Placer Prospecting on the Grapevine Mesa, Mohave County, Arizona

[DarkspARCS]

Hello all... Just wanted to share some images of the goods being gleened from the placer mining I've been doing on my property in Meadview, AZ and show some of the pictures of our mill site during it's construction. I hope everyone had a good new years celebration and that 2023 proves to be a prosperous one for us all...

Meadview Arizona, what a view !

the Grand Wash Cliffs, 10 miles outside of the Grand Canyon

Situated upon the Grapevine Mesa, at the base of the Grand Wash Cliffs, sits the township of Meadview in North Western Arizona. It is there that I transitioned from hard rock mining to learn the ropes pertaining to placer mining, this time with some good men who I've partnered with. From start to operation the project had been tedious and a bit shakey as equipment failures continued to plague us, with the death of our heavy equipment mechanic via a propane tank explosion while operating a forklift setting things back even further...

Our investment capital was near it's limit, with nothing to show a return with, and something had to give for things to change course. And so give it did...

We received our break when a friend of mine volunteered his time and did what was needed to get our equipment back up and operating. With the replacement of the back hoe armerature o rings, we were back in business and able to get our tromel and various elevators in line, and set the newly purchased generator that powered the control systems we had built for them, then our track hoe was fixed and the 4' bucket began classifying dirt, taking out all the large boulders and getting the material ready to be conveyed to the tromel, which in turn will classify the dirt even more...

The results have been slow in coming, but appear they finally did...


Here's a tour of our journey. I will be making several posts here to showcase imagery taken along our path. I hope you find this journey enlightening!

At the end of the day... It's good to have a cold brew... And watch the sun set...

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hello all... Just wanted to share some images of the goods being gleened from the placer mining I've been doing on my property in Meadview, AZ and show some of the pictures of our mill site during it's construction. I hope everyone had a good new years celebration and that 2023 proves to be a prosperous one for us all...
View attachment 54014
Meadview Arizona, what a view !
View attachment 54015
the Grand Wash Cliffs, 10 miles outside of the Grand Canyon

Situated upon the Grapevine Mesa, at the base of the Grand Wash Cliffs, sits the township of Meadview in North Western Arizona. It is there that I transitioned from hard rock mining to learn the ropes pertaining to placer mining, this time with some good men who I've partnered with. From start to operation the project had been tedious and a bit shakey as equipment failures continued to plague us, with the death of our heavy equipment mechanic via a propane tank explosion while operating a forklift setting things back even further...

Our investment capital was near it's limit, with nothing to show a return with, and something had to give for things to change course. And so give it did...

We received our break when a friend of mine volunteered his time and did what was needed to get our equipment back up and operating. With the replacement of the back hoe armerature o rings, we were back in business and able to get our tromel and various elevators in line, and set the newly purchased generator that powered the control systems we had built for them, then our track hoe was fixed and the 4' bucket began classifying dirt, taking out all the large boulders and getting the material ready to be conveyed to the tromel, which in turn will classify the dirt even more...

The results have been slow in coming, but appear they finally did...
View attachment 54011
View attachment 54012
Here's a tour of our journey. I will be making several posts here to showcase imagery taken along our path. I hope you find this journey enlightening!

At the end of the day... It's good to have a cold brew... And watch the sun set...
View attachment 54016

Nice view

 

[DarkspARCS]

The first order of business is preparation. To do this my partners leased a building, and set a fenced parameter around it for equipment storage... Then we brought in our equipment, set up shelves, and populated them with hardware... Lots of hardware.



Next order of business is get our equipment in good working order. Our apprentice (I always wanted one of those lol) and heavy equipment mechanic got to work getting fuel pumps and starters replaced, tracks oiled, tires replaced, and our Arctic Cat side by side that was brought down from Reno, Nevada up and running. We used the equipment to haul the mining equipment and conveyors up to our mill site and get them set in place. When the track Hoe was finally brought up and on line, we dug the holes needed for our water recovery tanks, which then had barricades placed around them to prevent cows from falling into them... Gotta love free range cattle ranching!

Once set, and the control panel we built for the equipment set and wired up, it was time to see what the dirt had to offer... It was slow going at first because at the end of each day we had to finish the concentrates up with a gold wheel...

I ended up purchasing a second portable gold wheel in order to expedite the process...

The results have been slow in returning... As the land being worked had been previously mined and what we would be expected from what was being processed was the capture of the fine gold previous miners at the time this land was originally mined missed, because a system for fine gold recovery just did not exist then, with the exception of leaching... But things were about to change...

 

[Southfork]

Can't have too many trommels

 

[DarkspARCS]

A new piece of land is purchased... Our operation had a new lease on life!!

The owner of the King Tut II mine, located near us there in Meadview, offered a deal with us on 20 acres of his mining claim, which hadn't been previously mined! So we broke out with our wallets and the quit claim deed was signed, which I then went to Kingman and recorded the deed... A new begining to a near frozen operation has been found...

It's winter time now... And the Grapevine Mesa gets very cold at this time... so it's time to repaint the equipment, and look for spring to arrive so that the warm days can allow us to tolerate the elements enough to mine the gold! We were given a tip to follow through on regards our property, and that tip was to go beyond the calichè level, and dig down into all layers until the bedrock is reached. My partners groaned when I discussed this with them because breaking through caliche with your equipment will tear that equipment up, and since we lack a heavy equipment mechanic again (my friend finished up his work and we paid him. Now he's working back in Ohio...)

I'm currently laid up with foot issues and hope this problem will be corrected by spring time... Before my foot issue developed I spent a brief time prospecting in the White Hills area there in Arizona... And have found some interesting results...

Sp
Spring is going to provide some interesting results... I can't wait to get this rock pulverized and panned lol...

 

[DarkspARCS]

Can't have too many trommels

I know right? I'll tell ya, the placer mining experience has been a real learning experience for me. Hard Rock mining is harder work IMHO... And it pays off handsomely if you can find the right ore body and/ or are in the right place at the right time

 

[DarkspARCS]

Nice view

OMG Yggdrasil it is! Pictures just do not do the scenery justice however... Being there, looking across the mesa at those majestic cliffs just rise up out of the ground really is a spectacle to behold... Just as good as any view of the Grand Canyon (which technically I feel the Grand Wash Cliffs are part of any way).

Sitting back after a hot day and staring at those cliffs while downing that first thirst quenching beer is a reward well worth it...

 

[galenrog]

The tip to go beyond the caliche may or may not be good advice. I’ve visited placer operations where nothing was found beneath caliche, and I have visited operations that had rich ground beneath caliche. A prudent approach would be to dig a few test holes. To bedrock, if possible. Yes, it is expensive mostly due to equipment maintenance.

I wish you well on this. Placering is fun, but hard work.

Time for more coffee.

 

[DarkspARCS]

Good tip Galenrog, and sound advice. As noted, our equipment failures have set us back already both financially as well as time wise, however the property we just acquired is good ground and it's almost unbearable to have to wait til spring to start operations... But not too unbearable, because when I first went and reviewed the property I noticed while driving to it on the road in that it cut through a nice piece of untouched BLM land, one that has a beautiful wash running right through it...

I haven't said anything to my partners about it but I will once Ive set the corner stakes and file the notice of location ... That wash and the adjacent property we bought should provide good returns. Until then I will continue to prospect the White Hills region. I found some good vuggy quartz veins that are showing copper colors amongst the vugs... A good indicator that makes the statement,"You know you want to..."

 

[DarkspARCS]