In this episode of Solomon's Vegas Adventures, Solomon, Alonso, Eyubed, and Isabel explored the Colosseum Mine- an abandoned Gold mine located near Las Vegas, about 50 miles south in Mountain Pass, California. THERE IS STILL AN EXTENSIVE AMOUNT OF GOLD LEFT IN THE MINE, AND WE FOUND SOME. The crew found tons of Gold, Electrum, Pyrite, Chalcopyrite, Muscovite, Hornblende, Feldspar, Quartz, and Sphalerite, but did not take specimens home. The Mineral mis-identified as Moonstone in the video was found to be Chalcopyrite after further research.
The Colosseum Mine was abandoned in 1993, despite much of its gold reserves still being intact. This mine was abandoned because the company in charge of it, Lac Minerals, thought California's Mining Laws were too strict and moved shop to Nevada. The Colosseum Mine was once the largest metallic mine in Eastern California. Over $100 million worth of gold has been mined here, with an estimated ore reserve of 9.5 million tonnes, which still hasn't been fully exploited. Translation? There's still a SH*T-TON of Gold out there. However, you are not allowed to collect any rocks due to the Colosseum Mine being in Mojave National Preserve, owned by the National Park Service.
Let me just add a clarification here, when I said "gold reserve" of 9.5 million tonnes in the video, I meant the ore that has exploitable gold is estimated to be 9.5 million tonnes. The actual gold yield and reserve is FAR SMALLER than that, but there still is an abundance of gold. If you want to know some real cool math, the average cubic foot of granite weighs 170 lbs, and the average mountain weighs 2.6 x 10^11 tons (according to the all-knowing Google). So even though 9.5 million tonnes of ore reserves sounds huge, it's roughly 0.00365% of the mountain... by weight at least, according to my calculations.
Geologically, Colosseum Mine is located in a massive rhyolite breccia complex and the type of ore deposit there is a complex, gold-bearing hydrothermal deposit. At Colosseum, Gold occurs both in vein and replacement deposits, the vein form being the gold-silver alloy known as Electrum (60% Au, 40% Ag), and the replacement deposit being layers of Gold emplaced in Pyrite and between Pyrite layers. So the Fool's Gold here actually contains real gold, at the micrometer level. The main method of gold extraction at Colosseum was evidently heap-leaching. The bottom of the mine contains a pond that most likely contains dangerous levels of Cyanide, Arsenic, Cadmium, and other by-products of heap leaching and industrial mining activity. DO NOT ENTER THE LAKE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MINE. IT'S TOXIC AND DANGEROUS.
Getting to the Colosseum Mine without a 4WD is a bit of a hassle, to say the least. With a Jeep, Truck, or other High-Clearance, 4WD Vehicle, getting to Colosseum Mine is a drive-up. Without one, it's a pretty long and difficult hike. My Chevy Equinox was able to make it part way up the Colosseum dirt road, but we had to hike up most of the road. Whatever the case may be, Colosseum Mine is not for the faint of heart. Our hike turned out to be 10 miles roundtrip with an elevation gain of 2100 feet. Pretty difficult, but not impossible. We did it in 2 1/2 hours.
Thank you to Gregg Wilkerson's study of the Colosseum Mine on his website and the official website of Mojave National Preserve for the information.
All photos property of their respective owners, no copyright infringement intended.
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13 мар 2021
