Ken's Photo Gallery: Red Cloud Mine - Goodsprings (North) Mine District

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This page last updated on 11/06/2018

(Fig. 01)

Directions: I created this map (Fig. 01) of and area northwest behind the town of Goodsprings, NV. Shown near the center of the map, both of these mines are located approximately 4 miles northwest of Goodsprings Nevada, off of Nevada (53) what today is know as Kingston Road. Highlighted with yellow (and arrows) shows the route we traveled on today's trip.

11/03/2018 Trip Notes: Today Jim Herring, Harvey Smith and Bob Croke came back to this site. Harvey, Bob and I visited it the first time back in 01/15/2014. This site is located less than two miles north of Kingston Road. Again, we spent nearly an hour exploring the abandoned adits, shafts and mill ruins scattered around this site. As you approach the area you are confronted with a view of the remains of the cyanide processing mill (Fig. 02). You actually don't even see the area of the blocked off adits and mine shafts until you look back up the road, southwest from the mill (Fig. 03). As you explore this area you will actually discover no less than four mine shafts (Fig. 04). For safety, all have been either been barred, covered, or filled in to prevent anyone from entering. Some of these shafts were more than 200-300 feet deep. Read the history of this mine below. If you look carefully at the picture in (Fig. 09) at the bottom of the page (click on it to enlarge), you can see the microwave towers on top of lower Potosi in the center of the picture, elevation 6,450 feet, which was our final destination of today's trip. Click here for information and pictures of our trip to the top of lower Potosi ... .

(Fig. 02)

(Fig. 03)

(Fig. 04)

(Fig. 05)

(Fig. 06)

History of the Red Cloud Mine: The Red Cloud Mine falls within one of the largest mining districts in the state of Nevada, the Goodsprings Mining District (1856 - 1957). For more details on this large mining district visit the following page ... Goodspring Mining District. This mines' Primary Mining was Gold; its Secondary Mining was Copper, Silver, Mercury. The Red Cloud mine site (Fig. 03), is located about four miles northwest of Goodsprings on the north side of Kingston Road on the way to Wilson Pass. It was discovered by J.C. Armstrong in 1902. Little work was done until July of 1905. As you approach the mine, the first thing that comes into view is the remnants of the old cyanide plant (Fig. 02). The plant was built in the early part of 1906, and operated almost continuously until September 1907. This was a very deep mine. The main shaft is a vertical shaft that extends to a depth of 116 feet, which is then inclined at 65 degrees till it reaches the the bottom, 300 feet below the collar.

(Fig. 07)

There were five levels; 34, 87, 136, 190, and 300 feet. (Fig. 07) is a map of just the 87-foot level. The mine was a small gold producer near the turn of the century and is typical of many of the older mines in the district. The two known collar shafts of this mine have been sealed. Some very large, partially connected timbers found along the side of the road (Fig. 05) are probably the remains of a frame head that once stood above the main shaft. The few standing structures and tanks (Fig. 06) on the site were part of the gold cyanidation process which was a chemical process of using cyanide to remove gold from low grade ore. Atypically, the gold from this mine was not visible, but miners were able to rely on the presence of pyrite as an ore control. Examination of mine tailings reveals the presence of minor pyrite, copper carbonates, cinnabar and chert-like masses of silica. The record shown in (Fig. 08) was for only a 6-month period in early 1906. It can be assumed that after the building of the on-site cyanide plant, that production increased dramatically. However, it has been estimated that the total production of gold from this mine probably did not exceed $200,000.