Description:
The Oatman and Katherine districts have produced more than
thirty million dollars worth of gold and silver yet no complete report
on the geology and ore occurrence of this interesting region
is available though numerous short papers on various phases of
its geology or the mining operations conducted there have been
published from time to time. A thorough study of the Oatman
District was made by Dr. F. L. Ransome and a preliminary report
based on that study was issued by the United States Geological
Survey in 1923. The detailed descriptions of the rocks
and the excellent map of the district accompanying this report
have been of great value to the operators in this district. As Dr.
Ransome has left the Geological Survey, it is hardly likely that
a complete report will be written by him and published. Among
the earlier accounts of the district, that by Mr. F. C. Schrader
is, by far, the most complete. Although Schrader's report is
based upon a reconnaissance examination of the district, as
stated in the introduction, it served a useful purpose until superseded
by Ransome's more detailed studies. Schrader's work, which
preceded Ransome's by fifteen years, was done at a time when a
large number of the properties were operating. The bulletin,
therefore, contains much information on the character of the
vein fillings and the grade: of· the' ore mined. Both Ransome's
and Schrader's bulletins have been drawn on freely for information on,the underground workings of properties now inaccessible.
Frequent short notices in the technical press deal chiefly
with mining or metallurgical problems, and rarely make more
than a brief mention of the geology, and then usually treat of the
geology of some particular mine rather than of the district,as a
whole.