The Giant Gold Mine: The Truth Comes Out
I hope that my comments about the mine shaft throughout the video made sense in the end. It was not until the very end of the mine exploration that we realized that there was only one shaft rather than several. It was also at the very end of the mine exploration that we realized that it had been the same shaft that we had been intercepting all of the way down. And, of course, it was not until the very end of the mine exploration that we then realized what I had been standing on halfway down the shaft. Now, to be fair, you saw how much dirt had tumbled down on top of the wood and rock debris that had plugged the shaft. So, the odds that my additional weight could have dislodged it are almost incalculably small. However, it is still somewhat unsettling to consider what was beneath the plug that I was tromping around on.
It may be somewhat difficult to understand why we were left so confused by the shaft at this abandoned mine without having been there. I believe the key source of this confusion has to do with the direction of the shaft itself. The shaft starts out vertically and runs vertically for the first 150 feet or so. Therefore, when we hit the shaft at the 100 level, we assumed that it kept dropping vertically. Well, as you saw, it did not! Just below where we intercepted it at the 100 level, the shaft bends and then starts dropping at an increasingly shallow angle. This really threw off our mental calculations. Furthermore, in mapping the layout of the mine at the end of the mine, the stopes and winze wrapped around the shaft in an odd way that only added to the confusion. All in all, it was a good lesson about not making assumptions.
We came close to getting beneath that plug in the mine shaft in a couple of places on that bottom level of the winze, but in each case we were ultimately thwarted by collapses. I have to confess that my disappointment on this matter is not extreme. The clay-filled ground in there was terrible and I cannot imagine that it improved as the mine got deeper and things got more wet. The incredible amount of groundfall had eliminated most of the workings that we tried to explore (a lot was left hidden behind caved sections) and the moisture levels had destroyed most of the artifacts. Completely aside from the danger, it was simply slow and tedious to be constantly fighting through the caved sections for little reward.
I’m very glad that we ran this one out as much as possible though as that scene with all of the ore cars perched next to the inviting winze would definitely have been eating at me for a while.
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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!
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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: 115
Absolutely the most sketchy mine ive seen you go in in a long time, especially that large slab of 30 feet or more and when you realise that was a plug in the main shaft my bloody heart shifted a beat or two, so i cannot imagine how you felt when you realised what it was.....excellent footage as usual mate,
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Thank you. Yes, this mine is definitely in its death throes... We didn't put it together that we had been in the main shaft until the very end and then, rest assured, I definitely gave Graham a hard time about that!
@date08
11 ай бұрын
@@TVRExploring hahaha good on you for having a go at Graham..hopefully i'll see that on his vid when he posts it....stay safe mate .🙂
@MinesoftheWest
11 ай бұрын
@@date08That guy takes too many risks ;)
@date08
11 ай бұрын
@@MinesoftheWest hahaha....and thats why i love watching you guy's on your adventures...stay safe mate 🙂
Sketchtastic! Makes me glad I only watch people exploring these places instead of being there! Thanks for showing us.
Wow! There was a ton left to explore. Thanks, Justin!
Wow. So glad first of all that nobody was hurt or killed as a result of a plug collapse. Especially since it is one of the deeper mines you've explored with an 1100 shaft. A shorter fall CAN still kill you but a longer fall along with debris would CERTAINLY close the curtain. Still an interesting mine geologically speaking.
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Very interesting geology in this one, to be sure... Generally, the more interesting the geology, the worse the mine though! Agreed, it would not have ended well if that plug had given way while I was on it. The historical reports said that the shaft started to become less steep as it got deeper. So, a fall might have been more of a tumble down a steep slope rather than a freefall. However, the debris and that fine silt in there almost certainly would've gotten me.
Wow, sketchy! Thanks for going back!
Love the channel! Thanks for the detailed description and history etc.
truely a death of a mine , but thx for explore and iam glad, the plug didnt let up, if the shaft went 1100ft, thats scary, next time graham its your turn
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Haha, yes, you can be sure that I gave him a hard time about that one! And, yes, this mine is definitely in its death throes...
Awesome video ❤ Really enjoy your explanations of what we are seeing. So interesting 🤔 and fun. Thank you for sharing. Can’t wait for the next❤cat x
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Thank you.
Thank you and the crew. What a great program.
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Thank you very much.
Keeping those reds were dark in natural mineralized in this video great colors!!!; )
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Lots of mineralization in there!
The mark at 16:50 is what surveyors call stations. That represents 489 feet and the decimal are in hundredths of a foot.
Thank you for the Video. You put yourself in a bit danger to bring the pictures to the audience. Some sektions of the mine seems like they collaps just when you stand under them But you know what you doing. Glück Auf and greetings out of the Harz mountains in Germany. Yours Frank Galetzka
Good evening from Southeast South Dakota
So on that one level that looked like it had material in the middle and you thought perhaps they carved it out.. I think that is actually material that has been shoved into the drift from the weight on top of it, its got enough clay in it, it just became semi fluid and was shoved out like peanut butter.
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
I hadn't thought about that before, but, yes, that giant slab coming down could definitely have squeezed some "peanut butter" through! "Peanut butter" is actually a pretty good adjective for how soft a lot of that material was.
A little scary to think what might be holding that plug up while you’re standing on it.
Great video.
Someone with the means could become a millionare working that mine the ore looks fantastic
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Yes, there is definitely still gold in there.
@TheDAT9
10 ай бұрын
To expensive to shore up that broken ground to modern safety standards.
Those numbers on the wall that read something like 4+87.25 are station numbers down a path. The example give is 487.25’ down the path, if you wanted to know.
Hi Justin, wow that delaminated huge boulder was the scariest I've seen I think. When you were standing in what we now know to be the shaft I was like "Oh boy, you need to shift your asses out of that", mental note don't listen to Graham lol. The mine has so many incredible colours in it, that it looks like an artist's palette. A really cool but, and to use your words a very "Sporty" adventure, it was like wet powder down there. Thanks for sharing, much love. xx 🧡
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Haha, yes, Graham is a terrible influence!
26:00 That huge slab, to me, looks like 100% ore! This area MUST have a WHOLE LOT of goodies still in here just waiting to be carried out and processed!
That mine gave me bad nerves. Especially you two stood on that unknown plug.
Two of you standing on a plug that could have given way ! So scary!
This is one off the places that i was happy not too be in wow, that big slab was quit impressive indeed lol, Standing on that big plug would make Mc Murphy grin, that place had the biggest fallen slabs i have ever seen, you guys have my respect for going into those places thnx Justin.
You know that has to be the same shaft because. Jeremy spoke in , Jeremy spoke in , Jeremy spoke in , the shaft today...........
You went to a heck of a lot of effort to run that one out. That slab was astounding...and scary. Maybe menacing is a better word. Been awhile since you showed that much bad ground. Thanks for finishing it out...must have been quite a bit of $ pulled out of that sucker, but boy the danger...when you think of the first guys down there.
@worldtraveler930
11 ай бұрын
How does that old phrase go?!? Man there must have been a serious Butt Load of gold pulled out of that Hole!!! 🤠👍
@silasakron4692
11 ай бұрын
With examples like this you're always left imagining how awful it could have been to work down in said hole. Frightening. Hope they knew how to spile.
Those holes in the end faces were "boots" where the blast holes failed to break to the bottom of the hole. One strictly did not drill in booted rounds to prevent detonating possible remaining blasting agent that failed to explode. One tried to successfully "blast to the buttons", which were the bottoms of the holes.
@silasakron4692
11 ай бұрын
That's what it looked like to me as well. Wonder if that had to do with their technique and/or the ground mechanics?
Nice!
Ooooh Time Machine video continuation
This mine is about as sketchy as the placer mine you went into! Hoo boy!
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Yes, this one was definitely on the sporty side.
Yes excellent footage...but at what cost? Honestly, after seeing the nasty area's I would have called it right there! Talk about ballsy, you know damn well it was quite risky continuing on!!!!! But you did. Thanks
Have y'all considered wearing a parachute? That certainly makes you think.
Around 17min. Those are survey baseline station numbers. 4+89.7 = 489.7ft from some point of reference.
The guy that made you jump onto the plug should have got you lunch. That looked dicey as.
@worldtraveler930
11 ай бұрын
Launch Hell! That boy better be buying you several and I mean Several Steak Dinners for that stunt!!!!!
Sporty doesn't seem like an adequate word for that mess.
Dang cool mine sketchy af tho
4+89.7 probably a survey mark at 489.7 feet from the beginning of the drift/zero point.
Al of the delaminations and collapses are similar to the anthracite mines out here in Pa. Sketchville
I applaud your determination! BUT ... jumping jehoshaphat that is some "sporty" ground!!! And in hindsight what was the shaft isn't actually ground!!! Thanks for sharing 🇨🇦
And as far as standing on that shaft.....WOW! Now I don't have the experience to know the answer, but wouldn't that be horrorific if that shaft re-opened with you on top of it?
Thanks for the (GOOD SHITS).
Interesting that the sand pile you entered the shaft from was significantly taller than the pile in the shaft. Must have plugged and then sank a few dozen feet to get caught again further down.
God this one was bad, I would have called it deep enough too. There comes a point where you just start laughing at how dangerous shit gets, and that slab was downright hilarious; I've never seen a tectonic plate sized slab stuffed into such a small space before, damn. Graham's description of a shockwave when that thing came off the back made me laugh and probably wasn't far off.
@silasakron4692
11 ай бұрын
Oh and standing on that plug? My stomach sank about ten feet dude. Might've used up one of your nine lives on that one, that or you're guaranteed to never win the Powerball now, not sure which. I can't say anything with all the incredibly dumb stuff that I've done, but stay safe out there.
@worldtraveler930
11 ай бұрын
@@silasakron4692 I think it's probably safe to say Justin has Lucas level plot armor!!! 🤠👍
Hi Justin and Graham, I don't know about this one, that's a mess down there. But I would think if all that ground they removed was holding gold. Then the ground that fell would have hold gold also ? Now you just need to remove it. And with the price of gold now, it would be worth it.
@jimmylarge1148
11 ай бұрын
They usually remove all the vein containing gold
I don't think the problem is so much your weight as much as your weight shifting, vibration and literally jumping on top of it - static versus dynamic loads :) Scary though, does that mean Jeremy was under the plug at the end of the video? "Sporty" is the most wonderful understatement you have for some of that stuff, by the way, I'd say more like downright terrifying - I've done caving and you wouldn't get me within 200 feet of some of that, the physics of human-dug tunnels versus natural ones are off the charts different, the human-dug ones _want_ to close up and water makes them super soft, most natural caves have been there for millions of years.
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
No, at the end of the video, we were back near the entrance of the mine. That was a level just below the top. At the bottom level of the winze, we were technically below the plug, but there was no way still accessible to work our way over to the shaft or to go lower from the winze. I agree with your assessment of the problem with the plug. Naturally, the only way down there was to jump down onto it. Caves are definitely more structurally sound than the mines, but the mines do have a couple of advantages... Mines have a logic to them and one can anticipate and understand what is going on and how they'll play out.
@streaky81
11 ай бұрын
@@TVRExploring ah, I misunderstood, presumed it was lower. Herp derp. Certainly a good point on logic (though some mines that seems questionable lol) - there are ways to mitigate the lack of logic - cave lines really help (and carry their own risks) but there are other options; think if I did what you did I'd strongly be inclined towards using spray paint or at least chalk even if it seems easy to remember.
Sometimes it’s best to not know the level of sketchiness till after the fact. Maybe someday you’ll find the mother lode after one of those big slabs comes down
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Yes, more often than not, some really dangerous sections are not apparent until after the fact. Ha, I'm still waiting for the Mother Lode to reveal itself to me! You do hear about such things though...
I just realized that the sand all over that mine is rock flower. The stuff pinched in between the faults. That place is something else. I wonder what the haul numbers. Big mine big money
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Yes, this was a big mine and, obviously, a lot of gold came out of it...
Reminder when you see sand and gravel deep in a mine, don't walk on it if it doesn't look natural. Crazy stuff boys!
Can you do a video in a mine only using what the miners used for light?
@worldtraveler930
11 ай бұрын
I have had the opportunity of comparing modern lighting with carbide lighting in natural caves and yeah you can barely see past your finger tips with carbide lighting!!! 🤠👍
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Honestly, the video would not turn out at all. I'll do a segment in a video sometime with a candle or carbide light and show you what I mean, but it simply wouldn't work for a full video. If I turn down my lights to a lower level that is still far more bright than a candle or carbide, the video is still almost black.
Some days it's better to stay in bed, but even on those days there's things out there that one just has to know what's at the bottom of it all. Then there's those days that you feel you can get all the answers to what you want to know, only to find out you were only half way to the bottom of it all. Hopefully you learn enough from the first half that you no longer need to get to the bottom of everything. Why, because it only gets worse the deeper you go, and I don't know about anyone else, but when I'm up to my chin, and standing on my toes. That's deep enough to satisfy my curiosity, especially since I was standing on top of someone else's shoulders. 😅 Take care young friends, because you never know when or where the bottom might let go. Stay safe, be well, and always have fun while you're doing whatever you do.
Miners hate that kind of ground. It's dangerous and dirty
That must have been some realization after standing on a powdery plug in that main shaft!
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Most definitely! The penny didn't drop until the very end when we came down from the top, but, rest assured, that I definitely gave Graham a hard time about that one...
26:27 sulfides city
😎
And thanks to Jeremy for the video at the end
That giant slab and that boulder that blocked the. Adit were the heavy gold concentrations
Just curious, at about 16 seconds what's up with the dude who's covered up like a mummy?
I wish there was a substance you could spray to stabilize walls.
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Well, there sort of is. It is called "shotcrete" and it is a type of concrete that is sprayed on. Not very practical for our purposes though!
@laurahaaima1436
11 ай бұрын
I guess it would be nice to pick one impressive mine.. and make it into a tourist attraction. and use that to stabilize parts@@TVRExploring
Wanna see YOUR mining work guys!!! \(^_^)/
Scarey as ..geez..
Let's get back to THE MINE!
What are you thinking? Thin thoughts. I hope. Ha ha ha. Please be careful or maybe find a different profession. Stay safe please
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Ha, yes, this one was definitely on the sportier side.
There tons of good ore down there getting it out would be the problem
Just sketchy!
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Yes, this one was a bit sporty.
2nd yay!
1st yay
That’s definitely the bottom of an ore cart and NOT a slusher bucket of any kind . The hole in the middle of that front plate gives it away it’s missing the front axel mount that would be the same as that square steel piece on the back of the up turned plate . It’s an old design but still definitively the bottom part or an ore cart minus wheels and axels.
@TVRExploring
11 ай бұрын
Well, I had that thought too, but it was confusing. I guess it didn't come across on video very well, but it was tiny. It was maybe two feet long and perhaps a foot wide, which is why I discounted the ore car idea... An old ore car repurposed as a crude slusher? There was a hook on the rib around the corner that reinforced that impression as well.
Do you ever get the feeling you are living on borrowed time in some of these explorations? I think a normal person would conclude it was time to get the hell out of there. Some of it looks so precarious that the noises you make would be enough to trigger a collapse.
@-r-495
11 ай бұрын
I salute the vets who‘re doing a sensible thing: using their capabilities
@TwoFingeredMamma
11 ай бұрын
What is a normal person?? 🤣 Mining is also mens work, so you should be saying man instead of person.
@worldtraveler930
11 ай бұрын
When your regular day job is that of a war correspondent stuff like this might actually be viewed by some of those people as vacation time!!! 🤠👍