After decades of dreaming about this moment, we finally bring a 125-year-old gold mine back to life. This historic underground gold mine was discovered in the late 1890s and has not produced gold since around 1925 — until now. Today, we drill, load, blast, and muck the first new ore from this high-grade underground quartz vein in nearly a century.
This is not just another abandoned mine exploration. This is real small-scale hard rock mining: drilling fresh ground, blasting a stope round, washing down the muck pile, sorting ore by hand, and hauling the first ton of gold-bearing rock out of the mountain. After years of rehab work, timbering, preparing air and water lines, setting up escape ways, and getting equipment into position, we finally get to make the first real cut into this old gold vein.
Using a Gardner Denver FL83 jackleg drill with a pneumatic leg, we drill a narrow underground stope where the vein averages roughly three feet wide. The round includes 28 drill holes, loaded and fired in sequence so the rock has room to break properly. This is the first major blast in this part of the mine in around 100 years, and the anticipation is intense. After the shot, we return underground the next morning to inspect the muck pile, scale the back, wash everything down, and see what the blast revealed.
The geology here is exciting. Over the years, geologists have identified this area as a rich zone, with chip samples across the face reportedly running from around an ounce to multiple ounces per ton. The gold shows up in quartz and gray/silvery mineral bands, and after the blast we begin finding visible gold in the freshly broken ore. Some pieces are set aside as specimens for slabbing, collecting, cabochons, jewelry, or display instead of being sent straight to the mill.
This episode also shows the reality of mining without big equipment. Every bag of ore has to be hand mucked, sorted, hauled, transferred, and moved out of the mine. We build a simple underground rail system, load bags of ore onto a small cart, move hundreds of pounds at a time through the haulage, and work out the bottlenecks of getting ore down the raise and out to the truck. The first ton is the hardest, but it proves the system can work.
Along the way, special guests join the project, including Brent from @GhostTownLiving and Dan from @Danhurd as we search for visible gold, chip samples from the face, build rail, and experience what it feels like to stand in brand-new ground that no one has ever seen before. There is history in every blast, every bag, every timber, and every piece of ore.
This is the beginning of a new chapter for an old gold mine — a mine that sat quiet for nearly a century and is finally producing again. From drilling and blasting to hand mucking and hauling the first ton of ore, this is what it takes to reopen a forgotten hard rock gold mine and find out how much gold is still waiting underground.
Check out our Shopify and eBay stores for ore, specimens, cabochons, and more from our mines:
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UNDERGROUND MINING EQUIPMENT
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Milwaukee Flood Light:
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Milwaukee Driver:
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Milwaukee Grinder:
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Hard hat with light clip:
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Head lamp for hard hat:
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Gloves:
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Feather and wedge set:
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Respirator:
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#goldmining #undergroundmining #abandonedmine #drillingandblasting 
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