This Utah ghost town just struck gold: Eureka's Tintic mining district has a long history of success--but it's only scratched the surface.

• Author: Malan, Mekenna

THE TOWN OF EUREKA sits nestled among the East Tintic Mountains, a range heavy-laden with precious metals that have been mined since 1869. In its heyday, the Tintic Mining District was revered as one of the nation's richest mining districts for silver, lead, and zinc.

Today, Eureka is what one could call a well-preserved "ghost town" (though it boasts a current population of 740, according to the 2022 census). Historic buildings--most of them empty and even featured on a 2018 "Ghost Adventures" episode--line a modest main street, and remnants of the town's successful mining history can be seen in every direction. Even the prolific Tintic Mining District itself had lain dormant since 1978.

"As the Tintic mining district closed down, so did the town," says Vern Tharp, VP of land and water management at Tintic Consolidated Metals (TCM). Before the company revived the district in June of 2019, Tharp says the district had been abandoned for decades--and was passed up by a number of sophisticated mining companies.

When TCM president and CEO Tom Bowens and his team first toured the premises, they found priceless legacy data and infrastructure amongst the rubble. Mining structures that would have cost thousands of dollars (and years to build) were still preserved inside the historically fruitful Trixie mine.

Hundreds of drawings of underground workings and decades of drill logs were also waiting to be utilized. "[The maps and drill logs] were scattered all over the floor. The windows were broken, and the doors were wide open," Tharp says. "But those records are just as valid today as they were in 1932 because the rock doesn't change, unlike almost all other industries. If you had some early drawings of computers from 1932, they'd just be in a museum."

Taking advantage of these historical documents and modern 3D modeling, the TCM team mapped out a promising area of precious metal opportunity--enough to put money on the table and take a chance on further exploration. Then in 2020, when the rest of the world was spiraling due to the pandemic, TCM literally struck gold.

After extending an existing mine shaft about 100 feet, "Boom, we hit this beautiful green, high-grade stuff that was assaying 3-15 ounces per ton of gold," Tharp says. "The guys were jumping up and down."

The discovery of ore this high-grade was unexpected, and TCM swiftly transitioned from an exploration company into a production company. With the announcement of Canada-based Osisko...