The first house was built in August 1877 after two prospectors, Dan Dugan and Dave Stitzel, working in the area of the future Opportunity Mine, collected loose pieces of rock (float is the geologic term) assayed at $160 per ton in gold and silver.

The stock generated the porphyry copper deposits, gold-bearing veins, and gold placers.

The Golddust Camp placer deposits are found in the alluvium of the dry gulches radiating off Copper Flat and the andesite flows.

By 1959, Bear Creek Mining Company had discovered a mineralized breccia pipe within the stock.

Quintana Minerals Corporation started open-pit mining in 1980, averaging 0.45 per cent copper.