Located right off old Highway 49 is what used to be the North Star Mine (according to USGS Topo) now owned by Sutter Gold Mining Inc.. Sutter Gold offered underground tours in a jeep like buggy for a few years but ceased in Sept 2011 when gold prices rose and an attempt to resume mining began.
The story I heard was that permitting took several years and permitting for milling was never obtained and ore had to be shipped to Nevada. That no longer was profitable and mining has stopped again.
We drove by the North Star Mine and a tourist like entrance is decorated with metal crafted miners and works. The gate was closed and locked. A make believe headframe towers near the entrance right on Old Highway 49. A little further down the road we could see the modern works on a not to distant hill from a roadside turnout.
I would love to hear more about this mine, the tours they once had and plans for the future. Please comment below.
3 Comments
They had a really nice gift shop when they were giving the tours. As I recall, they didn’t take us very far underground but they did have some historical displays set up in the mine and other various displays about mining in general. I know the guide was just waiting for the permitting process to end so he could start mining. They would even show a place in the ceiling that had a vein with visible gold in it (although I think it was something they set up for the tour). They did a ton of work once they closed the tours down in order to prepare the mine for reopening. Sorry to hear that it is closed once again.
iS IT POSSIBLE TO GET A GROUND TOUR NOW.
WITH THE CARETAKER. REALLY INTERESTED IN SEEING THE GROUNDS. BOB
I don’t think so. Gate is usually locked and I haven’t seen much activity there. I know that they were only giving tours while they worked on getting all permits in place. Apparently they got the permit to mine, but not to PROCESS what they mined. They had to truck the ore to Nevada to process it. This made it so they couldn’t make a profit and so they shut down.