Ore pics, comments and input needed!

[Asmbandits]

I know of a mine here in Northern CA that ive been to a few times, mostly metal detecting but the last time I brought a pan as there is a small creek right below the mine and I managed to produce color from it, very very fine color. There are audits all over the property and what I believe to be ore piles as there very uniform in color and different stacks of rocks near the audits. Most of the audits have been purposely collapsed but there is one that is different from the rest as the majority of the audits are in a red soil area of the property and this audit is into the a slab of a dark rock with quartz veins. Ive been back to the face of this and took a few samples and did find color from a pan of crushed rock from the area they last worked.

Ive crushed samples of everything and Ive found color in all of it, maybe a few specks in a softball size of the red/purple ore, about the same in the honeycomb decade looking stuff, and maybe about a few specks to a whole pan of the dark stuff. A buddy of mine brought home a nice size chunk of the honeycomb stuff, crushed and panned it and I was surprised when he showed me a few nice shards of fresh gold. It looked very different from the placer gold im use to seeing since it had not traveled and worn but its for sure gold. This honeycomb stuff is more scattered through out the property and harder to find. Some of the darker stuff has a mix of silvery gray rock and quartz and what looks like the inside of a geode.

From what Ive found historically the mine was a decent gold and mercury operation back in the 1920's, they do mention that they were chasing gold in decade slate, maybe this is the darker rock? Other than that this is all I can find on the mine. Im wondering if the red/purple rocks are most likely a cinnabar rich ore put aside for processing for mercury, or maybe it was a lower/higher gold grade ore? This seems to be the majority of the stockpiled rock.

I guess im curious to know from a hard rock miners perspective, does it seem feasible to spend more time on, possibly build a ball mill or impact flail and gather up some of the better looking stuff and see what it my hold? The nice part is that there is already a good stockpile of material to run, but im kind of cautious and unsure about the possibility of working with cinnabar rich material and what the health risks may be depending on how you process it. My idea would be to get it down to run through a miller table type setup and see what free mill values were, then go from there. Not very familiar with tellurides or sulfides and am aware or the processes involving hg and leaching but I dont even know enough to get involved with that at this stage, mostly would like to see if I could pull enough free mill value to make it worth working. If it be that the only way to pull workable values from this stuff is HG/leaching then id be in over my head at that point more than likely.

 

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[dave wiseman]

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=pictures+of+cinnabar+ore

 

[Asmbandits]

Its hard to tell but the first photo has a lot of very dark purple/red mineralization, also it is known that it produced mercury so this is why in associating it, along with the color. Maybe I'm wrong thats why I'm here I do not know. There are piles of this purple/red ore it is obvious its being set aside for some purpose, I dont believe they are tailings from moving material to get to the better stuff as that seems to be pushed over the hill.

 

[djui5]

I'd work it

 

[Asmbandits]

Yeah thats what ive been thinking myself, leaning towards making a small electric flail mill and going to run a few bucket of the stuff and just pan it. It wouldnt be to difficult and then id know if its worth running.. Its been mixed result with the small sample size ive crushed by hand but most if not all of it showed color, some more than others.

I have a tig welder, motor and bearings, I just need to collect the steel and dedicate some time to the project.

 

[fatman45]

When in doubt, have it assayed!

 

[arizau]

With just a few simple searches or, in my case, many.......There is a wealth of info available on the following link that should help you determine the name of the mine or prospect you are dealing with including the minerals/elements mined, production figures (in many cases), location/gps coordinates, etc. The database contains all or most named, historic prospects/mines throughout the U.S. Click on "Advanced Search" and plug in what you are looking for by element, mineral, location, mine name, etc. The info available here may help you solve some of your mysteries as well as help you in future searches in different areas.
Mineralogy Database - Mineral Collecting, Localities, Mineral Photos and Data

Have fun and good luck.

 

[gold tramp]

With just a few simple searches or, in my case, many.......There is a wealth of info available on the following link that should help you determine the name of the mine or prospect you are dealing with including the minerals/elements mined, production figures (in many cases), location/gps coordinates, etc. The database contains all or most named, historic prospects/mines throughout the U.S. Click on "Advanced Search" and plug in what you are looking for by element, mineral, location, mine name, etc. The info available here may help you solve some of your mysteries as well as help you in future searches in different areas.
Mineralogy Database - Mineral Collecting, Localities, Mineral Photos and Data

Have fun and good luck.

It nice we have the info at our finger tips, but one should always to figure by yourself for yourself, use your eye glass get your rock n mineral book learn the stuff in that book instead of turning to the internet, learn to crush by hand, pan and go to these mine sites try to figure out how, what and why they were there.
more is learned from hands on i think.
Just my thoughts.
GT..................

 

[Asmbandits]

I have spent a lot of time on this actually, I know the name of the mine, and have found info pertaining to pretty much everything to do with it as well. Ive spent enough time there where ive figured out where there mill site was, also they have a larger pit that was some type of holding area for water im guessing, I know they free milled gold but from the size of the mill site and the many holding pits I believe they may ave been leaching as well. Slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together, but from a geological point of view I do know much. This area is very mineralized from hot spring activity and is not in a know gold producing area, the ore types are very unique and I haven't been able to find and photos of anything like it, especially the honeycomb like stuff so any help or input id take. I dont want to pay for an assay at this point as I want to be able to prove the value to myself and learn in the process.

 

[gold tramp]

(especially the honeycomb like stuff so any help or input id take.)

I have found some brecciated limestone type stuff looks like this, it was in some strange looking caliche type vein intrusion i think we found jasper with it. that other is most likeley mineralized country rock it looks like this to me, i dont know where you are at. chk it against the local stuff see if this is what you have break open look inside, but i suspect its the enriched wall rock when the vein, it gets real juicy sometimes it permeates the surrounding wall rock and stains it red, has been known to enrich this country with values.

In prospecting we dig anything geologicaly out of place or mineralized, if it looks different dig it or at least investigate.

thats about all i can offer Goodluck.
GT.............................