Exploring an Old Abandoned Gold Mine

Exploring an Old Abandoned Gold Mine

Hey everybody! Come along as I head deep into the mountains of western New Mexico to explore an old gold mine dating back to the 1880s. This gold mine once reached a depth of 716 feet with over 10,000 feet of underground workings. Unfortunately due to flooding and collapse, much of it is inaccessible. You may have noticed, I moved rather cautiously in this mine, as it reeked of cat urine (most likely a mountain lion). I didn’t encounter the mountain lion, but the smell in the mine definitely let me know that it has been there in the past!

On the surface, the area had beautiful displays of colorful copper minerals, and the typical brown/orange minerals associated with gold. Just beyond the mine’s portals were foundations and remains of the old mill that accompanied this mine. When I return to this area, I’ll do a little more of an extensive explore of the mill area.

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10 Comments

  1. Exploring Abandoned Mines and Unusual Places on November 30, 2022 at 1:23 am

    That was kind of a crazy entrance with two portals and what looked like open stopes around them! At around 4:00, you mentioned that eye bolt that you saw and said they must’ve had a slusher in there. I came across an identical eye bolt in that uranium mine I was in recently but didn’t know what it was used for. Were the eye bolts used exclusively for slushers or what? That hole in the tunnel floor leading down to the flooded lower level was interesting! Very rare to find a tunnel like that with daylight at both ends. I’m assuming you’ll go back and try to access those older workings that were above you in the tunnel, right?

  2. OTG Exploring on November 30, 2022 at 1:23 am

    Frank sent me here

  3. Abdullah al-azmi on November 30, 2022 at 1:24 am

    Jake snake

  4. Meteorite Hunter Gemstone on November 30, 2022 at 1:25 am

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  5. Graydon Jones on November 30, 2022 at 1:26 am

    Very cool !!

  6. Headframe Hunters Mining & Exploration on November 30, 2022 at 1:27 am

    Nice bananagram! This is a neat mine, one of the three or four largest in the district. Unfortunately most of the workings are flooded and were only accessible via the shaft in any case. That pit could have been the shaft but I’m not positive. I think I walked up about fifteen minutes after you’d finished filming this one.

    MSHA records indicate some underground work was done there in the late 80s and early 90s. I haven’t asked around much about this one as the amount of dewatering required makes it a non-starter for quick-and-dirty low-tonnage work.

    We should go check out the easternmost mine in the district when you’re on winter break. That road runs through washes and the monsoon this year has been especially bad, so I expect to walk the last mile or two. The flooding attempted to bury the portal at one of the active/standby mines nearby!

  7. Sue Girling on November 30, 2022 at 1:28 am

    Hi Justin, that end adit you showed with the clear water, I would say that animals collect there to drink and it also looks like the water either gets higher or it has been higher in the past because of the line on both sides. The mill site was quite large for such small workings, either there is a bigger mine in the area or they got a lot of good ore out of those workings. A great video, thank you for sharing, much love. xx 💞

  8. Captain Dan on November 30, 2022 at 1:36 am

    The flooding kept ya from checking out the workings extensively but at least you were rewarded with some nice color. Thanks for showing the photo of the original site, musta been a lotta men working there at one time.

  9. Wild West Exploration's on November 30, 2022 at 1:37 am

    Lmao this is definitely not the name of this mine but I’ll keep it secret

  10. Ralph Patrick on November 30, 2022 at 1:45 am

    Great colors!

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