According to www.phoenixgoldmine.com, the Phoenix Vein was discovered in 1871. The claim changed hands several times over the course of history and was mined by several different individuals, but most notably in the early days from 1934 to 1943 by a Minnesota farmer named Gunderson. The mine closed in 1943 and was not reopened until about 30 years ago by Alvin Mosch. The Phoenix Mine then operated until 1985, according to our guide, Beth, who is a real honest-to-goodness miner. The tour takes you through the top level of the 500-foot deep mine. You get a brief history of the Phoenix Mine in particular as well as mining in general, including changes in equipment and techniques over the years. There are two veins to be seen underground--the Phoenix and the Resurrection Veins. While parts of the veins have been mined, other parts have high grade ore containing "gold, silver, copper, iron pyrite, and tellurium (tellurium - the stuff they make solar panels out of) still in the earth," according to the website.
The Phoenix Mine is no longer in operation, Beth explained, because a mine offering public tours has to satisfy two conditions: 1) It can't be currently in operation, and 2) It has to be a dry mine, i.e., without water filling up the tunnels. Even though there is still high grade ore inside the Phoenix Mine, Beth told us with a twinkle in her eye that she is part of another mining operation on an even bigger vein--one that is 48-inches wide compared to the Phoenix's 24 inches.
When lode mining--mining the ore of precious metals inside the earth--then a complex separation process is used to isolate the different metals from the ore as much as possible before they are sent off to the smelter. Beth showed us machines used to crush the ore down to a veritable powder, a flotation machine of sorts from which very fine gold powder is separated using pine oil, and then a large table upon which the wetted powder was washed and maneuvered so that the different metals could self-sort by weight before being gathered into buckets at the end of the table.
In contrast, when gold panning for placer gold (if I understand correctly), you are looking for the tiny pieces of gold that have been carried by water or glacier away from the original source of lode gold. The farther they travel, the more pure the gold, as the water will wash away silver and other metals. Although tiny gold-bearing pyrite particles can be found, the small-scale placer miner would toss aside these pyrite particles, auriferous or not, as he or she does not have the complex tools at his or her disposal to separate the precious metals. (Although I tried to pin Beth down to this surmisal after the mine tour and her introduction to gold panning, I was unsuccessful in this effort, so it may be a better question for the Gold Prospectors of Colorado.)
The folks at the Phoenix Mine also sent us each home with a small piece of gold and silver ore, which I am fond of studying and comparing to pieces I have gleaned from tailings piles in the area. We are looking forward to using our growing knowledge about gold panning, in addition to gold and silver ore, in our future gold-seeking endeavors. I told Gregg that if there is a way to melt down ore without separating the metals, he is welcome to fashion me a piece of jewelery out of mixed precious metals instead of pure gold. I guess time will tell if he decides to follow up on that offer.
NOTE: It's important to mention that not one but two websites pertain to the Phoenix Mine. There is www.phoenixgoldmine.com, which is "maintained and created by the Volunteer Hours of Jo A. Petit 2002-2009 © Colorado Style Publishing." This is the site you'll want to visit for up to date contact and pricing information. There is also www.phoenixmine.com, which was "created by Al's cousin Lyle," which has a nice picture of a gold bar on it as well as directions to the Phoenix Mine. I mention this because we were confused by the multiple sites until I discovered the distinction, as posted at the first link.
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