They are mining at Desengaño again.

Quote: Originally posted by philodog

Driving out to Tinaja Yubay on what is usually a very quiet road I was nearly run off the road by a huge red dump truck. It turns out some enterprising folks are mining the tailings of the Desengaño mine hoping for some leftovers that were missed. At $5000 an ounce for gold who can blame them. I just wonder where they are taking the ore for processing. It's a small operation with one bobcat and one truck so no damage is being done to the site.

Thanks for that news!
I wonder if the same will happen at Luz de Mexico, which is just a few miles east on the same gold line?







[Edited on 3-16-2026 by David K]

Quote: Originally posted by bajaric

Interesting! Perhaps they are removing low grade ore from the mine dumps that was discarded because it was not worth processing back when gold was 35/oz. This would require crushing it, then processing with water or cyanide. Wonder if they have proper permits lol. Or they might have found a placer depost associated with erosion of gold bearing rocks in the area, unworked for the same reason. There is a cottage industry of locating old mill tailings from prior to 1887 when cyanide extraction was invented and reprocessing them. This would probably not apply at Desengano, as it appears to be a depression-era operation and the mill, I believe, may have been at Aqua Amarga several miles to the east. Check out my book, The Gold of Northern Baja, Jens Tobias on Amazon.