Ellie Baba
Hero Member
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2005
- Messages
- 527
- Reaction score
- 57
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Laveen, AZ
- Detector(s) used
- Tesoro Lobo
Lamar wrote,
One man, working alone in hardrock country would be VERY hard pressed to scratch out enough color from the rocks to pay for his beans and flour and yet I am supposed to believe that Jacob Waltz was quietly amassing a fortune? If you are doubtful, accquire the same tools which were available in the late 1800s, namely hammer and drill, and walk up to any rock face you happen to find. Once you sized up the face, start drilling and keep track of how much host rock you are able to dislodge AND process in one week.
Now, after you've dropped from exhaustion, you'll probably conclude that Mr. Waltz either had some serious help or someone was lying. In order to be able to mine gold of the magnitude that Jacob was supposedly extracting would take a lode of huge proportions and I really do not think that a lode that size could have remained undetected for this long, as all gold formations tend to shed deposits at a constant, albeit very slow, rate. if there were a lode of that stature in the Superstitions then a significant amount of alluvial gold would have been detected and helped to locate the source of the formation. Thus far, this has not happened.
My Bud Lamar,
Attached are a couple of photos of our crew working one of many shafts of an old historic KGC mine. Your description above does in fact relate to our circumstances. If our final results hold true we should expect 2 to 4 opt. Au., 4.5 opt. Ag., trace Pt, Pd, Rh. So, let's say we have 16 hrs. actual labor, two hrs. set up and drive time = 18 hrs. Plus two days to process about 20 hrs to include driving and about 4 hrs for refining ($50.00 per ounce Au.) Thirty-eight hours times three (3) add I more helper for processing. Average labor @ $20.00 per hour =$2,600.00 total labor. Cost to process at BCC Plant per ton; $250.00, and cost to transport ore from mine site to plant around $100.00. Total (roughly estimated) $2,950.00 plus $50.00 per ounce Au. refining cost. Our cutoff grade for this situation would be 3.2 opt Au. If we recover 3.2 opt Au. we would break even. Wages would be made and that is it. The high grade veins have tested at 4.0 opt Au. up to 8.0 opt Au. and higher in the sugary quartz. PLEASE NOTE: This scenario is comparable to a 49’r miner working with a partner and using an arastra all day long. Commercial modern day operation for the above mine would be highly profitable. Cutoff grade would be close to 1.0 opt Au.
There is a lode of that stature here in Arizona, although I am not working it alone. My Partner (yes, she's a girl) and our Geologist operates the jack hammer. Exploration is what we do for a living. It took four, 4 hr. days to remove 1,600 lbs. of ore from the shaft (this took place during the hot summer month of Aug.). Three to four hundred lbs. of country rock still remain in the bottom of said shaft. All that we had for mechanical equipment was an electric jack hammer. There were times we had to use a regular star drill with an 8 lb. hammer. All of the ore was hand hoisted from the shaft. The ore was taken to Black Canyon City, AZ. To be processed. First it was crushed, milled and ran on a heavy (Wilfrey) concentration table. The firsts, seconds and thirds were then run again on a fines table to aid in the concentration process. The red hematite mud that ran off of the Wilfrey was captured in a poop tube to be run in a proprietary leach to remove microscopic and submicroscopic gold ore.
Mining is a bitch and that is why I stick to exploration.
Have a great week Lamar,
EB
One man, working alone in hardrock country would be VERY hard pressed to scratch out enough color from the rocks to pay for his beans and flour and yet I am supposed to believe that Jacob Waltz was quietly amassing a fortune? If you are doubtful, accquire the same tools which were available in the late 1800s, namely hammer and drill, and walk up to any rock face you happen to find. Once you sized up the face, start drilling and keep track of how much host rock you are able to dislodge AND process in one week.
Now, after you've dropped from exhaustion, you'll probably conclude that Mr. Waltz either had some serious help or someone was lying. In order to be able to mine gold of the magnitude that Jacob was supposedly extracting would take a lode of huge proportions and I really do not think that a lode that size could have remained undetected for this long, as all gold formations tend to shed deposits at a constant, albeit very slow, rate. if there were a lode of that stature in the Superstitions then a significant amount of alluvial gold would have been detected and helped to locate the source of the formation. Thus far, this has not happened.
My Bud Lamar,
Attached are a couple of photos of our crew working one of many shafts of an old historic KGC mine. Your description above does in fact relate to our circumstances. If our final results hold true we should expect 2 to 4 opt. Au., 4.5 opt. Ag., trace Pt, Pd, Rh. So, let's say we have 16 hrs. actual labor, two hrs. set up and drive time = 18 hrs. Plus two days to process about 20 hrs to include driving and about 4 hrs for refining ($50.00 per ounce Au.) Thirty-eight hours times three (3) add I more helper for processing. Average labor @ $20.00 per hour =$2,600.00 total labor. Cost to process at BCC Plant per ton; $250.00, and cost to transport ore from mine site to plant around $100.00. Total (roughly estimated) $2,950.00 plus $50.00 per ounce Au. refining cost. Our cutoff grade for this situation would be 3.2 opt Au. If we recover 3.2 opt Au. we would break even. Wages would be made and that is it. The high grade veins have tested at 4.0 opt Au. up to 8.0 opt Au. and higher in the sugary quartz. PLEASE NOTE: This scenario is comparable to a 49’r miner working with a partner and using an arastra all day long. Commercial modern day operation for the above mine would be highly profitable. Cutoff grade would be close to 1.0 opt Au.
There is a lode of that stature here in Arizona, although I am not working it alone. My Partner (yes, she's a girl) and our Geologist operates the jack hammer. Exploration is what we do for a living. It took four, 4 hr. days to remove 1,600 lbs. of ore from the shaft (this took place during the hot summer month of Aug.). Three to four hundred lbs. of country rock still remain in the bottom of said shaft. All that we had for mechanical equipment was an electric jack hammer. There were times we had to use a regular star drill with an 8 lb. hammer. All of the ore was hand hoisted from the shaft. The ore was taken to Black Canyon City, AZ. To be processed. First it was crushed, milled and ran on a heavy (Wilfrey) concentration table. The firsts, seconds and thirds were then run again on a fines table to aid in the concentration process. The red hematite mud that ran off of the Wilfrey was captured in a poop tube to be run in a proprietary leach to remove microscopic and submicroscopic gold ore.
Mining is a bitch and that is why I stick to exploration.
Have a great week Lamar,
EB