We’re In Some Good Stuff Now! Reopening the Golden Griffin Mine: Season 2, Episode 2

We’re back at the Golden Griffin Mine for another full day of chasing the vein, opening up new ground, and trying to figure out where the best ore is hiding. This time, the excitement starts fast when a bright yellow flash in the rock has everyone thinking we may have finally spotted visible gold. For a few seconds, it looks like the real thing — bright, yellow, and sitting right where you would hope to see it. Then reality sets in: it wipes right off. The “gold” turns out to be yellow paint from the pry bar, giving everyone a good laugh and creating one of those classic mining moments nobody is going to forget. But the false alarm doesn’t mean the vein is dead. In fact, as the rock starts coming apart, the mineralization gets more interesting. The team keeps finding galena, pyrite, rusty red oxidation, green copper staining, rotten quartz, and sulfide-rich material running along the vein. The mineralization appears in both the hanging wall and footwall in places, with narrow veinlets, altered host rock, and richer streaks that seem to pinch and swell as the work continues. Some pieces show strong metallic sulfides and green-blue staining that make them worth saving for the saw, the crusher, and possibly assay work. A big part of the day is spent carefully exposing the vein and trying to understand its structure. The crew works down along the footwall, peels back altered rock, and pulls down sections of vein material to see what the interior looks like. Some pieces are crumbly and oxidized, while others show better galena and sulfide concentration. The goal is to separate the real high-grade candidates from the waste, save the best-looking rock for slabbing, and crush the rest to see what kind of values might be hiding inside the sulfides. The mini excavator becomes a major part of the story as well. What would take days or even weeks by hand gets opened up quickly as Pete cuts road access, uncovers more of the north vein, and starts exposing a possible portal area. The work reveals more vein structure and gives the team a better look at where future access could go. There is even discussion about ramping down, driving toward the vein, and eventually finding a safer way into the old workings without relying on the dangerous open shaft. The episode also moves beyond just hand-selecting ore. The crew starts sampling the old mine dump to see whether the waste rock left behind by the old-timers might still contain payable gold. Instead of cherry-picking the nicest quartz, they take blind samples from different holes across the dump to get a more honest picture of the overall grade. With thousands of tons of material potentially sitting there, even low-grade values could matter — but only if the samples are representative. It is a good look at the difference between chasing pretty rocks and doing real mine evaluation. Along the way, the team finds old mining artifacts, including square nails, a purple glass bottle, old cans, and hand steel — reminders that miners were working this ground long before modern equipment arrived. Those small discoveries add another layer to the mine’s history, showing that this is not just a geology project, but a look back into an old hard rock operation that may still have secrets left in the ground. The day builds toward a more serious underground exploration when Bobby prepares to rappel into the old shaft. The shaft is unstable, deep, and dangerous, with loose rock around the collar and old workings below. From the first look down the hole, it is clear this is not something to attempt without proper rope skills, mine experience, and serious caution. Once Bobby gets down, he reports underground workings, possible stopes, crosscuts, and drifts that may connect back toward the north vein. That discovery could be a major clue: the old miners may have chased the richer structure underground, and the surface work on the north vein might eventually connect with those historic workings. This episode brings together everything that makes hard rock mining so addictive: false gold, real sulfides, galena-rich quartz, green copper indicators, oxidized vein material, dump sampling, heavy equipment, old artifacts, dangerous shafts, and the possibility that the best ore may still be just out of reach. The mine is starting to tell its story one broken rock, one sample bag, and one underground glimpse at a time. Music in this video: "Celltrance" by Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive, CC BY Check out our Shopify and eBay stores for ore, specimens, cabochons, and more from our mines: Shopify: https://mbmmllc.myshopify.com/ eBay: https://www.ebay.com/usr/mtbakerminingandmetals For more info please email or call: Email: info@MBMMLLC.com Phone: 360-595-4445 Website: http://www.mbmmllc.com/ Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/MBMMLLC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MBMMLLC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mbmmllc/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MBMMLLC #goldmining #geology #earthscience