Tailings and an abandoned mine.

[jza01701]

So, I would assume assaying a sample is going to be a common response to this thread.

I have a claim in Nevada that was an abandoned mine.

The tailings near the adit look to be mostly flour gold. The entire pile is filled with golden yellow fine materials.

I was planning on drywashing as there is zero water even to purchase within 30 miles.

I looked at photos of gold dust online; some are likely gold, the rest are likely scammers selling sand.

I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of this or personally pulled large amounts of flour gold out of tailings?

It just seems a little uncommon to me to see such a large amount of gold colored material in the sand and gravel tailings.

Thanks.

 

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[jza01701]

Or maybe my syntax sounded like a lisp when I said prospecting... Bunny.

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

Homophobic as all the gold in California...LOL.

Jaz, I highly recommend you tone down your comments on gays and post by our rules.

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[Ragnor]

I'm on board with sulfides waste. That said, in an area with no water to process material my guess is they only took the best stuff. probably left allot of smaller material laying around. Haul some water out there or haul some material home and pan it. From what I have been seeing on the internets them old timers out in the desert left allot of good material laying behind.

 

[DizzyDigger]

JZA, respectfully, I do wish you would not make the one line posts
one after another. You can easily edit a post (for a period of time)
and add your other comments, making one post instead of 3 or 4.
JMHO.

I do love those old mine adits, but anymore I'm not about to risk my
scalp crawling around in one. Besides, if I died in a cave-in my wife
would dig me out just so she could kick my ass for going in the damn
thing in the first place...

 

[63bkpkr]

Old mines are interesting things - was once following the narrow gauge ore cart track by flashlight and at one point my light became quite dim but shining it on the mine wall next to me it was as bright as could be, shine it down on the track & ties and most of the light got dim!? Hmmm! Got down on the ties real close and found that the ceiling of the tunnel below had collapsed, my light was passing right through into the tunnel below. When I got down to that collapsed section I shined my light up and there were the rails & ties above. So you see I am crazy!.................63bkpkr

 

[TerryC]

I can truly say I don't know what you are looking at but it is not gold. One post said 2-3 oz. per ton? That would be an EXTREMELY rich mine! No prospector with any sense would allow that to get away. If you had a specimen sent to you, it has to be an ENRICHED specimen. Common for site unseen sales scams. You may have ore possibly worth processing but it sure isn't gold. TTC

 

[dave wiseman]

It could be two -three ounces per ton of concentrates.

 

[TerryC]

It could be two -three ounces per ton of concentrates.

I suspect not, Dave. If he DID get a valid assay, the method by which the sample was obtained (i.e. coning and quartering, fractional shoveling) would be included with the assay. Let him provide the assay file. THEN we'll see. He has never conducted the assay that is sure. I will ask you though, is assaying concentrates a valid method? TTC

 

[SaltwaterServr]

I suspect not, Dave. If he DID get a valid assay, the method by which the sample was obtained (i.e. coning and quartering, fractional shoveling) would be included with the assay. Let him provide the assay file. THEN we'll see. He has never conducted the assay that is sure. I will ask you though, is assaying concentrates a valid method? TTC

Assaying concentrates can be valid, but you'd need to know the exact upgrade ratio from plain ore to the cons.

 

[TerryC]

It could be two -three ounces per ton of concentrates.

Dave, or anyone, I did some checking and could not find if fractional shoveling is still used in assays. Pretty sure coning and quartering still is. Can you help me find the answer? TTC


Edit: Disregard.... found shoveling still in use (as of 1993) Tnx

 

[KevinInColorado]

Assaying concentrates can be valid, but you'd need to know the exact upgrade ratio from plain ore to the cons.

Assaying concentrates (using the upgrade ratio) makes lots of sense. The metals in the ore which don't make it into the concentrates (due to chemistry or process issues) should be excluded from any economic analysis of an ore body. Those metals will be in a tailings pile for future generations to figure out how to recover

 

[dave wiseman]

You can have ten different assays done and get ten different results....An old mining axiom goes something like this..No one knows what's beyond the point of a pick.