Recent "Treasure "stories from Mexico

lilorphanannie

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Apr 19, 2008
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Modern day treasures of Mexico === I have mentioned in some of my posts that I have worked as a consultant in the area of mineral exploration the first 15 years or so based out of Colombia and some 20 years now in Mexico. I thought I would relate some modern “treasure stories” that I have been in during my travels and exploring here. Perhaps they don’t qualify as real treasures but at any rate maybe someone will enjoy reading about them . One difference is that they are fairly recent, true ,and witnessed by myself. 1) In the abandoned mining village of Real de Catorce, ( google it, and look at the images). Now being promoted for tourism. There is a man who lives in one of the houses that was part of the original constructions . Real de Catorce is a hauntingly beautiful ghost town in the high altiplano if the state of San Luis Potosi. This fellow lives humbly with his family and as I understood are direct descendants of the last mining families that were part of the mining boom that the town once was. I visited Catorce half a dozen times for a day or two at a time for over a period of three years. One day a gentleman who recognized me and knew that I was involved in mining asked me to accompany him to a house and a person who urgently wanted to speak to me. It was only a couple of short blocks from the center of the village. Once inside the house we sat in the improvised living area as the fellows wife prepared and served coffee. This gentleman wanted to sell me some 43 bars of silver. He said he had inherited the house from his grandfather who worked in the mines. Some years back they were digging a shallow pit in the back patio to mix some cement and hit a hard spot. Long story short there were the silver bars 43 in all. Then he excused himself and was gone for a minute or two and returned with a large brick wrapped in a rag. It was a crude brick quite heavy, I guessed them to be @40 TO 50 lbs. each. He said that they ran 80% silver and 20% antimony. He would sell them at half price of the silver. He said he had waited for a long time to find a buyer who was from far away as no one knew he had the bars and it was extremely dangerous for his family if anyone knew. I saw only one bar. But he said there were 43. I told him I had no money but if he’d give me the first bar ,I’d go and sell it and come back to pay him and buy the next couple at a time. He didn’t go for it. He pleaded for my help to find a buyer that could buy everything all at once. I told him no one would do it. He appeared truly disappointed and confused. Later on over the next two years I was able to come up with a little money and thought I’d make an offer and see if he’d accept. I made two or three trips to try to find him and I could never catch him at home. They told me he had taken a job in a nearby city and would only come home at odd times. I soon after left my work in San Luis and never returned. 2) Just north of San Luis Potosi and not far from the quaint town of Tula Tamualipas, runs the Camino Real of the sierra madre oriental. The trail and many of the markers still exist. I was sent to the area actually looking for non –metallic deposits. With me I had an old man @ 80 who was my guide. He was a field hand for Penoles (a huge Mexican mining consortium) for over 30 years and was part of one of their prospecting crews during that time. He had been all over the country. He showed me many things some incredible valuable things. I hired him and paid him personally. We were always looking for anything to make some money on the side while we were exploring for the non metallics. On the side of this royal road was a small mound completely covered with vegetation. I would never have noticed it, or that it wasn’t part of the natural landscape. Miguel my guide said he was at this place years ago with Penoles doing surveys and the geologists with him recognized this as rich ore that had been dumped years ago for some unknown reason. It was easy to find as it was located right beside one of the old waymarkers. I saw it was a very small pile of rock maybe 4 or 5 tons. All of the rock looked exactly alike. We packed out about 20 pounds and ground it down and tried to pan it . We couldn’t really tell by panning and returned to San Luis to get it assayed and also gave to the petrologist at the university. It turned out to be acanthite ore, running over 80% silver. At the time silver was @ $2.50 an ounce. We thought it was interesting but not a viable project at the time taking into account our limited resources, the logistics involved and the price of silver at the time. But at today’s prices that could be 1.5 million dollars gross in silver , if it’s still there. Miguel also showed me two mines that have stacks dore bars inside. One ,I think the mine is known as the el Toro or the el Toro negro mine ,that’s the bull or the black bull mine . Its located in the state of Jalisco just outside Ojuelos, Jalisco on the road towards Lagos de Moreno. The turnoff is at a ranchito called Papas de Arriba. There you work your way back towards the hills behind the settlements. The mine is old but also there are some fairly recent workings and now with the price of metals it may be being explored anew. Here there is a shaft ( not the principle one) where you can drop down into and it will take you to a large stack of bars which also appear to be silver. Apparently abandoned when the price of silver dropped at some time in the past. Or the other possibility is that the smelting of certain ores were metallurgically unsuccessful and the silver/gold ends up locked up in a dore product that is un saleable. We saw this in a couple of mines, and could only assume the ingots were left there for either of those two reasons. The other mine was in the hills north of Vanegas ,San Luis Potosi. There were two mines one had a large amount of bars stacked inside. My assay on them came out antimony with a little silver. These are just a couple of the things Miguel showed me. ///// I also befriended an attorney an elderly lady who worked in agrarian reform. She essentially fought for the rights of the small farmer all over the country of Mexico. Farmers came from hundreds of miles to seek her help. And her hobby was mining. The farmers were always bringing her rocks. The shelves and hallway of her office was full of samples and,specimens , most of course were nothing special but a few were of museum quality. Through her we sold for a client a stroncium deposit for 5 million cash ,paid upfront, and a couple of contracts for the sale of high purity calcium carbonate and gypsum deposits. Also through her I was introduced to an indigenous native who discovered a small vein if calaverite ore. It assayed 544 opt. but its virtually inaccessible(as it always seems to be) and @1 to 2 inches in width. It was two days on foot ,moving at a snails pace, this was in the barrancas in the southern part of the state of Michoacan. Also through this kind old lady my help was solicited in the selling of an Aztec treasure . This treasure is protected in plastic containers (empty food containers) and buried in the back yard of the house of the farmer who found them. There are only about 10 objects but of great beauty and quality.They are very impressive. I am by no means an expert but all indications suggest that they are authentic. I truly don’t see how a person of such humble means could acquire the materials (gold and jade) let alone the aptitude to fabricate the items. I took photos of these but when I left San Luis I left them with the lawyer. Also through her I was introduced to a man from Rio Verde, San Luis Potosi, he inherited a country home from a former president of the country of whom he is a distant nephew. The house is a virtual museum and is largely intact as it was in the 30s 40s and 50s. The current owner whom I met showed me three paintings and a book signed by Pablo Picasso who apparently spent some time with this president at this country retreat. According to the nephew Picasso would always leave a painting as a gift as a payment upon leaving. We were able to confirm that Picasso did actually stay at this house and that gave more credibility to the story. I took photos and sent them to an art expert on Picasso, (and there was one other artist whose name I can’t recall) located in Boston Ma. He was interested but would not come to Mexico even if we paid all expenses and the nephew would not allow us to send a painting to the states .so once again we were stuck. i later found some local and very wealthy art collectors ,but the nephew did not want anyone local (in country) to know he had those paintings. I kept his name and number and actually called him recently but it has been some 15 years and he denied knowing me over the phone. I could tell he was very cautious. ///// well, there you have it I suppose I’ve written too much but I have about a dozen more. As some of you know I am not very good with my typing skills and seldom have access to a computer. So I apologize so errors and breaches for this site. Sometimes it gets lonely out here, if I have time and there is interest I’ll
 

Oroblanco

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Thank you amigo for posting this! Please do continue, winter has arrived and reading material is welcome! :thumbsup:
 

J.A.A.

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Yes, please do continue!! There are only a select few lucky enough to have these types of adventures, therefore the rest of us live vicariously through you.

Grab a cup and proceed.
More please!
Thank you in advance-

J.A.
 

doc-d

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Please continue, truly fascinating and provides insight into many areas other than what you mention…..

Oro, winter? What is winter?
 

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lilorphanannie

lilorphanannie

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hi ,a warm greeting to those who read my posts and have so over time, ,don jose, oroblanco,cuervo and others. and a new gretting to those new people who have commented. time permitting i hope to be able to add to these stories.
 

Cubfan64

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Please add my name to the list of folks who really enjoy reading your stories. As someone else stated, most of us have to live our lives vicariously through men and women like you who have truly experienced life in the way some of can only dream of :).

Looking forward to more stories
 

Oroblanco

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Please continue, truly fascinating and provides insight into many areas other than what you mention…..

Oro, winter? What is winter?

It is truly the finest season of the year, with NO bugs, NO snakes, no danger of getting over-heated, the camp fires are extra cozy and you can walk on water! :thumbsup:
 

coazon de oro

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Howdy lilorphanannie,

There are many like myself who don't post much, but enjoy, and appreciate what you have to say. I have only been as far as Fresnillo, and visited with some Charros back in the 70's. Even though I only stayed for two weeks, your stories, and other's like Don Jose, take me back to those ranches in the hills with no power, or running water. I look forward for more, "mis respetos".

Homar
 

Crow

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Please continue, truly fascinating and provides insight into many areas other than what you mention…..

Oro, winter? What is winter?

Ah Doc rub in it to em Northies with their cold winter.... Summer down South of the equator and birds are singing the gentle song of summer.

crow
 

doc-d

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Gracias Senor Crow (along with little Crow and Señorita Crow)…….try as they might to justify winter, and Señor Oro did about as good as possible……life here in the tropics is hard to beat…….you can have the water you can walk on (frozen)…….before I returned home, I experienced briefly, the snow and it was a sign I needed to return "home" again…
And do not forget, I can find some snow here high up on a few volcanic mountain peaks……sort of hard to breath that high up however (16,000' or more)
And so it is I will need to content myself with your stories of how grand the cold and snow are…….and I will not bore you with the difficult tales of sunny warm days eating fresh fruits and veggies watching the Senoritas in their skimpy, tight clothing passing by…..
Vaya con Dios mis amigos
 

Oroblanco

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Gracias Senor Crow (along with little Crow and Señorita Crow)…….try as they might to justify winter, and Señor Oro did about as good as possible……life here in the tropics is hard to beat…….you can have the water you can walk on (frozen)…….before I returned home, I experienced briefly, the snow and it was a sign I needed to return "home" again…
And do not forget, I can find some snow here high up on a few volcanic mountain peaks……sort of hard to breath that high up however (16,000' or more)
And so it is I will need to content myself with your stories of how grand the cold and snow are…….and I will not bore you with the difficult tales of sunny warm days eating fresh fruits and veggies watching the Senoritas in their skimpy, tight clothing passing by…..
Vaya con Dios mis amigos

Hmm perhaps you are not seeing the full benefits of winters - like no lawns to mow, no garden work, in fact pretty much NO outdoor work at all, heck no one looks askance at you for spending a whole day indoors by the fire with a good book. In this area you don't even have to shovel the snow, it is light and fluffy, so the winds will blow it away fairly quickly. So it is cold - you can dress for it. By comparison, when the tropical heat gets roaring, you can not exactly dress cooler, if not for air conditioning some places can be downright miserable. I am not missing the bugs of summer, but that is just a personal opinion. :thumbsup: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:

Sorry for getting off-track, please do continue.
Oroblanco
 

releventchair

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Twenties tonight with snow on and off but nothing poisonous waiting to bite! Meat will keep outside now. Most skin safe from the cruel sun for some months to come.8-)
 

Loke

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I don't mind snow/cold as such, but if I want it - I will go to whereever it is. I just do not want it to come to _me_!!!
Heck - I didn't come to TX to be cold - sheeesh!
 

azaz

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Definitely keep the stories coming, it's great to hear stories of the country I love so much and yours are great. Thanks
 

doc-d

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Senor Oro…….life is different here, it is mostly an arid country where we live and so there is no grass to mow…..in fact little work to do on the masonry structures here…..and if something needs to be done, it is easier to recruit some local workers who are always available and looking to work for you……it works out to around $1-2 hour…….
When I was younger winter was fun, for a short time…..now a little older…..it is not so fun….that my house has only a wood fueled, forced air stove as heat makes living up north in winter on the brutal end of things……when it got cold, I needed to get up every few hours to feed the stove……..and my house has no true foundation and so with any sustained cold, the water intake would freeze……but at least the house was built as I could afford and no debt on it…….

Life is good down south mis amigos…..now if I could only find some treasure and then perhaps afford a suitable dwelling I may find winter more tolerable……but until then, life in the tropics is looking good to me…..
 

azaz

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I have to agree with doc-d. Grew up in the upper midwest and then spent many years in central america and later lived in rural mexico. Never did miss the bitter cold and it's alot easier to get cool than warm. I'll take the warm winters anytime. And the rural lifestyle of mexico.
 

Oroblanco

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I don't mind snow/cold as such, but if I want it - I will go to whereever it is. I just do not want it to come to _me_!!!
Heck - I didn't come to TX to be cold - sheeesh!


AH hmm - Loke you have ice in your blood, it is a part of your DNA! Tell the truth, you are not hiding from the cold, this is a part of a new Viking conquest of Texas! :tongue3:

Ditto to the words of Azaz - definitely keep the stories coming, thank you in advance! :thumbsup: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:
Oroblanco

:coffee2::coffee2:
 

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