French Hill Mine is located 10.5 air miles east of Crescent City, California … in Del Norte County. This places the property amidst the Smith River National Recreation area on French Hill Rd. This property is a private property, not a drive by property … contact the agent to view the property. The Gold Mine Cabin is at an elevation of 437? above sea level.

In 1983, the government did several test holes at French Hill Mine and estimated the gold from the size of flakes to the size of a grain of rice to be worth $5,598,700 at $434.00 per ounce. This did not account for the platinum value or gold value in the black sand, or nuggets larger than a grain of rice. Converting the government figures of 1983 at today’s price of gold, about $900 per ounce, there is a value of $11,599,591.00 ranging in size from flakes to grains of rice. According to government figures of 1983, French Hill has approximately 10,000 tons of black sand with 9.95 ounces of gold per ton. This implies there is approximately 99,500 ounces of gold at $900.00 per ounce …. implying more than $89,550,000 of black sand gold. In addition there is about 15,660 ounces of platinum, at $1000 per ounce. This implies there is another $15,600,000 in platinum. Totaling the value of the minerals on this property, there is an estimated $115,000,000 in minerals on at French Hill.

Mining was in progress sometime in the 1930s. A current mining operation would consist of dozing off the overburden, then a front end loader would pick up the gravel and dump it on a grizzly to remove the larger rocks. The remainder would be washed through a sluice box where the free gold is recovered. This type of operation would allow the reclamation of the stream bed and surrounding for development after the gold has been extracted.