercur Canyon, an elevation gain of 1,000 feet to the 7,000-foot mill site. Addition of the autoclave effectively increases reserves, and job security, at Mercur. So far, some 10 years of oxide ore reserves have been blocked out at the mine, Mr. Wicks said. But with addition of the autoclave as well as processes to deal with old tailings, "we see reserves increased to 14 to 15 years."
March 27, 1997
Barrick announced that it would excavate the last remaining gold ore at the Mercur mine on March 27, 1997. Processing at the mill will continue through the end of 1998. After mill is closed, reclamation of the mine, mill and other facilities will begin. (Tooele Transcript Bulletin, March 11, 1997)
(The closure of the Mercur gold mine in 1997-1998 was only given minimal coverage in the local, regional and national newspapers, in almost every case tying the closure with the collapse of gold prices. The majority of coverage was for the last truck-load of ore being hauled in late March 1997, putting 20 men out of work, most of whom were retirement age, with no reference to the closing of the mill over 18 months later, putting over 100 men out of work.)
After 1998
(For additional coverage of the Mercur mine after 1998, see the Mercur, Today page.)
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