26 May - Argo Mine Tour

26 May
Today we headed west of Denver to Idaho Springs and the Argo Mine.

It is actually more than a mine.  The Argo complex also includes a massive tunnel and a huge mill operation.  In the late 1800's work commenced on building a 4 mile long tunnel to connect various mine shafts and provide a pathway from Central City to Argo.  This would provide a route to bring ore to the Argo mill for processing, and a pathway to rid water from the mine shafts.   The tunnel was finished in 1910 and by 1914 the mill was operating at full capacity.  It continued to operate off and on until 1943 when there was a disastrous floor.  Four men died when they blasted in a mine shaft and it released a massive underground body of water.  The water completely flooded the Argo tunnel and it was closed.  Today the tunnel is sealed except to vent water, which is piped to a purification unit and provides water to the town of Idaho Springs.  A short distance of the tunnel is now open to tourists and we got to see it today.  The mill building and much of the equipment remains and it is also open to tour.

So tours operate on the hour and we arrived a bit early, so we started off learning how to pan for gold.

The admittedly buy their sand at Home Depot and "seed" it with small flakes of various fools gold and actual gold.  the portions are seeded to ensure each customer finds one or two flakes of gold. 

Doreen being instructed by our tour guide.

Doreen finds a couple flakes of gold!  Todd Hoffman (Gold Rush TV Show) would be proud!

Once the tour started we watched a video about the Argo complex and learned about the history of Argo and various other aspects of the mining process.

Our tour guide explains the processes

A gold nugget and another rock with gold imbedded

One of the old pay records used to document miner's pay.

A map of the tunnel and all the mine shafts connected to it.

One of the original pictures showing the mill building.  The tunnel entrance is behind it.

After the classroom presentation we headed out to an equipment display where the tour guide demonstrated a slanted table that uses water and vibration to separate gold from other materials.

A demonstration of "the widow maker", air-powered drilling machine, used to drill holes into the rock for blasting materials to be inserted..  The term "widow maker" comes from the powder it generates sending silica airborne which is breathed by the operator and causing symptoms like black lung disease.  Later they developed drills that used water which cut the dust in half.

We then boarded a bus and traveled up the mountain to the tunnel entrance.  As we departed the bus we spotted two long horned sheep on the mountainside.

We then proceeded to the tunnel entrance.  The area is strewn with old mining equipment such as ore cars, tools and other equipment.  As I mentioned before, the tunnel in sealed about 50 ft in with a thick steel plate with the exception of water pipes bringing water from the tunnel to the purification plant.

Entrance to the Argo Tunnel

Security door has been added so the entrance can be secured.

Water pipeline exiting the tunnel

Inside the tunnel where it is sealed, except the water pipe connections

The water purification plant just below the tunnel entrance

One of the old signs

Just outside the tunnel entrance is what used to be a large air compressor facility.  One of the compressors was removed to recycle the steel in support of World War II.  Most of the other air compressor remains.

One of the two large air compressors used for breathing air, tunnel ventilation and to power drilling equipment.

We then touted the Agro Mill building which is where the ore goes as it exits the tunnel.  It is processed and it goes through the mill building and pure gold results.  The building is massive but it needs to be as the ore is very heavy.  Here are just a few pictures (I took a bunch!)

The mill building is very tall

The is called a rotary tipple.  It can be moved horizontally and then rotates (tips) to dump ore in the appropriate ore bin

This shows the tipple and the ore bins

Ore is transported from the bins up to a holding areas shown here.

The milling process used many nasty chemicals to include cyanide, mercury, etc These chemicals were mixed with the ore to help extract it

A grinding machine used to crush the ore and extract the gold

Amalgamation tables.  They were coated with mercury which mixed with the gold, was heated and vaporized separating the gold for the waste and leaving nearly pure gold. 

 

Ball mill used either ceramic or steel balls to help crush  the ore and extract the gold, similar to a rock tumbler.

 

Displays of various mining equipment in the museum on the lowest level of the mill.

Looks like an old telephone butt set!

Blasting equipment

That's enough pictures, but believe me there are plenty more to see!  We had a great time at the ARGO mine today and learned a lot.  We both felt touring the ARGO mine helped to tie things together with what we see on the Gold Rush TV show.

Tomorrow we will drive to Lafeyette CO and visit Barbie and Jake Puzio,