Re: tayopa : <VERY long reply, extra hot cocoa alert>
Don Jose de la Mancha wrote
hi simple,
I heard of it,
I looked for it,
I found it,
Now what do I do with it?
First I wish to address the whole issue of AGE. I frequently forget that Don Jose is my senior, as I feel quite old most of the time! It is readily apparent that he is absolutely young in mind, though well seasoned with the hard-earned wisdom of years.
I see no insult in someone having successfully reached a venerable age - after all it is honestly achieved and especially remarkable when a treasure hunter manages it, considering the numerous hardships and life-endangering risks entailed in the profession. In fact it is highly respectable in my opinion.
Now as to that most puzzling question posed by the extremely successful treasure hunter we all know and love (namely Don Jose, Dueno de Real y Minas de Tayopa, aka Tropical Tramp, aka Man of La Mancha, and several other aliases) WHAT DO I DO WITH TAYOPA, now that I have found it and have legal ownership?
There are numerous options, the most obvious answer relates to extracting that wealth so as to benefit yourself and your family, and in general the people of the area paying particular attention to those whom have assisted. The first option would be to "option" the mines to a large mining corporation, though this entails the risk that they will drag their feet, in hopes of 'outliving' the discoverer and being thus enabled to later grab the property by paying the taxes on it, or by offering the heirs of the discoverer a tiny fraction of what it is worth - making the argument that it is better than nothing.
One could sell it outright to a large mining company, with an addendum specifying the payment of royalties on the output of minerals (not limited to metals only - watch out for that amigos, for it is not uncommon for some types of GEMS to occur in metals mines; turquoise in copper mines, amethyst in silver mines, for examples) and this would be my own first choice, though the most difficult to negotiate. Many mining companies are long on ambitions, short on cash for purchasing mineral properties, and again most (if not ALL) demand (or strongly desire) to see a complete mineral assessment of the property in question, namely a full drilling program with cores logged and assayed individually, blocking out ore bodies and the values therein; for placer properties a somewhat similar plan though with panned samples from a systematical sampling plan done on the whole property, thus again delineating the values in minerals and defining what areas contain the values and what does NOT. In some cases, as I have found in practice, a mining company will "settle" for your OWN logs of your own panning tests, IF it is done "scientifically" without any exaggerations or omissions. There is no benefit in lying about what your pans tested amigos - for they WILL want to go and take their own samples from the very same places you did, so they must be marked on the ground.
Another option would be to start mining it yourself; the capital outlay can be tremendous if one is trying to mine it in a large scale (with correspondingly large returns $$$$) and few of us could plunk down the kind of money required; a large ball mill alone for instance could cost several tens of thousands of dollars, and this without even addressing the costs for any bonds required by the govt for the permits to operate. One way to get round the massive capital requirements would be to "incorporate" and sell shares, thus forming your "own" mining corporation, and I have no idea what the laws are in Mexico for incorporating and being able to legally sell stocks. Personally I would not attempt this route without consulting with a good corporate lawyer as a first step.
One might try mining it small scale; I do not know what labor costs are in that region or if you could even find anyone willing to work in such a place, but the costs for equipment needed for a small operation are fairly reasonable. For example, a small jaw-crusher, of the type sold for "test batches" is several thousand dollars <new> one would need a generator, an air or gasoline drill, something for blasting (not sure dynamite can be had, but other options are available) perhaps even a good metal detector for "sniping" in the old workings so as to be able to only work on rich "spots" in the ore which were missed by the original miners. The ore need not be refined, one could simply concentrate it and sell the concentrates; this would tend to reduce any losses due to theft by the folks working for you. This option would only work if the ore remaining is rich enough that small amounts of it will pay.
Another option would be to LEASE it, and here you have two options - either lease it to a large mining company (with a requirement for payment of royalties on the product) or lease it to "mom and pop" miners for cash monthly "rent" payments, and considering that Tayopa covers are fairly large area, one could rent out small parts of the whole to individuals, for cash and a royalty combined. This puts the problems of capital for equipment, bonds etc up to the lessees, and ensures an income from the property whether the lessees make a profit or not. This may seem rather cold-blooded, but if the lessees are too lazy to do any mining then it is their own fault.
Whether one chose to follow any or all of these options, one could make a small business out of taking people up to see the famous and ancient mines and ruins. This would entail hiring of one or two local people to serve as "guides" for the visitors, and you could even charge a small fee and allow your visitors to do a little panning or prospecting during their visit.
I would hope that at a minimum, our discoverer would write up a history of his adventures, telling how and when he found that most famous of all Mexican lost mines, Tayopa. The publishing rights to this story alone may well be worth millions of dollars, and movie rights are also valuable though I have no idea what is commonly paid for screen rights.
My apologies for the extremely LONG post, I hope I have not bored anyone to death and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
Oroblanco
will work for old lumber 
