38.82895501921818, -114.39328097164137

First, an overview from a 1944 study of the area.

The Minerva district is near the Utah border in White Pine County,Nevada, 45 miles southeast of Ely, which is on the Standard gauge Nevada Northern Railroad. Minerva, the mill and townsite of Tungsten Metals, Corporation at an elevation of 5,800 feet, is one mile south of Shoshone Post Office in Spring Valley, and is reached by a level dirt road extending 15 miles from surfaced highway U. S. 93. The mines, in the lower portion of the Snake Range at elevations of 6,300 to 7,500 feet, are 2 to 5 miles from the mill.
History and Production
Although silver ore was discovered in 1869 at the Indian Silver mine, now included in the east portion of the Scheelite Chief vein, operations here and at Bromide Flat, east of the Hilltop vein, were not extensive, silver production was meagre, and the district was abandoned by 1876. Scheelite was found in the veins in 1915 by C. E. Millick, A. G. Millick, and Jasper M. Fox, and mined on a small scale in 1916. The Nevada Scheelite Co. held the property in 1917, the Minerva Tungsten Co. in 1918. A 150-ton mill, located below the Chief mine, was completed in 1918 shortly before collapse of the tungsten market. Production for this period is unknown to the writer, but is believed to be less than $100,000 worth of concentrate valued at the high prices then prevailing; Nevada bullion tax records show production only in 1916, amounting to $7,651. Except for a small-scale leasing operation in 1932, the property was idle until 1936 when Tungsten Metals Corporation was organized. This company built the present 75-ton mill in 1938, and has developed the Scheelite Chief, Silver Bell, Oriole, West Everit, and East Everit mines. Production from these mines in the period 1937-1943 inclusive was 101,467 tons yielding 77,889 units of WO3 sold for approximately $1,615,275. Elsewhere in the district, the Hilltop, Tony, Canary Yellow, and Zigzag mines have yielded about 2,200 units, making a total district production of 82,000 units.
-Tungsten Deposits in the Minerva District, White Pine County, Nevada, by Dwight Lemmon, 1944

Minerva, Nevada, began as part of the Shoshone Mining District, organized in 1869 after silver was discovered in the western Snake Range. The early silver boom produced little lasting wealth, and the district was largely abandoned by the late 1870s. Ironically, the miners had encountered scheelite, the tungsten ore that would eventually make Minerva important.

Scheelite (calcium tungstate) is a primary ore mineral of tungsten. Tungsten allowed for the creation of tungsten carbide and high-speed tool steels. Cutting tools hardened with tungsten could cut metal at extreme speeds and high temperatures without losing their temper or edge. This was essential for mass-producing tanks, aircraft engines, artillery barrels, and naval vessels efficiently. Because tungsten is nearly as dense as gold and exceptionally hard, it became the primary material for the dense inner cores of high-velocity armor-piercing anti-tank rounds and artillery shells.

Meanwhile, the search for gold and silver seemed more important.

Shoshone District.—A letter from E. J. Hotchkiss speaks in the highest terms of Shoshone District, which is situated 25 miles east of Patterson. The writer says it is the best camp he has visited in the silver regions of Nevada, and that the richness of the mines there can be compared to no other place than White Pine.
--Gold Hill Daily News, April 3, 1869

Shoshone District.—A sale of the Indian silver mine in this district to a San Francisco Company is about concluded. It is about 80 miles north of Pioche. There is talk of immediately erecting a mill, but it is thought the Indian ores will have to be roasted.
-The Pioche Record, April 15, 1873

In 1896, a post office was established at Swallow's Ranch-- later named Shoshone. Minerva never got a post office of its own.

In 1915, scheelite was finally recognized as valuable, and tungsten mining began the following year. The Nevada Scheelite Company and later the Minerva Tungsten Corporation developed the property, including a 150-ton-per-day mill in 1918. World War I created strong demand for tungsten, but the war's end caused prices to collapse, and Minerva soon became largely inactive again.

WORST IN FORTY YEARS
Joseph M. Fox, who is one of the fortunate owners of the big scheelite properties recently discovered in the Minerva district by himself and the Millick brothers, is spending a few days in the city. Mr. Fox has been a resident of Spring valley for about forty years and states that the snowfall of recent date was heavier than any other snowfall in that section within his recollection. Mr. Fox expected last fall to soon remove to California, but he was caught in the big snow storm and could not get out.
—Ely Record, February 14, 1916

SCHEELITE MINES ARE SOLD FOR BIG SUM
Through the instrumentality of William Stewart, a well known local mining man, a group of 20 claims in the old Minerva district was sold this week to Salt Lake people who represent Boston capital, for a sum which cannot be represented in less than six figures, and upon which a substantial cash payment was made in this city on Wednesday last.
The claims were located last fall by the four Millick brothers and Jasper Fox, who since that time have developed what is generally considered the largest showing of scheelite ore in the Snake range. In the claims transferred there are three distinct fissure veins, ranging from two to 12 feet in width, and traceable on the surface for distances of from 2500 to 4500 feet. In the early days of the district some of these claims were extensively worked for silver ores, hence there is already considerable development along the various leads, all of which show scheelite ore of a commercial grade. It is expected from prospecting and careful sampling that the leads will average about one per cent in tungsten, but there are already developed a number of rich shoots of ore which will run from 40 to 60 per cent. In fact in four days time two men had panned 200 pounds of concentrates which will average at least 60 per cent in tungsten. It is said that there are 2,000 tons of commercial ore on the dumps and in sight in the workings at the present time, which is indeed a most wonderful showing considering the recent discovery of scheelite ore on the property. William Stewart has been named as manager of the new company and will commence development work on the first of next month, and plans are already being drawn for a 30-ton mill, which will constitute the first unit of a milling plant soon to be erected either at the mines or in the vicinity. The Minerva district is situated about 55 miles southeast from Ely, in the low foothills on the west side of the Snake range, and from 10 to 12 miles south of the flourishing camp of the U. S. Tungsten corporation, which for some months past has been a heavy producer of tungsten concentrates. There is plenty of water in the vicinity for all milling and camp purposes. Good roads are already constructed to all of the mines, hence it is expected that the new mill will be in operation within sixty days from April 1st.There are now four tungsten mills along the Snake range, and with this one for the Minerva district and two others promised for the camp of Sheelite, the indications are that the Snake range will soon be the scene of great mining activity.
--Elko Daily Free Press, March 20, 1916

The district was revived in 1936 by Tungsten Metals Corporation. A new mill, mine workings, housing, boarding facilities and other infrastructure created the company town of Minerva near the older Shoshone settlement. During World War II, tungsten was again a strategic metal, and from 1937 through 1945 the Minerva mines produced more than 100,000 tons of ore containing nearly 78,000 units of tungsten oxide.

TUNGSTEN METALS SHIPS CARLOAD TO EAST
ELY, Nev., July 7.—(Special)—A carload of tungsten concentrates was shipped this week by the Tungsten Metals Corporation to the Molybdenum Corporation of America at Washington, Pa. The ore was concentrated at the mill of the company at Shoshone, a few miles south of the Swallow ranch in Spring valley. With the present price of tungsten being about $24 a unit of twenty pounds, and with the concentrates being sixty-five per cent pure, it is estimated that the total value of the shipment is $40,000. The mine was worked eight or ten years ago by the Minerva Tungsten Corporation. The present owners have been operating the property for the past three months and have a force of twenty-two men employed.
-Reno Evening Gazette, July 7, 1937

Things really started to progress for the Minerva area during this period.

Much Equipment Added to Minerva Mine Plant
ELY, Nev., Jan. 22.—(AP)—Enlargement of the Tungsten Metals corporation’s 40-ton mill at the Minerva mine, 55 miles southeast of here, to a daily capacity of 100 tons is nearing completion. The company has been making valuable shipments since taking over the property in June. Included in the new equipment is an Allis-Chalmers crusher, a rod mill, flotation cells, a 100-horsepower diesel engine with generator for lights and power for the camp, a 22-foot thickener tank and three concentrating tables. About 50 men are employed.
-Sacramento Union, January 23, 1938

The mill's superintendent sen a boy to do a man's job and almost lost him.

Ely Youth, 14, Has Close Call in Ore Bin
ELY, Nev.—That 14-year-old Billy Trent is alive today is little short of a miracle. The youth had the experience of being buried 20 minutes in an ore bin, pulled through the 5½ by 12-inch opening at the bottom of the bin unconscious, and revived only after an hour of artificial respiration. Billy and his chum, Floyd Rickets, also 14, live near the Tungsten Metal corporation's three-story mill at Minerva. This week Billy's father, William Trent, mill superintendent, asked the youths to watch the ore concentrates bin and prevent the moist pulverized ore from sticking to the sides of the bin. The two youths rushed up the three flights of stairs to the top of the bin and, misunderstanding instructions, jumped into the pulverized ore, which acted like quicksand, sucking them down into the bin. Young Rickets reached a safety rope and pulled himself out, then found he was unable to reach his pal, who already was in shoulder deep. Rickets ran down the three flights of stairs for aid. Being out of breath, he had a hard time making the workmen go back with him. Trent then opened the small outlet of the bin where the sand was pouring onto the conveyor belt and after several minutes a foot appeared, and he pulled the limp body out.
-Salt Lake Tribune, July 16, 1938 

Mining sheelite was not 100% safe.

MINER IS KILLED AT MINERVA BY TRUCK
ELY, Nev., May 13—Samuel Wiley Reid, fifty-four, an employe at the Tungsten Metals Corporation at Minerva, was killed Friday night when he was run over by a truck hauling water up the steep slope to the Everett tunnel at the mine property. W. H. Dunham, driver of the ton and a half truck, had pulled up the hill, three miles from Minerva, and was backing up the last short stretch to the tunnel, leaning out of the left side of the cab of the truck. Stopping, he got out to unload the water and found the right rear wheel of the truck resting on top of Reid. He moved the truck and summoned N. G. Kelley, who was working at the tunnel, and went for another car. Reid, according to Kelley, was unconscious when taken from beneath the truck and died almost immediately. Justice of the Peace George T. Smith of Baker conducted the inquest at which Dunham and Kelley testified. It was apparent that Reid had sat down on a log near the scene of the accident to await the arrival of the water truck. It is believed that he probably fell asleep and was startled by the truck, causing him to jump or slip into its path. Dunham stated he did not see Reid, as Reid was to the right of the truck while he was leaning out of the left side. A coroner’s jury composed of Tom E. Smith, James M. Smith and Steve Savant, returned the verdict that "death came as a result of being run over by a truck." Dr. G. O. Bradley with Horace Bath and Jim Nichols attended the inquest from Ely, Dr. Bradley stating Reid's chest was badly crushed. The deceased had worked at the mine for the past nine months, and is survived by a wife and two children in Boise, Ida., and a brother in Darwin, Calif.
-Reno Evening Gazette, May 13, 1940

Tungsten mining was becoming more profitable as the U.S. government decided it needed a good supply of the stuff.

MAGNETIC SEPARATION IS A FACTOR HERE IN TUNGSTEN RECOVERY
Starting the operation of its mill in September 1936, the Tungsten Metals Corporation, with property in the Shoshone district in southeastern White Pine county, has produced tungsten continuously, only interruption having been a brief period within recent months when capacity of its plant was increased from 100 to 150-ton per day. Reputed to be one of the most advanced tungsten mills in the country, the plant employs magnetic separation and produces a rarely high-grade concentrate. In the first three years of operation it treated upwards of 75,000 tons of scheelite from the company's property and shipped something over 600 tons of 70-per cent tungsten concentrate. A working force of more than 40 men is employed in the mine and mill. One among many instances of the successful reopening of old Nevada mines, the enterprise is said to have been highly profitable and development is reported to have made available a large reserve. The Shoshone district, known at various times as the Minerva and Lexington district, is some distance south of Osceola, around 50 miles southeast of Ely and in the Snake range. Discovered in 1869, the district was prospected for silver and some production was made from silver veins up to 1876, when work ceased and the area was deserted until 1915 when scheelite was found. In 1918 the Minerva Tungsten Corporation acquired most of the scheelite deposits and built a 150-ton concentrating mill which operated only for a brief time. Equipment of the Minerva company's mill was dismantled and sold in 1923 and some of the claims reverted to the government domain, the central group now embraced in holdings of the Tungsten Metals Corporation. The present mill, powered by caterpillar Diesel units, is the second largest Nevada producer of tungsten concentrate. President and directing head of the Tungsten Metals Corporation is Paul J. Sirkegian, geologist and general superintendent for the Cons. Coppermines Corporation at Kimberly. Horace B. Bath is secretary, with offices at Ely, and W. L. Trent is mill superintendent.
-Nevada State Journal, November 18, 1940

TUNGSTEN MILL NOW OPERATING NEAR SHOSHONE
Mine Ranks Second in Alloy Metal Yield In State
At the property of the Tungsten Metals Corporation in the Minerva or Shoshone district, 45 miles southeast of Ely, the tungsten mill was reported to be treating 100 tons per day of tailing, in addition to scheelite mined from the company's property, which for some time has been the second largest tungsten producer in Nevada. Last year, when under the management of Paul J. Sirkegian, superintendent for the Cons. Coppermines Corporation at Kimberly, equipment was added to the mill, giving it a capacity of 150 tons per day. The mine is opened by three haulage tunnels and development of new ground has been in progress. Engineers of the U. S. Geological Survey recently completed 6000 ft. of diamond drilling on the Tungsten Metals property, as part of the federal strategic minerals program, and this work was said to have revealed substantial quantities of scheelite of concentrating grade. The district, in which silver-gold ore was mined some years ago, is on the west slope of the Snake range. George B. Thatcher of Reno is president of the Tungsten Metals Corporation, William B. Trent is mill superintendent and Harold Dunham is mine manager.
-Nevada State Journal, October 27, 1941

Things were beginning to wind down at Minerva.

Minerva Mine Is Operating
12 Tons a Day Treated In White Pine
Mining and milling operations at the Minerva Scheelite mine, in White Pine county, are progressing in a very satisfactory way, according to Robert Stopper, who is general manager of the property. The 25 ton mill, which was built about two and a half years ago, by the present owners, is treating 12 tons of ore per day with two shifts, the Ely Times states. Because of the hardness of the ore the capacity of the mill has been reduced. Eight men are employed in the mill and the mine, with one shift being worked in the mine. The property is under lease and bond from the Tungsten Metals Corporation and has been operated by the lessees for a period of four years. This property was first worked during World War I by the Nevada Scheelite Company, and this company sold to the Minerva Tungsten Company which erected a 150 ton mill completed just before the close of World War I. Only a few hundred tons of ore were treated in the mill as soon as it was constructed. Shortly afterwards the war ended and the price of tungsten collapsed. The property then remained idle until 1936 when the Tungsten Metals Corporation was organized by a local group of mining and business men who continued its operation until 1945 at the close of World War II. During that time the company did about 2,000 feet of development work and treated 125,000 tons of ore in the new mill. The property again remained idle until thee spring of 1947 when the present operators started it up again.
-Nevada State Journal, July 12, 1951

After World War II, Minerva continued through a succession of smaller operators and benefited from the Korean War tungsten demand. The federal government supported domestic tungsten production until 1957, when its purchasing program ended. The Minerva mill then closed, and a 1958 fire destroyed the mill, effectively ending the town's major industrial era. No word on if the fire was suspicious, or if the timing was just a coincidence.

“The U.S. Government discontinued the purchase of tungsten in 1957, thus hastening the end of active mining in the Minerva district. Although the Everitt and Hill Top mines and the Minerva Scheelite mill were active that year, no shipments were made. In September 1958 the Minerva mill was destroyed by fire, and, with the declining market for tungsten, no plans were undertaken for its replacement.”
-“Resources Report, White Pine County, Nevada, 1958”

Minerva nevertheless wasn't completely finished: limited tungsten activity continued into the 1970s, with recorded production in 1977–78. Today the site is a collection of mine workings, dumps, foundations and remnants of the company camp. Its history therefore spans more than a century—from the 1869 silver discovery through the late-1970s tungsten operations—with its repeated rises and collapses driven largely by the strategic importance and market price of tungsten.

The site of Minerva is deteriorating quickly. There are several buildings here that are barely standing, and we suspect they won't last much longer. There are several mine sites up in the hills that are easy to get to but you may wish to use a high clearance vehicle.