Remember "John" on Rich Hill?

TerryC

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Jun 26, 2008
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Yarnell, AZ
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Metal Detecting
For those that remember John.... the guy in the red SUV. He was pulling galena out of two hard rock mine holes above the GPAA/LDMA claim on Rich Hill. I talked to him one day. He was bringing 90 pounds of galena ore out daily. Ouch! He had a pile at the camp with TONS of galena under tarps. He couldn't get anyone interested in hauling it to a processor for a percentage. Well, I heard that the ore turned out to be 17% gold! YIKES! He was supposed to be crazy. Yeah, crazy like a FOX! Someone else is up there now, pulling some other ore out. TTC
 

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Goes to show ya Terry, too many people are afraid of some hard work. Want anything that is free and a handout but not work for it. If I had been there I would have loved to have helped him. Just think of the knowledge a person could have gained from him! An oppertunity lost.
 

So. U are saying he has ton of gold? WOW>
 

So. U are saying he has ton of gold? WOW>
Exactly how many tons of ore he had there..... I do not know, but the pile was huge! Let's see... .17 times 2000 (I know it's a metric ton but 17% is 17% Avoirdupois or metric) is 340 pounds of gold per ton. 1232 times 12 = 14784 dollars per pound times (I gotta catch my breath!). My, my! Crazy like a FOX! TTC
 

340 pounds would be 18,213,888 dollars. I am assuming at pure gold. So, assuming it was only 75% pure, that is only 13,660,416. Doesn't seem worth all the fuss to me..
 

340 pounds would be 18,213,888 dollars. I am assuming at pure gold. So, assuming it was only 75% pure, that is only 13,660,416. Doesn't seem worth all the fuss to me..
Yeah, what's all the fuss? That 17% figure is what I heard. Even if that's inflated... say by a factor of 100%, that's still about 8%, or still more than 2 MILLION per ton of ore. Yeah, what's all the fuss? TTC
 

Bottom line is..... the area around and on Rich Hill would certainly STILL have plenty of gold for the person(s) willing to sweat a little and can do their homework as to where to dig. Rich Hill ain't done producing yet! TTC
 

340 pounds would be 18,213,888 dollars. I am assuming at pure gold. So, assuming it was only 75% pure, that is only 13,660,416. Doesn't seem worth all the fuss to me..
I think your figures are not right.... 1232 per ounce (times 12 ) = 14784 per pound (times 340) = 5 million plus change per ton of ore. TTC
 

I can sweat a lot. Point me to the spot Terry.
 

I'm still puzzling over this one Terry. 17% would be a phenomenal percentage - as in better than any galena ore ever discovered.

The Octave, which is famous for it's high gold/silver/lead values, produced less than 1% gold from it's very purest galena ores. Even that was considered a world class percentage.

The Joker shaft from the 1920's was the richest ever on the Hill. From Dr. Eric Melchiorre's Octave Mine book:
Nicknamed "The New York Stope," the tunnels there produced 25,000 ounces of gold. The
exceptionally-rich ore averaged one ounce of gold and one ounce of silver per ton, with the highest
sample recording a jaw-dropping 6.1 ounces of gold per ton, while galena-bearing rock in the New
York stope got as high as 12.84 ounces of gold/ton and almost as much silver.

As you can see even the richest ores never got near the 4,913 ounces of gold per ton being claimed for John's assay.


You didn't mention silver. Was any Silver found in the assay? Was this a fire assay?
 

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I'm still puzzling over this one Terry. 17% would be a phenomenal percentage - as in better than any galena ore ever discovered.

The Octave, which is famous for it's high gold/silver/lead values, produced less than 1% gold from it's very purest galena ores. Even that was considered a world class percentage.

The Joker shaft from the 1920's was the richest ever on the Hill. From Dr. Eric Melchiorre's Octave Mine book:


As you can see even the richest ores never got near the 4,913 ounces of gold per ton being claimed for John's assay.


You didn't mention silver. Was any Silver found in the assay? Was this a fire assay?
Your thoughts are noted. As I say, this number is what was told to me by someone who is familiar with the area... and John. Could it be 1.7 %? instead of 17? A typo? I don't know. At the time I talked to John (on site), he showed me an assay of 3 ozs gold and 5 ozs silver per ton. THAT was laughed at at that time. I don't know, Clay. I have the Octave Mine stats .... back in the storage shed in AZ. I cannot dispute your numbers. I am only the messenger here. Others, I'm sure also will also dispute the numbers. I only put them out for conversational purposes. Because all of my geology books are back in AZ, I cannot begin to guess the % of gold in any of the host rock(s) around Rich Hill. Sorry if the thread inferred that the 17% was proven fact. To my knowledge, it is not. Back when I talked to John, he refused to give away any samples. He did offer it at 20 dollars a pound. I declined. Thank you for the comments. (BTW) I follow your posts with interest. TTC
 

I'm still puzzling over this one Terry. 17% would be a phenomenal percentage - as in better than any galena ore ever discovered.

The Octave, which is famous for it's high gold/silver/lead values, produced less than 1% gold from it's very purest galena ores. Even that was considered a world class percentage.

The Joker shaft from the 1920's was the richest ever on the Hill. From Dr. Eric Melchiorre's Octave Mine book:


As you can see even the richest ores never got near the 4,913 ounces of gold per ton being claimed for John's assay.


You didn't mention silver. Was any Silver found in the assay? Was this a fire assay?

its the old 12 oz a ton ore trick, the thing is there was only a pound of the actuall ore that ran those numbers, the rest just looked good !
oldtime speculator trick make the ground look like a glory hole, most of the time it rarely paid off. they would record high assay numbers and the folks back east would be chomping at the bit to give moneys to the mines, then they could bragg of being a bigshot mine owner with a fine paying hole.


If one was to just grab a piece of ore from my pile have it fire assayed I would be one rich miner, but when it comes down to the final take from milling its a differant story.
I always wait to see what comes off the mill table before I start talking about oz per ton.
GT....................
 

Please no one take this quote personal.

A gold mine is a hole in the ground with a liar at the bottom of it- Mark Twain.
 

Please no one take this quote personal.

A gold mine is a hole in the ground with a liar at the bottom of it- Mark Twain.
I've heard that one many times! When buying, the yield always looks small. When selling, it suddenly gets real high! TTC
 

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