Really cool Mica mine.

[Smokehouse_83]

Went out to check out an old Mica mine yesterday. Turns out it’s a 40 foot tall, maybe more if some is buried, and a hundred or so foot wide quartz outcropping that has veins of Mica and is bordered by schist that is full of pyrite. Place is bad ass.



Some of the quartz down at the soil line has some nice color in kinda wonder if it would be worth chipping some out and crushing some?



Has some red in also. What is this



I’ve never seen this much clear white quartz. It’s kinda awe inspiring

 

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[Smokehouse_83]

 

[Smokehouse_83]

 

[Smokehouse_83]

Tons of feldspar all over the place too and some black mineral in chunks of the white quartz.

 

[Smokehouse_83]

On the way back down the mountain we found another old mine. Not sure what they were after? Some of the tailings looks almost like it has turquoise flakes in it. The rock it’s dug in looks like heavy river sand that has fused together. Just read that 50% of gold is found in this stuff sedimentary conglomerate. Time to go back and load up the big ass pile of it sitting there and crush it up.







I plan on visiting all the mines in the mountains around here. Having lots of fun doing it and there is about every kind of mineral imaginable around here and rare earth

 

[smokeythecat]

The last place has the best bet for good minerals. Mica, quartz and granite are way common. The green indicates the presence of copper. Check your area for known deposits. Mindat has an excellent database.

 

[Smokehouse_83]

It's on odd area. A bunch mineral mines with zero claiming Gold, but the other side of the ridge has gold/silver mines. All the mines are old and out of use and It's all Santa Fe national forest now. 2 out of the 3 I have visited are not even on the map so they are pre statehood.

 

[Smokehouse_83]

The first mine I checked out. Don’t know what the rock is it was dug into? It’s green and very flakey

 

[Smokehouse_83]

Look at that color. I had been drinkin and didn’t look too close, my buddy sent me this pic. Kinda getting excited about this spot.

 

[Assembler]

Keep us updated if you start crushing and panning. Maybe some metal detecting. Also if you do a "Fire assay" for sure. Thanks for the great pictures.

 

[Aufisher]

Looks like some rock fun!

 

[Smokehouse_83]

We know a guy that has a real nice real old crusher that we are trying to barrow long term. We have lots of spots with lots of ore. Just need that crusher and warm weather and we are a go. All these mines are claimed as mineral that gold runs with and in spots that seem real hard to get to for Mica or Galena or Nickel or uranium. I think the old timers were hiding their claims.

 

[Assembler]

We know a guy that has a real nice real old crusher that we are trying to barrow long term. We have lots of spots with lots of ore. Just need that crusher and warm weather and we are a go. All these mines are claimed as mineral that gold runs with and in spots that seem real hard to get to for Mica or Galena or Nickel or uranium. I think the old timers were hiding their claims.

Can you describe the crusher (impact, jaw, or other type)? Size of and HP of? Thanks.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

One of our properties that has zero commercial workings on it so far has something similar. There's several quartz/mica veins that are outcropped for about 600-700', possibly more as they run off our claims into another active claim to the south. There's a bull quartz vein about 15' wide or so that follows this series of veins at an angle, but doesn't intersect. They're about 500' apart narrowing to less than 200' and trend generally 40 degrees east of north.

Our best looking veins, two of them, are almost dead on 90 degrees off of the trend of the mica/quartz. There's abundant quartz/copper veinlets between the bull quartz vein and the mica quartz.

Keep an eye out for those 90 degree offshoots. They can be the money holders.

And get an assay. Without it you'll not know if you're standing on a million dollars or just dirt.

 

[StreamlineGold]

That last set of pics looks like some badly weathered diorite or granodiorite..definitely pulling in some copper

 

[Smokehouse_83]

There is very little feldspar in it. It is a bunch of Quartz pebbles with chunks of feldspar here and there, I think it's sedimentary conglomerate.

Not sure what the crusher is all about I have just heard stories. Guess it's something like two anvils on a crank system with a big wheel that takes a belt.

 

[Smokehouse_83]

I plan on going up there this summer and camping on site. It's such a cool area. The tall section that runs east west is Quartz with mica running all through it. On the left running north south is a giant hunk of I guess bull Quartz that has thin veins of mica and not much of it. On the right running north south is Quartz and feldspar. On the right is where you see the fault, on top the Quartz/mica meets up with some kind of schist that looks almost looks like dirt, but as you follow the fault into the feldspar area the schist looks totally different and is loaded with pyrite. I'll pick around and see what I can find. Plan on buying a md20 so I can get up in there and see if there is any gold. There is so much material I wouldn't know where to start sending stuff in to assay.

 

[Assembler]

There is very little feldspar in it. It is a bunch of Quartz pebbles with chunks of feldspar here and there, I think it's sedimentary conglomerate.

Not sure what the crusher is all about I have just heard stories. Guess it's something like two anvils on a crank system with a big wheel that takes a belt.

Just asking to get some idea of the sample amounts you may be running per day. Sounds like a jaw crusher of some type. After running a few tons of rock you should get a idea on the recovery rates per ton of rock. Will you sort by eye the rocks?
Will be an adventure for sure. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Smokehouse_83]

I guess it has a basketball size feed. My buddy says it a big ole thing, kinda excited to see it. The sedimentary conglomerate mine has a big ass pile of football to basketball size mined chunks sitting in a pile that we will probably run first. A sample is at a geologist getting looked at now.

 

[Assembler]

I guess it has a basketball size feed. My buddy says it a big ole thing, kinda excited to see it. The sedimentary conglomerate mine has a big ass pile of football to basketball size mined chunks sitting in a pile that we will probably run first. A sample is at a geologist getting looked at now.

Appears that the crusher will take big rocks. Is the crusher on a trailer and what is the ball park weight?
Looks like you will have no trouble taking a ton sample if needed. Thanks