Chloride Point Mine

[Derek]

Has anyone ever been to the Chloride Point mine in Silverado Canyon just south of Ophir canyon? It is a great multilevel mine that milled its own ore right out of a lower tunnel. It has been about 3 years since I have been up there and I am hoping that reclamation project hasn't reached that far yet.

Derek

[Mike]

I have not. Do you happen to know the location that you could post as a google map link? Might be worth taking a look at and investigating more into. We'll likely visit it when we make our trip this upcoming week.

[Derek]

Here you go: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...06416&t=h&z=18

You can clearly see the upper and lower level mines dumps. Once inside there are several levels to explore.

[UnderUtah]

So you have been inside? What can you tell us about it? Did you enter an adit that immediately opens into a kind of pit on the left with boards crossing the pit and continuing into the mine or do you recall something different? The entrance I just described was open three years ago, now gated. As far as I know it's the only "open" adit on that face of the hill. We are trying to figure out whether the Chloride Point is being referred to as the Silveropolis mine - there were some guys on the early 90s that were in the "Silveropolis" and have footage of themselves on youtube riding in yellow mine carts. We are all red with jealousy and want to find this mine and the aforementioned carts. So what do you recall?

[Derek]

The entrance that you are referring to is the one that I went in also. That sucks that they got to that one also. It must have taken them quite a bit of time to close that hole up considering how odd shaped it was and also how big it was. I seem to recall that this is the lower entrance which is also the only open adit that we could find. From the inside of the mine we think we found where the upper tunnel once exited though. UnderUtah did you go inside? It was also about three years when I was there last. I just remember there being a lot of ups and downs and many levels. I didn't even get to cover the whole thing because we ran out of time.

The mine with the yellow carts is in Ophir canyon below lion hill. It has a shed or had a shed right outside the tunnel where they use to store the electric locomotive. The mine has a big metal door blocking the entrance, but years ago when I went in there, there was I "alternate" way to get in. I'm hoping that the reclamation crew left that one alone considering that it already has a locked door blocking the entrance. Up to this point I have never been able to figure out the name of that mine and it is the only one in Ophir that I have been in that has the newer ore carts in it so I am sure it is the same one that you are talking about. I think that it was mined in the 80s because of how new some of the equipment looked in there. There is a ventilating machine hanging from the ceiling in the back of the farthest tunnel that I thought was a cool site to see, it looked brand new! The electric locomotive is still there and with some new batteries could probably be brought back to life.

Walt Shubert has been the "mayor" of Ophir for many years and I went to school with Chris his grandson who has spent a lot of time up there with Walt who is very knowledgeable about the area. Chris once told me of a mine named the Buffalo mine that supposedly had working electric light in its entrance and one of the tunnels led into a natural cave. I always suspected the Silverpolis mine to be the one he was referring to, but after exploring it I came up empty on finding the cave. Unfortunately I don't have the GPS coordinates for the Silverpolis mine, but I could explain how to get to it if you'd like.

Derek

[UnderUtah]

I can see you are going to fit-in very well here!! I did not go into the adit, I had no gear and was alone so the reasonable and prudent me decided not to go in. When I returned a year or tow later with a friend it was gated… We need to revisit. Do you recall the pit being really dangerous to traverse or am I just being a wuss?

The mine with the carts – are you saying that it is in Ophir canyon behind some of the residences on the northwest face of the mountain? I can imagine that there would be such recent relics in some of the mines on that side of the canyon. I haven’t been anywhere on the northwest side of the canyon due to possible trespassing. The carts did look pretty modern so this could certainly be the one.

We were wondering about a similar sounding steel doored adit blowing cold air that is up the trail toward Lion Hill – it is about half way up the ATV trail, is a large 6’ x 6’ opening, and has a small cabin on the right hand side. Does this ring a bell?

A guy I worked with a few years ago, Brian Nash, said that his uncle was the Mayor and introduced me on a chance meeting last summer in Ophir. He was operating a backhoe near the newly constructed faux mining town so we didn't have much time to talk, but Brian was supposed to get me contact info for property owners / permission but nothing ever developed there. I don’t remember the Mayor’s name, but I assume it is the same guy.

I would love to find a natural cavern in one of these mines – we were just in Eureka and talking about a cavern that they intersected with the Chief mine. It was documented that they pumped 4000 GPM into the cavern to control water in the mine – never filled the cavern and though the water was “traced” with an additive the additive was never detected in any other water in the area. Pretty cool!

If you wouldn’t mind describing the Silveropolis location that would be great. We have had nothing but trouble finding mine names, and have resorted to renaming them as seen fit if TOPO Utah dosen't have a label. Somewhere there is some concise database of data for mineral claimants and property owners and mine names but it has so far eluded us!

Thanks again!!!

[Derek]

The planks going over the pit are surprisingly very stable. I sent my brother across first to be sure. Hehehe Just kidding I went first to test it and they were fine.

The mine that you are talking about that is off of the ATV trail is also the one that I am talking about. Next to the cabin there use to be a metal shed that housed the locomotive. This is an old mine that has obviously been reworked in recent years.

If he was operating heavy equipment then it was for sure Walt that is his passion.

Now if I would have been old enough to go in all of the Eureka mines before they were reclaimed now that would have been grand. I work with several people that grew up in Eureka and boy do they have some stories to tell. Some have even worked for Chief Consolidated in their heyday before they went bankrupt. I guess some of the mines there have a lot of geothermal water that was hot enough to burn the workers when it went over the tops of their rubber boots. Heh sometimes I think I pester these guys asking so many questions.

Do you by chance has the MASMILS mine database that was put out by the Bureau of Mines before they were closed by the Federal Government? It is not all inclusive, but has a wealth of mine locations across the world.

[UnderUtah]

Good to know that the wood is stable. We (collectively) should revisit that site and see if there is someway to get in… So we’re talking about the same place, cool. I never saw a locomotive or anything but it would be awesome to see something like that. Walt seemed pretty engrossed in the backhoe-ing, and I must admit that every chance I have to operate anything larger than a snowblower I get excited too!

Neat story about the geothermal water – that would be a boiling hell to work in. I don’t have the MASMILS data, I need to go look for it then! I actually work with a chemist that worked for the Bureau before it was shut down, but all he ever wants to talk about is separation columns and floatation separation – no real first-hand exposure to anything other than Bingham Canyon.

Hopefully the Ophir trip can come together in its complete scope and we can answer a lot of questions!

Thanks!

[Stuart]

Mines

Mike and I are working very hard to make this trip the very best it can be. It sounds like we have a lot of good areas to explore that have not been backfilled. Next week we will go check out the Chloride Point and some of the other mines recently discussed in this forum. If there is a way into any of them, we will find it. We will take lots of pictures and hopefully get the chance to talk to an Ault or two before then. It sounds like our August trip will be filled with lots of story telling and mine lore exchanging. It also sounds like it may be a good idea to schedule a meeting for everyone to exchange documents, photos, and other mine data sometime in the near future.

Do you by chance has the MASMILS mine database that was put out by the Bureau of Mines before they were closed by the Federal Government? It is not all inclusive, but has a wealth of mine locations across the world.

First one to find a copy of this let me know so we can get all, or parts of it posted for everyone to enjoy.

Now if I would have been old enough to go in all of the Eureka mines before they were reclaimed now that would have been grand. I work with several people that grew up in Eureka and boy do they have some stories to tell. Some have even worked for Chief Consolidated in their heyday before they went bankrupt. I guess some of the mines there have a lot of geothermal water that was hot enough to burn the workers when it went over the tops of their rubber boots.

This might explain the water vapor/steam that pours from the Eagle-Bluebell shaft. If you do want to explore what is left of Eureka's mines I would recommend doing it soon. DOGM is currently in the process of accepting a bid to close 116 of the mines in the Eureka-Mammoth area. Almost all of these closures will be backfills. Mojave Underground is doing everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen, but without the public support we anticipated, things aren't looking so good.

[Derek]

The locomotive is still in the tunnel with the carts attached. That is interesting that you should mention the guy that you work with. I also work with a guy that worked for the Bureau, but I think he was an engineer. He too is very smart about the milling processes and also the types of minerals and where to find them, but has spent very little time underground and doesn't have much info about mine locations.

The MASMILS database is not copyrighted (at least I don't think it is) and if Mike has enough room on his FTP site then I could upload to that for everyone. It is the size of a 700MB cd.

Derek

[UnderUtah]

Thanks for all the hard work Mike and Stu - I know you are working vey hard to make things come together. Great info being exchanged for sure. Would we want to meet pre-trip to talk / plan a few focused visits or just meet up there and get going? Guess alot depends on contacting the Aults.
Let me know if there is anything I can do to support you from my current post in lovely Lafayette, LA.

Thanks to all!

[Mike]

Room has been made available on the server and we are awaiting its upload via FTP . As soon as its on the servers, I'll jump on it and get it out there.

Still working on getting in contact with the Aults. I called John and Leos's place and got a voicemail, so I will try back later and hopefully with better success.

Stu is right, if the public doesn't know whats going on, nothing can really be done. Our attempts are not being taken as planned at all, but at least we have tried our best so far. We'll see what happens with time

[Derek]

It is finished uploading and it is an nrg Nero image file. If you don't have Nero or your burning software is unable to burn nrg images then you can download Daemon Tools, mount the image, and then burn it using whatever burning software you'd like.

[Mike]

Thanks Cheever!
I've been working the last 4 hours creating a Google Earth KMZL file via a msa db dump. Been dumping at full load on a Core 2 Q6700 @ 3.2GHz for the last 2 hours. Gives an idea of how immense this database is. Should be done soon! Over 150,000 entries its processing.

The download is:

http://www.mojaveunderground.com/media/MASMILS.nrg

I'd recommend downloading and installing PowerISO to mount the image.

The KML file is done!
WARNING!!!
This KML file will bring your system to its knees! If you don't have at least 1GB Ram in XP, or 2GB in Vista, with at least a 128MB video accelerator and a dual core 1.8ghz CPU+...

http://www.mojaveunderground.com/media/utah.kmz

From what I can see, each marker is within 100-500 yards of its actual location. Some are right on.

[Derek]

Yeah I have noticed that the locations are sometimes erratic and not exactly pinpoint, but it definitely gets you in the general area which is usually close enough to find the mine. Maybe it has to do with the accuracy of the GPS receivers back in the 90's when this database was put together.