Special Visit To The Incredible 16 to 1 Mine: Part 3 - Milling Gold & Last Of The 0 Level

This video starts where we left off exploring the 0 (zero) level and we proceed as far as we can on this level… In the next video in this series, Duane shows us a fantastic map of the 16 to 1 Mine and does a great job showing where we’ve been and where we’re going. Of relevance to this video, you can see how much farther the 0 level extends beyond the caved section where we were blocked from exploring. There is still a lot of gold back there!

Duane’s comment about mining the “Compromise” was a reference to the Compromise raise, which resulted from a compromise between the 16 to 1 and the Alleghany Mining Company to establish a clear boundary between their competing properties. The 16 to 1 drove the Compromise raise along their side of the line between the 300 and 700 levels and, as luck would have it, almost all of the high-grade gold ore in this zone ended up on the side of the 16 to 1 Mine.

The main part of the mill was abruptly closed in 1997. However, as you heard, the high-grade ore is still being processed in the bottom part of the mill to this day…

As mentioned previously, I have to spread the history of this mine over at least several videos because it is so lengthy. So, here is the next segment, which, again, quotes from the excellent “Gold Mines of the Alleghany-Forest Mining District” by Raymond W. Wittkopp and Wayne C. Babros:

“In 1911 Johnson sold the Tightner to J.M. O’Brien, Arthur De Wint Foote and associates of Grass Valley for $500,000, payable over a period of years, and moved to Berkeley. During January 1918 he died in Albuquerque, New Mexico of tuberculosis, probably complicated by silicosis.

During 1908 Tom Bradbury persuaded his brother Theodore (“Cap”) and Cap’s San Francisco friend, Yeates Lawson, to join him as partners and drive a new tunnel further down slope, at the present mill level. This was the main adit into the mine for 58 years and is still used for air circulation. Tom and his young nephew, C.A. Bennett, surveyed the crosscut. They ran out of funds and optioned the property to a partnership of Wilson and Vander-Beugle, who drifted north and discovered $100,000 in high-grade. However, Wilson stole the proceeds and ran.

At the Tightner Mine, according to an interview with A.D. Foote in Mining and Scientific Press in 1922, during the period 1911 to 1918 when O’Brien and Foote ran the mine, it produced $1,700,000, with about $400,000 more for others (i.e., H.L. Johnson). During the same interview A.D. Foote stated,

‘We had an experience that was delightful for a time. It was rather interesting. Driving north on the vein, we struck a bunch of quartz about 30 feet wide and perhaps 100 feet long. We stoped up on the footwall getting indications of gold. In fact we milled about 5,000 tons which went $2.49 per ton. Then in putting up a raise from the stope, we ran into coarse gold, and worked to the hanging wall over the former stope of poor quartz, taking out $750,000 in gold in a space less than 100 feet square. Some of it was so rich that we had to cut it up with chisels to get it to the mill…We found numerous bodies that yielded $75,000 to $100,000 in the course of three years.’”

Bear in mind, that the dollar amounts mentioned above were when gold was selling for less than $20 an ounce!

In the next video, we will see the lower workshop, a great map of the mine and then we’ll head into the main underground workings of the mine – where we won’t be coming out again for a while!

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Thanks for watching!

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Growing up in California’s “Gold Rush Country” made it easy to take all of the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mine sites have a lot working against them – nature, vandals, scrappers and various government agencies… The old prospectors and miners that used to roam our lonely mountains and toil away deep underground are disappearing quickly as well.

These losses finally caught our attention and we felt compelled to make an effort to document as many of the ghost towns and abandoned mines that we could before that colorful niche of our history is gone forever.

I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!

#ExploringAbandonedMines
#MineExploring
#AbandonedMines
#UndergroundMineExploring

[iainpaton]

Amazing video friend thank you and please keep the great videos coming friend from Scotland 😊🎉🎉

[jonathanchalk]

Wow, some very interesting mining machinery of yesterday, big thanks to Duane. More please.

[PlanetMojo]

Duane is a gold mine of information. Fantastic series!

[OdySlim]

That is the most comprehensive, detailed tour I have ever seen. The mine & equipment are all just impressively
gigantic. It was so nice to see everything is in tact & in working order to. Duane did an excellent & thorough job
with the tour. Thank Justin for the videos. Hopefully there will be another video! Regards from Ody Slim,

[SueGirling]

Hi, I am thoroughly enjoying watching these episodes, it really interests me to see the actual process of how the gold is extracted and milled then refined, so cool. You can see that he is really passionate about what he does. Thanks for sharing, I can't wait till the next one. x

[docmccoy]

What a great thing to be given a tour like this. Great information and historical information as well. Thank you to the mine and mine personnel for doing this and letting us get a glimpse into their world.

[devonboulden]

I love this stuff. Thank you. I used to work with slurry pump salesmen. With the mining industry, every punctuation mark is replaced with F* or S*. Every time there's a mining disaster, I get glued to the story because it feels like those miners are family.

[yellowboy]

It's such an eye-opener to hear a real miner say whats happened in the mine, and what the parts are called and why certain things were worked in a certain fashion. Thanks for taking us along once more.

[wygold]

That’s an awesome place and just imagine the amount of gold still in there. I would love to work for Duane, just to listen to him talk about the history alone is worth it. Heck I’ll even crawl thru the manhole into the ball mill just to hear him talk. Thanks for sharing

[slimpickins]

Thankyou for the video work.Big shout out to your guide.I have been in the 16/1 Mine and have personally met Mike Miller.I still remember the day going down into the mine.At the time I went, they allowed you to look and pick a little in the large ball room area.They had magnificent ore samples on display.i have found gold in the Downyville area.Nothing to retire on.The amount of work and energy that goes into an operation like the 16/1 is phenomenal. I was there about 2003. I left California in 2014 to CoeurDAlene, I’d. I have been to the town of Wallace and up to the old mining areas there. I love the mining history and have been on my own treks in California and Nevada.Now I’m in Alaska and have already scoured the areas from Fairbanks to Anchorage and will continue.This visit of yours brought back fond memories of the area.54 years in California but the political atmosphere was too much for me.Stay safe.

[KubotaManDan]

Wow, Gets more awesome every week. Kudos out to Duane. Nobody can beat this series

[williamwintemberg]

The best explanation of a mill I have ever seen! This guy's knowledge is incredible!

[markgriffin]

The difference in the timber is oak vs softwood (fir, pine). The softwoods will expand when wet and the cellulose opens up so much that fungus can penetrate. With oak when it’s wet it swells and the cellulose gets tighter and won’t let anything penetrate it. Hardwood is becoming harder to get and way more expensive and just isn’t cost effective to use so they just use softwoods now.

[mattwalker]

I really enjoyed this series, thank you.

[chrisstrobel]

This is the second time watching all the segments .. absolutely incredible tour, and what a great guide .. seems like super cool people.

[josephdaiglejr]

Thanks for another amazing installment of this mine series. You are a very lucky guy to get such a detailed description of the whole process and a amazing guide

[hocusfocus]

Many thanks, I really like this series, have watched it several times. Question about the finishing room, at time 25:43 to 25:45, there seems to be a huge shaker table under the stairs, it's like 3x the size of the 5 X 12 that Duane points out. Is that like a triple wide 'industrial strength' production table? Yeah, it looks like a reinforced wall, it was on the 3rd or 4th viewing that I noticed it! Plus, can't believe the size of the Ball Room, seems like one sizeable earthquake and the entire mountain would collapse on it! Thanks again.

[HollywoodGraham]

Hats off to you and of course Duane for a great tour, can't wait for next installment.

[TMandN]

Incredible series. Enjoyed this immensely. Thanks for the tour Duane!

[razor]

Worked in the mine for a few years, the Ray rock was my claim to fame. Good times for sure!!