Tag Archives: gold

Springtime Visit

Don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned that Super Bowl Sunday is a special day for us at the mine.  Years ago, we snowshoed into the claims on a Super Bowl Sunday and decided right then and there to buy them.  Ever  since its been kind of an anniversary for us, we visit, roast hot dogs, hike around.  This year, because of a scheduling conflict and the fact one of our team is a Bronco’s Fan, we did it the following weekend.  There are definite signs of spring, even a wild violet decided to sprout.

river

 

The Creek is open, the water is really low.  I was tempted to jump in there and check out some of that exposed bedrock and creek bed.

 

 

 

IMG_1164Though the glory hole and the staging area are not quite ready to get our operation going.

 

 

 

 

We did manage to get a few buckets of paydirt from our stockpile, lots of folks got dirt for Valentines day this year I think and we were running low..  Not quite ready to start the mining season, but had a great day nonetheless.

 

paydirt spring

 

Lets get ready to MINE!

Hey guys,

Its early for 2016 to be updating the Blog, I know. The sun is shining, there’s hardly any snow, and I want to get ready to mine!  I think we’re in for an early season.

2016 prep

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We pulled the trommel out of the ice and snow, and took it down to our friends at Adams Fabrication.  Rich is always ready to fix what we broke last year and implement our crazy ideas.  He built our new sluice box last year and we couldn’t be happier.

2016prep3

 

Going up to the claim tomorrow to see what needs to be done to get ready up there.  We’ll keep you posted!

 

Packing up

Fall is here, the freeze is on, and it’s time to call it for the season.    We fenced off the digsite and hauled everything home.

glory hole

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have some great plans for next year, new equipment and modifications to our trommel should make for better production.

So until next year yellow gold, we bid you adieu

cleanup gold

 

The End of the Rainbow

Fall is in the air.  The kid is back in school.  With grandma watching the kid for the week, we decided to work like dogs and try to squeeze as much out what was left of the season as we could.  We spotted this rainbow, unfortunately, the end is located on a neighboring claim, but hey, gold washes downstream right?

We decided to try a little experiment.  Normally, we clean out the sluice every time we stop the pump, for lunch, or for the night.  Since we were working with a reduced crew, we decided to leave the sluice alone for a few days.  Normally, we see nothing on top of the mats when we stop, but after a few days, we started to see some color.  The yellow matting we use is discarded pipeline insulation material, works great for miners moss.  However its hard to see the gold since it is the same color as the mat.  Look closely, the gold is slightly more orange.

gold in sluiceEverything was going great, equipment working fine, gold in the sluice.  We had uncovered some large rocks in the dig site, always a good sign.  We were disappointed in the rainy weather, but with a full set of rain gear on, we managed to stay warm.  Then minutes into the last run on the second day, we heard a loud   “snap” from the little Kubota tractor we use for loading the trommel.  We had broken the loader for what seemed like the 100th time this year.  This is a great tractor, but not really built for what we are asking it to do.

broken kubota

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resigned, we cleaned the sluice.  We ran the cons though the mini highbanker.  There was so much black sand and the entire black mat was covered with gold.  At this point we were navigating by flashlight, so held the panning until daylight and toasted the end of our season by the light of the fire.  We got somewhat toasted ourselves I might add…

payout

The next morning we panned the concentrates and were pleased by the results.  We called around trying to locate a replacement loader, but Alaska is a hard place to find parts, especially for an early 90’s model Kubota.  We decided to head for home and see if we could fix it ourselves and maybe salvage a day or two of the week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winding Down

The salmon have returned to the creek.  I could sit down there for hours watching them.  After so many years in the ocean, they return to the very same river the were born.  Nature is amazing!  Seems our mining activities are really disturbing them!

 

We actually got a great video of them with our go pro camera.  The first salmon you see is a king (chinook), rare these days, the bright ruby red ones are reds (sockeye) salmon.

Time is running out in the season, the kid has to start school pretty soon.  Of course we are having equipment problems, again!

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We have a small kubota tractor we use for loading the trommel.  It’s a great little tractor, but not really designed for the kind of work we are asking of it.  We keep having to stop and replace pins, weld cracks, tighten bolts.  Maybe we need to look into a skid steer or something for next season.  And wouldn’t you know it, the pay streak is getting better and better!  It’s infuriating.

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