Sultan Mine, Southern Nevada

[Joanne]

[Note: This has been updated since it's original posting. I originally misidentified the mine as the Keystone, but some research indicated that it is the Sultan mine. JL ]

The Sultan mine is a series of adits into the mountainside. The mine produced lead and zinc from 1910 to 1926. The same district also produced silver, zinc and lead. The face of the hillside is dotted with adits so most likely there are connections between the levels. I've only been in a very small portion of the mine. Even in the small portion of the mine that I explored, there were quite a number of ore chutes indicating that there were numerous stopes above the adits. Considering how long the mine was in operation it stands to reason that there are extensive workings that await exploration.

Here are a few photos that may be of interest.























You can visit the complete photo album at: Sultan Mine Photo Album


Joanne

[Mike]

Another great outing Joanne! Good photos. Looks like you go underground a litttle Well written history and accounting of your adventures.

[Mikezauner]

That's awesome to see footage of mines outside of the local area here in Utah! Thanks for the photos and history, Joanne!

[Joanne]

After a couple of initial visits to explore the area, I wanted to head back out with enough time to spend some time exploring and photographing the inside of the mine. I was able to get a longtime friend to join me so we packed up our gear and headed off into the scorching desert heat. We didn't realize that Las Vegas would match it's historic high for this date at 110°! Out at the mine site there is NO shade to be found. It's about a 1/4 mile uphill hike in loose scree to get from where we parked the truck to the portal.

Once inside we found that the adit branched off in various directions. We followed each of these adits to it's termination. The miners weren't chasing a gold seam, but rather hollowing out huge stopes as the mined the lode. We found two or three stopes that you could have put a 1500 sq ft house in. I realize that I'm a mine exploring novice, but I wonder if other mines have these types of huge "rooms". I don't have the equipment to adequately light stopes of this size. Anyway, here's a few of the photos.

This photo shows tailings at various levels on the hillside.


These photos are from the lowest level (that we know of)














And of course.....ladders... LOL!!




Here's a very interesting article on the Goodsprings district's geology: Goodsprings Geology

There are quite a few more photos in the photo album: Sultan album

There are quite a few more adits to explore....

Joanne

[Stuart]

Mmmm Ladders!

Another great couple of trips! I bet those mines are very very dry, many that we have here are full of water and that sometimes makes them more unstable than the dry ones. What is the temperature like inside of these mines? They say the temperature underground is the average year round temperature of the region, but there are some exceptions.

[Jeff]

Once again nice report Joanne thanks for sharing.

[one_bad_rover]

Beautiful.. thanks for sharing!!!

[Mark1955]

WOW! The rock on that fault line in photo 7 is so smooth you could cut it out and make a counter top out of it!

[Joanne]

Mmmm Ladders!

Another great couple of trips! I bet those mines are very very dry, many that we have here are full of water and that sometimes makes them more unstable than the dry ones. What is the temperature like inside of these mines? They say the temperature underground is the average year round temperature of the region, but there are some exceptions.

It's funny that you bring this up. We entered the mine through the lowest level where there is a constant breeze blowing out of the portal. Since a number of the levels are tied together, there must be a natural convection where warm air enters at the upper level, cools, then sinks and blows out the lowest entrance. As we wandered through the mine you could always feel the slight flow of air and everything was very dry. There was one exception and that is the one passage that continues straight into the mountain. It didn't connect to any other passage and is noticeably moist and dank.



Even in this photo you can see that the ground looks moist.

Joanne

[Joanne]

WOW! The rock on that fault line in photo 7 is so smooth you could cut it out and make a counter top out of it!

Mark, that little passage is really interesting although it doesn't go very far. It was one picture I really wanted to be able to get because of the unique nature of that fault. Throughout the mine there are striations of different types of rock.

This photo is a similar face that goes nearly straight up. (The photo doesn't give a very good perspective of that.) It went up 50 or 60 feet that I could see and probably up to the next level since I could feel air coming down the shaft. This face has been "chewed up" a bit more than the one you referred to, but still very similar.



Joanne

[Dawn_CL]

Hi Joanne,

In picture #1, very top set, is that the headframe for an inclined shaft or is it something else, like maybe a tramway or something?

Those tin cans sure do look familiar in one of those other pictures. Theres LOADS of those below and around my mines on the floor of the desert. They mustve really liked thier canned foods back then. LOL

Also, do you know about how deep that shaft is with the wood covering it? Could you see fairly good to the bottom?

Picture 10, just wondering what that wood and tin structure is heading down that hole. Is it part of inclined tracks or something? Any indications of trackage around that you might have noticed?

Dawn

[Joanne]

Hi Joanne,

In picture #1, very top set, is that the headframe for an inclined shaft or is it something else, like maybe a tramway or something? Here's another view of it.


Those tin cans sure do look familiar in one of those other pictures. Theres LOADS of those below and around my mines on the floor of the desert. They mustve really liked thier canned foods back then. LOL

Also, do you know about how deep that shaft is with the wood covering it? Could you see fairly good to the bottom?

Picture 10, just wondering what that wood and tin structure is heading down that hole. Is it part of inclined tracks or something? Any indications of trackage around that you might have noticed?

Dawn

Lets see...

Picture #1 is actually the ore hopper. It's not obvious because of the angle of the picture. Here's another angle.



Tin cans? Yeah, there's lots of them. I hiked to the top of the ridge and found the foundation of a long-gone building. I'm betting that it was the cook house and that they threw the cans over the edge. Over time the rain and wind caused them to work their way down the ridge and collect at the bottom. Back in "the day" I don't think they had a way to keep fresh foods cold so they ate a LOT of canned food.


What looks like a shaft with wood covering it is actually a "bridge" over a large stope. Here's a photo from inside the stope.



In picture 10 what you are seeing is a wooden chute with a secondary tin chute built just above it. This is where the chutes dump out in a small tunnel.



In the floor of the tunnel right across from the chute is a grizzly that leads to a lower level.



Are there some tracks? There are a few pieces of track in the upper levels. I'm guessing they are left because they are partially covered with dirt and rock. The lower levels have been stripped clean.

Joanne

[bergdh]

Are the black dots on the chutes a counter of how many ore carts filled?

[Stuart]

Yes the black dots are a count of loads of ore hauled out. They make those dots with soot from their carbide lamps. You will find these allover the place in productive mines.

[Dawn_CL]

In my mines i just write on a peice of paper the day of the week that we are working the mines and how many buckets of ore or rock we bring out of the mine that particular day. I never thought of using that dot method, actually i never knew it.

Dawn