Description
The Dixie claim has a total of three mines present on this 20.66 acre claims. Two of the mines are shafts, one is 27 feet deep the other is 43 feet deep, then it looks like it veers off to the south- although we couldn't tell for sure. The third mine is a huge audit with a lot of open space. 630 feet of total workings. It looks like the last miner actually lived in the adit - there’s an old cot and table and there’s one large cavern with three or four different crosscuts branching off. Still tones of visible vein left to work.
Good XRF readings for both gold and silve. An ounce and a half per ton (43 parts per million) of silver, and 34 PPM of gold (readings ranged from 19 PPM to 58 PPM), so almost exactly an ounce per ton of gold on average. There’s an old wooden door still on the adit entrance - if you spent an hour removing some of the loose gravel on the ground, you could probably put a lock on it to keep it closed so you could secure your mine when you are not there. Looks like there’s a lot of loose gravel you could move out to improve the access to all of the mines if you were inclined. There are some fascinating old relics laying around - including an old derelict half-century-old-plus RV trailer (no way that you could resurrect it - it's done;-).
This claim is two-wheel drive. It's only about 3/4's of a mile off the paved highway and definitely a two wheel road, but I would state that you would need to have pretty good ground clearance and good tires because to access it with 2-wheel drive, as there a little bit of a hill to get to the mine entrance. But it is a nice wide road, so most vehicles should make it here just fine.
As the largest company in the mining industry selling legitimate and valuable historic claims, you can rest assured that you are not only covered with our 100% lifetime money-back guarantee, but you can also rest easy that there is no fine print on any of our claim purchases telling you will have to deal with any games like being charged phony fees or having to pay inflated “processing” or “transfer” fees. The price you see for this mine is the total price you will pay.
Our in-house legal counsel and licensed real estate agent will complete all of the paperwork and documentation for recording and transferring FULL ownership of this mine into your name if you win the auction, AND we will overnight you everything in one to two business days of receipt of your payment in full (usually just one day!). So you can plan to visit (and start working) your claim the next day without the lengthy delay you will experience with other companies selling claims –and you will not have to pay any extra costs, fees or other poor excuses for extra profit that normally just go into a seller’s pocket.
Portable X-Ray Fluorescence field units (also known as XRF guns) are commonly used by large commercial mining operations, well-equipped/funded private prospectors and even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as many other government agencies for the most accurate field sampling in the quickest amount of time. In no way do we advise that you base all of your commercial mining valuations on just one or two samples (regardless of how accurate the method that you use to sample is), but this extremely precise and versatile $40,000 device is equipped with powerful X-ray tubes, specialized filters, highly advanced detectors, and multi-beam optimization that efficiently analyzes the chemistry of the rock, soil, and sediment that hosts metals, for a quick and extremely accurate analysis of even trace levels of metals like silver, lead, gold, platinum, copper and many other elements.
Today’s highly sensitive XRF Handhelds (we use the best unit available on the market – an Olympus Delta Premium with a full mining package) work by emitting an x-ray beam with enough energy to displace the electrons in the inner shells of the atoms that differ from the energy it gives off leading to a loss of energy in that atom. The specific loss of energy identifies the elements that are present in the sample. While fire assay is still the most widely used way to gauge how much or a particular metal (like gold and silver) is present in a sample since it can test the entire sample, it is an expensive process and takes many weeks to get an answer. XRF technology is the fastest and most accepted method in existence today for sampling a few millimeters (or deeper depending on the type of host rock sampled) into the surface of even the hardest rock, and the accuracy is measured in 1 to 2 parts per million (PPM).
ABOUT THE MIDDLEGATE MINING DISTRICT, CHURCHILL COUNTY, NV
HISTORY
Middlegate, like Westgate and Eastgate got its name from James Simpson in 1850. Simpson was commissioned by the government to survey a route westward. A pony express station operated here, giving the route a point of which it split into two-routes; the northern headed toward Fairview station and mountain wells, while the south continued toward sand springs.
Small amounts of mining occurred as early as 1907 in Westgate followed by an extensive town site plat filed that year. Mills were erected to extract cyanide, and a civilian conservation corps camp.
Simpson defined the cuts in the mountains as “gates”, and with the gold rush bringing more and more people westward and through middle gate as a changing station. Middlegate eventually fell into disuse and was then picked apart by the ranchers and miners that used the zeolite from the original construction for other projects. In 1942, Ida Ferguson bought the station at a BLM auction and began restoration for a bar and café which brought business back to the historic Lincoln highway (known as the first transcontinental highway across America). But after the state rerouted the highway, business suffered, and Ida sold and retired. The area remains preserved, but nothing is for sale.
GEOLOGIC SETTING
Placer mining in Middlegate is most common, using dredging and panning to sift through the dirt in pursuit of gold. Strip mining is also a method practiced by miners in the Middlegate area. Rockhounds are drawn to the areas as well for the azurite, turquoise, malachite, and crysacolla found in parts of north-central Nevada.
(F.C. Lincoln (Mining Districts and Mineral resources of Nevada 1923, p.130)) states that silver-lead-gold ore was produced in the district in 1915 but does not elaborate on the source or the amount. A custom mill was erected on the point ot the range north of the highway in 1939 and operated for a time on ores obtained from the nearby Wonder and Fairview districts (Venderburg, 1940, p.29) Road building and drilling has been done in the area north of the highway, east of the old custom mill area sometime within the last 10-15 years.
ACCESS
This entire area is relatively easily accessible by dirt roads which are well marked and well maintained. A 2-wheel drive car can get close to this claim from the south via Highway 50 or from the west via the Austin Hwy (Lincoln Hwy). Located about 1 mile off the paved hwy between the Hwy 50 and the 121. I would recommend a good 4-wheel drive or even ATV’s to be able to access the entire claim that is not on the road if you want to explore off-road.
The area is full of dirt roads and old workings, so a good map and a good hiking/handheld GPS unit is a must, but we'll show you exactly where it is on the map as well as provide you with the precise latitude and longitude of each corner marker, so finding it will not be a problem for you.
I advise caution whenever driving or hiking on this claim – the entire valley is dotted with abandoned mines, prospects and old workings – most of them are easy to see from a distance, but some of them are impossible to see until you are right on top of them. I would estimate that only 20% of them are roped or fenced off – the rest are wide open and you should be extremely careful if entering them.
A couple of spare tires or an air compressor and patch kit or at least a couple of cans of tire sealant is strongly recommended for obvious reasons! Also, be sure to bring in whatever water you may need, as there are almost no water sources in the area 8 months out of the year.
FAQ's
Mining claims are a tangible asset just like any other Real property (real estate) and show a lifetime proof of all interests in minerals in the area specified by the above claim. Once you own this claim and the associated mineral rights, you will own them for life as long as you keep up with the annual fees. This claim can be bought, sold, leased or used as collateral, just like any other piece of real estate.
A mining claim can be willed or passed down to future generations as part of a trust or your estate, or you can trade it, lease it out for a period or time (or indefinitely), gift it to a family member or friend and you can also transfer or sell just an interest in it in part or in its entirety just like any other real property using a quitclaim deed which is a recordable conveyance. In other words, you could sell a 25% or a 50% share in it if you wanted in order to bring on a partner in the future - or you could sell the entire claim in whole.
This auction is for full/all interest in this 20.66 acre lode mining claim (unless the acreage indicated in the above mine description is different). This claim covers the entire site, (unless the claim description above describes different measurements), and includes full rights to all minerals, gems and just about whatever else you may find of value on the property (except oil and gas, which are handled separately). The winner of this auction will receive a notarized quitclaim deed to the full claim and all associated documentation showing full ownership of the claim. We pay ALL fees associated with transferring this claim into your name - legal fees, title transfer fees, document fees, notary costs, recording fees and even shipping fees, so all you will pay is the final price of the auction, not a penny more.
In order to hold on to your claim for life, you will need to pay an annual maintenance fee to the Government (BLM, not us) every year. Currently the maintenance fee is $165 per year per claim that you own, and it is due on September 1st of every year.
NOTE that if you own fewer than 10 claims nationwide, we can assist you in filing the paperwork to waive the maintenance fee every year. That means you will only pay $15 per year for your maintenance fee instead of $165. We guarantee that all past fees have been paid in full and there are no outstanding debts or amounts owed on the claim prior to the transfer of ownership into your name.
The federal government retains ownership of the land - so this means that you will not have any annual real estate taxes due on your mining claim, and you will not have to maintain liability insurance in case someone gets injured on your claim due to no fault of your own.
How do Transfers of Ownership in Mining Claims work if I decide to sell my claim in the future?
First, we handle all the paperwork and costs associated with transferring this claim into your name should you win this auction. But if you decide to sell this claim at some point in the future, interest in a properly recorded mining claim or site may be transferred (i.e sold) in part or its entirety. A quitclaim deed or recordable conveyance document is required and if you do sell your claim someday and the transfer documents should be filed within 60 days after the transfer.
We can and will help you with the paperwork for no cost should you need a hand selling your claim in the future if you pay all of the County, State and Federal fees (usually less than $40 to $60).
But again - with regard to transferring this claim initially into your name, we take care of all the paperwork at our expense. You do not have to worry about anything. we handle the BLM transfer documentation and the county recording.
Can you build / camp on your claim?
Without an approved plan of operations, you have the same rights and restrictions as the public. If the area is open to camping to the public, then it is permissible. However, you need to check with the BLM Field Office or the local District Ranger for areas open to camping. Under Federal law in order to occupy the public lands under the mining laws for more than 14 calendar days in any 90 day period, a claimant must be involved in certain activities that (a) are reasonably incident; (b) constitute substantially regular work; (c) are reasonably calculated to lead to the extraction and beneficiation of minerals; (d) involve observable on-the-ground activity that can be verified; and (e) use appropriate equipment that is presently operable, subject to the need for reasonable assembly, maintenance, repair or fabrication of replacement parts. All five of these requirements must be met for occupancy to be permissible.
Although it is possible to build a permanent structure on a mining claim, it is extremely expensive and you will have to jump through way too many hoops to consider it easy to do. It would have to be in support of a commercial, year-round mining operation for starters, and you would need to post a large reclamation bond to insure that if you ever abandoned your claim, the bond would pay for the removal of the structure and the reclamation or the area. So in short, it is technically possible to build on your mining claim, but just be aware that it is very difficult and expensive to do - however, camping is almost always involved unless your claim is in a wilderness area, which is not very common at all.
