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Property Overview

The King Midas property is a 20 acre Property located in Southern Arizona. The location dates to at least 1850 if not earlier. It resides in the Oro Blanco District, named for the native or raw “white gold” that is commonly found in the region. The gold is enriched with silver which gives it the gold its distinctive color.
Miners locating deposits in the area in the 1850s noted that the area had long been worked by the Mexican or Spaniard miners. Newer technologies, such as dynamite and rock drills allowed miners of that era to further develop the rudimentary mines that they found.

The King Midas is primary a gold deposit that stretches along a wide exposed band of weathered quartz and rhyolite. The terrain is largely flat, but shafts have been cut along the quartz vein and also adits have been cut into the canyon walls along the creek.

There is usually a minimal flow of water in the creek year-round, however dams and other water impediments built into the creek bed would indicate that some years have a very significant water flow.
Gold and Silver in the area has largely been separated using arrastras to rudely crush the ores and then sperate by hand. Silver in the area forms as ceragyrite or horn silver and needs very little processing as it is largely pure. In cases where the gold and silver are formed together, the silver is crushed from the gold and separated by heat. However, the value of the “white gold” as specimen averages more than 10x the average price of gold. A 1.1lb quartz specimen with an estimated 1.3 ounces of white gold, from the King Midas property, sold in 2020 at the Denver Hard Rock Show for $26,000.

Surveyors examined the King Midas site in February of 2020 and took samples from 5 defined sample areas. These samples were crushed and sent for assay to define an average value of material in that sample area.
A substantial mine camp at the main adit of the King Midas had been demolished and removed. The adit has been backfilled here and will require clearing. In a canyon just west of the main camp surveyors located an old (1920s era) arrastra and a section of an exposed quartz vein that had been worked.
At some point in the past, likely 1950s era, a road has been cut through the ridgeline which runs from the main mine camp to a series of shafts and an adit on the mineralized belt. A makeshift loading platform was built with concrete and rail just above the second adit.
Some raw gold can be found in the creek bed with minimal panning, this indicating that there is or has been exposed deposits that have weathered into the creek.

This is a small scale mining operation that would be best started by a few operators defining the major deposits and processing by a crush and separation method. It is the opinion of the surveyors that the mine could operate under casual use and likely show a healthy profit. Commercial development may serve to define a larger ore body.
Permitting and bonds are determined by the level of work that the operator proposes.

Gold Rush Expeditions, Inc. does offer mining consultation services and assistance with permits for a small fee.

Training courses for underground work and exploration can be found here: https://stayoutstayalive.com/training/