JM2855
Greenie
- Mar 27, 2016
- 17
- 35
- Detector(s) used
- Whites MXT All Pro, Minelab
- Primary Interest:
- Prospecting
February 1st 2018
History, Geological Investigation & Economic Assessment of the Mary Clough Mines in Humboldt County Nevada.
To educate the public, warn the public and save other hard working honest individuals from wasting time, money or effort on this property, I am posting this report on public forums on the internet.
My purpose is to educate the public on all of the information and data that I DIDN’T have when I purchased the Mary Clough mines from Gold Rush Expeditions (GRE), and to provide data that will help any potential future owners of the Mary Clough Mines make a serious study of actual hard-fact data before investing many thousands of dollars of their hard-earned money, only to find the same results that I have found, and others before me have also found.
I am writing and posting this information as a PUBLIC SERVICE to the general public to raise awareness and educate the public at large of the TRUTH behind the Mary Clough mines located in Humboldt County Nevada. This report is about the history, geological, geophysical exploration, investigation, mineral and economic assessment of myself and 3 highly professional and licensed mining and mineral geologists/companies.
After my purchasing and spending over $30,000 of investment to property explore, investigate and determine the minerals present, quantities and economic assessment of the Mary Clough mines, I have found that some abandoned mines were abandoned many times over for a good reason. There is NO gold or silver present, or, that it is in such low trace concentrations that it is not economical, profitable to mine, extract or recover.
To my knowledge, the Mary Clough mines in Humboldt county Nevada have been sold, purchased and abandoned by at least 6 individuals in the past 4 years. Gold Rush Expeditions claims to have leased the property to “several mining companies however, they have all failed to do any development of the property.” I found out why when I owned it. This obviously should serve as a warning to anyone who may be interested in the Mary Clough mine property. After reading my detailed proof of ownership, history of my findings and economic reviews with professional geologists, anyone can now make their own educated, informed decisions on ownership or investing any money into research to come up with the same findings.
I wish that someone had taken the time to document and post publicly, their findings and economic review results of the Mary Clough mines so that I could have based my decision to purchase them on more than the advertisement and claims stated from Gold Rush Expeditions whom I purchased them from.
All information given in this summary can be verified with myself and with any of the geological companies or geologists who worked on the exploration and assessment project. Upon request, I can even show copies of receipts and tax returns showing expenses directly supporting this report and I will provide any additional documentation that I have regarding anything in this public notice upon request. Data Included in this report;
• Copies of the actual eBay auction notices, advertisements, pictures showing that I was in fact the winner of the eBay auction on the Mary Clough mines for $34,100.00 on January 20th 2016 at 12:00 pm MST.
• Copies of the actual assay orders and results for dozens and dozens of assays of vein and rock samples from all adits, known veins and rock types at the Mary Clough mines. (available to anyone upon individual request).
• Anyone with questions may also feel free to contact the actual professional geologists that I have hired to assist me in determining the economic value and feasibility of the Mary Clough mines.
On January 20th, 2016 I purchased the Mary Clough #1 and Mary Clough #2 from Gold Rush Expeditions on eBay for $34,100.00. After 1.5 years of research, documentation, geological assessments, assay sampling programs, written geological reports, microscopy, thousands of pictures and 10’s of thousands of dollars spent, I have abandoned the Mary Clough mines based on the professional economic determination of myself and Nevada State Licensed Geologist Chris Ralph from Reno Nevada, that the Mary Clough mines and property are NOT ECONOMICALLY VIABLE OR PROFITABLE for Gold and Silver at today’s price of gold at approximately ~$1,300 per troy ounce and silver @ ~$17 per troy ounce.
The advertising claims from Gold Rush Expeditions were that there was quote: “More visible free milling gold than we have ever seen on a claim before!” and “It is extremely rare to see free milling gold in these quantities.” This began my lesson of what pyrite (not the pyrite cubes I was thinking of, but vein metal pyrite) and what bright, shiny, gold colored, glistening CHALCOPYRITE looks like. It has been a good, but expensive, education in mining and minerals. I learned how to even an experienced professional mining engineer and geologist looking at the metals glistening in the light of a dark tunnel would say that…until the assay proves it's gold, it’s just pretty shiny stuff.
When I originally purchased the Mary Clough Mines, there was very, very little documentation on the mines themselves and the geological reporting of the area was spotty at best. I spent months upon months in my own investigation, documentation and economic assessment efforts. I camped in a tent many a times there at the old cabins for the past year and a half and shared that camp with family, and professional geologists alike during my 1.5 years of investigative review.
For purposes of clarification, the Mary Clough #1 claim has a 1,211’ tunnel that is numbered tunnel 00651 in Gold Rush Expedition (GRE) documentation. This claim has the old mill and large waste rock dump. The Mary Clough #2 has the tunnel numbered 00652. I will refer to them as such, as this is how my GRE purchase documents and maps list them, and to which they would be referred to by all geologists that helped me with investigations and findings. There are 5 total "adits" that are on the Mary Clough mine property.
• Adit 00651 is the main adit on the Mary Clough #1 and 1,278' tunnel (with 33' drift at exactly 563' dead center, 40 degree East dip and strikes directly (magnetic) North-South taken by multiple compasses in the drift) *** IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT Gold Rush Expedition's Mary Clough #1 West claim boundary begins all the way down the hill, past the crushing mill, across the road in the valley and up the other side of the opposite hill. Per normal load claim measurements, the Mary Clough #1 claim is 1,500' long x 600' wide. The 00651 tunnel is 1,278' measured and surveyed to the face. As the drift is at exactly 560' to the West edge of the drift and 563' dead center on strike, and the opposite Western boundary of the claim is on the opposite mountain side across the valley and road from the Mary Clough #1, this means that the entire Eastern END of the Mary Clough #1 claim and 00651 tunnel is NOT INCLUDED OR PART OF THE MARY CLOUGH #1 CLAIM. The quartz load that dips 40 degrees East, is for a short distance, on the 00651 tunnel and Mary Clough #1 Claim. THIS MAIN QUARTZ LOAD VEIN THAT DIPS EAST PAST THE END OF THE MARY CLOUGH #1 CLAIM IS, AT DEPTH, ON ANOTHER ACTIVE LOAD MINING CLAIM OWNED BY MYSELF. ALL TUNNEL, VEINS, ROCK, ETC past this Eastern end of the Mary Clough #1 claim is on my ACTIVE LOAD MINING CLAIM - Mary Clough VI - NMC1162418, ACTIVE, PAID AND CURRENT THROUGH THE 2018 ASSESSMENT YEAR.
• Adit 00652 adit is on the Mary Clough #2 claim from GRE. This does have timber present at the prospect that appears to have been the adit entrance. Myself and 2 men spent the better part of 2 days hand digging this "adit" out to see if it actually had a tunnel present. It proved to be either a dead end or caved with rocks over 600 pounds that would require heavy equipment to move. It should be noted that this area is very large rocks in loose top soil and caved several times in the process of digging for an entrance.
• "Dugout Adit" is located up the hill side above 00651. I dug this adit open to explore it. There is some skarn looking rock and very little mineralized vein. Mica is present and sparkles in some of the rock, however, assays show < 0.005 ppm Au. This tunnel is only 75 feet or so in length, narrow and extends onto my active mining claim.
• The other adits up the mountain are not on the Mary Clough #1 claim and are currently on my active Mary Clough VI claim. (Which I am also abandoning and not renewing my yearly maintenance on now)
[It should be noted that in accordance with Nevada mining laws and BLM laws, all activity for mining, digging and investigative work was restricted to hand tools and methods. No power, gasoline or heavy equipment usage is allowed without actual permitting approved by the Bureau of Land Management, etc.]
In my initial visit to the Mary Clough mines I'd just purchased in January of 2016, I entered and inspected the 00651 tunnel and all veins, including the largest one in the 33' drift at 563' into the mine. An immediate interesting note was that the strike of the largest vein in the entire tunnel was directly North-South. However, the long length of the claim lay West to East. This means that the Mary Clough #1 claim is positioned so that the major quartz vein cuts the tunnel at nearly a 90-degree angle and is only covered by the short 600' width of the claim, North to South. While projections of the 2' wide vein and it's strike to the North, could potentially intercept in the 00652 claim (and tunnel if one exists), the Mary Clough #2 claim also lays parallel to the Mary Clough #1 claim, however it ALSO would cover the load vein via the shorter 600' width of the claim, as the claim is not positioned long-wise over the potential vein load.
Shortly thereafter, in case there were valuable mineral concentrations present, I wanted to ensure that I covered the load veins under my claim. I measured, staked, claimed and registered the Mary Clough III, Mary Clough IV, Mary Clough V and Mary Clough VI load claims. This then and now, covers the entire load vein, on strike that lays between the Mary Clough #1 and Mary Clough #2 claims I'd purchased from Gold Rush Expeditions. Therefore, the Mary Clough #1, Mary Clough #2 and Mary Clough III are grouped parallel to each other and touching boundaries. The remaining 3 active claims lay directly off the East end of the first 3 claims and extend over the top of the mountain and down the back side, making it effectively a block of 6 active load mining claims.
So, the 2 major questions one would ask themselves:
1. Is there gold and silver there in ANY of the Mary Clough mine claims?
2. If so, is it in high enough, economically recoverable concentrations, proven by multiple assays?
Answers based on 1.5 years of geological on site visits, assay sampling programs, professional geological review and reporting, and $10’s of thousands of dollars invested:
1. Yes, there is faint, minute traces of gold and some silver noted
2. NO- it was not found in any of dozens and dozens of assays and many thousands of dollars in testing to be in economically recoverable amounts. Highest assay from dozens of assays at 3 different large, reputable Assay laboratories returned LESS THAN 1< ppm/gram per TON of rock.
Assays were run at Ray Grimmer Assay Labs (advertises in the ICMJ mining journal), American Assay Laboratories in Reno Nevada, and ALS Global Laboratories in Reno Nevada. Gold assays were almost exclusively Fire Assay, both 30g and 50g nominal samples, crushed to 75-100 mesh, split by rotary sample splitter, 4 acid digestion and all Au assays were finished with Atomic Absorption (AA) Finish. Those run by American Assay Laboratories were finished with Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) Finish.
Silver (Ag) assays were Fire Assay with both 30g and 50g nominal samples, crushed to 75-100 mesh, split by rotary sample splitter, 4 acid digestion.
Multiple 41 Element Assays to determine types of trace minerals present were 30g nominal samples, crushed, dried, rotary split and assayed with ICP finish.
Detection limits were commonly to 0.005 ppm for most minerals.
Mineral Summary:
Gold- Out of dozens of assays of every rock type, from the entire 1,278’ tunnel of 00651, the veins that outcrop above that tunnel, waste rock from the tailings dump and vein samples from any and all veins found in that area, not even ONE assay showed even 1 ppm for gold. The highest Gold assay for the Mary Clough mines came back at LESS THAN 1 PPM (less than 1 gram per ton) of Au. Think about that.
Silver- Silver is present in the sulfides, mostly as an impurity within the lead that’s in the quartz veins both in the 33’ drift and in other small veins in the 00651 tunnel and other veins found there. Highest silver assay was ~6 Ounces per ton.
Copper, Lead and Zinc- There are some quantities of these minerals and all assays that were run for these minerals in any/all of the Mary Clough mine veins are available in assay results upon request. I did not make any economic assessment of recovery of copper, lead or zinc as these would have to be present in much more significant quantity and concentration to be economically extractable and profitable.
Other minerals: There are of course trace amounts of various minerals such as Scheelite (W), and others, yet again, not in high enough concentrations to be of economically profitable value. Arsenic is however fairly high in some of the rocks and veins within the Mary Clough mines with >10,000 ppm As in some places.
After months of my own review, assay testing and sampling everything and every rock type there (mudstone, argillite, slate, shale, skarn rocks, granite intrusive, and every quartz vein found anywhere on the property), I had not one assay showing even 1 ppm Au. Many showed NO TRACE or less than <0.005 ppm Au. How could dozens of assays from very reputable industry notable laboratories ALL SHOW VIRTUALLY NO GOLD
I was frustrated and so I had professional mining geologist, Chris Ralph from Reno Nevada to come out and walk through every single one of the adits at the Mary Clough mines, including those up the valley above the cabins, and run through an assay sampling program with me… to provide me with definitive results, professionally managed and a professional opinion on economic viability based on gold and silver assay values.
Chris came out and spent some time in camp with me and my family at the Mary Clough mines and was very generous enough with his time and energy to hike the very steep hills and get down on his hands, knees and belly and crawl into every one of the accessible adits to take assay samples specifically targeted at determining the economic values of gold and silver present in the veins and rock units at my Mary Clough mines.
Chris and I laid out large clean tarps/heavy duty huge trash bags along veins, rock walls, etc and spent hours of sweat time hammering out samples for assaying. In the largest vein with the most potential for economic values, the 33' drift in 00651 on the Mary Clough #1 claim, we collected a large sample bag of approximately 10 pounds of nearly 90% metal from the sulfides in the vein. Chris did state that although he didn't have a loupe or microscope, that his initial impression was that the minerals present were chalcopyrite, pyrite with lead (containing some silver) and zinc, along with arsenic. The sample was a full channel sample taken at approximately 1 foot intervals down the entire 33 feet of drift on the vein.
The certified results from A.L.S. Global Laboratories for the main vein in the 33' drift and the small veins with heavy pyrites visible in the main tunnel outside the drift;
Au -0.10 ppm & Ag 7.0 ppm
Au - 0.95 ppm & Ag 88 ppm
Au- 0.28 ppm & Ag 126 ppm
This shows that my initial assay results from multiple labs were not wrong at all. There just isn't any large concentration of gold and silver there. Not even ONE part per million of gold! And only 3-4 ounces of silver as an impurity in the lead.
Chris Ralph has given me permission to quote his findings: So, quoting Chris on his economic evaluation of the Mary Clough mines, the amount of mineralized ore there and the concentrations of gold and silver present and potential for economic profits:
" So all the assays at the Mary Clough were poor. The values in both gold and silver were poor. It's just not a good claim in my opinion because nothing shows any decent ore values - not even the ore that looks good."
Shortly after this, I notified Gold Rush Expeditions was abandoning the claims and offered them the other 4 active load claims that I had in the group (Mary Clough III, IV, V, VI). I explained that their Mary Clough #1 and Mary Clough #2 claims were at best, perpendicular to the North-South strike of the main load vein, and that their claims did not cover 90% of the main load. I explained that my Mary Clough III claim covered all ground over the main load vein, in between their claims, as well as all large quartz veins, adits, workings, etc up at the top of the mountain above the Mary Clough #1 and #2. There is also the fact that the main load vein that is in the 33' drift, dips 40-50 degrees East and the entire vein at depth past the East end of their Mary Clough #1 claim in the tunnel, was on my current, active load mining claim.
The response from Gold Rush Expeditions was "We do not see any value in purchasing your claims".
Personally, knowing that I own 95% of all the load veins there, I would think that Gold Rush Expeditions would want the 4 active claims I have there that form a 6 claim group for 120 acres, just in case they ever sold their 2 claims for the copper, lead, zinc and small silver values there. Someone might want the 95% of the load veins with those minerals present in them.
I figured I already went through DAYS of climbing the mountains, carrying stakes to the top, measuring with both 300' tape measure and laser range finder and staking, claiming the ground, I might as well keep them in case someone wants to purchase them from me, as I currently own 95% of the entire load veins there, or more.
Questions to ask yourself about the Mary Clough mines if you are interested in them;
• Why would the property be abandoned many times over and over if there was economic concentrations of gold and silver there to justify economic investment for profitability?
• If there was ample gold and silver in the massive 2’ wide white quartz vein that is loaded with sulfides, why did the previous miners only drift 33’ on the vein with no stoping, no shaft, no coring out the vein or further development?
• Why would they continue the tunnel PAST an economically valuable 2’ wide quartz vein, instead of coring, stoping and drifting more in every direction on the vein out right there?
• There is VERY LITTLE waste rock at the 00652 claim. Why is there extremely little waste rock at 00652 if there is a large tunnel there? Why would anyone haul off thousands of tons of WASTE rock if there is a tunnel there? Especially by horse and wagon or mule, or even early 1920’s vehicles? Why spend time, money and effort to move WASTE rock?
• I have many pictures of the waste rock piles at 00652, including 24.2 megapixel close up’s of the waste rock. There are only a half dozen hand size pieces of quartz. Where is the rest of the gangue if any came out of a potential tunnel there? And NO, I did not see any specks, flakes or hint of gold in any of the waste rock there. Assays showed ZERO Trace of Au.
• GRE first claimed the Mary Clough mines back in 2014. I discovered (after I had already bought them) that the Mary Clough claims were sold by GRE to another individual on eBay for over $20,700.00. (picture below) That person abandoned them also, and GRE sold them again to me.
• On the Mary Clough #1 claim, to the south side of the main adit and 00651 tunnel, there is a collapsed building there that was built for mining operations. If you look under the rubble there is a very clearly inscribed concrete foundation with heavy iron anchor bolts in it that says "S. Clough - May 5th 1985" written in the concrete when it was poured. The date is 1985. Obviously the mining operations were also abandoned by them also. I highly suspect that this time period was when the actual drift was cut to the 33' length it is now. However, again, not recovering enough gold, silver, or valuable concentrations of minerals to pay for the mining, the Mary Clough mines were once again abandoned. And again and again until Gold Rush Expeditions staked them in 2014, sold them to whoever purchased them on eBay for $20,700.00.
GRE Inc-Mary Clough Mine-Lode Mining Claims-Winn, NV-1211+Freemill gold qtz-Mill
Ver el anuncio original
Winning Bid:
Estado:
--
“These claims are covered for 1 (one) full year by the GRE Guarantee. An airtight guarantee offering ”
Finalizado:
12 jun 2014 , 11:00pm. m.
Oferta ganadora:
US $20 700.00
Notes and findings of my own;
The “suggested adit” of the Mary Clough #2 is very narrow, in line with the style and size of the mining methods of 1916-1920’s. The adit of the 00651 tunnel on the Mary Clough #1 is large and commensurate with mining of the 1980’s suggesting that only 00651 has been active since the early days.
My personal assessment on the history of the Mary Clough mines:
Research obviously shows that the Mary Clough mines were originally located in ~1916 by Mr and Mrs. Mary Clough. They were funded by put together out of Montana called the Charleston Hill National Mine Inc and Mary was made president of the company, which based it's operations out of Winnemucca Nevada. From research I've found, they sold approximately 1 Million shares of stock of some sort at a par value of $1 per share to finance the mining operations.
I believe that the showing of very splashy chalcopyrite, pyrites and possibly some very small quantities of actual gold in some of the veins, caused enough attention to build a crushing mill and a camp for the miners. I believe that they were exploring and looking for economic gold and silver, but did not find enough to warrant continued operations, or coring out the veins anywhere along the tunnels in the adits, including the large vein in the 33' drift. Not getting enough gold and silver out of that vein, they continued to drive the adit deeper into the mountain looking for gold, silver, and in the 1940's war era, Scheelite, as it was considered a "strategic metal" and allowed mining to continue during the War Act that closed many gold mines.
From the MRDS: PROPERTY WAS LOCATED IN 1919 BY MR. AND MRS. CLOUGH. A CAMP AND MILL WERE BUILT AND A 1200-FT ADIT WAS DRIVEN TO EXPLORE FOR GOLD AND SILVER. TUNGSTEN MINERALIZATION WAS DISCOVERED IN 1943, BUT NO PRODUCTION WAS RECORDED UNTIL 1955 WHEN THE RED ROSE MINING AND MILLING CO. SHIPPED 7 TONS OF ORE THAT YIELDED 2 UNITS WO3.
Important Insight:
Once you pass the 33' drift with sulfides in it at 563', the 00651 tunnel gets smaller and smaller as it nears the far end and to the face. The closer to the face you get, the shorter, tighter and narrower the tunnel gets until the last 30 yards or so are so tight that two people can't barely get by one another. If one is at all claustrophobic, this is not the place you want to be.
This is highly typical when a mining operation is running out of money and they are simply driving the smallest forward progression that they can in hopes of striking a paying vein. I believe they essentially burned through their funding and with no real showing of values in gold or silver, along with assessments that the scheelite concentration would also not bear the cost of mining, the mine was shut down and abandoned.
The following quotes are directly from the Gold Rush Expeditions eBay advertisement, and the website advertisement on the Gold Rush Expeditions website in January 2016.
GOLD RUSH EXPEDITIONS ADVERTISEMENT IN PART, DIRECTLY FROM MY PURCHASE DOCUMENTS.
"The Mary Clough is made up of 2 claims. Both lode claims to address the gold on quartz that is prevalent in the area. The lower claim has the massive old mill site and crusher. The work was apparently all contained on site, however it's only gold that was processed. There are thousands of tons of silver that have been dumped in a separated waste rock area. The primary workings are at this site, and the gold runs in massive quantities with the quartz. Please view images and see the gold for yourself.
40 full acres of amazing, high quality claims and gold that is ready to be broken off and taken out to crush. There is also the remnants of an old Ford truck on the upper claim. The two of these combined make up one of the more epic sites we have seen. And the gold, well, we have never seen anything like this short of a major mine.
The ore here is simple. It's gold ore in large chunks on a huge quartz lode. A large quartz lode that is shot full of rich, gold ore.
This is one like we have not seen before. There is a substantial amount of gold on white quartz inside the mine. This gold in a free-milling form is stunning and rarely seen in this quantity. Highly recommended for today's methods of processing and refining. Amazing."
I was lead to believe that there were thousands of tons of ORE (not waste rock, but ORE) just laying around the claims and stockpiled there, which could potentially pay off the purchase simply by processing the stockpiled thousands of tons of ORE.
• There is a broken remnants of a mill. There are no crushers, stamps or crushing mechanisms present. Simply busted up wood and some rusted piping and scrap junk metal.
• There was and is NO " massive amounts of gold present" anywhere. In fact, there isn’t any gold concentration high enough to be seen at all. There is a nice showing of sulfides including gold-colored chalcopyrite and pyrites.
• There was NO THOUSANDS OF TONS OF SILVER separated out or stockpiled ore dumped and just laying there, waiting to be processed.
• The stock pile of ORE noted on the map on the website (now and in the advertisements I have, and the sale documents that I purchased and own) shows a stockpile of ORE just south of the cabins. This is supposedly where some of the thousands of tons of silver, along with gold ore is stockpiled. (Ore = rocks with valuable, recoverable precious metals or minerals present that could be recovered. [Note: Ore does not equal WASTE ROCK or Tailings.]) This location is NOT an ore stockpile at all. In fact it's not even a pile of rock. It's a broken down woodpile of a caved in small 12'x14' shed, not rocks.
My eBay winning bid & purchase to show in fact that I did purchase it from GRE:
GRE Inc
Historic Mary Clough Lode Mining Claims
Winnemucca, NV
Gold 1211'
Estim.
19101941Shon
DistrictHumboldt
County, Nevada
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Start time: Jan 13, 2016 11:00:28 PST
Start price: US $1,750.00
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Winning bid: US $34,100.00 [ 123 bids ]
***IT SHOULD ALSO GO ON RECORD THAT THERE IS ALSO PUBLIC INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET SHOWN BELOW THAT THE OWNER, MARY L. CLOUGH WAS SUED IN THE NEVADA SUPREME COURT FOR HAVING SOLD THE MARY CLOUGH MINES IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY NEVADA TO CHARLESTON HILL NATIONAL MINES, INC specifically because “the claims were worth little or nothing…”
Again, I personally did not have this information when I purchased the Mary Clough mines from Gold Rush Expeditions. It was provided to me by the current owner of the Mary Clough Mines (June 21st 2018) of whom purchased the property from Gold Rush Expeditions in May of 2018 and spent many thousands of dollars provided to GRE, only to find as I did, that the claims have virtually no gold in them and the area around them.
In between myself and the current owner, Gold Rush Expeditions sold the same Mary Clough claims to at least 2 or 3 others who also abandoned it/backed out, prior to the current owner who unfortunately was purposefully mislead to believe there were ‘tons of gold and additional silver’ in them.
Schoff v. Clough, 380 P.2d 464 (Nev. 1963)
Nevada Supreme Court
Filed: April 10th, 1963
Precedential Status: Precedential
Citations: 380 P.2d 464
Docket Number: 4549
Author: Frank McNamee
Hughie J. SCHOFF, Receiver for Charleston Hill National Mines, Inc., Appellant, v. Mary L. CLOUGH, Respondent, 79 Nev. 193
Summary
The receiver brought an action to set aside the sale of the mining claim and to recover the purchase price paid therefor. The receiver alleged that the director sold the mining claim to the corporation for a sum that "unreasonably reduced" the cash funds of the corporation, and that the claim was worth little or nothing and left the corporation in bad financial straits. The receiver alleged that the director authorized the purchase, which was not in the best interests of the corporation.
In summary, are the Mary Clough mines profitable Gold and silver mines? No. Are the mining claims a neat looking abandoned part of mining history? Yes. Are some mining prospects better left abandoned because they were abandoned for good reason? Yes. Should one consult a licensed professional geologist and hire them to do what they went to school to learn how to do and provide a professional opinion, before you purchase any mining claim? Yes. That’s what the geologists are there for. In my experienced opinion, they are WELL WORTH THE VALUE to get professional knowledge and experience behind your property evaluations.
Spend the money up front to get them involved at step 1 and avoid spending vast amounts of time, money and effort on a property that may really hold nothing of economic value.
*I would also state that though Chris Ralph has kindly given me permission to quote his findings and professional assessment opinion on the Mary Clough property review for me, none of my comments or things contained herein are considered in any way the view of the ICMJ Mining Journal that Chris writes for, nor any of the staff or journal itself. These are my facts that I am sharing for public knowledge, as a courtesy to help others educate themselves as to this particular property/area, and, about purchasing mining claims in general. Thank you to Dwight Juras of Structural Ore Controls who also provided professional services and review of the Mary Clough mines and property for me. Thank you also to Charlie Watson of Advanced Geologic Services. I would also like to thank Chris Ralph and all other geologists for the help, guidance, assistance, professionalism and wisdom they offer our industry and especially the small-time miners and prospectors out there.
Jack W. Moore
History, Geological Investigation & Economic Assessment of the Mary Clough Mines in Humboldt County Nevada.
To educate the public, warn the public and save other hard working honest individuals from wasting time, money or effort on this property, I am posting this report on public forums on the internet.
My purpose is to educate the public on all of the information and data that I DIDN’T have when I purchased the Mary Clough mines from Gold Rush Expeditions (GRE), and to provide data that will help any potential future owners of the Mary Clough Mines make a serious study of actual hard-fact data before investing many thousands of dollars of their hard-earned money, only to find the same results that I have found, and others before me have also found.
I am writing and posting this information as a PUBLIC SERVICE to the general public to raise awareness and educate the public at large of the TRUTH behind the Mary Clough mines located in Humboldt County Nevada. This report is about the history, geological, geophysical exploration, investigation, mineral and economic assessment of myself and 3 highly professional and licensed mining and mineral geologists/companies.
After my purchasing and spending over $30,000 of investment to property explore, investigate and determine the minerals present, quantities and economic assessment of the Mary Clough mines, I have found that some abandoned mines were abandoned many times over for a good reason. There is NO gold or silver present, or, that it is in such low trace concentrations that it is not economical, profitable to mine, extract or recover.
To my knowledge, the Mary Clough mines in Humboldt county Nevada have been sold, purchased and abandoned by at least 6 individuals in the past 4 years. Gold Rush Expeditions claims to have leased the property to “several mining companies however, they have all failed to do any development of the property.” I found out why when I owned it. This obviously should serve as a warning to anyone who may be interested in the Mary Clough mine property. After reading my detailed proof of ownership, history of my findings and economic reviews with professional geologists, anyone can now make their own educated, informed decisions on ownership or investing any money into research to come up with the same findings.
I wish that someone had taken the time to document and post publicly, their findings and economic review results of the Mary Clough mines so that I could have based my decision to purchase them on more than the advertisement and claims stated from Gold Rush Expeditions whom I purchased them from.
All information given in this summary can be verified with myself and with any of the geological companies or geologists who worked on the exploration and assessment project. Upon request, I can even show copies of receipts and tax returns showing expenses directly supporting this report and I will provide any additional documentation that I have regarding anything in this public notice upon request. Data Included in this report;
• Copies of the actual eBay auction notices, advertisements, pictures showing that I was in fact the winner of the eBay auction on the Mary Clough mines for $34,100.00 on January 20th 2016 at 12:00 pm MST.
• Copies of the actual assay orders and results for dozens and dozens of assays of vein and rock samples from all adits, known veins and rock types at the Mary Clough mines. (available to anyone upon individual request).
• Anyone with questions may also feel free to contact the actual professional geologists that I have hired to assist me in determining the economic value and feasibility of the Mary Clough mines.
On January 20th, 2016 I purchased the Mary Clough #1 and Mary Clough #2 from Gold Rush Expeditions on eBay for $34,100.00. After 1.5 years of research, documentation, geological assessments, assay sampling programs, written geological reports, microscopy, thousands of pictures and 10’s of thousands of dollars spent, I have abandoned the Mary Clough mines based on the professional economic determination of myself and Nevada State Licensed Geologist Chris Ralph from Reno Nevada, that the Mary Clough mines and property are NOT ECONOMICALLY VIABLE OR PROFITABLE for Gold and Silver at today’s price of gold at approximately ~$1,300 per troy ounce and silver @ ~$17 per troy ounce.
The advertising claims from Gold Rush Expeditions were that there was quote: “More visible free milling gold than we have ever seen on a claim before!” and “It is extremely rare to see free milling gold in these quantities.” This began my lesson of what pyrite (not the pyrite cubes I was thinking of, but vein metal pyrite) and what bright, shiny, gold colored, glistening CHALCOPYRITE looks like. It has been a good, but expensive, education in mining and minerals. I learned how to even an experienced professional mining engineer and geologist looking at the metals glistening in the light of a dark tunnel would say that…until the assay proves it's gold, it’s just pretty shiny stuff.
When I originally purchased the Mary Clough Mines, there was very, very little documentation on the mines themselves and the geological reporting of the area was spotty at best. I spent months upon months in my own investigation, documentation and economic assessment efforts. I camped in a tent many a times there at the old cabins for the past year and a half and shared that camp with family, and professional geologists alike during my 1.5 years of investigative review.
For purposes of clarification, the Mary Clough #1 claim has a 1,211’ tunnel that is numbered tunnel 00651 in Gold Rush Expedition (GRE) documentation. This claim has the old mill and large waste rock dump. The Mary Clough #2 has the tunnel numbered 00652. I will refer to them as such, as this is how my GRE purchase documents and maps list them, and to which they would be referred to by all geologists that helped me with investigations and findings. There are 5 total "adits" that are on the Mary Clough mine property.
• Adit 00651 is the main adit on the Mary Clough #1 and 1,278' tunnel (with 33' drift at exactly 563' dead center, 40 degree East dip and strikes directly (magnetic) North-South taken by multiple compasses in the drift) *** IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT Gold Rush Expedition's Mary Clough #1 West claim boundary begins all the way down the hill, past the crushing mill, across the road in the valley and up the other side of the opposite hill. Per normal load claim measurements, the Mary Clough #1 claim is 1,500' long x 600' wide. The 00651 tunnel is 1,278' measured and surveyed to the face. As the drift is at exactly 560' to the West edge of the drift and 563' dead center on strike, and the opposite Western boundary of the claim is on the opposite mountain side across the valley and road from the Mary Clough #1, this means that the entire Eastern END of the Mary Clough #1 claim and 00651 tunnel is NOT INCLUDED OR PART OF THE MARY CLOUGH #1 CLAIM. The quartz load that dips 40 degrees East, is for a short distance, on the 00651 tunnel and Mary Clough #1 Claim. THIS MAIN QUARTZ LOAD VEIN THAT DIPS EAST PAST THE END OF THE MARY CLOUGH #1 CLAIM IS, AT DEPTH, ON ANOTHER ACTIVE LOAD MINING CLAIM OWNED BY MYSELF. ALL TUNNEL, VEINS, ROCK, ETC past this Eastern end of the Mary Clough #1 claim is on my ACTIVE LOAD MINING CLAIM - Mary Clough VI - NMC1162418, ACTIVE, PAID AND CURRENT THROUGH THE 2018 ASSESSMENT YEAR.
• Adit 00652 adit is on the Mary Clough #2 claim from GRE. This does have timber present at the prospect that appears to have been the adit entrance. Myself and 2 men spent the better part of 2 days hand digging this "adit" out to see if it actually had a tunnel present. It proved to be either a dead end or caved with rocks over 600 pounds that would require heavy equipment to move. It should be noted that this area is very large rocks in loose top soil and caved several times in the process of digging for an entrance.
• "Dugout Adit" is located up the hill side above 00651. I dug this adit open to explore it. There is some skarn looking rock and very little mineralized vein. Mica is present and sparkles in some of the rock, however, assays show < 0.005 ppm Au. This tunnel is only 75 feet or so in length, narrow and extends onto my active mining claim.
• The other adits up the mountain are not on the Mary Clough #1 claim and are currently on my active Mary Clough VI claim. (Which I am also abandoning and not renewing my yearly maintenance on now)
[It should be noted that in accordance with Nevada mining laws and BLM laws, all activity for mining, digging and investigative work was restricted to hand tools and methods. No power, gasoline or heavy equipment usage is allowed without actual permitting approved by the Bureau of Land Management, etc.]
In my initial visit to the Mary Clough mines I'd just purchased in January of 2016, I entered and inspected the 00651 tunnel and all veins, including the largest one in the 33' drift at 563' into the mine. An immediate interesting note was that the strike of the largest vein in the entire tunnel was directly North-South. However, the long length of the claim lay West to East. This means that the Mary Clough #1 claim is positioned so that the major quartz vein cuts the tunnel at nearly a 90-degree angle and is only covered by the short 600' width of the claim, North to South. While projections of the 2' wide vein and it's strike to the North, could potentially intercept in the 00652 claim (and tunnel if one exists), the Mary Clough #2 claim also lays parallel to the Mary Clough #1 claim, however it ALSO would cover the load vein via the shorter 600' width of the claim, as the claim is not positioned long-wise over the potential vein load.
Shortly thereafter, in case there were valuable mineral concentrations present, I wanted to ensure that I covered the load veins under my claim. I measured, staked, claimed and registered the Mary Clough III, Mary Clough IV, Mary Clough V and Mary Clough VI load claims. This then and now, covers the entire load vein, on strike that lays between the Mary Clough #1 and Mary Clough #2 claims I'd purchased from Gold Rush Expeditions. Therefore, the Mary Clough #1, Mary Clough #2 and Mary Clough III are grouped parallel to each other and touching boundaries. The remaining 3 active claims lay directly off the East end of the first 3 claims and extend over the top of the mountain and down the back side, making it effectively a block of 6 active load mining claims.
So, the 2 major questions one would ask themselves:
1. Is there gold and silver there in ANY of the Mary Clough mine claims?
2. If so, is it in high enough, economically recoverable concentrations, proven by multiple assays?
Answers based on 1.5 years of geological on site visits, assay sampling programs, professional geological review and reporting, and $10’s of thousands of dollars invested:
1. Yes, there is faint, minute traces of gold and some silver noted
2. NO- it was not found in any of dozens and dozens of assays and many thousands of dollars in testing to be in economically recoverable amounts. Highest assay from dozens of assays at 3 different large, reputable Assay laboratories returned LESS THAN 1< ppm/gram per TON of rock.
Assays were run at Ray Grimmer Assay Labs (advertises in the ICMJ mining journal), American Assay Laboratories in Reno Nevada, and ALS Global Laboratories in Reno Nevada. Gold assays were almost exclusively Fire Assay, both 30g and 50g nominal samples, crushed to 75-100 mesh, split by rotary sample splitter, 4 acid digestion and all Au assays were finished with Atomic Absorption (AA) Finish. Those run by American Assay Laboratories were finished with Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) Finish.
Silver (Ag) assays were Fire Assay with both 30g and 50g nominal samples, crushed to 75-100 mesh, split by rotary sample splitter, 4 acid digestion.
Multiple 41 Element Assays to determine types of trace minerals present were 30g nominal samples, crushed, dried, rotary split and assayed with ICP finish.
Detection limits were commonly to 0.005 ppm for most minerals.
Mineral Summary:
Gold- Out of dozens of assays of every rock type, from the entire 1,278’ tunnel of 00651, the veins that outcrop above that tunnel, waste rock from the tailings dump and vein samples from any and all veins found in that area, not even ONE assay showed even 1 ppm for gold. The highest Gold assay for the Mary Clough mines came back at LESS THAN 1 PPM (less than 1 gram per ton) of Au. Think about that.
Silver- Silver is present in the sulfides, mostly as an impurity within the lead that’s in the quartz veins both in the 33’ drift and in other small veins in the 00651 tunnel and other veins found there. Highest silver assay was ~6 Ounces per ton.
Copper, Lead and Zinc- There are some quantities of these minerals and all assays that were run for these minerals in any/all of the Mary Clough mine veins are available in assay results upon request. I did not make any economic assessment of recovery of copper, lead or zinc as these would have to be present in much more significant quantity and concentration to be economically extractable and profitable.
Other minerals: There are of course trace amounts of various minerals such as Scheelite (W), and others, yet again, not in high enough concentrations to be of economically profitable value. Arsenic is however fairly high in some of the rocks and veins within the Mary Clough mines with >10,000 ppm As in some places.
After months of my own review, assay testing and sampling everything and every rock type there (mudstone, argillite, slate, shale, skarn rocks, granite intrusive, and every quartz vein found anywhere on the property), I had not one assay showing even 1 ppm Au. Many showed NO TRACE or less than <0.005 ppm Au. How could dozens of assays from very reputable industry notable laboratories ALL SHOW VIRTUALLY NO GOLD
I was frustrated and so I had professional mining geologist, Chris Ralph from Reno Nevada to come out and walk through every single one of the adits at the Mary Clough mines, including those up the valley above the cabins, and run through an assay sampling program with me… to provide me with definitive results, professionally managed and a professional opinion on economic viability based on gold and silver assay values.
Chris came out and spent some time in camp with me and my family at the Mary Clough mines and was very generous enough with his time and energy to hike the very steep hills and get down on his hands, knees and belly and crawl into every one of the accessible adits to take assay samples specifically targeted at determining the economic values of gold and silver present in the veins and rock units at my Mary Clough mines.
Chris and I laid out large clean tarps/heavy duty huge trash bags along veins, rock walls, etc and spent hours of sweat time hammering out samples for assaying. In the largest vein with the most potential for economic values, the 33' drift in 00651 on the Mary Clough #1 claim, we collected a large sample bag of approximately 10 pounds of nearly 90% metal from the sulfides in the vein. Chris did state that although he didn't have a loupe or microscope, that his initial impression was that the minerals present were chalcopyrite, pyrite with lead (containing some silver) and zinc, along with arsenic. The sample was a full channel sample taken at approximately 1 foot intervals down the entire 33 feet of drift on the vein.
The certified results from A.L.S. Global Laboratories for the main vein in the 33' drift and the small veins with heavy pyrites visible in the main tunnel outside the drift;
Au -0.10 ppm & Ag 7.0 ppm
Au - 0.95 ppm & Ag 88 ppm
Au- 0.28 ppm & Ag 126 ppm
This shows that my initial assay results from multiple labs were not wrong at all. There just isn't any large concentration of gold and silver there. Not even ONE part per million of gold! And only 3-4 ounces of silver as an impurity in the lead.
Chris Ralph has given me permission to quote his findings: So, quoting Chris on his economic evaluation of the Mary Clough mines, the amount of mineralized ore there and the concentrations of gold and silver present and potential for economic profits:
" So all the assays at the Mary Clough were poor. The values in both gold and silver were poor. It's just not a good claim in my opinion because nothing shows any decent ore values - not even the ore that looks good."
Shortly after this, I notified Gold Rush Expeditions was abandoning the claims and offered them the other 4 active load claims that I had in the group (Mary Clough III, IV, V, VI). I explained that their Mary Clough #1 and Mary Clough #2 claims were at best, perpendicular to the North-South strike of the main load vein, and that their claims did not cover 90% of the main load. I explained that my Mary Clough III claim covered all ground over the main load vein, in between their claims, as well as all large quartz veins, adits, workings, etc up at the top of the mountain above the Mary Clough #1 and #2. There is also the fact that the main load vein that is in the 33' drift, dips 40-50 degrees East and the entire vein at depth past the East end of their Mary Clough #1 claim in the tunnel, was on my current, active load mining claim.
The response from Gold Rush Expeditions was "We do not see any value in purchasing your claims".
Personally, knowing that I own 95% of all the load veins there, I would think that Gold Rush Expeditions would want the 4 active claims I have there that form a 6 claim group for 120 acres, just in case they ever sold their 2 claims for the copper, lead, zinc and small silver values there. Someone might want the 95% of the load veins with those minerals present in them.
I figured I already went through DAYS of climbing the mountains, carrying stakes to the top, measuring with both 300' tape measure and laser range finder and staking, claiming the ground, I might as well keep them in case someone wants to purchase them from me, as I currently own 95% of the entire load veins there, or more.
Questions to ask yourself about the Mary Clough mines if you are interested in them;
• Why would the property be abandoned many times over and over if there was economic concentrations of gold and silver there to justify economic investment for profitability?
• If there was ample gold and silver in the massive 2’ wide white quartz vein that is loaded with sulfides, why did the previous miners only drift 33’ on the vein with no stoping, no shaft, no coring out the vein or further development?
• Why would they continue the tunnel PAST an economically valuable 2’ wide quartz vein, instead of coring, stoping and drifting more in every direction on the vein out right there?
• There is VERY LITTLE waste rock at the 00652 claim. Why is there extremely little waste rock at 00652 if there is a large tunnel there? Why would anyone haul off thousands of tons of WASTE rock if there is a tunnel there? Especially by horse and wagon or mule, or even early 1920’s vehicles? Why spend time, money and effort to move WASTE rock?
• I have many pictures of the waste rock piles at 00652, including 24.2 megapixel close up’s of the waste rock. There are only a half dozen hand size pieces of quartz. Where is the rest of the gangue if any came out of a potential tunnel there? And NO, I did not see any specks, flakes or hint of gold in any of the waste rock there. Assays showed ZERO Trace of Au.
• GRE first claimed the Mary Clough mines back in 2014. I discovered (after I had already bought them) that the Mary Clough claims were sold by GRE to another individual on eBay for over $20,700.00. (picture below) That person abandoned them also, and GRE sold them again to me.
• On the Mary Clough #1 claim, to the south side of the main adit and 00651 tunnel, there is a collapsed building there that was built for mining operations. If you look under the rubble there is a very clearly inscribed concrete foundation with heavy iron anchor bolts in it that says "S. Clough - May 5th 1985" written in the concrete when it was poured. The date is 1985. Obviously the mining operations were also abandoned by them also. I highly suspect that this time period was when the actual drift was cut to the 33' length it is now. However, again, not recovering enough gold, silver, or valuable concentrations of minerals to pay for the mining, the Mary Clough mines were once again abandoned. And again and again until Gold Rush Expeditions staked them in 2014, sold them to whoever purchased them on eBay for $20,700.00.
GRE Inc-Mary Clough Mine-Lode Mining Claims-Winn, NV-1211+Freemill gold qtz-Mill
Ver el anuncio original
Winning Bid:
Estado:
--
“These claims are covered for 1 (one) full year by the GRE Guarantee. An airtight guarantee offering ”
Finalizado:
12 jun 2014 , 11:00pm. m.
Oferta ganadora:
US $20 700.00
Notes and findings of my own;
The “suggested adit” of the Mary Clough #2 is very narrow, in line with the style and size of the mining methods of 1916-1920’s. The adit of the 00651 tunnel on the Mary Clough #1 is large and commensurate with mining of the 1980’s suggesting that only 00651 has been active since the early days.
My personal assessment on the history of the Mary Clough mines:
Research obviously shows that the Mary Clough mines were originally located in ~1916 by Mr and Mrs. Mary Clough. They were funded by put together out of Montana called the Charleston Hill National Mine Inc and Mary was made president of the company, which based it's operations out of Winnemucca Nevada. From research I've found, they sold approximately 1 Million shares of stock of some sort at a par value of $1 per share to finance the mining operations.
I believe that the showing of very splashy chalcopyrite, pyrites and possibly some very small quantities of actual gold in some of the veins, caused enough attention to build a crushing mill and a camp for the miners. I believe that they were exploring and looking for economic gold and silver, but did not find enough to warrant continued operations, or coring out the veins anywhere along the tunnels in the adits, including the large vein in the 33' drift. Not getting enough gold and silver out of that vein, they continued to drive the adit deeper into the mountain looking for gold, silver, and in the 1940's war era, Scheelite, as it was considered a "strategic metal" and allowed mining to continue during the War Act that closed many gold mines.
From the MRDS: PROPERTY WAS LOCATED IN 1919 BY MR. AND MRS. CLOUGH. A CAMP AND MILL WERE BUILT AND A 1200-FT ADIT WAS DRIVEN TO EXPLORE FOR GOLD AND SILVER. TUNGSTEN MINERALIZATION WAS DISCOVERED IN 1943, BUT NO PRODUCTION WAS RECORDED UNTIL 1955 WHEN THE RED ROSE MINING AND MILLING CO. SHIPPED 7 TONS OF ORE THAT YIELDED 2 UNITS WO3.
Important Insight:
Once you pass the 33' drift with sulfides in it at 563', the 00651 tunnel gets smaller and smaller as it nears the far end and to the face. The closer to the face you get, the shorter, tighter and narrower the tunnel gets until the last 30 yards or so are so tight that two people can't barely get by one another. If one is at all claustrophobic, this is not the place you want to be.
This is highly typical when a mining operation is running out of money and they are simply driving the smallest forward progression that they can in hopes of striking a paying vein. I believe they essentially burned through their funding and with no real showing of values in gold or silver, along with assessments that the scheelite concentration would also not bear the cost of mining, the mine was shut down and abandoned.
The following quotes are directly from the Gold Rush Expeditions eBay advertisement, and the website advertisement on the Gold Rush Expeditions website in January 2016.
GOLD RUSH EXPEDITIONS ADVERTISEMENT IN PART, DIRECTLY FROM MY PURCHASE DOCUMENTS.
"The Mary Clough is made up of 2 claims. Both lode claims to address the gold on quartz that is prevalent in the area. The lower claim has the massive old mill site and crusher. The work was apparently all contained on site, however it's only gold that was processed. There are thousands of tons of silver that have been dumped in a separated waste rock area. The primary workings are at this site, and the gold runs in massive quantities with the quartz. Please view images and see the gold for yourself.
40 full acres of amazing, high quality claims and gold that is ready to be broken off and taken out to crush. There is also the remnants of an old Ford truck on the upper claim. The two of these combined make up one of the more epic sites we have seen. And the gold, well, we have never seen anything like this short of a major mine.
The ore here is simple. It's gold ore in large chunks on a huge quartz lode. A large quartz lode that is shot full of rich, gold ore.
This is one like we have not seen before. There is a substantial amount of gold on white quartz inside the mine. This gold in a free-milling form is stunning and rarely seen in this quantity. Highly recommended for today's methods of processing and refining. Amazing."
I was lead to believe that there were thousands of tons of ORE (not waste rock, but ORE) just laying around the claims and stockpiled there, which could potentially pay off the purchase simply by processing the stockpiled thousands of tons of ORE.
• There is a broken remnants of a mill. There are no crushers, stamps or crushing mechanisms present. Simply busted up wood and some rusted piping and scrap junk metal.
• There was and is NO " massive amounts of gold present" anywhere. In fact, there isn’t any gold concentration high enough to be seen at all. There is a nice showing of sulfides including gold-colored chalcopyrite and pyrites.
• There was NO THOUSANDS OF TONS OF SILVER separated out or stockpiled ore dumped and just laying there, waiting to be processed.
• The stock pile of ORE noted on the map on the website (now and in the advertisements I have, and the sale documents that I purchased and own) shows a stockpile of ORE just south of the cabins. This is supposedly where some of the thousands of tons of silver, along with gold ore is stockpiled. (Ore = rocks with valuable, recoverable precious metals or minerals present that could be recovered. [Note: Ore does not equal WASTE ROCK or Tailings.]) This location is NOT an ore stockpile at all. In fact it's not even a pile of rock. It's a broken down woodpile of a caved in small 12'x14' shed, not rocks.
My eBay winning bid & purchase to show in fact that I did purchase it from GRE:
GRE Inc
Historic Mary Clough Lode Mining Claims
Winnemucca, NV
Gold 1211'
Estim.
19101941Shon
DistrictHumboldt
County, Nevada
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Start time: Jan 13, 2016 11:00:28 PST
Start price: US $1,750.00
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Winning bid: US $34,100.00 [ 123 bids ]
***IT SHOULD ALSO GO ON RECORD THAT THERE IS ALSO PUBLIC INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET SHOWN BELOW THAT THE OWNER, MARY L. CLOUGH WAS SUED IN THE NEVADA SUPREME COURT FOR HAVING SOLD THE MARY CLOUGH MINES IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY NEVADA TO CHARLESTON HILL NATIONAL MINES, INC specifically because “the claims were worth little or nothing…”
Again, I personally did not have this information when I purchased the Mary Clough mines from Gold Rush Expeditions. It was provided to me by the current owner of the Mary Clough Mines (June 21st 2018) of whom purchased the property from Gold Rush Expeditions in May of 2018 and spent many thousands of dollars provided to GRE, only to find as I did, that the claims have virtually no gold in them and the area around them.
In between myself and the current owner, Gold Rush Expeditions sold the same Mary Clough claims to at least 2 or 3 others who also abandoned it/backed out, prior to the current owner who unfortunately was purposefully mislead to believe there were ‘tons of gold and additional silver’ in them.
Schoff v. Clough, 380 P.2d 464 (Nev. 1963)
Nevada Supreme Court
Filed: April 10th, 1963
Precedential Status: Precedential
Citations: 380 P.2d 464
Docket Number: 4549
Author: Frank McNamee
Hughie J. SCHOFF, Receiver for Charleston Hill National Mines, Inc., Appellant, v. Mary L. CLOUGH, Respondent, 79 Nev. 193
Summary
The receiver brought an action to set aside the sale of the mining claim and to recover the purchase price paid therefor. The receiver alleged that the director sold the mining claim to the corporation for a sum that "unreasonably reduced" the cash funds of the corporation, and that the claim was worth little or nothing and left the corporation in bad financial straits. The receiver alleged that the director authorized the purchase, which was not in the best interests of the corporation.
In summary, are the Mary Clough mines profitable Gold and silver mines? No. Are the mining claims a neat looking abandoned part of mining history? Yes. Are some mining prospects better left abandoned because they were abandoned for good reason? Yes. Should one consult a licensed professional geologist and hire them to do what they went to school to learn how to do and provide a professional opinion, before you purchase any mining claim? Yes. That’s what the geologists are there for. In my experienced opinion, they are WELL WORTH THE VALUE to get professional knowledge and experience behind your property evaluations.
Spend the money up front to get them involved at step 1 and avoid spending vast amounts of time, money and effort on a property that may really hold nothing of economic value.
*I would also state that though Chris Ralph has kindly given me permission to quote his findings and professional assessment opinion on the Mary Clough property review for me, none of my comments or things contained herein are considered in any way the view of the ICMJ Mining Journal that Chris writes for, nor any of the staff or journal itself. These are my facts that I am sharing for public knowledge, as a courtesy to help others educate themselves as to this particular property/area, and, about purchasing mining claims in general. Thank you to Dwight Juras of Structural Ore Controls who also provided professional services and review of the Mary Clough mines and property for me. Thank you also to Charlie Watson of Advanced Geologic Services. I would also like to thank Chris Ralph and all other geologists for the help, guidance, assistance, professionalism and wisdom they offer our industry and especially the small-time miners and prospectors out there.
Jack W. Moore
. As others have said, that type of price should only be paid for a patented claim, unless it was an absolutely rare situation. I would definitely invest in a good gold detector as well, could have saved you quite a bit of hassle for 1/50th of the cost!
Your education may have been expensive but probably less than the cost of a degree from Mackay.
