Claimed a mine

[Assembler]

Are you finding more color near the front of the audit / tunnel?
Is there better color in some of the side shafts?
Let us know what you find as you go.

 

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[IDAu]

There are some methods to use a VLF inside of a steel area with limited depth in the process. May be better to smash the samples and pan however. There needs to be a lot of metal in the samples to give a realistic response. Just pointing out as most will not even try along this line of thinking without trying.

Haha we already tried a detector. I'm sure I'll find some more open spot once the collapse is cleared.

Are you finding more color near the front of the audit / tunnel?
Is there better color in some of the side shafts?
Let us know what you find as you go.

So far there has only been one spot to even sample. Some smokey quartz pockets that I cleaned out. Nothing left to check out until spring I'm afraid. 6-12' of ice on the floor and it looks like he did a damn good job of cleaning out all the quarts. The actual drift is quite a bit smaller than the mined out tunnel. Stuck my head outside the supports and saw a feet feet up to the top of the rock and varying curvature of the overhead and surrounding rock.

Light can easily play tricks on you but far beyond any plausible reach it sure looked like this sparkly stuff wasn’t Mica…

 

[IDAu]

Couple more pics. First one is the quartz pocket I took most out of.

 

[Assembler]

Haha we already tried a detector. I'm sure I'll find some more open spot once the collapse is cleared.

So far there has only been one spot to even sample. Some smokey quartz pockets that I cleaned out. Nothing left to check out until spring I'm afraid. 6-12' of ice on the floor and it looks like he did a damn good job of cleaning out all the quarts. The actual drift is quite a bit smaller than the mined out tunnel. Stuck my head outside the supports and saw a feet feet up to the top of the rock and varying curvature of the overhead and surrounding rock.

Light can easily play tricks on you but far beyond any plausible reach it sure looked like this sparkly stuff wasn’t Mica…

View attachment 2183110

The quartz pockets appear to be your best sample areas you have shown so far. Should contain very good color at least yet may not respond to a metal detector. With that being said your next pocket may be different if the pocket line did not 'pinch out'.
Hard to tell from the photo what it may be yet still could be good colors when crushed and paned out.

 

[BoulderTroll]

From what reading I've done in that mining district, there were two episodes of emplacement. The first was in the Tertiary age (lower sulfides) and second in the Miocene (higher sulfides) that are in the "porphyry belts." Knowing what region you are in will help you know what you're expecting to find. And if it's similar to the Solomon and Maddie mines you mentioned, you're likely in the first stage of deposits.

"Those of early Tertiary age are found only in the rock of the Idaho batholith in fissures and fracture zones produced by early Tertiary deformation and are characterized by a dominance of quartz, variable but in general scant amount of sulfides, a distinctive paragenetic mineral sequence, and feeble wall-rock alteration."

And there were 3 episodes in the tertiary. The third of these seemed the bring the best values. There's really good info on the structure of this deposit starting on page 179 of the report I sent you.

 

[HardRockNM]

So what you're looking at in that picture is 6+ inches of ice. I imagine all the oxides would have settled to the bottom, and that's why it looks clear?

So I definitely have chalcopyrite. I got 14 more pounds of samples today. No color, but under the scope it looks like chalcopyrite (this fooled me into thinking I had gold for a long time, when the light hits parts of it a certain way). A good two tablespoons of sulfide from the sample. However, I do not know how much of the material is metal filings from my chain mill.

Due to what few nearby mine histories I can find, I'm guessing it would be lower grade if anything. A mine within a couple miles is listed as a "low sulfide gold quartz vein" and there highest assay was 0.85 oz/tn. I know a few others nearby were substantially more, but nothing like I see from Colorado etc.

King Solomon Prospect

The King Solomon Prospect is a silver, platinum, and gold mine located in Boise county, Idaho at an elevation of 4,400 feet

westernmininghistory.com

Also within a couple miles, 1.4 oz/tn

Mattie Group Prospect

The Mattie Group Prospect is a gold and silver mine located in Boise county, Idaho at an elevation of 3,999 feet

westernmininghistory.com

Others nearby report just in total USD recovered. Adjusted for inflation, most are in the millions in 2024.

What can one guy expect to move and process if it's free milling with the right equipment? Good shaker table and crusher can I maybe get 1 ton a week, or is that a pipe dream? I feel like 1/2 oz/tn and I'd be perfectly happy mining my days away....

Chalcopyrite is often found in conjunction with gold. We've got chalcopyrite to either side of the vein we're starting to drift on - it's not stupendously high-grade, around $350/ton at the moment, but we're using rubber-tire equipment so mucking/haulage costs are extremely low.

As for productivity, it depends on your equipment. 1 ton a week is probably feasible with a hammer drill, but it's just not a very efficient way to break rock so I'll lay out the basics of a very small but proper hard rock mine below:

After you've rehabbed the adit, if your sampling and assays suggest it would be worthwhile, you'll want to get an explosives license, two small magazines, a couple of jackleg drills (one to run, one to be rebuilding), and a ~200CFM air compressor (this can be rented). If you know someone with an explosives license, he can haul explosives up and blast for you which may be viable, maybe not - that's very situational. I'll assume a 5'x'8' track drift pulling 5' per round - that's about 17 tons on the ground each time you blast, not all of which is ore. You're new to this, so your experienced miner buddy will have to hold your hand for a while - assume a whole day spent on drill/load/blast. Since you don't have a mechanized mucking machine (EIMCO 12B is the gold standard, sized for your track gauge and will require a 250-300CFM compressor), all mucking will be done by hand so bank on about a day and a half of mucking. Lay down a steel sheet in front of the face before the blast to ease shoveling. Your time would then be spent on processing the ore, so size your plant in accordance with how often you'd like to blast. Alternatively, campaign mine in the summer and plan on processing in the winter - there are a lot of ways to skin this cat.

Regardless of whether you choose to break rock mechanically or explosively, the rail and ore cars can be your best friend in this. Maintain them well and it will save your back hauling tools, materials, and ore. Hand-tramming small dump cars is hardly the most efficient method way of doing things but it beats the pants off of using wheelbarrows, ore sacks, or anything ridiculous like that.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

If one can not find or locate the "Milling site" it will be hard to take a look at the tailing piles.

If hand sorting took place at any point in the tunnel there should be at least some ore rock on the bottom of the tunnel floor that did not make it into the carts to look for. This left over ore rock will be useful to find and speed up the process of what to look for. If the rock was not cleaned out completely.

A milling site and waste tailings are two very different things. Nobody is going to haul the waste tailings any further than they need to. Generally dumped right near the entrance.

Maybe they got hauled off as road base? Seen that before.

 

[Assembler]

A milling site and waste tailings are two very different things. Nobody is going to haul the waste tailings any further than they need to. Generally dumped right near the entrance.

Maybe they got hauled off as road base? Seen that before.

The milling site is part of record and should be easy to locate. The dumping of rock tailings as part of a road may not be easy to locate. Just something to look for to speed up what rock was being processed.
If there is some rock that has been dumped near the entrance it would be a good idea to at least look at it and sample if there is any colors there.
It appears that most of the rock from the audit / tunnel was located somewhere else.

 

[Assembler]

Chalcopyrite is often found in conjunction with gold. We've got chalcopyrite to either side of the vein we're starting to drift on - it's not stupendously high-grade, around $350/ton at the moment, but we're using rubber-tire equipment so mucking/haulage costs are extremely low.

As for productivity, it depends on your equipment. 1 ton a week is probably feasible with a hammer drill, but it's just not a very efficient way to break rock so I'll lay out the basics of a very small but proper hard rock mine below:

After you've rehabbed the adit, if your sampling and assays suggest it would be worthwhile, you'll want to get an explosives license, two small magazines, a couple of jackleg drills (one to run, one to be rebuilding), and a ~200CFM air compressor (this can be rented). If you know someone with an explosives license, he can haul explosives up and blast for you which may be viable, maybe not - that's very situational. I'll assume a 5'x'8' track drift pulling 5' per round - that's about 17 tons on the ground each time you blast, not all of which is ore. You're new to this, so your experienced miner buddy will have to hold your hand for a while - assume a whole day spent on drill/load/blast. Since you don't have a mechanized mucking machine (EIMCO 12B is the gold standard, sized for your track gauge and will require a 250-300CFM compressor), all mucking will be done by hand so bank on about a day and a half of mucking. Lay down a steel sheet in front of the face before the blast to ease shoveling. Your time would then be spent on processing the ore, so size your plant in accordance with how often you'd like to blast. Alternatively, campaign mine in the summer and plan on processing in the winter - there are a lot of ways to skin this cat.

Regardless of whether you choose to break rock mechanically or explosively, the rail and ore cars can be your best friend in this. Maintain them well and it will save your back hauling tools, materials, and ore. Hand-tramming small dump cars is hardly the most efficient method way of doing things but it beats the pants off of using wheelbarrows, ore sacks, or anything ridiculous like that.

Since one can drive right up to the audit / tunnel the use of this equipment is very doable.
Good idea to block out some ore worth processing first.
The tip about chalcopyrite is useful. Thanks.

 

[IDAu]

Dupe

 

[IDAu]

Chalcopyrite is often found in conjunction with gold. We've got chalcopyrite to either side of the vein we're starting to drift on - it's not stupendously high-grade, around $350/ton at the moment, but we're using rubber-tire equipment so mucking/haulage costs are extremely low.

As for productivity, it depends on your equipment. 1 ton a week is probably feasible with a hammer drill, but it's just not a very efficient way to break rock so I'll lay out the basics of a very small but proper hard rock mine below:

After you've rehabbed the adit, if your sampling and assays suggest it would be worthwhile, you'll want to get an explosives license, two small magazines, a couple of jackleg drills (one to run, one to be rebuilding), and a ~200CFM air compressor (this can be rented). If you know someone with an explosives license, he can haul explosives up and blast for you which may be viable, maybe not - that's very situational. I'll assume a 5'x'8' track drift pulling 5' per round - that's about 17 tons on the ground each time you blast, not all of which is ore. You're new to this, so your experienced miner buddy will have to hold your hand for a while - assume a whole day spent on drill/load/blast. Since you don't have a mechanized mucking machine (EIMCO 12B is the gold standard, sized for your track gauge and will require a 250-300CFM compressor), all mucking will be done by hand so bank on about a day and a half of mucking. Lay down a steel sheet in front of the face before the blast to ease shoveling. Your time would then be spent on processing the ore, so size your plant in accordance with how often you'd like to blast. Alternatively, campaign mine in the summer and plan on processing in the winter - there are a lot of ways to skin this cat.

Regardless of whether you choose to break rock mechanically or explosively, the rail and ore cars can be your best friend in this. Maintain them well and it will save your back hauling tools, materials, and ore. Hand-tramming small dump cars is hardly the most efficient method way of doing things but it beats the pants off of using wheelbarrows, ore sacks, or anything ridiculous like that.

Unfortunately an FEL is out the the question. I already tried everything I could to get one for another hobby, and I can't find any place that meets the standards for a magazine. Fun fact you don't actually need any federal license to manufacture and use your own explosives(unless it is for commercial use). But my state laws get in the way.

So, best I'm going to be able to do is get a Sierra Blaster. You think two heads will be enough for small scale?

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Unfortunately an FEL is out the the question. I already tried everything I could to get one for another hobby, and I can't find any place that meets the standards for a magazine. Fun fact you don't actually need any federal license to manufacture and use your own explosives(unless it is for commercial use). But my state laws get in the way.

So, best I'm going to be able to do is get a Sierra Blaster. You think two heads will be enough for small scale?

Do more research on the blasting license. There are effective “explosives” that are outside the category of high explosives and they can be transported easily and do not require a magazine.
I think they come as two parts?

I’m no expert but I was told the license was easy to get.

Low pressure/high volume? Something like that. Is it Nonex?

 

[IDAu]

Do more research on the blasting license. There are effective “explosives” that are outside the category of high explosives and they can be transported easily and do not require a magazine.
I think they come as two parts?

I’m no expert but I was told the license was easy to get.

Low pressure/high volume? Something like that. Is it Nonex

The license is very easy to get, provided you have a documented storage magazine. They allow you to use someone else's if it's within a certain distance as a "contingency" but I have tried everywhere possible. In fact I have a Type IV magazine sitting right here going to waste because I can't find anywhere to put it.


Binary explosives are a sticky area. Once mixed they are considered an explosive under ATF regulation. There is literally no difference between mixing Tannerite and making a batch of TNT. It's legally sold as individual chemicals, and COULD be mixed and used on one's property provided it was used the same day and not stored (same as TNT, not illegal to make and use without a license under those circumstance). Otherwise ATF approved magazine FEL yada yada. Not to mention it may be viewed as commercial if I was using it for an operation to generate income.

Third hand info, but I have a buddy out of state who is a professional blaster and he said forget about trying. Something about needing to be under a licensed guy like an internship for a year or two.

Sierra Blaster seems like the smart way to go if it will work.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

The license is very easy to get, provided you have a documented storage magazine. They allow you to use someone else's if it's within a certain distance as a "contingency" but I have tried everywhere possible. In fact I have a Type IV magazine sitting right here going to waste because I can't find anywhere to put it.


Binary explosives are a sticky area. Once mixed they are considered an explosive under ATF regulation. There is literally no difference between mixing Tannerite and making a batch of TNT. It's legally sold as individual chemicals, and COULD be mixed and used on one's property provided it was used the same day and not stored (same as TNT, not illegal to make and use without a license under those circumstance). Otherwise ATF approved magazine FEL yada yada. Not to mention it may be viewed as commercial if I was using it for an operation to generate income.

Third hand info, but I have a buddy out of state who is a professional blaster and he said forget about trying. Something about needing to be under a licensed guy like an internship for a year or two.

Sierra Blaster seems like the smart way to go if it will work.

Well my suggestion in researching stands. If I’m not mistaken NONEX is considered a blasting agent and can be stored in a class 2 magazine.

An indoor magazine is acceptable as long as it isn’t in a residence, limited to 50 pounds of agent, and (if wood) is constructed to this standard…(ATF)

The person that was suggesting this product to me said that it would work on oxidized bedrock, but if it was very hard greenstone it might not produce the desired results.

I’ve been told the Serria Blaster effectiveness can be very limited when it comes to blasting in competent tunnel walls.

Works brilliantly on boulders.

Gold will drive you to figure out how to extract for the least amount of $$. But I suspect the SB will be on a shelf before long.

Let us know would when you get things figured out will you? Maybe a small miner could offer advice.

EDIT: NONEX is not considered a binary explosive. Deflagration product.
https://www.nonex.co.uk/capsules/

Info from the UK but gives you an idea.

 

[Assembler]

The license is very easy to get, provided you have a documented storage magazine. They allow you to use someone else's if it's within a certain distance as a "contingency" but I have tried everywhere possible. In fact I have a Type IV magazine sitting right here going to waste because I can't find anywhere to put it.


Binary explosives are a sticky area. Once mixed they are considered an explosive under ATF regulation. There is literally no difference between mixing Tannerite and making a batch of TNT. It's legally sold as individual chemicals, and COULD be mixed and used on one's property provided it was used the same day and not stored (same as TNT, not illegal to make and use without a license under those circumstance). Otherwise ATF approved magazine FEL yada yada. Not to mention it may be viewed as commercial if I was using it for an operation to generate income.

Third hand info, but I have a buddy out of state who is a professional blaster and he said forget about trying. Something about needing to be under a licensed guy like an internship for a year or two.

Sierra Blaster seems like the smart way to go if it will work.

Boulder Buster

https://www.agg-net.com/resources/articles/drilling-blasting/boulder-buster

Cost is high as I believe the gun unit is around $6,500.00 and the rounds are around $900.00 for 10 -25 rounds a few years back. No license is required.

Possible workable unit?

 

[Tesorodeoro]

The class 2 indoor wood magazine looks very simple and inexpensive to construct.

 

[Assembler]

With only one pocket discovered so far working by hand and electric tools may be the way to proceed. After finding more pockets have your friend or someone else come in to open up more rock as needed. Maybe rent some equipment to help move the rock for processing at that point?

 

[Tesorodeoro]

With only one pocket discovered so far working by hand and electric tools may be the way to proceed. After finding more pockets have your friend or someone else come in to open up more rock as needed. Maybe rent some equipment to help move the rock for processing at that point?

Who said anything about a single “pocket” being discovered? Did I miss something?

 

[Assembler]

Who said anything about a single “pocket” being discovered? Did I miss something?

Well unless there is a line of the outcrop one can guess that there is perhaps a pocket there just looking at a photo. No one has said anything yet. Just a guess at this point.

 

[IDAu]

Well my suggestion in researching stands. If I’m not mistaken NONEX is considered a blasting agent and can be stored in a class 2 magazine.

An indoor magazine is acceptable as long as it isn’t in a residence, limited to 50 pounds of agent, and (if wood) is constructed to this standard…(ATF)
View attachment 2183278

The person that was suggesting this product to me said that it would work on oxidized bedrock, but if it was very hard greenstone it might not produce the desired results.

I’ve been told the Serria Blaster effectiveness can be very limited when it comes to blasting in competent tunnel walls.

Works brilliantly on boulders.

Gold will drive you to figure out how to extract for the least amount of $$. But I suspect the SB will be on a shelf before long.

Let us know would when you get things figured out will you? Maybe a small miner could offer advice.

EDIT: NONEX is not considered a binary explosive. Deflagration product.
https://www.nonex.co.uk/capsules/

Info from the UK but gives you an idea.

View attachment 2183283

View attachment 2183284

It's not the magazine or the explosive type that's the issue. It's the storage requirements. I do not have property. I could store a Type IV with HE in nearly similar environments. But unfortunately I have found no one that will let me put a magazine on their property whether it be an indoor magazine in a shed, or and outdoor offset from any residence.

Trust me I've been down this road. I even paid for an explosive experts legal consulting. I've been dying to play with energetics but until I own a ranch it's not happening. Even if I did, insurance and bonding to get the fire marshalls approval is a nightmare.


I'll figure it out when the time comes. Getting a little too far ahead. Hopefully there's even decent grade ore back in there somewhere.