Alaskan Pay dirt

[SteveDigsGems]

Earlier this evening I decided to pan some Alaskan pay dirt that I bought from an eBay seller. I bought 1 pound for $15, and it is guaranteed to have gold, because the lady sprinkles a pinch in. I didn't get rich, but I am really happy with the experience I got out of it. I have a lot of friends that want to travel out to my local gold bearing rivers with me to sluice, but before we go, I'm probably going to have them pan some of the dirt in my backyard. It is a good opportunity for them to see how the gold behaves, and it will motivate them for the upcoming trip.





Sorry about the quality, my camera ran out of batteries, this is an iPad picture. I'll get some batteries next time I'm at the store and upload what I found.







-Steve

 

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[elkie13]

To everything there is a season.



We've been forced to admit that we've reached the end of this mining season. The cold has caught up with us, and while we can work through numb fingers and toes, the equipment can't handle the freeze.



Our decision was helped by the event of getting two flat tires on the dump truck in as many days, we seem to be spending more time repairing equipment than running it. We got a very short run, but managed to get just a little more gold out of the ground before it froze.



Unlike other mining operations, we have to clear everything out when we're done for the season. This year we decided to use water to dig out the trommel instead of our backs, and it worked pretty well. I don't know why we didn't consider it before.


https://constellationminingcompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_0743-2-359x400.jpg

Hoses rolled up, camp broken down, and now its time for the long parade of trips to bring the bigger stuff home for the winter.

Its hard for me this time of year, though at this point I'm almost too exhausted to be sad. I won't deny that I look forward to long showers, warm wood stoves, and catching up on all the movies I haven't seen. Also, I get to dream about new digsite we hope to explore next year. It doesn't look like much, but if the results of our magnetometer survey and bulk testing are any indication, this might mean our next season could be the best yet. We've got a lot of planning to do.





We gave it everything we had this year, then we reached down and found more to give.

Thanks for following along with us.

 

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[elkie13]

Duplicate

 

[elkie13]

Hi guys! Not much mining going on but I've been working on a design for a pocket size black sand magnet.
Been diverting but I still CANT WAIT UNTILL SPRING

 

[newbAu]

Hi Elkie.

I just ordered my second bag of paydirt from you. I was impressed with my first bag a few months ago. I haven't been able to get out and try my new drop riffle sluice I built, and am hoping to test it out with your dirt soon!

Thank you.

Kevin

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I was looking at those last pictures of your trommel and was wondering what the opening size is on your grizzly bars?

 

[elkie13]

I was looking at those last pictures of your trommel and was wondering what the opening size is on your grizzly bars?

The space is four inches. We had to set it that size because our bedrock is slate and comes off in big "flakes." Even so, every once in a while one of those suckers turns sideways and gets into the hopper, then inevitably gets jammed in something. We call them "gatekeepers." Lol

 

[elkie13]

"The mountains are calling, and I must go." - John Muir



Welcome to the start of the 2017 mining season! I understand what Muir was saying about the call of the mountains - I've been hearing it for some time, though the snow didn't seem to be cooperating. Thankfully though, Spring is finally upon us and its time to start setting up. First piece of equipment - the recently repaired backhoe- is on site.



While there is still snow in places like the creek - there are some signs of Spring - we even found a patch of violets.



The dog couldn't resist a wallowing in the settling pond. We're not the only ones excited to be back at the mine!


Both our new and old dig sites are not quite thawed out, but that is ok, as we still have a bit of staging to do. Remember that last year we had a magnetometer survey done and we are really looking forward to following up on one of the "hot spots" and seeing what kind of values are there. This spring I can tell you why there is most likely good gold there - the water is just pouring out there, draining from up on the canyon rim.



More to come - just thought I'd let you all know the news. IT'S MINING SEASON!!!!

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

More to come - just thought I'd let you all know the news. IT'S MINING SEASON!!!!

Good to hear!
I'll be real interested to see if your mag survey is accurate or worth the $$/effort.
---------------------
Around here the trees have gotten their leaves and it's fire season.
Overburden sucks is all I'll say.

 

[elkie13]

I am dying to follow up on the mag survey, I'll let you know how accurate their depth and value estimates were for sure.
Overburden is the price all miners pay, else everyone would be a miner right?!

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I am dying to follow up on the mag survey, I'll let you know how accurate their depth and value estimates were for sure.
Overburden is the price all miners pay, else everyone would be a miner right?!

We are using old school dowsing.

We had a good paying face that got worse the further downhill we went.
Dad dowsed a line running parallel and about 20' away from where we were getting good gold. From there it tapers away from the cut, possibly explaining why the values went down.

He says his line is the natural drainage before it got covered with a major land/mud slide.
I believe him.

 

[TintedSnow]

Just out of curiosity, what part of the state are you in? It's been really warm here in the Anchorage area and most snow is gone. I just had my first trip of the season down on the Kenai and there is no snow there either. Struck out though! No color.

 

[elkie13]

We are using old school dowsing. ]
I've seen that work. Even tried it myself. Definitely a less expensive option!
Even if mag survey saves us a few weeks digging in the wrong spot it will have paid for itself. 10k for 160 acres really wasn't that bad.

@tintedsnow I try not to share exactly where we are, the more popular our blog gets the more crazy people come looking for us (seriously - it has happened). But I bet if you look at the pictures of the mountains, I bet you can figure it out. BTW I've heard good things about six mile. ;-)

 

[elkie13]

"This is gold mining. You love ALL of it, or you love NONE of it!"

These were my husband's words to me when he noticed the color drain from my face as 14 thousand pounds of bulldozer came slamming down on the tilt trailer. He was teasing, but he's not wrong.

I absolutely love the spring. I love dreaming about what we might accomplish this year at the mine. I love seeing the first leaves come out on the trees. I love seeing how the river has changed.

I don't particularly enjoy hauling all our equipment down winding mountain roads 70 miles from our home. The price of getting to mine in the National Forest is that everything has to be removed at the end of the season, and staged again in the spring. So we pay that price.







But we survived, we got all the equipment there. Then it was time to stage the trommel, muck out the settling pond, unroll the hoses. Getting the level right on the sluice box and trommel is always an exercise in trial and error. "Where is ____ tool?" "Did you remember the ______ ."



There's nothing like when that first water comes down the sluice box. That's when, in my mind anyway, it's really mining season.



We got the water going, the only thing left to do was run some dirt. We had our friend the welder make some plumbing changes to the trommel, and it seems like it's really going to make a huge increase in our production. The trommel processed the material as fast as I could feed it. I never once had to use my trusty 2x4 to push a rock through the hopper, or get off the excavator to undo a jam.



We decided to call it for the evening. We enjoyed the first campfire of the year.




The next morning, we loose the pump seal, and everything stops.

I don't care how big your mining operation is, how shiny and new your equipment, it can still come to a grinding halt over something as simple as an o-ring. And so it did.

This is gold mining.

And I love it.

 

[elkie13]

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more - William Shakespeare

After an agonizingly late spring. We finally got the mine back up and running. And we're finding GOLD!

Earlier this year, we made a promise to ourselves to not let things like breakdowns get us down this season. First of all, it doesn't make any difference, if your broke down - you're broke down- attitude has nothing to do with it. Also, we wanted to get back some of that feeling that made us become gold miners in the first place. We're in God's country, with the people we love, doing what we love - what's there to feel bad about?

In the last post I mentioned that we lost the seal in our main water pump. After hours of international calls, and finding out there's a three week window to get the 200 dollar set of o-rings (highway robbery); we did the only sensible thing - we bought a brand new Honda water pump! We should have done this years ago - water came FIRING out of the end of the trommel, we had to adjust the level. Now as a result - we're able to run a lot more dirt. And we all know what that means....

Spring came in with a vengeance - I swear I could actually hear the plants growing. Frosty nights turned into 70-80 degree days. We even had to take a break and find some water for our crew to cool off in.




It turns out we did have a breakdown, we lost another hose on the backhoe. So we took the opportunity to do some dental work on the excavator. It looks much better with all its teeth





After running the trommel for a while we did a clean out. We were happy with the amount of fine gold and black sand we were getting. So we ran a little more.





After a few days of running, the carpets had visible gold in them.





Since Christmas we've been waiting to try out the mini trommel that Santa brought the crew from our friends at Gold Fox USA. We were very pleased with how fast it was to run the concentrates from the sluice box, and how much gold it trapped. I'll do a video for you guys once we get it a little better figured out.






All in all, a good few days at the mine. It's almost time to start clearing our new hot spot that was identified on the magnetometer survey we had last year. We're almost out of dirt in our current spot, and now that we have everything else dialed in so well - I can't wait to see what's in there!

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Nice! You hope you will eventually get all of the hoses replaced...then those types of breakdowns will slow.
One thing I have figured out - there is a big difference between operating equipment and operating equipment with thought.
You are not alone in breakdowns - my dad is working on rebuilding the front end of the hoe and ordering seals for the steering rams today.
It will still be half wore out when he's done, but a half wore out front end will last many more hours.


What model/size pump did you buy?
I think we are running a WB30 (3") and have just enough water to run 2 small boxes.
Kind of wish we had a little more water. Feeding the water via. hard pipe rather than collapsible hose increased our water volume some. Almost want to test out a larger pump to see what kind of difference it would make as far as processing volume/scrubbing/recovery rate.

A good attitude does go a long ways.
Thanks for the update.








-------------------------
Not to hijack - but we ran a couple yards of dirt as a precaution (make sure it was overburden).
Looks like it is time to make some more gravel for the road.

 

[elkie13]

What model/size pump did you buy?
I think we are running a WB30 (3") and have just enough water to run 2 small boxes.
Kind of wish we had a little more water. Feeding the water via. hard pipe rather than collapsible hose increased our water volume some. Almost want to test out a larger pump to see what kind of difference it would make as far as processing volume/scrubbing/recovery rate.

View attachment 1459529

We bought the biggest four inch trash pump they had at honda. We used to neck it down to two inch, this winter we had our welder plumb it directly into the hopper. We don't need no spray bars, just a 4 inch jet of water pointing down, clears the hopper perfectly...

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

That was probably a good idea going with the 4". You can always idle it down and the Honda is going to serve you well for decades to come.
--------
Per the back hoe - things went well for my dad yesterday (rebuilding the front end). It wasn't as bad as we all thought it was going to be (even though some of the bearings were simply missing). One bad thing...discovered a large slash in the sidewall of the rear tire (ones we bought new last year)
We are going to apply a patch to the outside to keep gravel out of the slit and hope for the best. I'm afraid I may have been the culprit...unknowingly I had a basketball sized rock in the bucket as I was driving in third gear. It fell out and landed in front of the front tire. It bounced over the rock...I didn't think I hit it with the rear tire...but you never know it may have. Again back to operating equipment with thought - empty the front bucket and tip it up before you take off driving down the road!

 

[elkie13]

Ouch, tires are expensive. It's also true that you can be as careful as you like but mining is hard on equipment. Sometimes I feel like it's a race to see how much gold you can find before the next thing breaks. Spend to gold to fix it, rinse, repeat. :-)

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Ouch, tires are expensive. It's also true that you can be as careful as you like but mining is hard on equipment. Sometimes I feel like it's a race to see how much gold you can find before the next thing breaks. Spend to gold to fix it, rinse, repeat. :-)

4 SURE.

Sometimes that is what working a regular job is like too though...spend $$ on gas/insurance/tires/maintenance/repairs/daycare/schooling, ect. ect. so you can go to work and earn money.

Seeing the last bit of sand wash away, exposing a string of gold at the end of each day seems to give much much more satisfaction than the auto-deposit of the paycheck.

There is also a sense of camaraderie that comes from working towards a common goal, realizing mutual benefit. Something I'm sure the old time miners felt 160 years ago!

 

[bcfromfl]

Nice posts, elkie13! Just out of curiosity, you probably have some sage words to say about bug repellent...seeing as you are right up in the thick of things! What do you use to keep them at bay (especially black flies!)?