Inside California’s Biggest Silver Mine: Smelting Silver Ore from Cerro Gordo

In this follow-up trip to Cerro Gordo, I head back underground with Brent to explore historic Cerro Gordo and go after a forgotten pocket of high-grade galena deep below the surface. We ride the original cage down 400 feet into one of California’s most legendary silver mines, a place with nearly 30 miles of underground workings and a history that reaches back to the 1860s, when Cerro Gordo was the largest silver producer in the state. Once we reach the 400 level, Brent walks me through the mine’s geology, the old ore chimneys, and the difference between the Union and Jefferson deposits that made this district famous. From there, we push farther into the workings, down ladders, through old manways and ore chutes, and into a lower pocket where the old miners left behind a wall of rich lead-silver ore. It’s tight, sketchy, and incredibly authentic hard rock mining country, with original timbering, collapsing side workings, historic graffiti, and the kind of underground atmosphere that makes you feel like the miners just left yesterday. At the ore pocket, we go old school and start breaking rock by hand, pulling out dense chunks of shiny galena from the wall and floor. The material is incredibly heavy, and you can immediately tell this is not ordinary rock. Back on the surface, I crush the ore, weigh it, smelt it, and refine it to see what this Cerro Gordo galena really contains. The process turns raw historic ore into lead bullion and then into silver bars, giving a full look at the journey from underground specimen to finished metal. This video is part mine exploration, part geology lesson, and part ore processing experiment. If you’re into hard rock mining, underground mine history, mineral specimens, smelting, silver recovery, historic Western mines, and real-world ore processing, this one has a little bit of everything. Big thanks to Brent and @GhostTownLiving for getting us back underground at Cerro Gordo and sharing more of the story behind one of the most fascinating silver mines in the American West. For more info please email or call: Email: info@MBMMLLC.com Phone: 360-595-4445 Website: http://www.mbmmllc.com/ eBay: https://www.ebay.com/usr/mtbakerminingandmetals Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/MBMMLLC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MBMMLLC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mbmmllc/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MBMMLLC #mining #silvermining #geology #earthscience