Gold rush Expeditions . Any input?

Clay Diggins

Silver Member
Nov 14, 2010
4,862
14,181
The Great Southwest
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
GRE have been under investigation by Federal and State authorities for their claims practices. I would be very cautious about dealing with them or any of their many front organizations like Mojave Underground and National Bureau of Mines (really! :laughing7:). There are several others.

Corey Schuman (the president of GRE and it's clones) will probably jump in here to give his half centavo soon. Just suffice it to say that Corey has clearly stated publicly, on this forum and others that for the claims they offer for sale:
We dont sample and we dont assay and we dont give values, as all of these are subjective to the miners ability. What we do is give you a geological report of the site and the history.

I don't know how anyone could claim there are valuable minerals present if they don't even sample for them. The 1872 Mining Act that enables those claims to be made requires that they be made for "valuable mineral deposits".

That all valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase

There is nothing in the law that allows claiming land for "geological reports and history". Those mining claims are by Corey's own admission not made for the only purpose allowed in the law. Specifically making mining claims for the sole purpose of selling them is not a valid use of the location laws.

Are the claims GRE sells valid mining claims? Only a court of law can determine that and even then only on a case by case basis. I am not here to tell you whether Corey sells valid mining claims.

From Station KSL Salt Lake City, Utah

In what sounds like a throwback to the old West, Utah authorities are investigating allegations of claim-jumping, looking into what may be fraudulent mining claims offered for sale on eBay.

At the center of the probe by the Bureau of Land Management and the Utah Attorney General's Office is Corey Shuman's Gold Rush Expeditions, once a not-for-profit mining history organization that has reorganized into a profitable venture selling mining claims in several Western states, including Utah...

The BLM is not the only public lands agency Gold Rush Expeditions has tangled with. Utah's School & Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), an independent agency of state government created to manage lands granted to the state of Utah by the United States, has refused to do any business with the company or issue any mineral leases to third parties who may have acquired a mineral claim from Gold Rush.

In December, SITLA's attorney John Andrews sent a letter to Shuman after the school trust lands administration noticed that Gold Rush was marketing leases to school trust lands property that it had not yet acquired. The paperwork for the transaction had not yet been completed, Andrews said, yet the property in Utah's west desert was posted as available on the Internet.

"Gold Rush at that point was selling something it had no legal right to," Andrews said in an interview.

Another letter in April from Andrews to Shuman was more stern, indicating the agency had received information from the BLM and local law enforcement that Gold Rush had staked mining claims on school trust lands and sold them to third parties with no legal right. The letter included a warning that Gold Rush did not have permission to enter the agency's property to stake claims and any violation would be treated as trespassing.

Andrew's letter also asserts there was misleading information contained in the leases posted by Gold Rush.

"Our office has received input from the public about potential misrepresentations in these offerings, and from our review it appears certain of the offerings have included photographs of mines and facilities not in fact located on the subject property," Andrews wrote.

You need to do your own due diligence whenever locating or buying a claim. Caution is always a very good idea when dealing with any of the many claims mongers who's business is based on mining claims sales. Once you have completed your research investigation of a claim for sale you will have done the same amount of work involved in making a claim for yourself - except when making your own claim you will actually discover a valuable mineral deposit. :thumbsup:

Before Corey chimes in it should be stated that I do not, and never have, made a claim and sold it. I have never sold a claim and neither Corey Shuman nor any of his business interests have anything to do with any of my business activities. I just hate seeing miners buy a pig in a poke.

Heavy Pans
 

AU_Solitude

Sr. Member
Feb 24, 2014
280
380
Vacaville CA
Detector(s) used
SDC2300, GBII, Geo Picks & Hammers
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Personal opinion, unless you are one of the few people who can afford to buy a patented producing mine, do the time and place your own claims - most of the placer claims out there (not all) are a bunch of recycled junk pushed by those trying to make a premium. I would re-read Clay's last paragraph about due diligence that really says it all.
 

OP
OP
jair

jair

Sr. Member
Sep 6, 2013
377
249
Las Vegas
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Whites and cheep bounty hunter
Primary Interest:
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I do research and sample old claims but stick with the oldest gold claims, I do fire essays and look for free gold . And I'm always looking for a patented claim that is worth while in a range I will be willing to pay for.

I have a dream just like any others on here and do a lot of research and try to be as smart a ought it all as possible .
 

FSM

Tenderfoot
Jul 20, 2015
7
7
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
A guy I talk to occasionally from another forum bought a 5*claim as described by them with tons of color in the tailings and never made is money back his 5k bid after processing about 50k tons of the tailings so he said. Don't know him well don't know how he processed or anything but said the claim was junk.

This is why like someone above mentioned I went out, did the research on the ground and online and found my claim. If you are looking for one let me know I spent a couple months on the ground in Nevada, Arizona, and California looking for claims and found several that met what I was looking for (large tailings piles with good gold left, some stocked ore unprocessed and not to far from services)

My claim in the tailings is about 3/4 oz a ton in the tailings and the unprocessed ore was well above that. It was not the best actually but for what I wanted was the best situation because of location and I wanted an adit
 

robert2b

Jr. Member
Oct 28, 2013
32
27
Arizona
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
I have on three separate occasions obtained permission from GRE to visit a claim that they were selling. One of these was in New Mexico and two were in Arizona. All three had high ratings from GRE and all three were not worth the price that was being asked. The one in NM had tons of pyrite, but no free milling gold was noted and GRE said in their ad that the area was noted for its free milling gold, but apparently not at this mine. The two in AZ were just as disappointing. As usual, you get what you pay for.
 

OP
OP
jair

jair

Sr. Member
Sep 6, 2013
377
249
Las Vegas
Detector(s) used
Whites and cheep bounty hunter
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
A guy I talk to occasionally from another forum bought a 5*claim as described by them with tons of color in the tailings and never made is money back his 5k bid after processing about 50k tons of the tailings so he said. Don't know him well don't know how he processed or anything but said the claim was junk.

This is why like someone above mentioned I went out, did the research on the ground and online and found my claim. If you are looking for one let me know I spent a couple months on the ground in Nevada, Arizona, and California looking for claims and found several that met what I was looking for (large tailings piles with good gold left, some stocked ore unprocessed and not to far from services)

My claim in the tailings is about 3/4 oz a ton in the tailings and the unprocessed ore was well above that. It was not the best actually but for what I wanted was the best situation because of location and I wanted an adit

Pm me on your finds if you would . Thanks
 

Jun 23, 2017
3
5
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
We purchased a claim from them also,it was to be a turn key operation with power, water everything.The moment we started the NOI the forest service sent us legal notice to not touch the claim as it has hazardous material and would require a environmental impact study COULD TAKE YEARS REAL TURNKEY OPERATION
GOLD RUSH EXPEDITION Told us to suite the forest service, that was there remedy.
We were lucky we used a credit card to pay and the credit card co returned our money, after they got all the FRAUD info.
SOME PEOPLE HAVE NO MORAL FIBER AT ALL Yes that would be you Corey Wandering bear
 

ScottRiver

Newbie
May 23, 2016
1
4
Oregon coast
Detector(s) used
Fisher Gold Bug Pro
Minelab SDC 2300
Tesoro Silver uMax
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Claims in Wilderness areas?

I was interested in their Arizona "Historic Black Mountain Gold Mine" claim as it was only a few miles from my home. Turns out it is located about 3 miles into the Cactus Plain Wilderness Study Area where access is by foot or horseback only.. According to Mindat.org it was a Barite with variable Fluorite mine, not a gold mine. I emailed GRE about the Wilderness location/access. They sent me a copy of some government map showing the location was open. The only trouble is the date on the map was decades older than than the creation of the Wilderness Study Area which is still under review and under the same rules as a true wilderness area according to the BLM.
 

StreamlineGold

Sr. Member
Apr 21, 2013
330
205
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
We purchased a claim from them also,it was to be a turn key operation with power, water everything.The moment we started the NOI the forest service sent us legal notice to not touch the claim as it has hazardous material and would require a environmental impact study COULD TAKE YEARS REAL TURNKEY OPERATION
GOLD RUSH EXPEDITION Told us to suite the forest service, that was there remedy.
We were lucky we used a credit card to pay and the credit card co returned our money, after they got all the FRAUD info.
SOME PEOPLE HAVE NO MORAL FIBER AT ALL Yes that would be you Corey Wandering bear


Pretty much they just claim up any played out mine thats open..

Anyone can do that..for $212 rather than the severely marked up price they have. Just keep an eye out for them..they have scooped up 2 near my claims in the last year..

Reality is..any mine that has easy, free Valuable minerals on it isnt going to be sold off.

What I do is research long standing claims..sometimes you find one that has been held for decades but then the owner dies or gets transferred to a new owner then dropped...thats you window of opportunity
 

StreamlineGold

Sr. Member
Apr 21, 2013
330
205
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Another interesting thing I found another mine they were selling that's suddenly gone now, and I believe they found out the hard way it was on Patent land, it was never advertised as such so I think they were doing a little bit of trespassing when they staked it. Not smart!!
 

Oct 18, 2017
1
1
Cheney
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
GRE

Like to see any ones opinions on this and or claims as they go for a high price .

This GRE don't bother even staking. They file online or threw the mail and claim discovery on sept 2 to save 155 dollars. But yet they ask 4 mill for the claim's up by me. It's about time someone put's them it check.
 

Gravity

Tenderfoot
Aug 27, 2017
8
18
Mandeville, LA
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Pro.
Primary Interest:
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I was thinking that this was too good to be true. I have spent a few hours this week watching their youtube videos on claims for sale. I was considering visiting one of their claims in NV but now I see their business model. The old saying of "too good to be true" is one to live by. Thanks for comments on this forum. I am getting to the age where I don't want to learn the hard way. I'm willing to work, willing to mine and prospect, but not willing to waste money or time on any fools errand.

Thanks,

Gravity
 

Snaggers

Newbie
Nov 20, 2017
1
8
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Gold rush expeditions A SCAM

I work as a geologist doing abandoned mine lands stuff. This GRE is a pile of trash and shouldn’t be trusted. They simply stake corners file the paperwork pay the couple hundred dollar fee and then sell to unsuspecting idiots from Texas.

I installed the culverts at the Pennsylvania Mine that they are selling for 600 grand. (YouTube it) They stand outside and say millions of dollars inside. I wonder if they know these portals have been bulkheaded. I.e. closed with 25 plus feet of solid concrete. Guess not, but that chick can see gold in the rock sitting on the mine dump (NOT) so she knows if she can just get a key to that gosh darn gate on the culvert that there are millions of dollars inside. Well I have a dam key and there isn’t millions of dollars in there. Just a concrete wall with a billion gallons of polluted water behind it. Good luck getting a permit to open up an environmental disaster.

I see them show up at lots of sites I work at all over Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico filing clams on just another dumb hole in the ground that has been played out by the original miners. In fact they have accused me of messing with their claims while I am out there under contract with the Forest Service.

If anyone wants to by a claim let me know and I will show you where there are 50,000 holes I have been to that you can do as much research in a day that this GRE does and you can have your own claim for a few hundred bucks. Or you can pay these idiots $600,000 so you can chip at a concrete wall inside a culvert.
 

Mad Machinist

Silver Member
Aug 18, 2010
3,147
4,686
Southeast Arizona
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
I work as a geologist doing abandoned mine lands stuff. This GRE is a pile of trash and shouldn’t be trusted. They simply stake corners file the paperwork pay the couple hundred dollar fee and then sell to unsuspecting idiots from Texas.

I installed the culverts at the Pennsylvania Mine that they are selling for 600 grand. (YouTube it) They stand outside and say millions of dollars inside. I wonder if they know these portals have been bulkheaded. I.e. closed with 25 plus feet of solid concrete. Guess not, but that chick can see gold in the rock sitting on the mine dump (NOT) so she knows if she can just get a key to that gosh darn gate on the culvert that there are millions of dollars inside. Well I have a dam key and there isn’t millions of dollars in there. Just a concrete wall with a billion gallons of polluted water behind it. Good luck getting a permit to open up an environmental disaster.

I see them show up at lots of sites I work at all over Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico filing clams on just another dumb hole in the ground that has been played out by the original miners. In fact they have accused me of messing with their claims while I am out there under contract with the Forest Service.

If anyone wants to by a claim let me know and I will show you where there are 50,000 holes I have been to that you can do as much research in a day that this GRE does and you can have your own claim for a few hundred bucks. Or you can pay these idiots $600,000 so you can chip at a concrete wall inside a culvert.

Not all those "old holes" are worthless. We have a few that aren't.

I will say this though, if the Fecal Circus would choose to work with miners instead of against them, they would get a lot further is reclaiming abandoned mines. back when gold was $20 an ounce, a lot was thrown away in tailings. Now that gold is near $1300 an ounce many of those "trash piles" are worth looking into. We have one grading 8 grams per ton (waiting on a second assay to confirm) and more than a few open stopes that need filled in. We get what we want and fill in the open stopes through reclamation and one more "abandoned mine" is taken care of.
 

barrelroll

Jr. Member
Dec 14, 2016
67
82
Colorado
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
I installed the culverts at the Pennsylvania Mine that they are selling for 600 grand. (YouTube it) They stand outside and say millions of dollars inside. I wonder if they know these portals have been bulkheaded. I.e. closed with 25 plus feet of solid concrete. Guess not, but that chick can see gold in the rock sitting on the mine dump (NOT) so she knows if she can just get a key to that gosh darn gate on the culvert that there are millions of dollars inside. Well I have a dam key and there isn’t millions of dollars in there. Just a concrete wall with a billion gallons of polluted water behind it. Good luck getting a permit to open up an environmental disaster.

I was up there this fall and looked at the youtube video and write up after I got back because they had a sign on it. They said something about overzellous environmental wackos getting way too excited about harmless orange water or something like that. I just chuckled. We dewater a million gallons of water a day at work and it's all treated before discharged. If we spill 5 gallons on the surface we have to report it. There's no way in hell you could just let that water dump out and mine it. They fail to mention good luck getting a permit approved or how expensive a water treatment plant is.

Is the upper portal plugged or is it still accessible? Also any idea why they were drilling up there this fall? No particular reason, just curious.
 

barrelroll

Jr. Member
Dec 14, 2016
67
82
Colorado
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Not all those "old holes" are worthless. We have a few that aren't.

I will say this though, if the Fecal Circus would choose to work with miners instead of against them, they would get a lot further is reclaiming abandoned mines. back when gold was $20 an ounce, a lot was thrown away in tailings. Now that gold is near $1300 an ounce many of those "trash piles" are worth looking into. We have one grading 8 grams per ton (waiting on a second assay to confirm) and more than a few open stopes that need filled in. We get what we want and fill in the open stopes through reclamation and one more "abandoned mine" is taken care of.

Bingo. In addition to what we dewater and treat we treat the run off from a tailings pile from a mine that closed in the early 70's. If there was value in the Pennsylvania mine you could get the miner who's mining it to cover the water treatment costs instead of the tax payer in exchange for mining it. I know we keep the access to a wildlife refuge in good condition and plowed in the winter and a major backcountry skiing/ snowmobile/ hiking/ camping/ 4 wheeling area is just outside our gate. If we didn't maintain the road and plow it the road would be in rough shape and there's no chance it would be plowed at 5am on a big powder day. It's amazing how many "I hate mining types" will call our dispatcher from the gate for directions because they missed the sign to the ski area. Or they have no clue they drove by a mine producing 20,000 tons a day or ore.
 

SaltwaterServr

Sr. Member
Mar 20, 2015
471
642
Texas
Primary Interest:
Other
Bingo. In addition to what we dewater and treat we treat the run off from a tailings pile from a mine that closed in the early 70's. If there was value in the Pennsylvania mine you could get the miner who's mining it to cover the water treatment costs instead of the tax payer in exchange for mining it. I know we keep the access to a wildlife refuge in good condition and plowed in the winter and a major backcountry skiing/ snowmobile/ hiking/ camping/ 4 wheeling area is just outside our gate. If we didn't maintain the road and plow it the road would be in rough shape and there's no chance it would be plowed at 5am on a big powder day. It's amazing how many "I hate mining types" will call our dispatcher from the gate for directions because they missed the sign to the ski area. Or they have no clue they drove by a mine producing 20,000 tons a day or ore.

They'll bad mouth the ever living crap out of us miners and do it on a smartphone that wouldn't exist without us. If it's not pumped or grown, it's mined and we're the freaking Devil incarnate for providing that product.
 

one_bad_rover

Tenderfoot
Feb 6, 2006
9
0
Salt Lake City, Utah
Good to hear at least one side of the story. You left out the part where you got your money back but kept the claim and refiled it the next year to keep it. I guess that must be your outstanding moral fiber? The one where you sign a contract, lie to your CC company for a refund, and then keep what you didnt pay for. Good for you. I hope you feel at ease with your conscience. You managed to steal a claim from Gold Rush.
 

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