Bering Sea Gold Under the Ice S3 starts 8/24

jeff of pa

Super Moderator
Staff member
Dec 19, 2003
85,770
59,553
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I thought the dredgers were required to be so far apart? that area they were working must have been a unclaimed/public area. I never did like the situation when someone barges in on the area your working!


yes it's like fishing.
you find what you think is a private hole,
and as soon as someone gets wind you pulled a nice fish and all of a sudden it's filled with claim Jumpers.

But I believe your right they could probably have Sean arrested , had it been real,
and they were realy mad.
 

AK_Au_Diver

Jr. Member
Nov 21, 2013
98
154
Nome, AK
Detector(s) used
My Eyes
Primary Interest:
Other
The only rules on being too close are:
1) in recreational areas on the ocean dredgers must be 150 feet apart for safety reasons. But sea ice is much safer as far as having operations closer because anchoring and drifting and current shifts and wind are not factors.

2) in leased area the combined plume from the dredge may not reach a length more than 800 feet. This is for the dreaded "turbidity" which is a total joke. And for 6" and 8" dredges is not really even a concern. Besides the DEC just made up the 800 foot rule without any scientifically valid basis.

I have not watched the show, but I think Shawn was out on the West Lease block, aka "Jess Creek", aka "Tomcod", this is a privately held 1000 acre lease owned by Phoenix Marine. It's up to the owner to set and enforce rules for being nice between operations he allows on his leases.

No one would get arrested it's a civil thing, if Shawn or anyone was on an area that they were not allowed, the Troopers might help enforce a trespass, maybe that would escalate to arresting but not likely.
 

OP
OP
O

Ordell

Full Member
Feb 8, 2013
189
155
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Well it ended tonight. Vern Adkisson did very very well. His final total was 177 ounces, $230k. Emily was as big a failure as her old man, with just 4 ounces.

I got one question. There are gold buyers who purchase gold from the miners on the spot. They are paying for the gold at the current rate. So how do the buyers make any money? Are they counting on gold to go up? Making something with it and charging a premium?
 

KevinInColorado

Gold Member
Jan 9, 2012
7,037
11,370
Summit County, Colorado
Detector(s) used
Grizzly Goldtrap Explorer & Motherlode, Gold Cube with trommel or Banker on top, Angus Mackirk Expedition, Gold-n-Sand Xtream Hand pump
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Well it ended tonight. Vern Adkisson did very very well. His final total was 177 ounces, $230k. Emily was as big a failure as her old man, with just 4 ounces. I got one question. There are gold buyers who purchase gold from the miners on the spot. They are paying for the gold at the current rate. So how do the buyers make any money? Are they counting on gold to go up? Making something with it and charging a premium?
Good question, especially since that gold is not near pure....
 

jeff of pa

Super Moderator
Staff member
Dec 19, 2003
85,770
59,553
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Well it ended tonight. Vern Adkisson did very very well. His final total was 177 ounces, $230k. Emily was as big a failure as her old man, with just 4 ounces.

I got one question. There are gold buyers who purchase gold from the miners on the spot. They are paying for the gold at the current rate. So how do the buyers make any money? Are they counting on gold to go up? Making something with it and charging a premium?

I'm going to Guess there is some Special Math going on by the producers,
so it only looks like the Buyers are not getting their cut.

I watched Bering Sea then Z nation in that order & now I wonder if Steve's been Double Dippin'

images2.jpg images.jpg
 

Last edited:

AK_Au_Diver

Jr. Member
Nov 21, 2013
98
154
Nome, AK
Detector(s) used
My Eyes
Primary Interest:
Other
I got one question. There are gold buyers who purchase gold from the miners on the spot. They are paying for the gold at the current rate. So how do the buyers make any money? Are they counting on gold to go up? Making something with it and charging a premium?

The gold buyers charge an assay and refining fee per lot, then they return some percentage of the gold, typically 98% (they keep 2%), and 90% or no percent of the silver (they keep 10% to 100% depending on the buyer). The per lot fee is several hundred dollars, and pays for the overhead of melting and assaying the lot. If a buyer comes with less than some amount, like 10ozt or less, then the buyer typically will buy it outright, over the counter, for something like 60%, which is a better deal than paying the fees.

I may find an old settlement statement and post it here, I'll have to look around. Here is a made up example of how it typically goes:

Deliver 100ozt clean and dry gold.
Fees are charged to account and are taken out of the first payout later. -$450
The gold is melted and assayed.
Melt loss: 10ozt, remaining weight 90ozt
Assay of that 90ozt: Gold 88% (79.2ozt), Silver 9% (8.1ozt), other 3%.
A "next day" sell order is placed by me, the next day's London PM fix is used as the sale price, lets say this was $1200/ozt
Payout: Gold: @$1200/ozt, 98%: 79.2ozt*98%*$1200=$93,139.
Silver: @$20/ozt, 90%: $145.8
Fees: -$450
Check issued for $92,834 no sooner than two weeks after the gold was delivered by me to the gold buyer.
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top