Tag Archives: mining

The Nugget

Hey Everyone!

I have to really apologise for not updating you all in a while.  Sometimes when stuff is going so bad, its really hard to talk about.  Remember a few posts back we had to get a new final drive for the excavator?  We ordered the new drive got it installed, everything was great.  Then the bolts all sheared off for some reason and we ruined that brand new 3k dollar drive.  That’s pretty much when I stopped updating you.

All is better now, got another new final drive, and with the help of Doug at minifinaldrives.com we got the pieces we needed to get the one we ruined rebuilt.  Doug even helped us diagnose what may have happened to cause the bolts to shear (track tension setting wrong in the owners manual).

But none of this is what you want to hear about is it?  We’ve hit upon a bedrock ledge, in that ledge we found a depression and that’s where this little guy came from.  I’ll never forget this this shining in the sun when I looked at the sluice box.  (Sorry my phone was dead, no photo).  We got as much gold in that one day as we normally get in two.

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I cant wait to get back in there and see if this little guy has any big brothers.  Stay tuned…

Working Weekend

With the kid back in school, we must finish our season with what time we can spare on weekend and holidays. This one cut short by yet more breakdowns and rain. The idler casters that keep the trommel from moving horizontally had to be replaced. We ripped the pull string out of our main pump, and to too it all off broke a steering hose on the backhoe.
Everything was a wet, muddy, soup. All those beautiful salmon we videoed last time are rotting in the creek. We had to be extra vigilant about bears.
We managed to pull it together in time to run a few hours until the dark made us stop. Yes it’s starting to get dark around 9:30 pm, really a hamper to mining. 🙂

Good gold

Guess what? Went all the way home to get the trailer, started to load the little tractor, discovered a stuck lever or the backhoe attachment that was stealing all the hydraulic power. Walla! Fixed. We were right about this hole, gold keeps getting better.

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Ready to run – almost

Back here at the claim. Now that we know our homes are relatively safe from the forest fire. Got some much needed rain, it doesn’t make it much fun to work outside, but we don’t have to worry about every little spark from grinding or welding. Campfires are still banned, so we had to huddle up by the little buddy heater in the storage tent last night.

First order of business, noticed some cracked hoses on the backhoe. Off to town to get new ones made.

Then some welding and grinding on the trommel. We are adapting the sluice that was from our old wash plant. It’s wider, deeper and longer. Should work much better. Also have to put lock nuts on the belt tension bolts to make sure they don’t rattle out.

Seems like we spend more time getting ready to run than it takes to actually process the dirt. Part of mining I guess.
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Grizzly Repair

Have spent the last two days welding on our grizzly. Got here and noticed we had a visitor. We saw these in the mud from our settling pond.

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I’m guessing a black but I’m not sure.

Our grizzly got really beat up last year. We decided to reinforce it a little more. That means metal sides and cross braces. Our welder extraordinaire was able to the task. I do believe he could weld the crack of dawn.

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That’s done now time to get some dirt. You won’t believe what the thaw uncovered. More for next time…