This is the first posting I am making about my trip to the mine.
I see that some people have taken a version of some of my telephone remarks to persons who asked to be called, translated those remarks into a chat room and then had those remarks by a third or fourth person copied from the chat room and posted on this thread. I then see posts thanking me for my posts.
PLEASE KNOW THAT UNTIL THIS POSTING, I HAD NOT POSTED ABOUT THE TRIP ON THIS THREAD.
Warning: This information is for those who wish to read it. Please always feel free to corroborate any information herein with the company itself. This is not intended to promote the company nor to suggest that you purchase or hold onto the stock. It is simply a posting of what I saw and interpreted for myself.
My brother lives about 2 hours south of Grass Valley and is involved in agricultural crop dusting where the cotton seed is sewn by plane. His company is therefore very interested in weather and weather patterns. On questioning him about the coming possible effect of El Nino on his area, he reported that their information was that most of the activity would be substantially to the north of the Sacramento area or south of it, that the Sacramento area was in the "eye" of the pattern and that they did not expect to see much fallout or crop damage from the El Nino weather activites to the north or south. I took this as a good piece of information as it meant the mines would also hopefully not be experiencing abnormal weather.
I arrived early at the BCMD office on East Main street. It is a nicely kept, spacious office. The people staffing the office are friendly, efficient and professional. I spoke at length with the accountant who was very open and relaxed. I did not talk about the specifics of company business with him, nor did I look at their books.
He began to pull out maps and elevations to show me and talk about the area in a historical sense, showing me photographs of what the mine had produced in the past and explaining the value of quartz gold, in that it can be sliced for jewelry and that jewelers pay $500/oz and up for such quartz and that the oz. measurement is the weight of the quartz and whatever gold might happen to be in it.
The entire office staff impressed me as being relaxed, not harried, not strained as persons might be if things were "wrong" or they feared for their jobs in the near future.
Jim Chapin arrived about the same time that Jeremy Fairman and his friend Lilly (with geological training) did. Jim saw that we were engaged in conversation with the accountant and took that opportunity to deal with some things he needed to get done, not at all concerned about our conversations with his staff. Jim then came in shortly and proceeded to explain in detail the maps "along strike" and "down dip" attempting to convey the size of the Pillars, the history of the Lower Brush Creek Mine, the Brush Creek Mine and how the entire land package all tied in to itself. Jim Chapin is a tall, well-spoken man who impresses me as having thought through things on all levels. I feel he is a man capable of listening and knows how to move conversation forward in a productive manner.
We then all climbed (4 of us) into the company 4WD and proceeded from Grass Valley up through the mountains to the Lower Brush Creek mine.
There we met Stan Griffith, the mine superintendent, and were suited up in top to bottom slickers, steel toed rubber boots, emergency pack for breathing, hard hat, light, battery, orange rubber gloves and a stout belt for carrying our equipment. We were then given a complete lesson on how to use our emergency pack and the reasons for it. Also how not to blind someone else with our helmet light.
While we waited for our "trolley" cars to arrive to take us into the mine, we talked with the mining crew on the outside, watched large tractors move slag heaps around, talked about environmental issues,
went into the various outbuildings housing tools, gear, etc. We saw heaps of rock awaiting assay results, saw the 6 one-ton ore carts come up full, be emptied and go back down. An impressive thing to watch was how the miners related to Jim and to each other, with smiles, in a relaxed manner, with energy and with pride in their work. My impression was that they were proud and excited to be working in a place that they considered had a "big strike". There was also no tension between "boss" and worker, in fact the relationship seemed to be more of respect and trust.
At this point I need to apologize and say that I have to run to an appointment but will get back to my posting Sunday morning. Sorry that I got up so late and could not get to this earlier. My tour was the best thing that I could have done for myself and I now feel completely comfortable in holding this stock long term and believe that I have purchased something of value. I will get to all the reasons I feel this tomorrow. I at least wanted to get some little thing onto this thread so that you would not feel I was being silent. |
