Old Silver Mine

20 acre lode claim in White Pine County, NV

This is a really cool claim in a historic area. Known for extremely rich silver this area has recently been in play as a significant gold interest. This area is my favorite area in Nevada. High enough in elevation to provide cool summers - but brutally cold winters. This claim has two shafts: one is a horizontal shaft which goes into the mountain a long ways, this shaft has a gate on it with a lock and you'll need to get a key from the Nevada Department of Wildlife. The second shaft is a near vertical shaft, and it's open. Both shafts were developed in the 1800s and there is very good road access to the claim.

There is a developed BLM campground (free) 10 miles away at the Illipah Reservoir. There is also good trout fishing in the lake.

The campground has sun shelters, picnic tables and a dumpster. There is also good camping on the road leading to the claim and you could even park a trailer near the historic buildings in Hamilton.

This is an old silver mine. Silver was first discovered in this area in 1865 and the area experienced a boom from 1865 to 1875 when the mines played out. The silver in the Mt. Hamilton district was shallow and was worked out early on, then abandoned. Recent interest in this area (check BLM claim filings) are predominately for the gold. A large project, known as the Mt. Hamilton project, was fully permitted and estimated up to 850,000 ounces of gold reserves. In recent years there has been significant interest in this are with over a hundred claims filed. There is one gold placer claim in the area, but the area isn't known for placer deposits. The gold is hydrothermal deposits and assays from the Mt. Hamilton project show about 1/5 ounce per ton, which is consistent with the recent assay performed on ore from the Bedlam mine. Although this claim is a historical silver mine, the assay shows a decent amount of gold in the quartz.

In fact, for Nevada, the gold is exceptional. The ore sample was taken from within the shaft, about 60' deep and shows almost 1/4 ounce of gold per ton. There is still a lot of unmined vein in the shaft. The old timers were after the silver, which in places was fabulously rich, and found 1/4 ounce of gold to be not worth their while, but with a small crusher and a fine gold setup you could recover a significant amount of gold. As mentioned above, some very large gold mining companies have moved into the area recognizing the gold potential which was passed over in the 1800s.

Prospects are everywhere in this area. You can do a internet search for the Mt. Hamilton or Treasure City district and find a ton of information. On the ground prospecting you can find a lot of different minerals and in the old tailings you can find lead/silver ore; traces of copper; sulphur; iron and XRF readings show other valuable trace elements, but because XRF field readings are notoriously inaccurate we're not going to post what the XRF says is in the ore.

If you want a reason to explore a well preserved and fascinating area of Nevada, then this would be a great launching point. Access to the claim is relatively easy and both Eureka and Ely are withing 35 miles.

• Offered by: Private individual
• Type Claim: Lode
• County: White Pine
• Claim No:NV101863567
• Price: NOW $950 $2,500
• Contact:Info@SierraRivers.com
• Access:4wd or 4wheeler
• Camping:Camping on BLM land or at developed Illipah campground
• Gold Potential:Hydrothermal 0.2 oz to the ton by assay
• Other Minerals:Gold, iron, copper
• Equipment:Metal detector
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