Prospecting Abandoned Mines

[OwenT]

1.5 g/ton !! That seems like way too little to be worth going after. I have identified mines with free milling ore that reported assays around $100+ Au/ton ($20/oz I think).

What is the standard for an assay anyway. I feel like it's similar to accounting where you can manipulate things to have them say what you want. Obviously reporting inflated assay values is good for getting investment and surely many people lost their shirts through mining scams, but there must have been some kind of standard. It must also depend a lot on the structure of the deposit too. I imagine there are many high grade veins being very narrow while lower grade might be wider and have a higher volume of ore. In the case of a narrow vein, lots of worthless rock must also be moved to have room in the tunnel to get further in.

 

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[Goodyguy]

1.5 g/ton !! That seems like way too little to be worth going after. I have identified mines with free milling ore that reported assays around $100+ Au/ton ($20/oz I think).

What is the standard for an assay anyway. I feel like it's similar to accounting where you can manipulate things to have them say what you want. Obviously reporting inflated assay values is good for getting investment and surely many people lost their shirts through mining scams, but there must have been some kind of standard. It must also depend a lot on the structure of the deposit too. I imagine there are many high grade veins being very narrow while lower grade might be wider and have a higher volume of ore. In the case of a narrow vein, lots of worthless rock must also be moved to have room in the tunnel to get further in.

You are talking apples and oranges.
Mining vs ore piles already mined.


1.5 g/t is not bad for already mined ore. At $55.00 per Gram 1.5 g= $82.50 per ton!
You would not make a profit at $100 au per ton if you had to mine it from scratch underground.

 

[OwenT]

That makes more sense. I wasn’t thinking about it that way. Duh

 

[Mad Machinist]

You are talking apples and oranges.
Mining vs ore piles already mined.


1.5 g/t is not bad for already mined ore. At $55.00 per Gram 1.5 g= $82.50 per ton!
You would not make a profit at $100 au per ton if you had to mine it from scratch underground.

Yea. I wouldn't even get out of bed for under 1opt underground. Too many costs associated in it and the only way to make up for lack of grade is to run tonnage. And with tonnage comes equipment, equipment maintenance, and manpower. All of those add to overhead meaning more tonnage leading to the same thing. It's a vicious cycle that will drive you bankrupt chasing it if you let it.

For already mined ore on the dump? Back on the day, they only mined what they could see for the most part unless it was a larger money that had the capital to keep testing ore to make sure they mined top grade ore. Many millions are being made in just mine dumps in some cases.

I would recommend a fire assay as they are usually cheap, i.e. $40-$50 a test. Then if warranted, i would step up to a full blown ICP/mass spectrometry test to find out exactly what is there. Then base your business model off of 80% recovery to give yourself a little cushion for those days when things go south in a big way.

But all in all, it still comes down to running tonnage based on grade to make a profit. It is far easier and less expensive to run less tonnage through bigger equipment than it is to push smaller equipment past its breaking point to make a profit.

 

[Mad Machinist]

1.5 g/ton !! That seems like way too little to be worth going after. I have identified mines with free milling ore that reported assays around $100+ Au/ton ($20/oz I think).

What is the standard for an assay anyway. I feel like it's similar to accounting where you can manipulate things to have them say what you want. Obviously reporting inflated assay values is good for getting investment and surely many people lost their shirts through mining scams, but there must have been some kind of standard. It must also depend a lot on the structure of the deposit too. I imagine there are many high grade veins being very narrow while lower grade might be wider and have a higher volume of ore. In the case of a narrow vein, lots of worthless rock must also be moved to have room in the tunnel to get further in.

So they running 5 opt? What was the low grade? What was the high grade? Best bet is to base the plan off of low grade and see if it pencils out. Believe it or not, when gold is high, you are better of mining low grade to cover costs and saving the high grade fornqhen gold prices drop. This way you can carry yourself through the lean times that ALWAYS hit the mining industry.

One thing to watch is the "nugget effect" in fire assays. If you get a bigger piece of gold in the sample, it can skew the results towards a higher gold content.

It takes a little bit if an investment to do fire assays but if your going to do alot of them, it is worth it.

Edited because of not typing worth a crap due to a healing infection in my thumb.

 

[Mad Machinist]

Fire assay home study course.

https://www.actionmining.com/product/fire-assay-home-study-course/

 

[OwenT]

They say different things. Some say something like assays were $15-300 Au or one assay turned up $2000 Au. One says ore from dump assayed $300 Au. Another rich ore samples assayed 50-60 oz Au. These are all from readily available reports and there must be many people aware of the rich past of these mines. I would be surprised as well if they weren't on the patented property and the owners aren't already working the dumps. I've just been interested mostly in seeing where free milling ore existed in hopes of possibly detecting some high grade specimens some day.

 

[Mad Machinist]

They say different things. Some say something like assays were $15-300 Au or one assay turned up $2000 Au. One says ore from dump assayed $300 Au. Another rich ore samples assayed 50-60 oz Au. These are all from readily available reports and there must be many people aware of the rich past of these mines. I would be surprised as well if they weren't on the patented property and the owners aren't already working the dumps. I've just been interested mostly in seeing where free milling ore existed in hopes of possibly detecting some high grade specimens some day.

Different parts of a mine will normally assay different. Some of them did assay maps along the drift. Those help greatly. Unfortunately, there really is no rhyme or reason to how gold is deposited in a vei

There are A LOT of mines that were closed to WW II that never reopened. Some of these mines were very rich but would need extensive rehabbing to meet today's standards.

OnX is a great app for your phone that identifies the owner of the land around you.

 

[BlasterJ]

Agree with paying for OnXHunt - It's well worth it. Ever since Google quit supplying detailed property ownership information, it's been expensive to get outside of this app. Most of the services I've looked at want you to buy individual counties and such. That might make sense if you're a realtor but not so much for this stuff.

Different parts of a mine will normally assay different. Some of them did assay maps along the drift. Those help greatly. Unfortunately, there really is no rhyme or reason to how gold is deposited in a vei

There are A LOT of mines that were closed to WW II that never reopened. Some of these mines were very rich but would need extensive rehabbing to meet today's standards.

OnX is a great app for your phone that identifies the owner of the land around you.

 

[OwenT]

I opened up OnX for the trial and it seems handy, but it may be that it’s only a little more convenient that what I can see for free. Most of the counties around me have a gis program with parcel owner data and I would expect that’s basically where OnX pulls its info from. There is at least one county I tried looking at that does not have any private property owner data, Whitman County, and it is also one that doesn’t have a public online mapping tool.

 

[BlasterJ]

I opened up OnX for the trial and it seems handy, but it may be that it’s only a little more convenient that what I can see for free. Most of the counties around me have a gis program with parcel owner data and I would expect that’s basically where OnX pulls its info from. There is at least one county I tried looking at that does not have any private property owner data, Whitman County, and it is also one that doesn’t have a public online mapping tool.

FYI, there is a promo code right now if anyone needs this app:
https://try.onxmaps.com/mothers-day-promo/

 

[Goodyguy]

Best video on the subject I've seen .......................
Awesome turnkey processor hands free from raw ore to gold
Also a lesson on fire assay, smelting and more. Very informative!

 

[OwenT]

Very informative. It really shows how hard it would be though to process all that material in order to find enough gold to make it economical. Much less identify a deposit that will pay. That's a lot of expensive equipment they've got there. The most interesting part is that they're here in Washington. Mt Baker was not one of the most famous districts for gold but there's certainly some of it all over the state.

My biggest problem keeping me from getting the gold is not being able to dedicate myself to any one area. I live right in the middle of the state and I want to explore it all. Where's the best gold? Plus, I'm only here for the summer. Once I graduate, who knows where I'll be living, certainly in a western state with gold at the very least. Once I know that maybe then I can do some serious prospecting and stop just playing around

 

[Mad Machinist]

Best video on the subject I've seen .......................
Awesome turnkey processor hands free from raw ore to gold
Also a lesson on fire assay, smelting and more. Very informative!

These guys kinda irritate me. If you look on their site, they claim American Made equipment but are actually selling rebadged chicom junk. One of our crew found the shipping manifests for delivery to Spokane Washington. And they most definitely want top dollar for this stuff.

I can also tell you that "conventional geology" is being turned on it's head right now. This is why I say test everything not just quartz. You just might be stepping over dollars to pick up dimes when just looking for quartz veins.

 

[Joanne]

Hey, that's me!! (not Jeff of course) Delamar has to be my all time favorite mine. So much to see and the amazing history behind it. Jeff's video only scratched the surface of what's there. The areas that we went are regularly visited, but there are areas that require a lot of determination to see. We recently found an area that we believe has been untouched since the original miners left. All of the artifacts are still intact. We left them right where we found them. Still more to discover!

Joanne

Here are a couple videos of exploring abandoned mines, the first one is the Widow Maker Mine in Nevada. It will make you cringe just watching.
You would not catch me going in half the places that my crazy acquaintance Jeff goes into in these videos.

These vids are not for the faint of heart......................




If you liked that video you'll love this one......

 

[Mad Machinist]

The only thing Jeff got wrong so far is saying square sets will not take pressure from the top. This is wrong. It all depends on how the timbers are cut and set. To take pressure from the sides the horizontal members have to meet in the middle of the joint. To take pressure from the top, the vertical members have to meet in the middle of the joint. Clear as mud?

 

[Joanne]

The only thing Jeff got wrong so far is saying square sets will not take pressure from the top. This is wrong. It all depends on how the timbers are cut and set. To take pressure from the sides the horizontal members have to meet in the middle of the joint. To take pressure from the top, the vertical members have to meet in the middle of the joint. Clear as mud?

You are exactly right on that! Like everyone, he sometimes gets it wrong. For some reason I absolutely love finding square sets. That led me to reading about them in books from the late 1800s and early 1900s. There's also an interesting read named, Timbering And Support For Underground Workings For Small Mines by W.W. Stanley in 1962. The Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology published it. Talks all about how to determine loads and construct the appropriate structure. It talks specifically about top and side loads. https://www.idahogeology.org/product/b-21

It's neat to look closely at the timbers in the old mines. Of course all of the timber is old growth and the growth rings are often so close together that it's difficult to count them. Completely different than the farmed wood that you can buy today. Every piece of timber in these mines would have stories surrounding them, from the lumberjacks who felled the tree, to the train that shipped it, the muleskinner who hauled it to the mine site, and the timbermen who placed them. An amazing process by hard working men. As much as I enjoy the adventure of mine exploring, it's my love of the history and stories of long dead miners that keeps me coming back.

Joanne

 

[Mad Machinist]

Joanne,

Still available. https://www.idahogeology.org/product/b-21

 

[StreamlineGold]

Joanne, really got a kick watching you all in the DelMar. Very extensive mine there.

 

[Joanne]

Joanne, really got a kick watching you all in the DelMar. Very extensive mine there.

Thank you very much! Delamar is such an amazing mine with a rich history. In the many trips I've taken there, I've spent weeks underground. Surprisingly there's still more to see. On the last trip there my friend and I dug our way into an area that hasn't been seen in 50 or more years. All the artifacts are still in place. As frequently explored as the mine is, it's amazing to find an untouched area with expansive square-set still in place. There's also an ore chute in that area that drops down another level. Who knows if we will drop into an area that we have been through before, or if there is another unexplored section. We will find out next trip. I might shoot video, but will probably leave it alone and let others find their way in...if they can.

Joanne