The Global Resource For Connecting Buyers and Sellers

Pineau Placer Mine

Montana Coarse Gold Placer Mine

Mine Details

Commodities: Gold
Available Terms: For Sale
Price: $450,000

Summary

140 acres +/- unpatented placer claims along with nine underlying lode claims in Granite County, Montana on U.S. National Forest Service lands. Mine has good access and haul roads.

Location and Access

The historic Pineau Placer is located near the headwaters of Gold Creek in Granite County, Montana. It is accessible from Interstate 90 off exit at Gold Creek, Montana. Access road is mostly gravel and is accessible by car. Heavy equipment accessible. The mine property its situated at 7000 feet elevation and generally is snowed in from December-March.

To get to the property, take the Gold Creek exit off Interstate Highway 90 and proceed approximately 4.5-5 miles through the town of Gold Creek, MT to USFS Road 636. USFS Road 636 forks off the gravel just before reaching the tailings at the old town of Pioneer. Proceed along Road 636 for approximately 8.5 miles to the junction of Road 1544. Take the left fork to the Pineau Mine.

Description

The Gold Creek placer mines are located near the Granite-Powell County line within the
Deer Lodge National Forest. The project site is comprised of five placer claims and nine lode claims situated in Section 11, Township 8 North, Range 12 West, Montana Principal Meridian.

Geology

The dominant rock in the district is granodiorite. In the lodes, deposition in open spaces
is small; such ores consist mainly of quartz calcite, pyrite and chalcopyrite with lesser
amounts of galena, sphalerite, and tetrahedrite. Alteration of wall rock has been
extensive. Some of the granite is a felty mass of sericite, calcite, quartz and pyrite; the
alteration is such that often the original texture is no longer evident.

Much of the placer gold is deposited along granitic bedrock and is contained in glacial
till deposited during different stages of glacial advance. The majority of the coarse gold
is found within till of the earliest stage which rests directly on bedrock and is usually 1-
3 feet thick. The early till is comprised mostly of tan and gray quartzite clasts and
usually exhibits a rusty color owing to high iron content. Some gold is found in an intermediate aged till which is
comprised of a greater proportion of metasedimentary and metamorphic rocks such as
schist and hornfels. Younger till covers much of the area as varying thicknesses (2-12 feet average) of barren overburden and
is comprised almost entirely of white granodiorite boulders and clasts.

Erosional channels, possibly ancestral stream channels, and/or joints in the underlying
bedrock that trend obliquely to the present stream course act as natural traps for the
placer gold.

In 1983, the Jacobsen mining operation encountered these erosional channels and, when found, they yielded over 40 ounces of coarse gold per day with a 100 yard/day operation. A geological study of the area was conducted for Montana Mining and Timber in 1985 prior to their acquisition of the unpatented claims. The report presents the results of test pit sampling and summarizes ore grade and quantity (available for inspection). Placer gold values vary widely from 2-100 yards to make an ounce of raw gold. Nuggets are common. Hard rock assays available on request with NDA.

History

The Pineau Placer (aka McFarland placer) was the largest producer on the stream itself. Although some mining was reported in 1870, serious development did not begin until 1896. From 1896 to 1913 the placer produced $35,000 (at $20/ounce). The claim was primarily worked by sluices with boulders blasted or lifted out of the stream by a derrick. Gold recovered was about 790 fine with nuggets up to 10 ounces. Placer gold appears to have originated principally from the veins in the mountainous area upstream with a significant deposit of residual placer formed from gold-bearing veins in the floor of the placer.

The Pineau placer is one of the largest producers in the district as well as being the best documented. The placer was located on the upper middle fork of Gold Creek around 1870, but development of the placer did not occur
until 1896. Gus Pineau, Eugeen McFarland and Green Dudley discovered the Friday placer mine in 1895. Shortly thereafter McFarland and Pineau, along with two new partners, began mining the other nearby claims. McFarland is credited with the camp associated with the Pineau Placer. This camp is shown on USGS maps in 1905, 1908 and
1912 as the Anderson Cabins (Pineau Placer Camp).

The gold was coarse, with a minimum average size about that of a grain of wheat. It has yielded large nuggets, typically less than 10 ounces, but the largest weighed in at 27 ounces (on display at the Larabee Bank, Deer Lodge for many years). Much of the coarser gold was obtained while drift mining along bedrock.

J. H. Crockett worked the Pineau Placer in 1934. In 1934 the hydraulic operation was supported by a 450,000 gallon storage dam and 1.5 miles of ditch which delivered water with 150 feet of head to a #3 Giant nozzle. A 10-ton portable derrick was used to remove boulders and the gravel was washed in 500 feet of 20 x 20 inch sluice boxes.

The mine was worked as recently as 1983 by Clifford Jacobsen of Deer Lodge, Montana.
In 1983, Jacobsen operated a small wash plant fed with a backhoe and the operation
recovered a significant amount of coarse gold with nuggets weighing up to 14 ounces.
Jacobsen abandoned the mining operation after suffering a heart attack and the claims
were sold to Montana Mining and Timber Co. (MM&T) in 1986. MM&T continued
operations on the patented Master Mine but did not actively mine their unpatented
holdings. The claims were ultimately acquired by the current owner in the mid 1990s.

Additional Information

Much additional information available with NDA.



Contact Seller

Please use the form below: