Alto Group Holdings, Inc. has announced that it has acquired the mineral rights to the Horseshoe Bar Gold Mine.
Located on the middle fork of the American river near Forest Hill in California, the "Horse Shoe Bar" got its name because of its being naturally shaped like a horse shoe, over a mile and a half around, a few hundred yards wide.
The super rich placer came to its final resting place because of its back eddies and deep crisscrossing cracks in the bed rock, as it acts as a natural massive "Gold Trap." The mine is supposed to have an estimated $25 million to $35 million in gold as per a conservative view.
Horse Shoe Bar, Mining has been "attempted" on this bar back to the gold rush. Image Credit: Mining has been "attempted" on this bar back to the gold rush.
A tunnel of 30 by 60 feet was driven into the river side open end of the horse shoe bar to de water it in the late eighteenth century. The black eddies and the deep cracks in the bed rock acted as a natural gold trap and while mining it was difficult then, it did collect a whole lot of gold. The gold nuggets recovered in the area here have been amongst the largest recorded in California. Some of them are in the 40 to 60 ounce size and look like the size of a loaf of bread.
The mine should get its permits and licenses faster than usual as this is being touted as an environmental reclamation project. As such the company will be restoring the natural native habitat and cleaning up the old mine tailings where gravel was extracted for a dam project in the 1950s.