David Badner rushed from his car, shook hands and immediately started talking.
He's from Brooklyn, he's rich, he has a condo in Miami Beach, he's married to a "hot Peruvian." And when it comes to business, he can always pick a winner.
"I'm either smart or very, very lucky," he said.
The 60-year-old venture capitalist was here to inspect his latest acquisitions â€" three defunct gold mines he bought at auction in January for $540,000. He hopes to buy a dozen more, believing they could be worth $500 million.
"Listen, I know things; I know trends," he said. "If I can pull this off, I will bring gold mining back to prominence in Colorado."
With gold selling at over $1,600 an ounce, Badner is part of a small but growing trend of fortune hunters looking to use modern technology to recover what earlier miners left behind.
Mines have reopened near Ouray, Creede, Boulder and Durango, but officials say little gold has emerged.
"There is renewed interest, but it's not 1872 anymore," said Loretta Pineda, director of the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety. "These legacy mines have environmental and safety issues. It could also c ost millions to recover a small amount of gold. But if Badner wants to give it a go, we'll listen."
Jamestown, sitting some 7,000 feet above sea level, is rooted in mining lore, having experienced three gold rushes in the late 1800s. These days, it's a forested mountain enclave of Victorian homes and tumbling creeks about 12 miles from Boulder.
Not surprisingly, its 274 residents cherish their tranquil setting â€" and have mixed emotions about renewed mining efforts.
"This is a quiet town that likes to fly under the radar," said Town Clerk Mary Ellen Burch. "This whole thing has caught us off guard."
Local historian Thomas Maloney has chronicled Jamestown's mining past, turning his home into a museum with maps, old photos and digging tools.
"Personally, I'm enthusiastic about what Badner is trying to do," he said. "The mines he bought were among the top producers in the region."
Badner, part owner of a gold mine in Peru, says he'll r un a low-key operation that won't "rape the land or poison the water." Geologists from his company, Gold Hill Minerals, have already found gold in rock samples from his newly acquired Bueno Mine.
The mine produced about $600 million after 1879, with operations tapering off during World War II, said Scott Hazlitt, consulting mining engineer on the project. The mine shut down in 1987.
"They never reached the bottom because the price of gold dropped and they quit," he said. "We think there is a good chance gold remains."
Badner made much of his fortune by structuring complex mining deals. He sees Colorado, with its thousands of shuttered mines, on the cusp of a new golden age.
"Are there ore bodies these old miners never got to?" he asked. "We can continue their work using modern technology."
When not fixating on gold, Badner is a chatty, emotive man whose mind leaps about wildly.
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