Found another mine.

[Chris142]

Went goofin off again today. I saw what looked like a couple of cars on the side of a hill using the satelite imagry so I had to investigate.

Heres what I found.

Early 70's Cougar. Shot up 2bbl 351 Cleveland. Nothing to see here lets move along.

A shot up Chevy LUV truck with a 12 bolt rear end and a Pontiac engine in it.

I then decided to walk up a pretty steep hill to see what was on the other side. I saw this!

So I walked back to the Jeep to get my flashlight and got in it and was able to drive much closer to the mine (I'm a wimp, less walking the better).

Heres where I parked it.

I walked to the mine.

I went inside. Inside I found what I think are the remains of an old Dynamite box.

The gold in this area was always found in quartz. Lots of Quartz still in the roof.

Notice in the distant mine pics that to the right of the mine is a dark streek of rocks. This is called a dike and it runs over several hills in the area.

I have determined that all the old mines are on the West side of the dike. Makes me wonder............Hmmmmmmmmmm. Where should I dig?

 

[sparkplug]

Reminds me of the "The Hills Have Eyes." I'd love to explore some of those old mines.

 

[Thomas1190]

Thats awesome. I live near you, in Lake Los Angeles (East Palmdale), and this is really making me want to go out exploring and see what i can find.

 

[addyguy]

If that was a 'professional' gold mine that was operational in the last 50 years, I'm suprised it isn't better developed - I thought the entrance would be bigger and better marked to get equipment in and out.

How much gold do you think is actually in all these old mines?

If it's even a modest amount, with today gold prices, you'd expect folks such as yourself to be all over these mines, digging up every last scrap....

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
If that was a 'professional' gold mine that was operational in the last 50 years, I'm suprised it isn't better developed - I thought the entrance would be bigger and better marked to get equipment in and out.

How much gold do you think is actually in all these old mines?

If it's even a modest amount, with today gold prices, you'd expect folks such as yourself to be all over these mines, digging up every last scrap....


The openings to most of the mines seems to be the weakest. It's small because the front has fallen down over the years.

There are many prospects and abandoned mines along this dike. Around WW2 times the govt passed a law making gold mining illegal. So even if a mine was still producing the miners had to stop mining and many were drafted.

Once the war was over few if any came back. Many Probly learned an easier trade in the military.

Today the only profitable way to mine gold in this area is with Dynamite which is nearly impossible to legally aquire or for a company to open the mine back up.

Being in Ca theres no profit in it after you consider all the red tape, environmental testing etc.

There are thousands of prospect holes around. They saw something that interested them so they blew it up to get ore samples. If it was good they mined there if it wasn't worth messing with they walked onto the next spot.

For a mine to be blasted out of a solid rock hill it had to be paying pretty good at the time.

I'd bet that theres lots more gold in the area but it's not easily found with todays laws and regs.

There are still active claims in the area but they are placer claims. This means the gold is on or near the surface and dirt can be easily shoveled into a dry washer which is a lot easier than digging a hole in a rock.

http://mojavedesert.net/desert-fever/ord.html

 

[Chris142]

More interesting info.

http://www.empirenet.com/rdthompson/lane10.html

 

[saaber1]

Chris142, these mine threads are great! Thanks for posting them. It looks darn hot out there!

 

[Chris142]

It was only about 70 that day. Will be 110F soon though.

 

[addyguy]

Chris,

So, I know you're saying that with all the regs and such it is very hard to make a 'fortune' mining gold in this area, but could someone make a 'good living' going into these abandoned mones, and digging/panning out what they could?

 

[Shannow]

Chris, great work, and great pics.

addguy, there's a fair few flecks in an ounce. My parents grew up in a gold mining area (part of Oz' Golden Triangle), and large mining companies made a relative fortune just going over the old quartz tailings with modern (cyanide) techniques.

(My Cuz was/is a geologist in a basalt gold mine. 750m deep workings, that intersect the old wood chocked hand mined alluvial quartz workings of a hundred years previous. They use the old shafts as escape routes these days.)

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
but could someone make a 'good living' going into these abandoned mines, and digging/panning out what they could?
Such is the reason that I have not filed any claims. Makes more sense to go out and goof off, possibly finding something vs filing a claim and having all of SoCal find out about it and come running to the area and filing claims everywhere.

I have found some gold but not enough to quit my day job yet. I only spend a few hrs on a weekend looking. I may have better luck if I spent a few weeks straight out there looking but so far I have not ben bitten by the bug that hard.

 

[Johnny]

Ever run in to any snakes and such crawling in those old mines?

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
Ever run in to any snakes and such crawling in those old mines?
I've seen rats, mice and bats. Never encountered a snake in a mine. Might be too cool in there for them? I have seen snakes in the desert and I'm sure that many Snakes saw me but I did not see them.

A friend of mine got bit by a rattler 2 years ago. We were retrieving a stolen car that the theives had got stuck in a ditch. When my friend reached under the car to hook a chain to it to pull it out he grabbed a rattler instead.

Fortunatly it was a Speckled Rattler which has the least toxic venom around here. Spent 8hrs in the Barstow,Ca hospital and was sent home with no effects other than a sore finger.

 

[GMBoy]

Thanks again for the pics and update. I look forward to everyone!