Greetings and Salutations from the Front Range,
As we move into 2024, I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and merry holiday season. I also want to express the thanks and deep appreciation of our entire team for your continued support of the GS Mining Company. 2023 was a challenging year for the Bates Hunter Mine, the Water Treatment Plant, and the Golden Gilpin Mill. But with dogged determination, and in the spirit of an immortal literary character, we have moved from “I think I can”, to “I Know I can.”
On December 26, 2023, spot gold was $1,804. One year later it is $2,078 and we are poised to cash in. We are currently producing and bagging Flotation Concentrate in preparation for our first delivery and sale of 20 tons of pay dirt. We are working through our own inventory of Jig Concentrate as buckets of material are passing over the shaker tables on a regular basis. We are still not where we want to be, but we get closer every day.
Speaking of the tables, here’s a view of Mike Meter wet screening a bucket of Jig Concentrate. The concentrate gets screened into three fractions, each of which is run across the large shaker table. The first and second cuts (the very good to good material) are then run across the small table, and the third cut is sent back to the ball mill to see if we can squeeze any more gold out of it. The first cut from the small table goes into the spiral and all the free gold is removed. The rest of the material that comes off the small table is mixed in with the flotation concentrate to raise its grade; and the free gold will be turned into dore bars.
Pictured below you can see Steve Humphray giving my wife a tutorial on the large table.
Lynda and I were in town for the Company Christmas party. This year we took over Crook’s Palace (reputed to be Colorado’s oldest saloon) which is down the street from the Bates Hunter and has been serving miners since 1868. We are lucky to have an incredible group of people who are dedicated to our quest to make mining history.
The last bit of news to close out the year concerns our nimble opportunism in continuing to expand our land package. Here’s a picture of the Becker Bates shaft house, for which we have a thirty-year lease. Last week I was able to get a new deal from the landowner which gives us an option to purchase the structure as well as the entire hillside. Although currently our efforts are laser focused on revenue, this new deal provides substantial future benefits.
One last bit of news before we sign off for 2023. The Golden Gilpin Mill is a Colorado historic landmark. Revitalizing that mill was the dream of Steve King. The first time Steve brought me to the mill, the only work being done was by two fellows in hazmat suits who were cleaning decades of pack rat droppings from the walls and floors. But like the optimist who, when confronted with piles of horse manure, knows that there must be a pony somewhere, Steve was able to see an operating mill churning out bags and bricks of gold. That future is now, and so, in honor of Steve, the Company will rename the mill as:
The Stephen D, King
Golden Gilpin Mill
Perhaps some of you will join me after mud season when we affix an appropriate plaque to the mill in Steve’s memory and honor.
That’s it for this year. Lynda and I – standing in front of the aforementioned Stephen D. King Mill - wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year.
Franklin Levy
GS Mining Company