Death Valley Gave Rise To This White Gold
It's Not Surprising That Boron, California Has One Of The Richest Borate Deposits On The Planet, Where Borax Leads In R&D For The Essential Mineral
In Death Valley California, in the early 1900’s a gold rush was occurring. Unlike the gold rush of 1849, the new rush was for a white powdery substance most commonly known for its use in detergents. Borax has a long history in southern California and has been mined in and around Death Valley for more than a century.
“When they discovered borax in Death Valley, there was a couple living off the edge of Death Valley that were wondering what this white rock was. A representative of William Coleman, a big financier out of San Francisco, said that if they would pour some sulfuric acid and alcohol on it and light it on fire, if it burned green, it was borate. When they discovered it was borax, they contacted Coleman and work began on building five sets of large wagons. The wagons had a twenty-mule team pulling them from Mojave to Death Valley, a 165 mile trip that took ten days. They bagged and loaded borax into the wagons and each carried between 10 and 11 tons each and 1,200 gallons of water for the 165-mile trip. They did that from 1883 to 1889. Eventually they built a narrow-gauge railroad to the mine”, explained Jim Valentine host at the Borax Visitor Center in Boron, California.
Valentine dedicated 41 years to working for Rio Tinto the owners of the Borax Mine in Boron. He started out in March of 1962 as a laborer at the Old Mill. He later was drafted into the army, but returned to Boron and worked his way up in the company holding many positions out in the pit operating machinery, working with explosives crews, and working in transportation. Valentine ended his career working in the electric shop for 27 years as an industrial electrician and now volunteers his time to serve as a host at the Borax Visitor Center sharing his knowledge and experience with visitors to the site.
“In 1913 a doctor came up to this area, he thought it would be a good place for a rheumatism or TB sanitarium. He hired a couple of guys to drill a well for water, but there was no water. He asked them to drill deeper and this white stuff came up”, claimed Valentine. The white stuff in the well proved to be borates and when the Pacific Coast Borax Company found out about it, they began operations in the area. “In 1925, they began moving some of their mining equipment out of Death Valley to Boron. It started as underground mining in 1927 at the Old Mill. Everything at the Old Mill is gone, because in 1956 they started building a new processing plant at the west end of the open pit so as the pit expanded it shut down all of the refining in the Old Mill”.
The Borax Mine is one of the largest pit mines in the world and sells about a million tons of refined Borax per year. Mining operations have expanded dramatically from underground to pit mine operations over the years. “As equipment got bigger in the 50’s, that’s when they decided to go with an open pit. As they started to go open pit, the trucks and shovels were getting bigger. When I came here in 1962, the ore trucks were 20 ton trucks. In 1998, they bought 240 ton unit rigs that haul ore from the ore body up to the primary crusher”, Valentine said.
One may wonder why the excitement about a little bit of rock that makes soap, however, the uses for borates are almost endless. “In the space shuttle, borates were used on the tiles to protect the shuttle from burning up on re-entry. The compound is used in welding flux, any glass fiber or glass insulation. A big user of borax is Samsung flat screen televisions. On anything glass, they use a borate glaze on it to strengthen it. It’s used to tan cow hides for baseball covers, in playdough and silly putty, fireworks, sheet rock to strengthen it, on wood products to keep bugs out…it’s used in thousands of things”, Valentine exclaimed. “They’ve known about borax since ancient times. The Egyptians used it in mummification, the Romans used it in glass making, and the Arabians used it in gold and silver processing”.
The Borax Visitor Center was constructed in 1997 at the Boron pit mine and provides an overview of all things related to Borax. “When you come to the visitor center, on one side we have displays, pictures, and information about the refining, the products, and people which is quite intensive. We have a ten-minute informational video that gives you a better picture of Rio Tinto and Borax. The windows in the back open so you can look out over the mine and refinery, or you can go outside and there’s a ramp that goes up on top of the building and you can get a panoramic view of the whole mine and desert around us. It’s quite a view from up there”, stated Valentine.
“We have hosts to answer people’s questions. For most people that stop by they want to know ‘what is it used in’ and that’s really a mind-blowing situation for most people when they find out what it’s used in. That’s our basic operation, to inform people about our mining and the uses of borax”, Valentine advised.Jared Langenegger
A graduate of New Mexico State University with B.S. in wildlife and fisheries science, Jared spent 15 years working in fisheries and parks management. He enjoys camping, fishing, hunting, painting, and wood working.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Antelope Valley Fairgrounds RV Park, which has everything you need, from full hookups (water, electricity, and sewer), the ability to bring pets, and reasonable rates. It operates on a first-come, first-serve basis therefore they do not take reservations.