Gold Laundering

Apr 17, 2014
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Tartarus Dorsa mountains
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The possibility exists that Jake never actually had a box of gold under his death bed. Could it be that any gold supposedly bequeathed was actually gold already possessed by the recipients, but that it was ill gotten and they needed a cover story to have received it legitimately?

It would explain why the census has him as a farmer and why the gold went to a 'surprise' recipient. The ensuing lost mine fuss could have been just a distraction to legitimize the gold and avoid scrutiny. Also explains why he was of modest means, or at least lived so. Explains why the source has never been determined and no mine ever found.

Has this angle been bantered about yet?
 

chlsbrns

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Mar 30, 2013
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I should hide my gold under my bed! No one would ever find it! Who would ever think to look there?
 

chlsbrns

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Im dying to buy a challenger hellcat but would have to sell some of my gold to buy it. It would have to come from my retirement stash. Im sure as hell not going to be able to buy it with gold from the ldm. That gold is long gone!
 

somehiker

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May 1, 2007
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Not necessarily, and I'm not a gold miner either.
But I have slept out in the Superstition Mountains a few times. In fact, very close to this place twice.
The original photo is my own, cropped to show an area of about 18" x 42". The inset is of a rich vein in the Comstock Mine/NV.

gold veins.png
 

doc-d

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May 19, 2013
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It is a thought for sure………and it would be a way to resolve issues with precious metal antiques that too many countries and or arches feel belong only to them……
No way we will ever now for sure……
Vaya con Dios
 

sdcfia

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Sep 28, 2014
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The possibility exists that Jake never actually had a box of gold under his death bed. Could it be that any gold supposedly bequeathed was actually gold already possessed by the recipients, but that it was ill gotten and they needed a cover story to have received it legitimately?

It would explain why the census has him as a farmer and why the gold went to a 'surprise' recipient. The ensuing lost mine fuss could have been just a distraction to legitimize the gold and avoid scrutiny. Also explains why he was of modest means, or at least lived so. Explains why the source has never been determined and no mine ever found.

Has this angle been bantered about yet?

That's an interesting idea. The box of "monster gold ore" under Waltz's bed never set right with me and is one of the prime indicators that the whole Waltz story is radically corrupted - probably beyond repair. The first obvious red flag is the lack of any security for such a valuable stash. Where did Waltz hide the box during his "extended prospecting trips"? Where did he put the box during his shorter trips to the local coffee shops? When he was away from the house, are we to assume that nobody was nosing around his house? After all, everyone knew he had a secret gold mine, right? Were all the Phoenix citizens and drifters fine upstanding citizens, above robbing an old man who had a fortune in gold laying around the house?

In addition to further questioning the Waltz rumors, this speculation also casts yet another shadow on Holmes, albeit from a different angle.
 

sdcfia

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Sep 28, 2014
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Not necessarily, and I'm not a gold miner either.
But I have slept out in the Superstition Mountains a few times. In fact, very close to this place twice.
The original photo is my own, cropped to show an area of about 18" x 42". The inset is of a rich vein in the Comstock Mine/NV.

View attachment 1125937

Looks very much like pyrite in the photo. Did you retrieve any? Assay it?
 

somehiker

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May 1, 2007
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Just a few samples, which I don't need to assay. It's not pyrite, which I also have samples of.
I'm not interested in becoming a miner, so I'll leave it for someone else to dig some day.
There is iron and manganese in there as well.
And a mixture of white/grey and dark greenish quartz.
Another view....

old mine 2008.jpg
 

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sdcfia

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Just a few samples, which I don't need to assay. It's not pyrite, which I also have samples of.
I'm not interested in becoming a miner, so I'll leave it for someone else to dig some day.
There is iron and manganese in there as well.
And a mixture of white/grey and dark greenish quartz.
Another view....

View attachment 1125955

You found what you think is visible gold on the surface and you're not interested? Fairly extravagant point of view, I'd say.
 

azblackbird

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Sep 27, 2011
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Has this angle been bantered about yet?
Having read up on AZ mining history (just as there are today), there were numerous con artists back during those time periods. You wouldn't believe some of the reports I've read on some of the different mines throughout AZ. It's amazing how some of those mines changed hands multiple times in such a relatively short period of time. Somebody would find a vein and take out the best ore, have it assayed, and lo and behold that mine was a 1000 oz per ton producer. It was then instantly marketed and sold as such. Usually to some tenderfoot back east. He'd come out with a crew, do a little digging, run out of money, and then come to the conclusion he got screwed, so he'd sell the mine to somebody else. Some mines were turned over probably 20 or 30 different times within a 75 yr. period. The turnovers all seemed to ebb and flow with the price of gold and what the economic conditions were during those times. Just fascinates me...
 

somehiker

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You found what you think is visible gold on the surface and you're not interested? Fairly extravagant point of view, I'd say.

Not really. Extravagant perhaps if I were to cash in and buy myself a hellcat.
Then I could watch it being towed away from my vantage point in the back seat of a AZHP cruiser.
I like to keep it simple. I hike, I explore out of the way places, and I take pictures that I sometimes post on this and other web sites.
And I don't continually make extravagant claims of having discovered a famous mine.....but....can't post any photos of it....wink wink nudge nudge.

Maybe not if within the WA ... *sigh*

You got it Loke, that would be a problem.
 

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cactusjumper

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Dec 10, 2005
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Having read up on AZ mining history (just as there are today), there were numerous con artists back during those time periods. You wouldn't believe some of the reports I've read on some of the different mines throughout AZ. It's amazing how some of those mines changed hands multiple times in such a relatively short period of time. Somebody would find a vein and take out the best ore, have it assayed, and lo and behold that mine was a 1000 oz per ton producer. It was then instantly marketed and sold as such. Usually to some tenderfoot back east. He'd come out with a crew, do a little digging, run out of money, and then come to the conclusion he got screwed, so he'd sell the mine to somebody else. Some mines were turned over probably 20 or 30 different times within a 75 yr. period. The turnovers all seemed to ebb and flow with the price of gold and what the economic conditions were during those times. Just fascinates me...

AZBird,

The Bully Bueno comes to mind......

Good luck,

Joe Ribaudo
 

TheHarleyMan2

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Feb 27, 2008
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Just a few samples, which I don't need to assay. It's not pyrite, which I also have samples of.
I'm not interested in becoming a miner, so I'll leave it for someone else to dig some day.
There is iron and manganese in there as well.
And a mixture of white/grey and dark greenish quartz.
Another view....

View attachment 1125955

Heck, show me where it is at and if it isn't someone's claim, hell I will go file a claim, mine it and give you 10%! :laughing7:

Or is it in an area where mining is no longer allowed? :icon_scratch:
 

gollum

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Jan 2, 2006
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Remember folks, the inset is not in Az. It is a shot of a vein in the Comstock Lode area of Nevada. You should grab a chunk of the ore and have it assayed.

Mike
 

somehiker

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May 1, 2007
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Had a chunk of that rock in my carry on bag, when I was flying back home about five years ago.
They spotted it with the x-ray machine and hauled me over while a young TSA guy emptied my bag.
When he got to the sample, he held it up and looked at it, then said "you must have found the lost dutchman mine haha."
I said "what's the lost dutchman mine ?" and was on my way.

As I've often said, the LDM is not what I'm looking for out there. But I do read up on it, and have done some searching for any ore caches in the area just in case.
It's one place I have never taken anyone else out to yet. Too busy with other stuff right now.
 

somehiker

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I used the inset shot of the Comstock vein because it has the same kind of geometry and texture as these veins do.
That squared off part especially, which I find unusually well defined.
But my photo was with without flash, since it's not deep in, whereas the Comstock photo was probably done with a flash.
 

chlsbrns

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Mar 30, 2013
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8th session, 1875. Acts, creating county of Pinal, with county seat at
Florence, from Pima, Maricopa, and Yavapai (boundaries complicated bat
about the same as on map, except in the N. s. corner, including Globe); tax-
ing net product of mines;
on fences and trespassing animals; on compulsory
education; abolishing office of attorney-gen.; transferring Mojave to 3<1
judicial district; providing for a census; and to locate the capital permanently
at Tucson. (Approved Feb. 12th, ace. to Acts)
 

somehiker

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May 1, 2007
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Should I care for some reason ?

I'd say, let whoever does the mining pay the taxes.
 

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