Documented Gold Bearing Telluride/Oxide Ores

[DarkspARCS]

Well, to continue, which I'm just going to include a brief conclusion to this, I was told by everyone around me to follow through with doing the things necessary in establishing the claim, BECAUSE IT WAS MY DYING WIFE'S FINAL WISH FOR ME...

So I set out, marked out the ~exact~ layout I wanted to claim (which overlaps two of the original claims, IG 16 and 59, lol) which contains the five buried vertical shafts and the horizontal shaft (which is the one I've documented on these forums), set my Monument of Location using a ~capped~ 10 foot 3" white pvc pipe (its gotta be the biggest marker in the entire district lol), and placed the name of this claim's new name on it in bold black letters on it, which is the name I filed the Notice of Location on June 1st, 2012...

the CATHERINE mine...

With this claim, my wife lives on, and she will have the ability to take care of me (another wish she expressed, which was not granted in the manner she and I wanted) once the gold, silver, copper... and palladium start making themselves manifest with the processing needed to pull these metals out of the 22 metal matrix this polymetallic replacement deposit possesses. I placed a wooden post near the entrance of the horizontal tunnel, which I used a 17 lb. breaker bar and shovel on and reopened two weeks later (yes, I lived in my car and manually reopened this opening, lol, which took two weeks to do), which has a tribute to my wife written on it which states:

"DEDICATED TO MY LOVING WIFE CATHERINE, WHO DIED MAY 25, 2012. MY SOUL HAS CRIED EVERY DAY SINCE"

And here are the reasons why I exhaustively did that hard work...

 

[DarkspARCS]

This specimen turned some heads, because the only documented specimens of native silver crystals for Nevada came from the Carlin region, in northern Nevada... heh, not any more! Now I've put Goodsprings, and my name, in the history books for having native silver crystals, found in southern Nevada! Here are some more specimens:





Here are a few more reasons...



I'm not even sure this particular ore has nomenclature assigned to it yet. It has a kaolinite base, with pyritic inclusions and such, but clearly has coloration banding not seen by myself before. An investigation into this will take place when I have more time...

and those with a keen eye know what this is:



:twisted:

 

[DarkspARCS]

And now, the proof in the pudding...



Chalcopyrite/ Arsenopyrite, Tested under an XRF spectrology at 1.5 ounces Au per ton. I don't have an ore body picture for this location yet because it came from the tailings of the vertical shaft that's 50' away from my horizontal shaft. One of the first order of businesses I need to accomplish is connect with these vertical locations from within the main tunnel, which is what I reopened. My speculation on what will be found in the process is exciting, to say the least!



PlumboJarosite, Tested under multiple XRF spectrology exams at 1 to 3 ounces Au per ton. Ore body picture:



As this image shows, the plumbojarosite ore body connects with the main kaolinite ore body, with a clearly defined boundary. this ore body is roughly 200ft. long before returning to another kaolinitic ore body. It's depth so far is undetermined, however what has been revealed is quite extensive, and speculation on this ore body is that it is huge, and most probably is what forms the hardened Chalcopyrite/ Arsenopyrite ore body, which a vertical winze will have to be constructed to prove. here are more images of this ore body:

 

[DarkspARCS]

Kaolinite w/ pyritic inclusions. This ore was tested under an XRF spectrology at 1 ounce Au per ton. there are two kaolinitic ore bodies within this mine. here is the fore body:



This shot is from the roof of the 45 degree descent to the lower mine level, which cuts through the first kaolinite ore body. as can be clearly seen dark veins of metallic material are embedded everywhere, with the kaolinite being completely impregnated with pyrritic inclusions, as seen here:



Here is the aft body, where the lower tunnel ends:





As can be seen, the tunnel end is ~not~ the end of the ore, lol. I can't even begin to speculate on this massive ore body.

 

[DarkspARCS]

oooooooo..... pretty! I would classify this as an iron ore, which tested under XRF spectrology at roughly 1 ounce Au per ton. At 30% iron, this rock is hard as steel... lol... The vein is roughly 4 ft. thick, and wasn't even worked! :shock: There are several locations in this mine just like this, where the tunnel cuts right across a rich dark red vein and just keeps going, ignoring the colors.... which I truly find interesting, as my spectrogram said too... heh! :twisted:

There are some, however, that have green layers that follow its contour, which identically follows the pattern described in the 1915 USGS report on the platinum/ palladium bearing ore locations being discovered in this region in which ASTRONOMICAL pm numbers were being reported (like 235 ounces Au per ton). I haven't been able to do any more tests because my money is now depleated. I don't know what I'm going to do now... I NEED VENTURE CAPITAL! But... so far, no offers, just scammers and con artists. here's some pictures showing these locations:



A little blurred, but the colors are unmistakable.



The black is some one's location marker. obviously, they were interested in this too...

 

[DarkspARCS]

Azurite Malachite. This is a principle ore of copper and is also classified as a precious gemstone... again, no spectrograms. so far I've collected approx. 60 pounds of this gemstone/ ore, which I've industriously cleaned, and packed into sealed boxes. Here are some images from the ore body:









When looking at these images, understand that this particular rock and its host rock are soft, with the host rock actually turning into powder, which literally coats everything with dust. here is what the rock looks like once the dirt has been cleaned off of it...

 

[DarkspARCS]

 

[Ocean]

Those azurite specimens are beautiful!

They may have more value in that state than refined, but I am no expert.

January and February have some large markets in the Southwest for specimen sales.

I forget the name of one of them, but the other is the Tucson show.

 

[DarkspARCS]

Other locations of interest:











As you can plainly see, this mine is rich. As I've plainly told everyone here, I'm dead broke. This is what my wife wanted me to pursue, which in a few more days, Sept. 1st to be exact, I'll be filing the Certificate of Location on this mine, along with the required mine map, with the County Recorder and the BLM - a $300.00 expense, and last of what I've had saved. After that I must work on completing a Plan of operation, then filing that with the BLM (ANOTHER expense...) and wait 4 to 6 months for them and the F*ING EPA to physically go and visit the location, measure my claim parameters, do environmental studies, test the ore to verify it's validity, assign the mine a tax number (like your SS#, or an EIN#), then, ~IF~ approved issue my "new" mine it's BLM certification number, which document will show me as the operator.

JESUS...

WHEN THE %^$& DO I GET THE OPPORTUNITY THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE, AND MAKE SOME DAMN MONEY ON IT?!

*sigh*

 

[goldaa]

I usto have some claims in oceola nevada and had to give them up because of a stroke an 6 bypasses. mining verry hard work and processing a lot of ore verry labor intensive. If you can mine the ore and have some company process it for you. that would be good if you could find one trustworthy to process it with out ripping you off. verry nice specimens good luck. Brandt

 

[DarkspARCS]

Those azurite specimens are beautiful!

They may have more value in that state than refined, but I am no expert.

January and February have some large markets in the Southwest for specimen sales.

I forget the name of one of them, but the other is the Tucson show.

I agree with your astute understanding on the worth of this mine Ocean, I've posted requests for valuation on this material with Mindat twice now, being told that this was colored rock and not gem quality material. Here's one valuation:

"Seem to be just coatings rather than lapidary-usable masses."

Does this look like I'm holding a coated rock to you?



That's utter BS, and what's more I'm thinking that these folks posting valuations on the Mindat site have interests with the damned major mineral clearing houses... I'm going to post direct on the gemology website instead of mindat, and see if these discreditors pop up with the same horse and pony show...

 

[DarkspARCS]

The big thing about this mine is it's unusual geologic formation. the materials within this location makes it seem you've walked directly into the rainbow, when it comes to the colors and sparkly things the rocks bear... which it seems no mater which type of rock I get a spectrogram on, they all come back with at least 1 ounce Au per ton. Take this ore for example:



Looks like maxwellhouse instant coffee, is a spounge-like material that came as mud from one of iron vein locations, and reads as having 1.5 ounces Au per ton! It seems to me that if I strip mined this damned location there'd be little waste rock lmao!

 

[g_axelsson]

... which it seems no mater which type of rock I get a spectrogram on, they all come back with at least 1 ounce Au per ton.

At first it sounds good, but 1 ounce per ton is circa 30 grams per ton or 30 parts per million or 0.003%. That would be okay until you take into account the error in the XRF process. I have never heard of that high precision in XRF before and I would be afraid that the readings is just a systematic error. Before I would invest any more in a mining venture I would at least test some of the samples with a more exact method to verify that the readings isn't just an error.

I wish you well and good luck, but I advise you to test a few samples in another lab that is working with ores and that can do a quantitative analysis not based on XRF.

Btw, I think you should reconsider your opinion of the people on http://www.mindat.org, that is an international forum just like this with a lot of well informed people who will tell you the truth. To just ignore them and saying

That's utter BS, and what's more I'm thinking that these folks posting valuations on the Mindat site have interests with the damned major mineral clearing houses... I'm going to post direct on the gemology website instead of mindat, and see if these discreditors pop up with the same horse and pony show...

is a grave mistake. Your specimens are nice and could probably be sold to collectors but I don't think they are gem quality and the arguments you got on mindat were only sincere. I don't see any wrong in them. Why not put some of that material up on ebay and see what you get for it.

/Göran, amateur geologist and amateur gold refiner. Member of both mindat and goldrefiningforum but allergic to horses and ponies. :mrgreen:

 

[butcher]

g_axelsson,

Sorry to hear about your allergy to horse's and ponies them and donkeys are such wonderful animals.
I would still have them, but they cost me too much gold to feed them.
My daughter still thinks it worth it to feed them so she has them now, but she likes them more than she likes gold.

 

[g_axelsson]

No problem, I couldn't get them into the elevator anyhow...
... and I don't want them to eat all my gold. :mrgreen:

/Göran

 

[butcher]

g_axelsson;

That is so funny gave me a good laugh.

Almost as funny as the time I had a small mule I was trying to break to pull logs and pull a cart.

Rosey was the mules name; she would take off running every time I would yell get up.
Well when trying to train her, she would get away from me and I had to chase her around for hours all over the field, until I would give up, later I would eventually catch her when she wanted her biscuit treat.

I had the bright idea one time to tie the rope around my waist so she would not get away, well I yelled get up, she took off running, there I went following behind her just as fast, bouncing all over the field, as she dragged me behind, my body being dragged behind her, scared her even more, and she kept running away from me, but there I was following her bouncing around in the cloud of dust, after that I limped around on a cane for several weeks trying to heal and learn from my stupid mistakes.

I finally got her trained to pull logs when logging and to pull a small cart, but could never get her to not take off running when she first started pulling, (she would slow down to a walking pace after she got the log or cart started.

She was also small enough to fit in your elevator and would probably follow you home for biscuits.

 

[g_axelsson]

Butcher, your stories reminds me of my grandpa that always talked about his horses he used on the farm. He was also really attached to them but they are powerful animals and it could easily get dangerous. I guess that is part of the charm.

... but we are going a bit off topic. I was wondering what the precision of an XRF is, is it possible to analyze precious metal ores with concentrations in the ppm range?
The only XRF equipment I've seen is in electron microscopes and I think the precision on those units were around 0.5%, not enough for quantitative analysis of ores. But technology advances, so how far has state of the art advanced today?

Browsing various offers on eBay I found one unit (EDX3000 XRF) that cited 0.05-0.1% precision, but that is still 500-1000 gram per metric ton, way too high for analyzing most gold ores.

/Göran

 

[butcher]

I believe the old tried and true ways are the best, the fire assay.

I cannot see how some machine looking at the surface could tell you anything useful, beside's there is some possiblity of values in the ore.

 

[herbbartley]

Darksparks, I couldn't agree more about doing some fire assays. It seems that the XRF is wasting money that you don't have. Why don't you high grade some of that ore and process it yourself? If you can find the part with 200+ozs. per ton you could probably grubstake yourself. If you are really in some good stuff just smelt it. You will end up with a salable product.
Didn't you say you have turquoise? That is worth quite a bit as well.

 

[DarkspARCS]

*UPDATE*

Thanks for all the great feedback. As should be expected I discovered the flaws with XRF reporting, so I went looking for assayers... hmm... where'd they be? (tumble weeds and whistling wind...)

Then I met a Spaniard who tells me his dad was the Chief Metallurgist for a defunct local mining outfit... After meeting with him I'm impressed. 40 years exp... and he wants to play for free! :shock:

First we reviewed ore samples under the microscope... the views were absolutely amazing, I wish I had a way to get pictures of them. He showed me the free gold as separate from all the pyrites, hematite and galena... even showed me free silver in mass quantity...

Since then we've run the mill on 5 different ores, each producing astronomical numbers regards pm/ pgm values (haven't determined the breakdown on value identification yet, he wanted to first see if that particular ore had values). Refractory polymetallic sulphides are a real trick to figure out... but after several failures this guy finally cracked the codes...







One iron matte ore had a suprise in it that I discovered during crushing:



interesting...

I have some great images of clean electrum colored buttons but they're not on my computer yet. More to follow!