Are there still active gold mines in California?
When James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma in 1848, it would change the world forever and that golden legacy still lives on in California to this day.
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The Golden State still hosts more than 5,000 active placer mining claims and hosts the first and second-most active mining counties in the nation.
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Up until 1965, California was the nation’s leader in gold production, with more than 100 million ounces of gold being pulled from across the state.
The state’s richest and most well-known mining district was the Grass Valley Mining District which hosted the bountiful Empire-Star Mine and the recently controversial Idaho-Maryland Mine.
In their times of operation, which lasted for over a century, Empire Mine would yield $130 million and Idaho-Maryland would yield $70 million.
That $200 million in gold production from just two mines would account for two-thirds of the district’s total production of $300 million.
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Early California gold mining occurred at a time when the ounce price of gold in 1833 was $18.93 and peaked at a federal limit of around $35 an ounce.
As of February 2024, the ounce price for gold is $2,029.40.
Today there are gold mines operating across California in different capacities and operational styles.
About 30 miles south of the Marshall Gold Discovery Site, in the community of Sutter Creek, is the Lincoln Mine operated by Seduli Gold, an unlisted Australian gold company.
The Lincoln Mine is reported to have an estimated 15 million ounces of gold rated at 10 grams per ton to a depth of 1.24 miles underground.
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The mine hosts three orebodies, Lincoln, Comet and Keystone, that have around 284,000 ounces of higher-grade gold.
As Seduli continues to drill further into the three ore bodies they plan to produce 100,000 ounces of gold per year over the next several decades.
Another historically profitable gold mine that remains in operation in the nation’s most active gold mining region is the Original Sixteen to One Mine in Sierra County.
From 1930 to 1950, the Original Sixteen to One Mine produced more than $63 million in high-grade and mill ore.
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The Original Sixteen to One Mine put the Alleghany District on the map when in the 1920s two gold pockets were found totaling nearly $3 million in gold value for the price per ounce at the time.
Mining operations have continued on and off at the Original Sixteen to One Mine since the late 1990s at a much smaller scale than when it was founded.
Both the Lincoln Mine and the Original Sixteen to One Mine operate underground where they explore existing workings and drill into new rock.
Some different mining operations in California include open-pit/heap leach mines, like those operated by Equinox Gold.
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Equinox operates the Mesquite Gold Mine in Imperial County and Castle Mountain Gold Mine in San Bernardino County.
The Mesquite Gold Mine is one of the largest operating gold mines in the state with a peak production of 141,270 ounces of gold in 2020 at a value of $1,091 per ounce.
Equinox has owned the mine since 2018, but the mine has been in operation since 1986, in which time it has produced more than five million ounces of gold.
Castle Mountain follows a similar operation model but has shown a lower production rate than Mesquite Mine.
Although many mines have closed, changed ownership and new mining practices have been created, California’s golden legacy still lives on.
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