Mountain Trip About my trip to Melba. I did find the mill, it has 2 warehouses with surrounding ground. One warehouse I got to go in, the other one I did not. I arrived unannounced, They are still waiting ( Silver Falcon ) on equipment from the manufacture to finish the mill.
I ate lunch with a couple local farmers that live in the area, very friendly. The local people don't know much about Silver Falcon. They did say (Silver Falcon) got permission from the school board to allow a Helicopter to land on school property, and that one of their friends had done some road work on the mountain. They mentioned that there had been some equipment arrive a while back, with some men working there. I asked about War Eagle mountain and about trucking tailings down. Mind you they are farmers but have lived there all their lives and have trucked farm product all around that area. They believe that a truck could handle a 30 ton load down the mountain and still be within all regulations (BLM etc. ) According to signs at the bottom of the mountain (War Eagle Mountain.) The mountain road is closed from Nov 1 to June 1.
I did talk briefly to an employee that had just arrived when I was getting ready to drive to the Mountain. (he let me see inside the warehouse. I didn't want to ask too many questions and he didn't want to say too much. (understandable) I do know they plan on trucking tailings down the mountain in the near future to last thru the mountain closure period. I did ask what they were going to do with the crushed rock after it had run thru the mill . answer : it will be a fine clean sand and that anyone in the area can have it for free, just haul it away.
I did drive up the War Eagle mountain and on to Silver City. I did not have any trouble getting there and back. I wanted to go to one of the mines but they are off the beaten path, and I was running out of time and daylight. I did talk to a lady at Silver City. Her ancestors had sold supplies and food to the miners back in the 1800's. She told me that there had not been any mining activity in some time. What about Kinross? She said that they had mined one mountain open pit and had started another until they hit granite, and shut down. They were open pit not a hard rock mining operation. Take it for what it's worth, I'm just repeating what I was told. (further investigation needed on that.)
I'm satisfied with what I found out too stay invested in SFMI. They were excited about finding a mine that no one had been in for over a hundred years, they also found where the miners must have eaten, discarded food cans ,bottles with cork etc. Very exciting.
lleno