Finding A Top Side Museum Mine Is A Rare Find Indeed, The Sullivan Mine

At 38.21. This a starter bank for a large motor. It's basically a way of limiting starting current to a large electric motor in an effort to keep extreme loads off the motor windings while starting. It's basically a bank of resistor wire and yes it can get very hot. These generally were connected to what is called a manual starter. I'm guessing the scrapers took the starter because I didn't see it. These starters have a handle on one side. When pulled on one direction the resistive load is in line. When the motor reaches operating speed the handle is thrown the other way taking the resistive bank out of line allowing the motor to be fed directly across the line. This is old school stuff.

as DesertRat mentioned in a video, cyanide and floatation are two different processes. Both cyanide and floatation used fine ground ore to maximize the surface area so either the cyanide could dissolve the gold or it could stick to the bubbles. The four floatation cells 40:15 were inside the building and had a paddle agitator (maybe some other way in more modern cells, like the bells in the other video?) that made air bubbles. Chemicals made soapy like bubbles and the ore attached to the bubbles and floated to the surface where paddles skimmed it off the side. at 40:15 the horizontal things that look like venetion blinds at the top edge of each cell rotated and pulled the bubbles (wet concentrated ore) off. I'm not sure how they feed the ore in or took the waste out of the cells, but since each cell was lower than the previous I would think it moved down through all 4 cells and if not floated off by the last cell, exited. The big tanks outside were for cyanide 43:10. The cyanide solution leached through the fine pulp in the tanks. Cyanide in liquid dissolved the gold and was passed through zinc powder to recover the gold. I think it plated out onto the surface of the zinc. Cyanide was usually about the last process of the very fine remains. I don't know why they aerated the cyanide (if they did). It seems like you would want liquid to touch the ore and dissolve the metals. Bubbles would prevent that, unless it was a way to agitate the pulp. The round white things were filters that slowly rotated counter clockwise. The wet concentrate was sucked onto the surface of the filter and as it rotated around was scraped off into the trough next to them. at 44:13 in the middle you can see the partitions bent inward toward the section where the filters should have been. To the left, you can a black (rubber) scraper next to the filter. As it rotated, it would scrape the concentrate off and it would drop into the tough and then be somehow removed. The white filters would rotate back into the watery mix at the bottom of their trough and suck more concentrate onto the surface. That could have been for the output of the floatation cells -not 100% sure about that. The shaker table separated by ore density and size and was usually the first process after crushing (stamp mills in the old days) and amalgamation tables, and treated coarser ore (like sand), after that the less concentrated ore would go be finer crushed and sent to cyanide tanks. It seems odd that the shaker table would be on the lowest level, below the floatation cells, unless it was left over from earlier days. Not sure exactly where floatation would fit in the process. I would guess the "waste" from the floatation went to the cyanide tanks. Different methods were used to separate different ores and metals and at different times as processes improved. And I don't know how the chemicals used for floatation would (or not) react with cyanide solution.

The drone work really adds a lot of wonderful perspective to your episodes 👍👍

When I was about 20, (like 24 years ago lol in the late 90's) my best friend and I hitchhiked from here in Seattle to Carson City, Nevada for a couple months during the late summer/early fall because we were young and had no real responsibilities yet, going on in our lives. Upon arrival, we met a couple girls who worked at the little local ice cream shop/deli downtown, and they put us up in their apartment with them as we all partied together and had a blast for a while. (The girl's' father was the head curator at the Carson City Museum, on the main street downtown near the Capitol building, at the time.) Anyway, the girls had their own group of friends, all who grew up together around there, and on the weekends would all go out of town to drink and explore at a place on the way east towards Virginia City called "American Flats." American Flats was an abandoned cyanide mill that had been torn down as much as possible decades earlier, leaving giant hulking buildings and tunnels all over the hillside in the desert out there full of graffiti accumulated over the past few decades, old rusted out vehicles full of bullet holes, and of course rumors of mysterious urban legends about satanic gatherings lol you know, the usual stuff. Anyway, the place has been completely destroyed since, and is only a slightly discolored scar on the desert hillside nowadays, compared to what it was back then. But, there are plenty of images and even drone videos on YouTube showing the place in all its glory. (If you're interested, that is.) I had hitchhiked to many different places back in my late teens and early 20's, from Fort Lauderdale and New Orleans to Missoula Montana and Mountain Home Idaho, but the strangest memories I have from that period of my life still come from my brief time spent in Carson City. We had a blast, explored a BUNCH, and it left me with profound memories I will carry for the rest of my life. And I'm thankful. It's a beautiful State. Sometimes I long for those days as I daydream nowadays while I'm at my boring job lol watching these videos helps tremendously. So, thanks, man. 👍😇

Long time watcher, and don't really comment much, but just have to say; if you ever say "Happy little mine" you'd be the Bob Ross of mine exploration. Love your videos and your tone makes me feel like I'm walking a few steps behind.

4:40 - i think it says - the assessment work has been done for this property for 1939

Hello from the UK Gly, that has to be one of your best explores to date. The way you push yourself to the limits to show everyone what was going on in the mines amazes me. Can’t wait till your next explore love your channel take care respect Geoff 🇬🇧🛸👍👍👍👍

love the intro .....good info......pretty sure this one is for sale through GoldcRush Expeditions..... that long piece of equipment that looks like a Trommel is a roaster for sulfides..... surprised you didn't smell the sulfides ....good looking mill

Gly, Thanks for the History into the past - Stay Safe, Stay Strong - God Bless

A colorful mine, for sure. My favorite bit was the "elevated" curved section of track, straight out of Indiana Jones.

Gly , you have the best videographer of of all the mine exploring channels. Love seeing all the details and your commentary of what you encounter. Thank you and be safe, always wait for Saturday morning for the new video.

Ha ha the contempt with which you said "Just a modern can of...peaches".

Thanks for this! Most folks don't want to look at the buildings, but I find them so fascinating! Thanks for filming them. Take care, and be safe!

The burnt smell comes from a resistive starter of a big motor.

Fantastic job climbing up that stope Gly. Most explorers would have said “yeah....nah” once they saw that sketchy hanging wall. Cheers from Brisbane Australia 🇦🇺⛏.

GLY I love your camera work to me it's like seeing through your eyes. The phrases you say when you come up on some crazy and dangerous. Still my favorite phrases are when you find dynamite stick or stuff to make a kaboom. Theres some latters I would say my 210lbs or my 200lbs butt won't go up but you still do it gets me nervous. Tell your friends no beans a week before you go with them to a mine barking spiders may scare away the cool stuff

Gly, Could you do a show on Minerals with Close Up Pictures found in Mines (With Discriptions) - Would be greatly Appreciated - Dave...

Thanks so much for videoing and sharing. Prayers for safe travels.

That was like exploring the innards of an anthill! Thanks, Gly! I would give a lot to see a time-lapse of the mill being built, working, and shut down to get to the condition today! A truly amazing amount of work to build only to be abandoned when the ore ran out, but, of course, the same is true for all these mines. Makes me sad, but even more appreciative of your efforts to show us what they did! 👍👍❤️✌️ Stay safe!

I woke up in the middle of the nite and this was playing , turned over and went back to sleep .  Catch you next time Gly !!!