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Property Overview

The May Day or Mayday property is a sixty-acre lode mining claim located in the Clancy, or Clancy-Lump, or Clancy-Alhambra district of Jefferson County in Montana. The property encompasses a series of adits and shafts cut to intercept defined gold deposits. These deposits also contain silver, lead and iron.

The mines are located in an area noted for rich deposits of lode and placer gold. The region reported over 330,000 oz of gold prior to 1940. Most mines shut down with the War Act and did not recover. The May Day was one of these mines.

In 1983 the site was “reclaimed” by an unknown federal agency, likely US Forest Service. It is estimated that the main shaft, an adit on the side of the mountain and another shaft higher on the mountain were addressed. These portals were likely destroyed with explosives. The condition of the workings is unknown. This was a standard practice for remediation for the time.

In 2003, Montana DEQ in conjunction with the land manager returned to “reclaim” the site. This included gating of the one remaining hard rock adit and some bulldozing work to clean up the previous efforts. Some of the dumps were pushed from the portal of the adit and mixed with those of a placer operation lower on the claims.

The excavated material at the site is a mix of auriferous pyrites with iron and galena on host rock. There is some visible flake gold in the dump material at the open adit and the old shaft.

The property should be viewed as primarily a gold deposit. There are some silver and other minerals noted, but not in large enough quantities to warrant mining of them individually. Historic accounts report that there was high value in the gold and silver veins. These veins from the Fleming and the White Pine mines were thought to have run down through the valley. The Fleming mine was still recovering an average of 4 oz. per ton in gold when it was shut down in 1941 due to the War Act.

The value on the property at current is in the recoverable material on the surface. It has been measured and assayed. The open adit on the property showed no definitive veins or deposit and is thought to have been an attempt to intercept a vein at depth or to intercept the old shaft located higher on the mountain. Either way it does not appear to have been successful.

Suggested development would include the excavation of the old portals and mapping the workings while defining existing veins and deposits. Once a general understanding of the veins is achieved, it would be prudent to drill the property and define depths and trends of veins. At which point, reserves could be defined and work in earnest to extract same.

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/