Fonds Add. MSS. 280 - Cariboo Gold Quartz Mining Company fonds

In 1927, veteran prospector, Fred Wells, formed the Cariboo Gold Quartz Mining Company with Dr. W.B. Burnett as president and O.H. Solibakke as director and fiscal agent. The mine, which originally included fifteen claims, was located about fifty miles east of Quesnel, on the northeast end of the Jack of Clubs Lake on Cow Mountain. The first adit driven by Cariboo Gold Quartz was at the 4375 foot level in 1927. Mill production began in 1933 at the rate of about sixty tons per day and by 1936 enough profit had been made to begin dividend payments. The mill reached its peak production of 350 tons per day at the end of the 1940s. The Cariboo Gold Quartz Mine was the first successful large scale gold mining operation in the Cariboo and its activities encouraged other companies to begin hard rock gold mining in the Cariboo region. This boom was called the second gold rush. In 1934 Newmont Mining Corporation began its Island Mountain operation across the Jack of Club Lake from the "Quartz". In 1954 the Cariboo Gold Quartz Company took over control of the Island Mountain Mine. However, by the end of the 1950s, rising labour costs and a static gold price resulted in the closure of Number One Mine on Cow Mountain and in 1967 the Cariboo Gold Quartz Mining operation shut down completely.