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Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mine

The Cripple Creek And Victor Gold Mine is located in Victor, Colorado and is a strip mining operation.  Essentially, they tear down and pulverize the mountains that perviously held numerous hard rock mining claims and operations.  These older mines were done by digging shafts and tunnels, were labor intensive and very dangerous.  The ground (gravel size) ore is placed in layers forming a new mountain that has a cyanide and water mixture running through it.  The actual gold and silver is leached out of the new mountain and processed into gold ingots in the shape of giant Hershey Kisses.

They have an active restoration process, take safeguards to assure the safety of the water supply and are one of the largest employers in Teller County.  Although controversial, it is still a very interesting site to see.

Notice the hole in the center.  That was an old hard rock mining tunnel.

After blasting a bulldozer creates piles of rock.

There is an electronic readout on the front of the dump truck that states the weight of the load.

Rock is blasted as descending layers are formed. This drill sinks holes to hold the blasting mixture.

The gravel size ore is deposited in layers containing perforated flexible hoses that have a mixture of cyanide and water.  This mixture leaches through this ever growing man made mountain and deposits it in collection pools at the bottom.

The mixture of cyanide, water and gold is processed in this plant.

The material goes through several washes to separate out the gold.  The cyanide and water is recycled back to the leach field.

At last, the gold!

Finally, the desired gravel is produced at the end of the line and accumulated in the hopper at the far right.

A dump truck pulls under the hopper to pick up the load.

Another view of a dump truck picking up a load of crushed ore.

THE MINING PROCESS

 Getting the ore:

 A close up look at some big machines:

A large track hoe scoops up the ore and loads it into one of the oversized dump trucks.

Now the ore is on the way to the crusher.

The ore is transported to the crushing facility.

Then the ore is dumped into a rather large hopper.

The initial crushing takes place.  Would not want to fall into this device.

The crushed ore is then transported via conveyer belt to successively finer crushing stations.

 The aftermath:

These are various photos of the former mountains and the terraced pits.

Perspective:  That is Neil standing in front of the driver's cab on one of the big trucks.

Another perspective:  That is Sheila standing in front of the truck tire on the right.

One of the rather large dump trucks in the maintenance facility.

How would you like to have to change one of these tires?

 Leaching out the gold:

This photo was taken from the CC&V web site.

This photo was taken from the CC&V web site.

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Sydney and Brendan next to a really big dump truck.

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Dumping into the crusher.
Front end loader dumping into the crusher.
Crusher control room.
Conveyer to secondary finer crushing processes.
Crushed ore being emptied into a dump truck that will deliver it to a leach field.
100 foot high terraces.
Large terraces section of the mine.  Notice the giant track hoe and dump truck that are dwarfed by the pit.

Track hoe and dump truck working together.

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