Historic Gold Flint Lode

The Historic Gold Flint Lode Mine for sale, a 20.66 Acre Unpatented Lode Mining Claim. The claim is located just outside of Butte, Montana and has been properly marked. All claims have been carefully surveyed, mapped and researched. MMC #240267

The Gold Flint has roughly 500' of workings in the main drift. It was reported by one of the previous owners that visited the claim several times to explore the mine and do some sampling that he found some good gold values in this mine. The floor of the mine is full of material that can be panned. He took four samples from the floor of the mine, all showed gold.

The Gold Flint claim covers the Gold Flint vein, an exceptionally rich deposit of gold found on the edge of the Butte Mining District. The Claim covers a full 20.66 acres and 2 of the last unpatented mines in the area. Only one of the mines are open and accessible, but it’s a rich, gold producing mine. The Gold Flint Mines were noted in the Butte Special district description as producing high quantities of nearly pure gold but in small quantities of less than 1000 tons, this is a relative term when you are talking about the massive amounts of ore that have come out of the Butte area and the high price of gold today.

The Gold Flint is a short drive out of Butte. A dirt road winds up into the hills and right to the old cabin and on to the mines. This is an old and rarely visited area except by locals. A high clearance 4WD vehicle can make it to the mine no problem, we recommend you take your time, because there are some rough, technical spots. The rough road is probably the reason that the mines are not often visited or disturbed. The road runs to the base of the hill below the mines. There is a good spot for parking near the cabin, in a small clearing below the mines. There is road access to the open mine, and it’s a quick ride up the hill to the mine entrance, where you will find a nice, flat staging area for working. The claim covers a full 20.66 acres, and has been written to cover the general trend of the lode.

The mine is an old cut, most likely pre-1870s. The main mine adit was cut higher in the back and lower in the front in order to self-drain each year during the spring runoff. We were unable to find the early history on this mine, but it appears to have been one of many mines in the area that belonged to the Nellie Mascot Group. The Nellie Mascot company abandoned their mining operations in the area shortly after their processing equipment burned down.

There is roughly 500' of workings in the main drift of the Gold Flint. A previous owner bought the claim for a family member to give him something to do during the summer. But when we met the man he was out of his element not ever having mined before and he didn't have the correct equipment to work it correctly. They didn't maintain the claim after that last season and Gold And Mineral Mines of Montana LLC has since staked and Filed the Gold Flint mine.

When we visited it this past summer there was between 6-18 inches of water in the middle of the mine in the main drift but the back of the mine was dry. The water won't cause a problem for your work. It would be easy to siphon out the water with a couple hundred feet of hose while working the back of the mine, which is dry. Or the adit could be opened to allow the water to drain naturally. There is about a foot of paydirt on the floor of the mine waiting to be worked. Every spring the mine floods from the runoff washing the ore down to the floor. This has been happening for about 100 years. The ore on the floor is now covering the old ore cart ties completely. A previous owner discovered this shortly before he had to end his trip. It will take a lot of work but there is about 2,000 square feet of loose sediment on the floor of the mine that could be taken out and run through a sluice. Sampling shows the highest concentration is near the front of the mine at the lowest point on the floor. The floor was sampled at four places and all areas showed gold, silver, quartz, black sands and sulfides. Basically all that is needed is to haul the dirt out from the floor, classify it and pan it then crush the larger material and pan it also.

The placer gold on the floor is the easy stuff to start making money right away. The mine itself has plenty of gold ore ready to be worked out. However, the minerals in the mine are not easily visible because of a coating of dirt and silt over the surface. This coating hides the ore but is easily scraped off to reveal the rich gold ore.

The tailings offer another good mining opportunity. Over the years some of the gold has washed down to the bottom of the tailings pile from the top. Sampling shows the tailings are consistent with the gold and silver inside the mine. The previous miners used the best technology of their time but they left a huge amount of good ore behind in the tailings. In addition, sulfide ore was harder to treat back then and most times it was thrown out on the tailings piles at old mines. Some of the lode mines from the 1800's are full of gold to this day because the technology to process sulfide ore was not available back then so they threw it out and over time the ore has been sitting out in the weather oxidizing which then releases the gold. Many old mine dumps are very profitable for this reason alone. You'll find unprocessed gold ore throughout the hillside and mixed in with the quartz are some nice garnets.

At the base of the hill sits an old cabin in a field. This could be fixed up and used for staging. There is plenty of area to park vehicles and stage equipment.