Salting ore is a historical confidence trick where prospectors or sellers fraudulently add valuable minerals, like gold or diamonds, to worthless ore or a barren mine to inflate its perceived worth and deceive investors into buying shares in a bogus mining company. Methods range from hiding gold dust in shafts and sample containers to shooting gold pellets into walls, aiming to create the illusion of a rich deposit, a practice so common it's detailed in mining textbooks and led to sophisticated geological sampling techniques. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] How it works (the scam)
• Adding material: Scammers would scatter gold dust, nuggets, or gemstones into the rock face, sample bags, or even the equipment used for testing. • Shotgun method: A classic trick involved loading a shotgun with gold dust and firing it into the mine walls to create the appearance of gold-bearing ore. • Using productive mines: Sellers might take high-grade ore from a known rich mine and plant it in their own worthless claim. • Targeting samples: Adding gold to drill core samples or assay containers could significantly alter the test results, making a poor mine look rich. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9]
Why it's done (the motivation)
• To sell shares in a worthless or non-existent mining operation for a high price. • To hide the fact that a once-productive mine's valuable veins are running out. [1, 4, 6]
Countermeasures (how to spot it)
• Professional sampling: Investors hire geologists and engineers to conduct thorough, independent mine sampling. • Vigilance: Constant alertness and strict control over sampling locations and procedures are crucial. • Blasting: Buyers might request the walls be blasted to reveal the true, un-salted rock. [3, 5, 6, 10]
Legal implications
• In many places, intentionally salting ore to defraud someone is a serious felony.
It just means Jared purchased inferior equipment and used unqualified workers in the mill. Jeff Woods knows of gold prospects a lot closer than canada though. So, Jared should have paid Jeff and I to do the work as PhD Metallurgist Jeff Woods presented in his report instead of playing metallurgy by himself. With Jeff we could move into prospects closer to the mill.