Historic Gold Mine

Amazing 400 year old gold mine in New Mexico

The Little Golden Apache is in Hidalgo County, near Lordsburg. The district is a well known copper area and the Apache Mine, just north of this site, was a significant producer.

According to the USGS Mineral and Resources Database the Lordsburg District is known for gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead. The district was first worked in 1870, and was productive until about 1955. Ruins of mines are scattered throughout the area. According to the New Mexico Geological database, the Little Apached Mine location was first worked by Spaniards in the 1600s, and was worked intermittently for the next few hundred years. Evidence at the mine, the imprint of a car license plate in concrete, show the mine was active as recently as 1955.

The mine consists of two shafts. There is one vertical and one decline shaft. Each shaft drops for about 200'. At the 80' mark you encounter water, a sufficient quantity it may be possible to pump it and use it for mining. There is a huge tailings pile near the vertical shaft that contains gold, copper and oxidized iron within the quartz. USGS Lidar, picture to the left, shows multiple workings and shafts on the site in addition to the two primary shafts.

Ruins of mining abound in this district. On the Little Golden Apache site there is a foundation, shown in the picture, which appears to be the foundation for a stamp of some type, and there is an old water tank that has the name "Little Golden Apache" written on the side in script. If you

Access to the site is relatively easy and the road is decent up until the last mile. A higher clearance vehicle is recommended for crossing some of the dry washes.

The Apache No. 2 district is widely known for copper deposits and gold and silver were only considered as a byproduct of the copper mining. The Little Golden apache claim is one of few in the district which was a gold mine, with copper as the byproduct. To the left is an assay of ore pulled from the tailings which shows between 1/5 and 1/3 of an ounce to the ton. The assay was performed by Ray Grimmer Labs. Two 10 pound samples were randomly drawn from the tailings and each sample was analyzed separately. There are literally tons of tailings. The gold within the quartz is fine gold and requires a crusher to free the gold, but as the assays show there is sufficient gold in the tailings to warrant processing. No actual ore extraction is required to begin mining this claim, there is gold bearing ore laying on top of the ground, and nearly filling the nearby wash.

• Offered by: Private individual
• Type Claim: Lode
• County: Hidalgo County, NM
• Claim No:NM101863567
• Price: NOW: $11,500 $15,000
• Contact:Info@SierraRivers.com
• Access:4wd or 4wheeler
• Camping:Camping on BLM land anywhere in the area
• Gold Potential:Fine gold distributed in quartz
• Other Minerals:Abundance of copper in the tailings
• Equipment:Metal detector
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