Page 71 - Vol. 1 Walks In The Black Range - 2nd Edition

The Opportunity Mine was the last of the shafts which Steve Elam and I visited on March 12, 2015 (the date of the photographs on this page) and documented in the video: "Mines of the Hillsboro Mining District - Volume One” (image below).
The Opportunity Mine (pictured to the right) is adjacent to the Rattlesnake Mine to the west and lies at the southern end of the Animas Hills. In "The Geology and Ore Deposits of Sierra County, New Mexico" George Townsend Harley reports that the Opportunity produced $670,000 in ore.
At the time of our visit (and as of July 2020), there was a cage located near the shaft. This is the cage which was used to lower and raise miners, toward the end of mining here a large crane was apparently brought in for the effort.
Standing by the cage, you
can see the workings above the main shaft where the miners were following a vein (photo next page). If you turn around and look down slope, you can see additional workings (shafts and trenches) where the vein was followed downhill to the southwest.
What was happening at the Sierra Consolidated properties during the company’s existence? Or more particularly what was being reported? The prospectus was being heavily marketed in the years following incorporation (starting in 1903) and operations at the mines began, and the selling of shares continued, in 1906 (“The Ore Deposits of New Mexico”, Waldemar Lindgren et al., Professional Paper 68 of the United States Geological Survey, Washington, 1910, p. 210).
In 1906, The Mining Reporter noted that Sierra Consolidated was “retimbering the three- compartment shafts on its Snake and Opportunity groups and is making a number of other improvements. A traction line is to be built from Hillsboro to Osceola and a large milling plant is to be erected.” (“The Mining Reporter”, Volume 53, p. 121, February 1, 1906). Two
weeks later “The Mining Reporter” noted that “A traction engine and cars have been delivered at this
company’s” (Sierra Consolidated) “property and will be used on the road which will be built either from Lake Valley
An image from the video, this is not an embedded video and it is not a link.