Sunday, June 23, 2019, Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mine (Newmont Goldcorp), Victor, CO

It was our last day in the Colorado Springs, CO, area and we just about wrote it off as a stay at home day. Then Joani found that the Victor Lowell Thomas Museum in Victor, CO, offered a gold mine tour (Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mine [Newmont Goldcorp]) and it looked interesting. I was surprised it was available on a Sunday but she made reservations and away we went.

Victor, CO, was a long way from its heyday during the gold rush but it had a nice little downtown area that was completely rebuilt after the entire town burned in 1899. We saw very few people around since it was Sunday morning and it was cold and it was windy. That cold and wind kept us from spending much time walking around as well.

We met the Mine Tour guide, at the museum. Before we headed to the mine we received some safety instructions and suited up in our PPG (Personal Protective Gear): safety glasses, reflective vest and hard hat.

This was our first mine tour and we were impressed! I cannot imagine we could have had a better experience. Our first stop was an overlook of the hole in the ground where the ore was excavated. That little dot driving up the road on the right side of the picture below is one of the huge ore haulers.  

Our tour guide, Rod, had a head crammed with facts and figures and a thorough understanding of the processes from start to finish. They knew gold was in the ground here because of previous mines. The current enterprise started with a complete plan beginning with removing the top soil and ending with covering the project with the same top soil when the operation was complete. The company considered this to be a three generation project - more than 100 years before the land would be returned to its original state.

The entire operation was on a scale that was difficult to process! The pit above was more than 800 feet deep. Geologists test the ore for gold and silver content. Anything less than 0.005 ounces of gold per ton of ore was considered overburden and hauled off to the side. Between 0.005 and 0.05 ounces per ton was considered low-grade ore and made up about 93 percent of what they processed. Above 0.05 ounces per ton was high-grade ore. That seven percent accounted for 10 percent of the gold they recover.

Once they have a good idea of the gold content in an area they blast using a slurry of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. Then they scoop up the ore using loaders that have a 12 cubic yard bucket capacity (about 18 tons). The loaders fill the haulers which then deliver the ore to the crushers. The ore is crushed until it is no larger than 3/4 inch.

Rod made it clear, this was an active mine with a tour and that is different than a tour of an old mine. (regulated differently)

The hauler below was out of commission and we were allowed to climb aboard to get a feel for just how large it was. Rod gave us a few facts and figures on the typical hauler. Each cost $4 million without tires. Tires were an additional $32,000 each. This behemoth carried about 400 tons of ore per load. It had a 1,200-gallon fuel tank capacity and it burned through a tank every 24 hours of operation. Five to six tanker trucks offloaded diesel to the supporting fuel farm each day. The hauler was about 50 feet in length and 25 feet tall (over 50 feet tall when the body was raised.)

On the ground next to this hauler was a pile of ore. We were told we could take all the rocks our pockets could hold. I did.

The tire was a 59/80R63 - even if you don't know exactly what that means it was clearly ginormous!

From the cab, you could only see roadway far in front and straight down to the left front corner. That made it clear why all roadway operations within the mine gates were left-hand driving - so drivers could see the edge of the roadway - kind of important as you negotiate the uphill curves out of the pit.

Joani, in her PPG, was ready to drive!

Ok, they didn't let us drive this big guy, but the view was amazing and it started snowing on us. So cool!

On the other side of the mine (about a five-mile drive by road) we went to the VLF2 (Valley Leach Field #2) overlook where Rod tried to explain the chemistry behind extracting the gold and silver from the ore. I just had a difficult time grasping the enormity involved in setting up the leach fields and all of the environmental regulation and compliance testing required for their operation. The building below processes the chemical slurry that has bonded with the gold and silver on its way down the hill. It is further processed to extract the pure precious metals by smelting and finally poured into solid bars worth about $800,000 each. Every week an armored car takes 8 to 10 bars away. 

Another hauler load of crushed ore goes onto the leach field. Someday, many years from now when all of the gold has been leached from this hillside of ore the liner underneath will be punctured (to allow groundwater to seep below the leach field), it will be covered and shaped with overburden material which will then be covered with topsoil and seeded and planted with trees. We saw some of their reclamation efforts. It appeared they had a good plan to close out operations.

Do you see the hauler dumping a load of red crushed rock down the hill (leach field)?

For fun and to serve as a safety reminder they backed one side of the rear axle of an empty loader over this (fully depreciated) van. The driver reportedly never felt anything as she left her mark on this vehicle.

Signs read:

"Demonstration of a light vehicle being smashed by the rear duals of a 793D haul truck."

"Do you know where your blind spots are?"

If it was not already apparent, I highly recommend this tour and I certainly will be taking it again the next time we are in the area!

On the way home, we stopped in Cripple Creek, CO, where the Donkey Derby Days celebration was winding down. That worked out well for us. We skipped the shopping and had a nice late lunch in one of the towns many casinos before heading back home.