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Author Topic: Blue Mountain Jasper mine  (Read 8347 times)

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Redrummd

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Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« on: May 28, 2017, 09:04:02 PM »

I was out on a collection trip with my partner and met up with some of his contacts in Oregon.  Wow these miners are a great bunch of guys for sure.  We met with Cecil Coons at his Fire Obsidian claim(s) on Glass Butte, Reggie Kemp, and Dale Huett.

So, another thing we did was spend a day working for free in the Blue Mountain Jasper mine. I mean IN IT, with the owner Dale Huett and another well know mine owner Reggie Kemp. Dale was running the excavator to flatten out where the driller was drilling holes for the blasting next week. Yes, the driller was drilling blasting holes and setting the charges while we were literally walking over the blast holes which are filled with the blasting mix!

Reggie and I were the spotters for any of the Jasper nodules that the excavator uncovered. It was brutally dusty hard work and the nodules look almost identical to every other rock dug up. It took me about two hours to get to the point I could spot them with a fair degree of certainty.

We worked a solid 9 hours and only uncovered about 250 pounds of the Jasper nodules. It is like looking for a dozen rasins in a loaf of bread the size of a refrigerator!

We flattened at least an acre for blasing and built about a 1/10 mile of road into, around and out of the blast area.

Working a mine was on my "bucket" list of things I wanted to do. I got no discount and paid $25. a pound for three nodules I found - 20 pounds. Dale has a partner backing the project and it is a big dollar project with just the blasting costing $35,000. so no one gets a discount. Dale did tell me that two of the three I went out with would not have been left in the mine run he sells for $25.00 a pound. They would have gone into the "cream" selection that is not being sold. He also gave me two smaller ones I had found as a "gift" for toughing out a difficult day.

Here are some photos of the Excavator dumping a bucket while Reggie and I watch for nodules and some photos of the matrix stone.  Dale says it right when he told me it would be like looking for a few raisins in a loaf of bread which would probably be the size of a refrigerator.

Redrummd

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2017, 09:09:28 PM »

Here are some photos of the drilling rig, blasting holes and even a bag of the blasting mix we were literally walking over.  The blast is planned for about two acres and the holes are 30 to 45 feet deep depending on the level of the pad.  It is planned to "lift" the entire bed with the nodules up and break the matrix enough to work the bed without breaking so many of the nodules as was occurring using an impact hammer to break up the matrix.

Redrummd

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2017, 09:13:53 PM »

After a day at the mine I certainly will never complain about paying $25. a pound for the stone coming out of this site.  It is just simply the most difficult location I have ever seen for a miner getting lapidary stone.  The mine is a long drive out and the road is like driving through a flour sack but Dale is planning to clean up the road and sell mine run from the actual mine.  I do not know how far down the road that will be but he is putting a small fortune into the mine.

The Blue mountain Jasper bed is huge so there is no chance this stone will be mined out in any of our lifetimes.  What will be the problem is the cost and work needed to get these nodules out of the matrix.......

Jhon P

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2017, 06:54:02 AM »

I looked pictures up on the internet. Interesting material, I like it better as slabs. It looks like it need to be big to get the full affect of the patterns? I bet it will be outstanding for larger knifes.
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Redrummd

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2017, 10:16:00 AM »

Most of the nodules are up to about the size of an elongated cantaloupe, from under a pound to about ten pounds, so plenty big for a knife.

yukonjade

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2017, 11:55:12 AM »


    I was at Dales polka dot claim May 27 near Ashwood Oregon and he has some mine run blue mtn. there.
 There is also a newly discovered thunder egg bed some with opal, rootbeer moss, vugs, chrystals,some at 10 pounds         :Worthy:
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Redrummd

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #6 on: May 29, 2017, 06:56:00 PM »

Dale plans to build storage and set up permanent sales from all his claims at Polka Dot....

cabjunky

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2017, 02:18:53 AM »

There was a gentleman in Quartzsite this year with barrels of blue mountain.  Not sure if it was these same folks. He had nice material, dont remember pricing exactly.  Glad to see they found another location to minethis material.  Robert
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Redrummd

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #8 on: June 04, 2017, 09:28:22 AM »

cabjunky - Same location new owner.  The previous owner died and the mine was sold to Dale.....

freeformcabs

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #9 on: June 13, 2017, 05:18:11 PM »

Pretty cool to see pics. Often thought it would look way different.  Thanks for sharing them.
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~Shain


Redrummd

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2017, 10:07:19 PM »

I finished a Buck 110 that shows the stone well......

Rockoteer

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #11 on: October 07, 2017, 12:01:34 PM »

Side note:

Curious as to how the abundance of "Nickel" knives/bolsters how ever you refer to them?
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Redrummd

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #12 on: October 07, 2017, 02:16:02 PM »

Side note:

Curious as to how the abundance of "Nickel" knives/bolsters how ever you refer to them?


I am a commercial buyer of Buck knives and I have access to Brass or silver nickel Buck 110's.  The silver nickel bolster knives at wholesale cost a bit over $20. more than a brass Buck 110.

Redrummd

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Re: Blue Mountain Jasper mine
« Reply #13 on: November 11, 2017, 10:51:31 PM »

Here are some photos of another silver nickel Buck 110 I finished with Blue Mountain Jasper.

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