Dipping strata (upper right) cut by and plunging into fault zone

I found what appeared to be the entrance to an adit, but, upon future inspection, I discovered that it was completely collapsed. There was no going underground on that day.

Hatch Barite Mine Collapsed Adit

As was often the case with many of the mines that we had visited, the Hatch mine sat high above the surrounding countryside, so we enjoyed expansive views to the west.

Looking westward from the Hatch Barite Mine

We started near the top of the spoil piles and worked our way down. Chrissy and Opal went one way and I headed off in another. There was a whole lot of ground to cover and mineral-laden rocks were seemingly everywhere. In addition to barite, many other minerals, including fluorite, quartz, amethyst and calcite may be found there. The mine is also known for very high-quality cutting-grade banded rhyolite.

I made my way down to a wall of rock near what appeared to be an old machine cut near the bottommost spoil piles. The outcrop looked to me like a complex fault breccia. The face of the wall appeared to have been heavily worked by previous rockhounds, as it was replete with small man-made holes and caves above loose talus slopes.

Fault Breccia Wall

I noticed that there had been a fair amount of highgrading as barite and other rock and mineral specimens had been carefully laid out and left behind. I poked around inside some of the holes and discovered the source of the highgrading. I recovered a few loose barite clusters from deep within the wall. Before long, Chrissy found me or, more accurately, she found my legs sticking out of a hole in the wall. She brought to me a two-way radio for communication before heading off on her own to continue her hunt elsewhere in the mine. It was a good thing for me that she left the lifeline because, within about 15 minutes, I realized that I would need more than my 6-pound sledge and a chisel if I was going to be able bring down some major wall. So, I gave Chrissy a shout and asked her to drive the truck along with our tools down to a spot that was closer to where I was working.

I employed hammer, chisels and prybars to widen fractures and tear down rock to expose hidden pockets containing a variety of minerals. The following pictures show some of the booty that Chrissy and I recovered that day.