Here is a photo from the Scotsman last year of the mine tubs:
There is also an overview of the operation here:
Note that this is the only gold mine in Scotland to actually make it to a commercial level.? All previous Scottish gold has been panned.? If however you go down a "might have been" route, the following observations are based on my geological knowledge of Scotland and mine visits in similar places elsewhere in the world:
Scottish gold is generally hosted in small high grade vein deposits.? As such, the likely method of working would be to drive adits into the hillside following the vein, with a couple of shafts to connect to lower levels.
Historically, most small operations would not smelt the ore on site but would probably high-grade the ore (hand picking or water-table) before shipping it to a central processing facility.? (With modern technology, and due to the nature of the ore?the Cononish mine actually processes on site, but this is partly because the nearest alternative smelter is in Wales).
As such, any surface railway operation would involve drawing the tippers of broken rock out of the adit and, if the ore was to be processed at all on site, to the crusher.? Concentrate would then be shipped out, probably as a fine gravel.? A spur to a dump would also be required for waste rock.
The ore itself is quite colourful!? The main host mineral is a milky white quartz, but the gold itself is associated with pyrite (aka fools gold!), which is iron sulphide.? As such there is a wonderful array or red and yellow iron oxidation (rust) colours in the ore.? The second article linked above shows the grey-white vein in the middle and a substantial amount of yellow iron staining around.? So the loads for your wagons are going to be quite colourful!
best regards, George!
