Tag Archives: alaska

Running Dirt

Finally got up and running.  Working the bugs out of our trommel.  She likes to jam up with rocks sometimes right where the hopper chute goes into the trommel.

We tilted the angle of the trommel and it helped a great deal, though occasionally one works it’s way in there and then things get exciting.  You have to try to clear the jam before burning the belts and fast enough that a bunch of material doesn’t build up and overrun the sluice after the drum starts turning again.  Wish there were a way to avoid this but we haven’t found any so far.

We have been getting a little gold.  A lot of overburden came down over the winter.  There is gold in it, so we ran it.

 

 

Overburden goldOverburden gold 2The dig site is looking pretty promising.  Just removed this huge rock. Started uncovering it last year. We discovered it had a halo of gold around it. Can’t wait to see what it has under it.

 

 

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Frozen Ground

So what’s going on in this picture?  Why, I am thawing out a pile of frozen paydirt that’s what!  I have a big old tarp and a diesel heater and I’m thawing and screening paydirt to sell.  At the end of the mining season last year, I made a pile just in case.  I never thought to have to do this as we had 1500 bags in my garage, ready to go.  That’s what we get for aiming low.  We have been so blessed with folks wanting our paydirt to try their hand at mining in the comfort of their own home.   We sold that 1500 bags by January, so every few weeks here I am, going back for more.  Thank you to all of you for your support for our dream.

The other thing you may notice is there is no snow on the ground.  While the rest of you are buried in snow in places like Tennessee and Georgia, we have YOUR warm weather up here.  I’ve lived here all my life and have never seen anything like this winter.  Its gotten up to 60 degrees around here at a time its supposed to be below zero.  Don’t know what is going on with our planet, but I say let’s just skip this winter and go straight to Mining Season!

 

Look what Santa brought

Hi everyone, look at our newest toy!  We won this on an eBay auction out of California.  We feel super lucky, it’s a one of a kind made by Titan Engineering, who builds 300 ton per hour trommels.  This is a smaller, portable version and should speed up our process.

Thanks to our family who went and got it from California.  Now we have to get it from their house in Arizona to Alaska, road trip anyone?