Caved Stopes

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Jim Hatt

Re: Caved Stopes

Post by Jim Hatt »

Mike, That's the scary thing about running around the hills on a Quad too!.

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Re: Caved Stopes

Post by MMM »

The number one rule for anyone traveling in a mining area, don't run up any tailing pile. It don't matter if you are on foot, horse, quad, jeep, whatever. I have seen way to many open shafts with no headframes around and old exposed stopes are even worse. Why? Because a stope will have ZERO, NONE, NADA, ZIP tailing piles near them. I have been near a mine north of Mina and the road passed within feet of an exposed and HUGE open pit stope that was over 500 feet deep ending in a water. It was maybe 200 feet across and a gaping hole. Again because this was a stope, with the mines haulage tunnel about 500 feet away, there were no visable tialings. Only a shear drop. Be carefull out there and have fun.

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Re: Caved Stopes

Post by oroblanco »

HOLA amigos,

Those photos sure look like old mine cave-ins. A good clue that they are not open-pit or open-cut mines is that there is no ore body showing, only country rock and dirt. It is a good idea to stay away from them and people PLEASE STAY OUT OF OLD ABANDONED MINES. Take a look at those photos to see what happens to them when those old rotten timber supports finally let go - it all comes down "poof" like right now and you do NOT have time to run away no matter how fast you may think you are. I know we see very experienced prospectors and miners going into old mines on TV all the time but believe me they are extremely EXTREMELY dangerous and those boys know exactly what they are doing.

I would also say keep off any old mine shaft that looks "shallow" - these often can form a "plug" of sticks, leaves, dirt and debris that fills in near the top of the mine shaft leaving a huge void beneath it and in effect is one giant and deadly pit trap just waiting for some fool to step on it or ride across it on his quad.

One last thing, for anyone out searching for the not-so-famous Lost San Pedro silver mine in southern Arizona, what you will find when you DO find it is two caved stopes almost exactly like these photos. At first glance I had a double-take as it looks so much like that I thought for a moment that is what you found.

Good luck and good hunting amigos, I hope you find the treasures that you seek - but PLEASE be careful around these old mines, they really can be DEATH TRAPS.
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Re: Caved Stopes

Post by Sandman »

Good advice. Another reason to "tread lightly!"
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