Pictures of hard rock ores

[StreamlineGold]

So its like a tourist thing or are they really using it?

 

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[Clay Diggins]

So its like a tourist thing or are they really using it?

That particular one in Cave Creek is a museum thing. The one in New Mexico is a real thing that processes ore for several small hardrock miners.

If you want to see a stamp mill in operation Cave Creek is probably your best bet. No tours in New Mexico.

Heavy Pans

 

[gold tramp]

2.4 ounces per ton

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5.7 opt

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Next to nothing at all for these.

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That's why I cannot stress enough that just because a vein looks good, doesn't mean squat. You can have gold tied up in the rock that will not get liberated with crushing and gravity, and you won't know it until the assay proves it one way or another.

Youall have a chance to do a 1 ton test ?
If so and you dont mind me askin how well you do?
You got us wonderin, 5 oz sweet days of yeller

 

[StreamlineGold]

The 5 oz stuff we havent pinpointed the vein as of yet the workings are all caved...but thats the high end of the assays so far.. have another vein nearby running around 1. If we get over 1 avg I will be happy

 

[gold tramp]

The 5 oz stuff we havent pinpointed the vein as of yet the workings are all caved...but thats the high end of the assays so far.. have another vein nearby running around 1. If we get over 1 avg I will be happy

Might be the only piece fell off the cart going out the door.
Good luck.
Gt.....

 

[pczim]

The 5 oz stuff we havent pinpointed the vein as of yet the workings are all caved...but thats the high end of the assays so far.. have another vein nearby running around 1. If we get over 1 avg I will be happy

Wow, even 1 ounce per ton is amazing. I find that if milling with electricity extracting 3g per ton is commercially viable and if milling with fuel 4g per ton. Your 1 ounce per ton is 28.35g per ton. Very very impressive... how many tons you mining in a day?

 

[blackchipjim]

Thank you all for the pictures. These examples are great to keep in the memory bank.

 

[dave wiseman]

One thing to remember...just because a vein carries gold does not make it ore...It's only ore if it's payable.

 

[pczim]

One thing to remember...just because a vein carries gold does not make it ore...It's only ore if it's payable.

I guess in a way your right but how many times have you milled ore and labeled it s##t ore but no matter how disappointed you were, you still called it ore? Or because you had a bad load of ore does it now become a bad load of rocks?

Just putting that out there, happy Sunday everyone, I’m off to work...

 

[dave wiseman]

Many times we had high expectations for the rock and it turned out to be crap.Call it what you want but it wasn't even what we called mill rock.If your costs are higher than your return...it's easy to figure out.This was a very small operation using a 1900 Gibson elyptical sampling ball mill...rated one ton per eight hours of soft to medium hard quartz.

 

[pczim]

We wouldn’t be miners running at a loss my friend. Oh how I hate crap ore. Especially when the lab says different. If the laboratory was always right, I would be a billionaire. I run over 60 tons of ore most days.

 

[dave wiseman]

A few tips for the few people who will try hard rock gold mining...any color out of a vein sample is worth further checking...all veins do not carry highgrade gold...some veins have pockets and spotty color..some veins mostly fines and no pockets..or there might be any combination of the former.a vein might have a pocket and no ther ones..gold comes in and out in a vein(ore shoot) so don't give it up too soon...mark all your sample bags carefully as the terrain can change as well as your memory.....even the best mining districts every vein dosen't carry gold.What's good fifty feet away may not apply to your vein...veins that carry are usually in mineralized zones....You can't find anything sitting in your easy boy chair drinking a beer while watching a gold show...Persist and persist and eventually you'll find something nice...Few people will ever make a mine but will find gold species or even pockets if they persist.

 

[StreamlineGold]

Wow, even 1 ounce per ton is amazing. I find that if milling with electricity extracting 3g per ton is commercially viable and if milling with fuel 4g per ton. Your 1 ounce per ton is 28.35g per ton. Very very impressive... how many tons you mining in a day?

Digging at the moment..bottleneck with hard rock mining is all of the equipment needed to process volumes of ore.. and transporting it. we really need a good secondary crusher, we are close and will be processing soon. Also going to be crushing and concentrating on site vs hauling tons off site.. need to crush down to 100-200 mesh..any of the sites we can get 1-2 tons a day.. need to run a few tons before we can say for sure that the grades stay good. On the low end most of them are coming back around 10 grams/ton..which is hard to make money on small scale.

We do have a pretty good idea of the ore type in the area that runs good, and have discovered a few veins of it which are workable. Then there are lots of marginal grade that may get better with depth. Each spot has its own challenges..but got a good thing going for now

 

[tamrock]

Here a piece of ore from a narrow vein mine in Boulder County, Colorado I picked up last week. I didn't get the best example, but as we walked by this little dog-hole heading the guy I was with said that's a pretty good producer in there, so I quickly picked a piece. This ore has a verity of metals including silver gold, zinc, lead, copper and some rare earth minerals and the value is all in these little grey stringers within the quartz. We headed down to one of the heading to watch the drill, which I sell and supply parts to. When we got there, I have to say, I love the smell of Rock Drill Oil in the morning"

 

[tamrock]

Silver Ore

Got me a nice chunk of silver ore yesterday, as I went to see some folks at the Campbird mine outside of Ouray, Colo. The mine is doing a bunch of EPA requirement work now, to satisfy that in the way of covering old tailings and planting new vegetation and blasting out better drainage ditches. I went to see this fella down at that backhoe and while he was loading up a truck I spotted this nice piece of mineral specimen, that someone stashed away in the brush. It was not doubt an interesting chuck some miner took out of the underground mine when it was in operation, but they failed to take it out any farther then where they put it, so I'll take it home with me. It's been a long time, but I've been down in the Campbird and it's a typical narrow vein mine that hopefully will again be back in production someday?. First they gotta take care of the mess the old-timers didn't have to deal with. I sure wish things would merit the need to go up there more often, as it's just beautiful to go up that way. All I'm getting in business now is a few rockdrill bits and rods being used on the trackdrill that's blasting out the improved waterway ditches for now. Better than nothing I guess?

 

[dave wiseman]

You can have ten assays done and get ten different results.What gold mine ever averaged five ounces per ton,except in cons?Even one ounce per ton over a long period of time is almost unheard of...unless you were in a very long oreshoot.

 

[A2coins]

cant hurt to try

 

[gold tramp]

Got me a nice chunk of silver ore yesterday, as I went to see some folks at the Campbird mine outside of Ouray, Colo. The mine is doing a bunch of EPA requirement work now, to satisfy that in the way of covering old tailings and planting new vegetation and blasting out better drainage ditches. I went to see this fella down at that backhoe and while he was loading up a truck I spotted this nice piece of mineral specimen, that someone stashed away in the brush. It was not doubt an interesting chuck some miner took out of the underground mine when it was in operation, but they failed to take it out any farther then where they put it, so I'll take it home with me. It's been a long time, but I've been down in the Campbird and it's a typical narrow vein mine that hopefully will again be back in production someday?. First they gotta take care of the mess the old-timers didn't have to deal with. I sure wish things would merit the need to go up there more often, as it's just beautiful to go up that way. All I'm getting in business now is a few rockdrill bits and rods being used on the trackdrill that's blasting out the improved waterway ditches for now. Better than nothing I guess?

Great old house !!!!
Thanks for sharing.
Gt.......

 

[tamrock]

Great old house !!!!
Thanks for sharing.
Gt.......

Yeah that's the old mine captains house, looks to built around the early 1910s?. It's all boarded up now, but still in good-looking condition considering the weather they get up there. I don't know if you all remember CW McCall who had the hit song "The Old Home and Fillerup Cafe". McCall lives in Ouray and he wrote and sang a song about the Campbird mine.

 

[StreamlineGold]

Had some of this dense hematite ore run really damn good at our mines. Its dramatically different or surprisingly similar from mine to mine. Sometimes the ore that looks good is junk and the crap looking ore is loaded. Once you figure out the riddle of each mine/vein it definitely helps on the experience side of things.