Historic Drifts and Shafts Uncovered!

We're close now....
Here are two photos. One looks down into a collapsed room, at the bottom is an incline tunnel from the turn of the previous century. Dirt is piled on the roof but the walls are exposed, indicating that the miners were rooming out from the protection of their tunnel. That is, they must have been digging into the unsupported gravels to get as much pay as possible for as little timbering as they could get away with!
The other photo shows the junction of the Jimmy Allen incline with the Heron Lead itself, and a cross tunnel heading off in search of other underground treasure. The sheer volume of wood under here is amazing. It is perfectly preserved from being flooded for 100 years!

Here is a portion of a press release I wrote on the subject: "This week a local, private mining company, Devlin's Bench Mining, did what no-one has been able to do in the last 100 years. They have reached to the center of this historic ground and are beginning to excavate the remaining channel. In an intense 6 week period they have dug into the hillside and removed 250 thousand cubic metres of overburden to expose the historic shafts to the atmosphere, rather than trying to enter them from underground.

Their work has revealed a honeycomb of old shafts and drifts from turn of the century miners struggling underground in wet dangerous conditions. Pumps hoses, shovels and ore-carts have emerged from the mud and debris which has slumped into parts of the old workings. One of the partners, Rick Mason, says, “This is an incredibly exciting project. The historical connection alone is worth it, but, of course, we're here to discover gold!”

As winter closes in on the Cariboo, this mine, which is already being dusted with snow, is racing the clock to clear out the slum at the old drifts and follow the bedrock to the unexplored sections of the Heron Channel. Although this channel was sometimes as narrow as 8 feet wide it was documented to have produced over 100 ounces of gold to the lineal foot! This makes it one of the richest finds in North America, and this small company is on the verge of uncovering the remaining portions."

Snow Flying and So is the Dirt!

Development work continues on the Heron Channel at Grouse Creek. These two photos show the orderly development of the benches as we reached the back bench to the back of the pit. Look in the background! Snow sits on the trees behind the highest hoe. At 5,000 feet winter can come early! The next photo shows the pit a couple of days ago. In the background is the new settling pond and trommel set up. In the forground the pit takes on its ultimate shape as we drop onto the section of virgin ground directly below. What a beautiful location to work in, with beautiful views of the Quesnel Highlands and the Cariboo Mountains.
In the last couple of days we have begun breaking into the 1860's channels, uncovering air shafts, looking down at flooded rooms and contemplating our pumping program as we are only a few feet above the original workings. Meanwhile, we have begun sluicing some surface pay that is stockpiled on the property and recovering fine gold with the new plant. It is incredibly exciting as we reach down to a target that has not been seen for 150 years and which is reported to have payed up to 10 lbs to the linear foot!