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It is good to see some PR from the company, however, it is not yet time to get carried away. Please note that the PR stated they "have contracted" and "arrangements have been made" and 508 pounds of precious metal concentrates. We do not know if it has been shipped or when it will be shipped. We do not know the amount of gold and silver in the concentrates so we cannot calculate any income. We do not know the smelting cost or what the smelter will charge. We do not know where the smelter is. Is it in Idaho?, Nevada?, Canada? where it could be sent by truck. Or possibly China and/or Germany (by sea) as they have both been buying US concentrates and gold scrap. All we know is that they have produced at least 508 lbs of concentrate, hopefully, the next pr will tell us more about how this translates into revenues and how many tons of tailings was processed to get this amount of concentrates. I plan to hold what I have and wait for better news.
again, I would only state that you are making intrepretations and that is ok for you, that is your right. I do not know any of the posters here, and I do not know what mining background people have, ( have not heard many posters who state they have this background) so I intrepretate what you say you saw differently, If I had been there, I could not tell you the answers to my questions just from observations. Yes, maybe I could have asked questions, but it looks like they would not have been answered. So like John and Dick, why pick on me, I have stock and I plan on keeping it. I think the questions I have asked are fair, if you don't then that is ok. Just because I did not drop a few 1000 dollars to attend a stock holder meeting does not mean that I do not have valid questions that are not being answered. Geomine
I find myself in the same general position as John and Dick and I have also been advised to do my DD. I know quite a bit about War Eagle Mountain and SFMI. I starting following them about the time the mill in Melba was constructed. I also know something about the mines in the area and have visited them several times. I have picked up ore samples and also see some mineralization. These ore piles have been picked over hundreds of times by geologists on field trips with various organizations and other rockhounds. Yes there is mineralization in the ore piles near the mines, however, I doubt anyones ability to tell me what the gold and silver content is (and all the good stuff has not moved to the bottom by gravity!!!!). All that glitters is not gold. The real problem is that there were many PRs telling us how good it was and then it all stopped. While I do not doubt the things that people reported that they saw on the trip, I do doubt their intrepretation since they have no way of knowing. What is the average processing rate, how many tons do they process per day, how many tons have they processed, how many times do they have to run the ore thru the process before they put it on the shaker table, what is the percentage of gold and silver in the concentrates. Why is the gold concentrate setting in bags and not at a smelter or an assy office? They could have provided these answers and should have if all is really ok. I suspect that there are some real issues with the recovery rates and process and I think it would have been best if they had just told us that. Now we have people saying the problem with the processing is they just need to add more falcon seperators, or there is a problem with the quality of the wash water, or?, or? Is anyone that visited the site an expert in any of this? or is this all based on what RK said who is a paid PR person working for Yes International. All that said, I also am holding SFMI stock and I do believe that there is gold and silver in the mines on War Eagle Mountain, otherwise I would have never bought the stock. If they sold that concentrate or used the other funds they have since they do not need the cash?? and hired some real process people that would make me feel better. Geomine
Well it would be nice to know what the value of the gold and silver concentrates that they have setting around in bags or buckets. We were not provided any ore grades that were processed, no oz per ton of ore processed and no idea of what the actual gold and silver concentrates of the material comming off the shaker table. That sack of concentrates will only become valuable when they take it to a smelter and have it processed. I really do not understand the argument that they are saving it and not taking it to the smelter until the price of gold goes up. That has nothing to do with having the gold processed at a smelter. They could have the gold returned or stored, they do not have to take paper money for what they have processed. So until we get some information on this i will not be counting my chickens or gold. geomine
I am still concerned about the milling process. I wish that someone at the site visit could explain what they saw in more detail. We know they have some type of crusher, and a seperator and a shaker table. Is there anything else in the process. I know they are using water, but are they using anything else to get the silver. Do they have a flotation unit? I was not aware that you could recover the silver by just grinding, seperator and shaker table (any mining or process people out there?). I have read part of the file at the Idaho DEQ on this operation and it does not seem to be following what they said they were going to do. Some of the photos that Bobby Joe sent some weeks ago showed some pits with water in them outside the mill building, however, the info I saw in their file said any water would be contained in drums. Again, I think the process that people have talked about(grinding and shaker table) would recover gold but am concerned with the silver. Any light on this would be appreciated. Geomine
So tell me again what you saw. Once you said pure gold and silver. Next time you said gold silver concentrate. Also you said gold and silver going into buckets. Was gold going into one bucket and silver into another. Since gold is quite a bit denser than silver they would not come off a shaker table together. Also, I do not know what process they are using, and there may have been many advancements since I last looked at silver production, I was not aware that you could get pure silver out of crushed ores unless you used some type of chemical leaching? Not saying they can't just would like to understand the process that goes from a rod or ball mill to a shaker table and then to buckets of gold and silver. If they are using a leach process to get the silver this is different than what they told the regulatory agency in Boise. So, I really want to believe that this is a ligit operations, I know there is good ore still left in the old mines, But so far they have not said anything that makes any sense if you are a real operations. Not selling because they have enough money. No Way that can be true or if it was they would have been a lot further along with the drilling, testing, etc. Geomine
Come on, someone that went on this trip must have some questions??? Saving all the gold til the price goes up? That would be the only compy doing thata Where are they saving it in buckets? BS if there was pure gold here they would have all sorts of controls in place to keep the help from walking off with it. The only way they can store large volumes of gold without someone walking off with it is to store it as concentrates with such a low value that a pocketfull would not be worth the effort to steal. You saw pure gold comming off a shaker table??? The input into the mill is about 14 to 1 silver to gold??? at least that is what the old asseys say. I would assume that the recovery rate would be about the same. I hope someone with some real mining or milling or gold production experience went on that trip and will post something that makes sense. Geomine
Who are the other mining operations nearby that are operational??
Also for any of you that went on the mill tour, what are they producing? concentrates or dore bars. I keep hearing about dore bars, but i did not think that they had the equipment at the mill site to produce anything but concentrates?
Geomine
For those of you who are going on the mine/mill tours, I would be a lot more interested in some specifics of production than photos of the mill or mine. Things like how many total tons have been processed? What is the tons per day thru put? Are they having to process the ore more than once? What was the average gold/silver content recovered per ton? How many tons of concentrates have been shipped and what was the gold/silver content of the concentrates? What are the smelter charges? Given that information we should be able to make an informed guess at how much gold/silver will be extractable from the tailings (old unprocessed waste ore)and then we could have some idea if the existing operations can support a full scale mining exploration/production. They have a lot of equipment both at the mill site and trucks, loaders, etc at the mines. This is going to cost some money to keep operating. Also there has been some comments on the Sinker tunnel. It is my understanding that this was a tunnel, not a mine and there was no significant ore encountered in the construction. The purpose was to drain the other mines. Can someone clear this up? Have a good SHM. Geomine
Well, I sure am glad that I did not purchase anymore stock based on all the PR that the company was putting out. How about paying the lease with revenue from the sale of concentrate? Did Rich say they did that? Someone noted that they are working two shifts? maybe so but if so they are not really producing anyting significant. If they had 1000 oz as someone noted, then I think they would have shipped the concentrate. My guess is that they do not have enough concentrates to ship and have any profits left after paying transportation and smelter costs. Not to say that they will not someday have enough but that todate they have not lived up to expectations. I would rather have no PR than the BS we have been getting. I will wait until the stock drops back to the .02-,05 range or until they prove that they are a profitable firm to invest more money. JMO
very interesting. How about stock pushers? Is there such a thing? Seems like for this thing to work, there must be two sides to the game? For those of us that do not play the market, but just thought that SFMI was an interesting stock with potential, the message board (and as far as that goes the PRs) does not look like a very good place to get real information about the stock or performance of the company (either good or bad).
Any chance that this is payday and people are selling stock that they are getting in return for services?
Can anyone explain why Santa Fe Gold Corporation is trading so much higher than SFMI? They look alot alike. Both are owners or have a lease on existing mines, both have a mill, and both are shipping concentrates to a smelter.
Yes thanks, I thought that what they were processing was not tailings. Somewhere I read that the old timers were able to get over 90% of the silver/gold out with the older processing methods. So my thought was that the tailings were not that valuable if there was better ore to process. however, most of the PR and many of the post here discuss this material they are processing as tailings. Maybe they could start using a better term in their PR?
If you go to the mountain, can you tell us what SFMI is actually milling. Most of the information on this page and in the PR says tailings. But the tailings would have been processed. A lot of the mills were located not at the top of the mountains, but a little lower (they would not have wanted to haul ore up hill). So what is it they are processing? Tailings that were previously crushed, then the gold extracted, then the slurry or remaining tailings put in a pile or pond? Seems more likely if they are moving material from the mountains that it is some other material like lower grade ore that the old miners did not bother to process?. not sure that it is important but would like to know if it is really tailings. thanks
Yes, I am trying to do more DD, but i don't think I will get that from press releases until the press release says that they have shipped the concentrates and received income from it. and Yes i recognize that there are a lot of negative posters but also probably some promoters, I really don't think that anyone should believe what is posted on this board or make investment decisions on the posts. For those of us that like long term investments that pay dividends and do not trade on the ups and downs, I think we need hard data. Speculating on this stock is ok, but without some hard data that is what it is. Actually I have read most of the geologic reports and yes, some of the mines did stop mining when there was still ore, either the price of silver dropped, banks and investment money failed, too much water in the mines, etc. Sinker tunnel was not a mine shaft but was constructed to drain the overlying mines to reduce pumping costs (the tunnel was shut down when the mining safety people thought that by tunneling upward into the water filled mines that someone would get hurt or at least that is what I read somewhere). Also pumping became a problem when Swan Falls dam had problems generating constant electrical service when the Boise Interurban was operating (also something I read). I have actually been to the mountain, looked at several of the mines and spoil or overburden or waste or low quality ore and went a short distance into Sinker tunnel. And yes there is a lot of possibilities for gold/silver production and that is why I am interested in SFMI.
I am new to this board but I have been following SFMI for over 2 years. I know a little about mining, geology and some about the history of mining in Silver City. I still have not made up my mine about if SFMI is for real or if the only people that will make money are those that buy low and sell high. Nothing wrong with that but I am interested in long term gold/silver production. I can find nothing that suggest that SFMI can do that. There are some basic questions that need to be answered and I assume that SFMI could answer them if they wanted to.
First. I assume that the mill is operational but not running. Can anyone tell me if they have been to the mill and saw it running for more than a few hours?
Second. Is there power at the site other than a generator? Have not heard anything about that.
Third. Where are the concentrates going to go to a smelter? Have they delivered any concentrates to a smelter? Where is that smelter up in northern Idaho a distance of several hundred miles over a very busy and two lane road?
Fourth: What kind of concentrates are they going to produce? are they just going to grind it in the rod (ball) mill, are they going to leach this, or what. I saw the photos of the vats inside the Melba Mill but are they at this mill?(by the way, why did they build a complete mill in Melba then move it, seems like a lot of cost or poor judgement.
I believe there is gold and silver in War Eagle Mountain. I know they took a lot of gold/silver out. I have read many of the old geology reports, but the real question is: Is there good grade ore still in the mountain that can be mined and processed at a profit. I have not found any good drilling reports on this. At this point, I see only press releases and no real technical answers. At this point I am of the opinion that they are not in production, but that equipment is probably in place to produce, but need additional support equipment (hoppers just installed, Power?, buyer for the concentrates. Seems if that is the case, they could just tell us so, it would lead to more credibility and desire to stay long.
JMHO