Re: Guaynopa & Guaynopita silver mines
Greetings my friend Joseph!
Thank you for the reply - no one else seemed to have an answer for a while there! I figured you would be well informed (better than someone in US) of the status of these two silver mines.
Well your info matches pretty close with what I had heard. According to a letter written by a Jesuit missionary (dates to 1760, not long before their expulsion) both Guaynopa and Guaynopita were completely abandoned due to a particularly bad Apache raid on the little village, and said that the "Seri menace" precluded anyone returning. Were they lost? Perhaps not, but it seems that no one knew precisely where they were for about 100 years, or at least no trace is recorded - then they are mentioned by an American explorer (the same who said these two mines are close to Tayopa) and adds that he has visited the ancient Guaynopa but not Guaynopita. By 1901, clearly someone knew where the mines were or at least where Guaynopa was as some 12.5 tons of hand-cobbed ore was shipped to the El Paso smelter and netted over $4000. That is a respectable sum for the early 1900s, heck my grandfather paid less than $700 for a couple hundred acre dairy farm about 1899 and was paying his hired man $20 a month. Anyway, the latest info have is now getting well out of date (1994) - that a father and son team own Guaynopa, (don't know the names) a mining company was interested in the property and that two large gold deposits had been discovered to the NW of the property. As to Guaynopita, pretty much no news whatsoever. Perhaps it was played out? I suppose it must be under denunciation/claim by now, perhaps not anything big happening there but you never know - some of the greatest old mines of the past, not really "lost" but long abandoned, lie out there just waiting for someone to get the working capital and some guts to re-open them. One need only look at Tayopa, which is as we speak in the works of getting started up again (I know you know all this Jose' - just adding it for other readers) or the old "played out" 16 to 1 mine in CA that has on several occasions produced over a million $$$ a day, by modern miners using metal detectors to pinpoint hidden pockets of rich ore.
Silver has been edging its way up tor respectable prices, some of these old silver mines may be worth a second look. As an American I would have difficulty in getting legal title to Guaynopita and would have to have a Mexican citizen as a partner, all of which might as well be pie in the sky for me as I don't have the capital to open such a mine. For that matter I already know where a pair of collapsed tunnels are, (date to the Jesuit period) the same I mentioned before as Mitchell described them - the samples I picked off the dump assayed at 4.5 and 5.2 oz/ton silver so the ore they were keeping (one would think) must have been richer than that, but it would take a lot of capital and equipment to re-open it. So my curiosity keeps driving me to investigate those old mines and old legends, which is I suppose better than my hanging around the local taverns drinking my way to a stupor. (hee hee) I do hope that one day I can come visit you and see the famous Tayopa - it is not every day that a man can see a legend in person! 8)
your friend,
Roy - Oroblanco
You seem to be a pretty nice person yourself! For the record, I didn't think you were being pushy, I just didn't want to give someone a false impression that I am wealthy, trying to purchase the mine etc when in fact we are far from wealthy. I know that I would not want someone to visit my mine while pretending to be interested in investing or buying it, when they really just want to look at it and maybe take a few photos, so figured I should tell you up front. I look forward to your photos, and am in no hurry about anything, when ever you get round to it is fine with me. 
