Gold Mine Hidden Along A River Has Numerous Surprises
This old gold mine hidden away along a river is a classic example of the success of some of our mine hunting trips… Many of the mines from the “Gold Rush” era in the Sierras are not marked on any maps or are only partially marked (meaning that one is only given very vague location details or incomplete information). So, we’ll often visit areas that we know are thick with history and just start following likely trails, geological features, descriptions in books, etc. in the hope of coming across something. More often than not, such trips are a success! There was a single adit marked at the location of this mine, for example, but we discovered multiple adits and other features that were not listed.
I haven’t been able to track down historical details (yet) on this mine and so I suspect that it operated under another name in the past than what is listed on the maps now. Most historical mines are worked initially, then abandoned, then worked again, then abandoned and so on depending on mineral prices, technological developments and other such factors. You saw the equipment from around the 1990s at this mine, there was infrastructure in this mine that was suggestive of the 1930s and, likely, this mine was discovered and worked well before that. So, this mine perfectly fits that abandoned mine cycle.
It's interesting about the work that was done in the 1990s... Gold prices were extremely low then and yet, at least in this area, there seems to have been a big burst of mining activity around then. Despite gold prices rising almost 10-fold from the 1990s prices, we haven’t seen a repeat of that mini gold rush that the 1990s produced. We’ve discussed it and feel it was likely something of a last gasp from the old timers. Miners that came of age during the gold mining boom of the 1970s and early 1980s would have been able to learn from the REAL old timers that were still around then.
It seems like a lot of work done in the 1990s was from these guys just before they got too old to handle the heavy drills, mucking and other backbreaking work associated with gold mining. Unfortunately, not enough young people were around or interested enough to glean the knowledge of this last batch of old timers and so much has been lost. There simply aren’t enough underground miners with the knowledge and expertise to be able to operate and work in these small gold mines today doing things like track work, building ore chutes, etc. Much of the world’s gold production today comes from gigantic mines where most of the work is done by machines.
Small mines, such as this one, are simply left abandoned… Yes, part of that is due to some of the silly rules and regulations (I’ve shared some examples of those with you at our mine), but a large part of it, I believe, is due simply to a lack of available talent. Finding capable workers has been an ongoing struggle at our mine and we’ve had to look as far away as Alaska to bring people in. So, there just doesn’t seem to be the manpower or talent left to fuel another boom of gold prospecting, speculation and exploration. Yes, I know of exceptions, but I’m speaking in generalizations here. When something eventually happens in the future (a monetary crisis or whatever) to make gold and gold mining irresistible again, it seems that the next generation will have to learn everything all over again. I don’t envy them, but resourcefulness and innovation have always been a hallmark of small mining operations. So, I expect they’ll muddle through and eventually get it figured out after a few generations. Well, either that or AI-driven robots will be doing all of the work!
*****
You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: goo.gl/TEKq9L
You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: bit.ly/2wqcBDD and here: bit.ly/2p6Jip6
Several kind viewers have asked about donating to help cover some of the many expenses associated with exploring these abandoned mines. Inspired by their generosity, I set up a Patreon account. So, if anyone would care to chip in, I’m under TVR Exploring on Patreon.
Thanks for watching!
*****
Growing up in California’s “Gold Rush Country” made it easy to take all of the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mine sites have a lot working against them - nature, vandals, scrappers and various government agencies… The old prospectors and miners that used to roam our lonely mountains and toil away deep underground are disappearing quickly as well.
These losses finally caught our attention and we felt compelled to make an effort to document as many of the ghost towns and abandoned mines that we could before that colorful niche of our history is gone forever.
I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!
#ExploringAbandonedMines
#MineExploring
#AbandonedMines
#UndergroundMineExploring
Пікірлер: 206
Greetings from San Francisco CA
@TVRExploring
6 ай бұрын
Haha, are we doing this? Alright, where is everyone posting from? I'm posting from Las Vegas, Nevada right now...
@caseyhazlett7546
6 ай бұрын
@@TVRExploring tehachapi ca :)
@nielsen145
6 ай бұрын
@@TVRExploring Kastrup, Denmark
@mjshaft
6 ай бұрын
Wales UK
@timothymilam732
6 ай бұрын
Greenville, Texas NE of Dallas some 60 miles
you guys have been on a roll with great videos lately. thanks for the effort
What a great little mine this turned out to be! It's always a nice surprise when you realize the adit is actually a tunnel AND "undocumented". I'll be living vicariously through your videos until my next outing so thanks for the trip.
It's nice coming out of an abandoned anthracite mine, coming home, relaxing and watching Justin do another killer explore.
As you mentioned people saying you're "walking past gold", which is iron pyrite... Which fittingly used to also be called "fools gold". 😂
“No matter where you go , you’ll always be there “ huh?!! Pretty frickin cool mine explore in this one . I was floored by the size/ width of that Quartz vein in there along with all that flow-stone. Thanks
Hell of a find! Should be named The Quartz Mine. Thanks, guy’s!
Imagine what could be down in that flooded winze, maybe an underground train like the one in the Buca Della Vena Mine that you did, or the biggest stope ever, or miners pants. Those were some thick veins and the flowstone was crazy up in that mine. Keep up the great work, TVR.
Wow! Another great explore! That flowstone was off the charts! And a completely intact modern drill, amazing! At the end, it looked like there was the remains of an old road where the FS burned the cabin. They got those big a** compressors in there somehow.....
Cool mine! Love the surprises at the end. One could spend a day or two looking through the ruins at the end, trying to make sense of it all. Thanks Justin and Friend!
Just wanted to tell you that I appreciate these videos, thank you .
@TVRExploring
6 ай бұрын
Glad you like them!
That classifier you stumbled upon is like the one I have. Modern appliance. Pretty cool flowstone formations.
A recommendation for those interested in geology, the book "Rocks and Minerals" published by Golden Press. It has great 50's era illustrations and is a great reference for a beginner.
@sierrashere6957
6 ай бұрын
I have that book . . . Lol copyright 1957
@uploadJ
6 ай бұрын
Looks like there might be a copy on wayback machine too.
@laurencejohnson7658
6 ай бұрын
You talking about Pough's treatise?
26:09 Flowstone bacon! Very cool place, thx!
I find the large sections of quartz so awesome to look at
Fun mine. Beautiful flowstone. Love when a mine has several exits. Boggles my mind the drill and all that tubing left in there.
That pyrite and quartz was pretty, I'd have collected it in a heartbeat.
Hi Justin, wow what a cool mine, it was full of surprises too. Thank you for sharing, much love. xx
@TVRExploring
6 ай бұрын
Thanks, Sue!
Another awesome explore, the “Gold Rush” era in the Sierras are among my favorites. Hope you have a great year of exploration ahead ⚒
Always the adventure admiring your videos. I'm always impressed with the miners never ending struggle for the quest for gold. Tuco would be impressed! As always, five stars. ***** Many thanks. 👍
That was quite a mine! Quartz looked a little barren? Some dark bands so maybe sulphides? Interesting that they didn't mine a lot of quartz in there, maybe gold values were too low?
Cheers guys, another fascinating old mine. BTW Jakes "rice paddies" at 39.17 are called "gour pools" - the calcite walls being the "Gours".
Wow, what interesting geology! That was a massive quartz vein, but I guess it wasn't very rich in the end because of how much they left... thanks for documenting it!
Great video Justin. I think even I have wondered about you walking past gold before in some of your videos. In this mine with the literal tons of quartz in there, I'm sure there is still some tiny amounts of gold, but who wants to blast and muck what may amount to 5 tons of rock for a pittance of gold. You'd probably find more gold in the river below. Did you ever figure out where the tunnel you entered into exited in relation to where you were? Did it dump you out into a different valley on the other side of your hill?
Interesting! Thanks for sharing and keep em coming 👍🤩🤠
Foresthill native. Thanks for posting this. I miss Placer and El Dorado Counties.
Reminds of that early 70's song Quartz on the left of me quartz on the right of me stuck in the adit with you
@indiver716
6 ай бұрын
m.kzread.info/dash/bejne/oZqnwamygbuwac4.html
Another great explore! The compressor looked in good nick and like it'd fire right up again with a bit of effort
Crazy! Never seen that before. Well done guys!
Mines always have interesting things to see. Tunneling through was wild!
Great Video from a great mine
Sweet find. that was a cool one!
It would be fun to see you bring in a metal detector even the small pocket size to check some of the quartz areas for us. Love your videos.
You make the best videos 👊🤓👍
Fantastic video
@TVRExploring
6 ай бұрын
Thank you very much. Hope all is well with you...
So you would think with the price of gold now ($2,010 per oz) as of 01/17/24 that whom ever owns that stake might want to get back in there, but man I guess when you add the price of fuel for compressor and aux equipment as well as available manpower and probably rules and reg it isnt a worthwhile project.
Nice find!
thanks for another very nice exploring adventure, was very nice watching it, after the previous attack from TY that is, they blocked and slowed down YT very much here in Europe, the fight against add blockers is getting aggressive now, commenting was impossible with a active add blocker.
I was watching another KZread channel like yourself and I can't remember what it's called but they had a sponsor who gave them one of those small portable ROV it even had a grabber arm maybe you guys can get one because it would have been nice to see how deep and what was there in that flooded part. Really enjoyed the video guys
That flow stone WAS breathtaking
Hi from Redding, CA
Do you guys ever take a metal detector or even a small hand wand detector with you to poke around? Thanks in advance and for the trip with.
Nice find! I'm surprised to see the drill!
@TVRExploring
6 ай бұрын
So were we!
I know you hate clambering over all those collapses,but you do it because you love us Justin😅
@TVRExploring
6 ай бұрын
Indeed, I do.
Sure leaving with more questions than answers on this one. Only a couple reasons for leaving that drill in the mine...they left thinking they would be back...they left in a big hurry for some reason. Wildfire in the area? That cabin being destroyed...I agree with your suspicions....sickening...posting from about 20 miles northeast of Timbuctoo Ca....really...LOL
Cool mine!
A question I have often wondered while watching your very interesting videos is this: how frequently, or if ever, have you been in mining tunnels and heard or seen, rock collapsing? This must, at a minimum, be quite off putting, to say the least.
@aridcrawler
6 ай бұрын
I was once 800 ft underground when a 6.0 mag quake rolled through and only heard a distant boom. We were 20 miles from the epicenter. I didn't feel it or notice anything shift or rock falls in the stope I was standing in. I wasn't with Justin on that trip, but how I understand it is that the surface waves that we feel above ground are literally just that. They don't affect much if you are deeper below the surface.
Cool mine mate
Good evening from Southeast South Dakota
14:30 Hello from Anderson, Indiana lol I'm absolutely curious as to where that machinery is located at. I want to find out the history on the machinery due to being born an have been raised in this town. Our history is grand but it's slowly vanishing and our city government doesn't care about our towns history anymore. Thank you for the adventures and hope for many more!!!!!
That was s strange setup, especially with all the quartz left in that last bit before they tunneled to the side of the mountain. Must of been hardly worth the effort as much of it as they left. All n all though nice adventure y'all carried us on again. I would ask if you use the internet for all of your research, are if you go to the local tax offices to do it if you find something interesting enough to merit the trip. Are is there a state or federal mining registry that you can look into they're records to do.the deep research if you find something that possibly leads you to believe there's something in the area worth looking into? Stay safe and be well. BTW, how's things going at y'all's digs as it's been a while since I remember seeing any updates on it..
Incredible! That tunnel is a real head scratcher ... What was up the trail you mentioned behind the outhouse by the yellow air compressor? Thanks for sharing 🇨🇦
@TVRExploring
6 ай бұрын
That was what I showed at the end of the video... It just went up to where there was that opening to the outside world about fifty feet into the mine.
@paulcooper9135
6 ай бұрын
Thanks! Somehow I missed how that location tied in.
I have an idea after reading the storyline for this as i usually do. Maybe start a sampling program. I been on the hunt for new veins in Tuolumne/Eldorado area. It's not really a lack of talent, most of us keep to ourselves because this world is disgusting and we don't want to get robbed. Hobbyists don't really have the drive or knowledge, and want to just sluice and detect. We're still out here but also for obvious reasons we don't like to claim jump or have conflict in an area someone pretends to own. You definitely have an opportunity to bring some of us outta the woodwork though.
When you run into a wynz ( I have NO idea how to spell it) have you thought about a couple of extendable painter poles with a go-Pro and underwater light attached? You might only get ten feet down, but it's still informative. This was a GREAT video!
@aridcrawler
6 ай бұрын
Winze* 😉
@w6krg
6 ай бұрын
@@aridcrawler Thanks, I always get a brain cramp when I try to spell it... which isn't too damn often!
@johncorlett3699
6 ай бұрын
some teams in the uk use ROV submersibles to go down to about 200 ft if the water is clear. not much good tho in remote locations
Great video. Hard working old timers
Australia here, why does your forest service burn things down ?
@robertlyman9789
6 ай бұрын
Hopefully to,control over growth, and manage potential catastrophic wild fires that you cannot control
@randymagnum143
6 ай бұрын
Small controlled burn prevent huge uncontrollable burns. Keep your backyard clean and free of debris, and it won't burn. california and Canada neutered and destroyed their forestry service, that's why the huge crazy fires, not climate change.
@floridacracker5
6 ай бұрын
Some pines only sees after fires as well
@jilbertb
6 ай бұрын
They burn abandoned structures for fun! Actually to keep people away from finding the mines I think.
@TVRExploring
6 ай бұрын
The Forest Service started burning and bulldozing historic cabins and other structures on public land back in the 70s and 80s. The practice continues today at a slower pace as most of the damage has already been done... The original excuse was to stop squatters and, today, the excuse is our pernicious "health and safety" culture. They add insult to injury by often placing "Protect Your Heritage" signs around the historical sites that they have just ravaged.
That air compressor is ready to run!
I don’t think anybody would miss that drill
The white PVC has date stamps on it? you can date when work was done using that pipe sometimes.
Okay--drill-find is a masterpiece, and the wildly thick white quartz is a shockingly rich target to follow. Musta not been rich or it woulda been all stoped-away-
it would be cool for you to take a hand held lidar to map these tunnels!
30:00 Maybe they hit a mini mother load and decided they were retiring and left it all behind.
28:31 2/3 of the way up I think I saw a glint of gooooooold!
I wonder what water and air sample reports would state for that mine?
Have you gone into any cold mines just wondering
Its weird mix of old and new... but some of those "new" elements could be from around 2000... that was 24 years ago :D Its like I often find my self saying that something from 90' was just few years ago... hell no, it was almost 30 years ago -_- God damn time fly so fast....
Very KOOL advancer
The miners had to process the rock..the gold is locked up in the sulfides. It's not free mill gold, but there is certainly gold in those pieces. There are many types of pyrite that are mined as "ore". Chalcopyrite is occasionally mined for the gold content, not it's copper or silver in some places.
0:31 is it me or does the adit look look 2 eye sockets, complete with bridge and nose hole?
Looks like alot of it is "bull". Maybe they were looking for specific contact zones against the fault. Like blobs of mineralization. Pretty interesting deposit.
My goodness!…that hole encased in water is scary…imagine if it was milky or had a false floor
Is there gold or silver in flowstone?
I notice that quartz is seen a lot in your videos. Is gold found inside the quartz or does quartz indicate the presence of gold in adjacent geology? And who burns miner's cabins in the woods? Fascinating video as always. 👍
@zaboomafoo409
6 ай бұрын
US forest service started burning and or bulldozing cabins on public land back in the 70s and 80s. The practices continues today at a slower pace since most of the damage has been done already. The excuse was to stop squatters and today the excuse is the obsession for “safety”. The USFS sees no irony apparently when they then place signage telling people not to touch or damage the local history.
@macfilms9904
6 ай бұрын
Quartz starts its life as a superheated silca fluid that gets pushed up into fractures & faults - that fluid will often contain heavy metals like lead, gold and silver which will usually settle together against either the hanging wall or footwall- so quartz is a good indicator - but not necessarily "bull" quartz, which is pure white. Prospectors look for quartz veins on the surface, especially if that quartz is stained by iron - they will then usually push a tunnel in under that vein (an adit) so they can drop material down to haul out. So quartz is a good indicator, but not all quartz contains gold in economically viable amounts.
@kaboom4679
6 ай бұрын
Quartz and feldspar are the most abundant minerals on the planet . The majority of quartz contains no gold . Quartz veins are also common as dirt , and , most contain zero gold . The presence of iron doesn't change that very much . You need much more than just quartz and iron staining . You need a permissive environment , and even then the likelihood of a quartz vein in that area , containing economic grades of gold , are low . And economic grade is highly variable depending on a slew of factors and conditions to broad to cover . Search for a series of videos titled " ore deposits 101 " , which gives a very good general overview of a lot of details of various types of deposits and the commodities they contain . So , once you are in an area known to have gold , and you find a quartz vein , preferably with iron staining ( the more the better ) , and visible sulfide minerals , you take samples and have it tested . The old timers simply crushed the rock and panned it . If it showed any gold or lots of sulfides , they got a bigger sample and had it assayed . The same approach works today , although employing more modern and precise methods than the old fire assay techniques used since antiquity .
@djspatrick
6 ай бұрын
@@zaboomafoo409 That's crazy considering the damage to the trees and wildlife that may be using the structures.
Nevada city CA looks like my backyard
33:08 If it's a pencil in a mine, it's a mine pencil!
@Mercmad
5 ай бұрын
no,it's mine!
In reference to the burnt down cabin and the comment " we all know who does that" prior to that you said the forest service is responsible. Is that correct and why would they do that? Seams like a risky way to destroy some history?
Someone sunk their dreams of finding lots of gold into the old mine. Lost everything
@TVRExploring
6 ай бұрын
Yes, it was a fun one to visit, but I agree that it must have been unprofitable.
my theory, is 2 different mines, that meet eachother on the 2nd mine, hell its a tunnel now. look like it was reworked multiple times
Makes me wonder what you would say if you actually saw a big air compressor ? Like one with a 36 " to 58" diameter intake pipe !
@TVRExploring
5 ай бұрын
You would think this one was big as well if you understood where it is located.
@MrTonyPiscatelle
5 ай бұрын
@@TVRExploring Nah, been all over the USA and a few other countries working on air compressors over 40 years- pretty much have seen it all
From Utah cold an snowing
I call it criminal to destroy and burn history ..total disgrace . Great video ..great vision ..makes you think you should save these things in old mines that have a great chance of being destroyed by these people .. From Australia 🦘🦘🦘
It would be ok with me if you took that drill to use in your mine
4:10 should have checked the pockets on that jacket !
Looks like an old hit or miss motor next to the tractor
I can say that we never burned anything on purpose. Now sometimes we had to prioritize things to save. You would be correct then, if you mean that. This structure would be low on the priority list for a wildland fire.
I know exactly where you where, I actually know what happened to the cabin and for once it wasn't the fs.
Have you thought about taking a metal detector into some of the mines?
Hopefully you took some samples..
The Forest Circus..
Watching you look death directly in the face as you look at the or shoot holding who knows how many pounds of workings behind soggy lumber😅 bigger🥜 cahones than me
It might be silver or as in the comstock
"caught up to my friend". Why do your friends never have names?
Is your camera upside down or is just me
Pyrite = cubic crystals, singly or joined as multiple large and small sizes.
I am sorry but who burns down cabins?
Grab that drill and make for the nearest exit.
A little WD 40 and that compressor should start right up
I woulda dragged that jackleg drill out. Even in that condition you could probably get a few hundred bucks for it.
you need a underwater drone, like at least a flyfish
Those twist style plastic pencils date to the 1980's,