Gold once again to be mined near California's Historic Empire Mine

1northcoin

Yesterday's visit to Empire Mine State Historic Park, site of one of the most successful hard rock gold mines in the United States. It operated up until 1956 and was subsequently acquired by the State of California when it was preserved as a State Park. With the price of gold at its current levels it has once again become feasible to open a new gold mine on adjacent property and reportedly two million dollars has been invested in that endeavor.

rte592

Nice so if the new venture somehow finds it's way into the old tunnels that would be beneficial for the new venture?

Steven59

Great pics - But gold mining in Cali would be so regulated it won't be very profitable?

Jimnight

Nice! Thank you for sharing.

7Jaguars

@Steven59 said:
Great pics - But gold mining in Cali would be so regulated it won't be very profitable?

Or maybe they've figured out something and the world's fifth largest economy got it right?

pcgscacgold

Thanks for sharing this @1northcoin Very interesting and great photos.

pmh1nic

Appreciate the history lesson.

tommy44

Great post. Go West young man, there's gold in them thar hills.

lilolme

If I did the calculation correctly (and I used the calculator unit conversion for some of this so hope it was correct) this would be a little over 6,000,000. troy ounces of gold. Any double checks on this?

This is interesting as it kind of gives an indication as to how little volume of the mined material is actually gold.

Namvet69

Bet there's a sharp geologist involved in tracking the seam to a good access point. We shall see. Peace Roy

1northcoin

@rte592 said:
Nice so if the new venture somehow finds it's way into the old tunnels that would be beneficial for the new venture?

Very astute question. It brought to mind something I learned that could be informative. Reportedly when the State of California acquired the mining property to preserve it as a State Park they only acquired the rights to the land down to 100 feet and the seller (presumably Newmont Minng Company) retained the mineral rights.

That would likely leave open the prospect that a mining venture on adjacent property could snake into the original mine shafts. Of course the ground water that has seeped into those shafts would once again have to be pumped out.

1northcoin

The Secret Room and other discoveries at the site of the Empire Mine.

Pictured is a scale model of the maze of tunnels that occupied the Empire Mine located in Grass Valley California near Nevada City. The secret model was used to locate specific points in the mine's 365 underground work locations, with the longest shaft extending two miles to a depth of one mile. The encompassed area represented by the model is five square miles. During the mine's operation up until 1956 few had access to the secret room in which the model was kept.

Left almost untouched since the mine's closing is this antique gas pump:

An apparatus used to crush the mined quartz rock remains in place.

The mine yard is all but frozen in time:

And the blacksmith shop is still fully equipped:

The cottage erected by the original owners has withstood the ravages of time:

And the floral gardens and water features that surround the original mine owners' cottage continue to be maintained.

Even the Empire Mine's workshops and offices can be seen in their original state.

ricko

@1northcoin.... Thank you for an extremely interesting thread and all the marvelous pictures. I visited a couple of the old copper mines in AZ, and they had similar mockups of the tunnels. Just amazing. Cheers, RickO

1northcoin

Thanks

Meltdown

I would love to visit... this was the next best thing, very interesting.

lablover

Great thread, thank you!!!!!!!

Elcontador

There's also a huge mine near Fairbanks, AK that was shut down in the late 1950s, which has become a tourist attraction. Wonder if they'll consider reopening that one? You can pan for gold there and get a few flecks of the metal.