Cotton Patch Gold Mine

Cotton Patch Gold Mine,
Union Copper Mine
North Carolina
May 10th - 12th, 2013

Photos by: Richard Jacquot

This was another new trip for the MAGMA club. Our MAGMA member Sam Burgin approached me about this trip a little over a month ago. After checking out the sites, I knew the members would love it!

The Cotton Patch Gold Mine is owned and operated by Jeff and Tina Pickett. This is a commercial gold mine that offers the public opportunities to collect native gold at their site. Our trip was a chance to visit two mines and collect, the Cotton Patch Gold Mine and the Union Copper Mine located in Rowan County. Sam and Jeff are partners in the Union Mine. I have not found a lot of information about the Union Copper Mine. I know it was mined for copper from the 1800's until around 1906. I checked the mindat site but it provided no useful info, it didn't even have gold listed as a known mineral from the site. Jeff and Sam have purchased the Union site and plan to process the spoil piles for the gold content as well as other accessory minerals.

A welcome from the Cotton Patch Gold Mine.

We camped at the Cotton Patch and that was our base camp for the weekend. Each morning, some of the members stayed at the Cotton Patch while others caravanned over to the Union Mine.

Friday was the first day of the three day weekend field trips. I lead a group over to the Union Mine while Sam conducted a gold prospecting boot camp at the Cotton Patch. We had over 120 members attend the digs for the weekend.