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Property Overview

The Goldschmidt Property is a 40 acre lode gold producing property. Located in the Sheridan District, the mine is noted for raw and coarse gold production as late as 2017.

The mine sits in a remote region east of Sheridan, Montana. A substantial camp existed until 1986 when the last remnants of the Sandstrom and Steiner family passed, and the property reverted to Forest Service control. The Buchfinck family took a stab at developing the property from 1986-1992. Mr. Buchfinck had mined the property under the Sandstrom family. Mr. Buchfinck lived in North Dakota and reported it was not possible to mine “small scale” during the summer months and relinquished the property in 1992.

Tom McFarland purchased the property from Gold Rush Expeditions, Inc. in 2014 and began excavating the old drifts. He reported assays of up to 8 oz. per ton of gold with very little contaminants. The drifts were reported to have large bodies of manganese ores running perpendicular to the gold bearing bodies. McFarland picked four ounces of gold from a two-day trip to the property in 2015 while excavating and clearing one of the drifts. Mr. McFarland relinquished the property in 2018.

The mine consists of a variety of workings. The oldest workings are higher on the eastern face of the canyon. An old shaft and two collapsed adits mark the work, likely of the Schmidt family who first located the claim in or around 1884. Lower on the canyon are the later workings, two collapsed adits and a large flat made from dump material from the mines. There is also a short decline portal near the creek that is open but has been purposefully hidden. This portal is open and runs back a total of 190’. It includes two large stopes and a collapsed drift thought to connect to the main workings of the mine.

There are also the remains of the mine camp, just north of the workings. This consists of a series of three cabins, two outhouses and various other small structures.

Small nuggets of gold have been recovered from the creek bed below the mine.

There are substantial dumps at the site, but they are largely overgrown. The tailings from the mine have all been dumped in a canyon just southwest of the mine. The dumps at the upper mines gave good assay values. The dumps at the lower mines contained significant amounts of silver. The dumps at the southern-most portal returned just under one ounce of gold per ton. The tailings were processed very well and showed nearly no gold but high silver values.

The property is an ideal spot for development of a small scale mining operation. Equipment could be utilized by a small operation with very little cost because of Montana DEQ’s “Small miner exemption”. Gold is free and would be easily recovered and processed with no chemicals, in the same manner it has been recovered since the mine was originally located.

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/