Man, what a long day Saturday was. I visited two mines and then took a long ride in a small plane (so that today, I can look at another mine). Here are some photos … First, we tromped into a mine …
Next, I’ll show you one of the wider passages of this old mine. Remember, we’re in Mexico, and these mines were first opened decades, even centuries ago, so people were smaller. In the SMALL passages, I (BANG!) kept hitting (BANG!) my damned (BANG!) head on the ceiling! Thank heaven for hard hats.
Another analyst on the tour, Dave, is even taller than me, so I was trying to use him as a judge of when I should duck. But I found out later he was using me for the same purpose, and from the number of headers I took into solid rock, I think he’s better at this game than I am.
Anyway, you’ve heard the phrase “dark as a coal mine”? Well, coal mines have nothing on certain silver mines I could name …
In the photo above, we are looking up at galleries that are carved out of the mountain. The chambers seem to go on forever …
And here we get to the prize (below). A vein of silver running through the rock …
Next, we went to an old ruin of a mine that is being explored for potential mining today. It had a certain “Indiana Jones” feel, like we were walking around an abandoned temple.
Also, vast pits opened all around us, where mining had been done in the past. However, it was important to come here, as the geologist in the picture below was showing us …
… because here, you can see where the silver vein comes right to the surface. It has been marked with paint.
And more paint on the rocks shows us where the vein continues right up the side of the mountain …
When the Spanish came to these mountains, they found these visible veins and would follow the visible silver down into the rock, burrowing out narrow, twisty passages and galleries by lamplight. Eventually, they got down deep. And that’s where we went next. Here, a bunch of people cram into an elevator that was even smaller (if possible) than the one from the other day …
And after a noisy, creaking, jerking ride, we arrive at the bottom of the old shaft …
Then it’s trudge, trudge, trudge to where the new mining is going on. I took this next shot from one chamber through a hole in the rock into the next chamber where a bunch of miners are working (and analysts are getting in the way, LOL)
And in this next photo, you can see the silver vein running right over my head …
Finally, we get to the prize: Core samples rich with silver, and some gold, too.
We also took a tour of the very modern plant that my hosts picked up for dirt-cheap.
Don’t worry, readers. I’ll be revealing more about this in future issues of Red-Hot Canadian Smal Caps, Red-Hot Global Small-Caps, and at MoneyandMarkets.com
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