Steve Herschbach
Hero Member
Moore Creek, Alaska - A Prospector's Story
Hi. My name is Steve Herschbach. I was born in the Territory of Alaska in the then small town of Anchorage. I’ve been a prospector most of my life and I have a story I want to share with you. The trials and tribulations of a prospector in Alaska.
It was 1972 and I was an enthusiastic new prospector. Fourteen years old and raring to go, despite the fact that when I first got interested in prospecting gold was only $35 per ounce. This was soon to change, but my initial interest in prospecting was not because I thought I could make money at it. I had a fascination with the history of prospecting in Alaska and the challenges one faces in discovering new mineral deposits. The old prospectors are my heroes, and the challenge alone was enough to get me interested. For it did not take me long to discover just how hard it is to go out and fill your poke with gold!
I read old mining reports and bulletins all winter, looking for places to prospect and dreaming of making that big strike. The Iditarod area drew my interest due to the large amount of gold found there and the fame of the Iditarod. Luckily my father is a pilot and I convinced him to fly us out to Flat, Alaska to look for gold.
We finally made that flight, and much to my surprise it was obvious from the air that there was lots of active mining going on. I had imagined that with gold prices so low that mines would be dormant and abandoned in such a remote location. In retrospect we should have landed and talked to the miners but instead we turned around and headed for home. I was very disappointed.
It was not too far back towards McGrath, however, when we flew over what looked to be an obviously abandoned mine. No sign of recent activity and kind of grown up with alders and willows. Dad got out the map and found we were over a place called Moore Creek. We decided to land and check it out.
Looking down Moore Creek valley
There were some cabins a short way from the airstrip. We headed that way, passing an old bulldozer broken down next to the road. The cabins were locked up but again no real sign anyone had been around lately. There was an old dragline parked nearby on a large patch of exposed bedrock. The bedrock had a little gut of water draining some ponded water, too small to call a creek. I scooped a little gravel out of the small gully, panned it, and there was more gold then I’d ever seen in a single pan before! And not just little stuff, but coarse, chunky gold. But what got my instant attention was the quartz.
I’d already done some prospecting around Anchorage and found the smooth, water-worn gold typical of the area. I’d also read everything I could get my hands on about practical gold prospecting. So when I saw that rough gold with sharp edged pieces of quartz attached I was instantly up and looking around. I had this very strong thought of “wow, the source is somewhere real close”! I had visions of quartz veins laced with gold - I was hooked on Moore Creek.
It did not take much panning to fill a half ounce vial. Years later I came to decide that what we had found by sheer luck was where the old miners had been doing their cleanups and that they had lost some concentrates and gold in the process. Try as we may we never found a spot as rich as that first little gully again.
We returned to town and I found all the information I could on Moore Creek. There was not really a lot but Moore Creek was noted as being the largest producing mine in southwestern Alaska for many years. But of real interest was mention of lots of large nuggets being found at Moore Creek, many with quartz attached. Again, this seemed to me to strongly indicate a nearby source of gold. Better yet, two small creeks entering Moore Creek from the north were mined for gold all the way up to a small mountain. That little mountain has a monzonite intrusive, which is a type of rock strongly related to gold mineralization. All the reports assumed the mountain north of camp was where the gold came from and looking at the evidence I was certain that was true.
Unfortunately, we came to discover that we had inadvertently been claim jumping, and that the ground was claimed by Don Harris of McGrath. But we met Don and he did not have an issue with us visiting Moore Creek and poking around as he had interests elsewhere. We made a couple more trips to the mine but never really did find anything very spectacular after that first little hot spot. I made my first attempt at finding gold with a metal detector at Moore Creek, but all it did was convince me the technology of the day was just not up to the task.
Detecting at Moore Creek 1973
I ended up getting interested in suction dredging in the Anchorage area and spent most of my spare time on dredging local creeks. This interest led to the founding of Alaska Mining & Diving Supply, Inc. along with my partner Dudley Benesch in 1976. Together we staked claims on Stetson Creek on the Kenai Peninsula and so my mining activities there and starting a business drew my attention away from Moore Creek. It was just too far away. But I never forgot the place and every once in awhile I’d check up on it. In some ways it frustrated me a bit as I was still hooked on the place but Don never really did much work at Moore Creek itself. He had most of his attention on another prospect nearby at Deadwood Creek. It just seemed to me Moore Creek was crying out for hardrock prospecting, especially as gold prices rose in the late 70’s and early 80’s.
Time passed, and I all but forgot about Moore Creek. Dudley and I eventually sold our claims on Stetson Creek. I ended up getting involved later in some claims on Canyon Creek and after that moved on to some claims on upper Mills Creek. These were all placer claims. I dreamed a lot about hardrock prospecting in the areas around my various claims but all my free time was taken up by dredging activities. Lode prospecting is a very time consuming long shot and at the time just getting gold was more important.
In the winter of 1995 I for no real reason decided to check up on the claims situation at Moore Creek and was shocked to find the claims had all lapsed! Moore Creek was open for anyone to stake. I should have jumped right then, but we decided to wait until spring to fly in and stake some claims. We did just that and I sure was excited. After all these years Moore Creek would be mine. My father, sister, brother-in-law, and I all got to Moore Creek on Memorial Day weekend and set up camp. After poking around a bit we wandered into a fresh claim post. Oh no, we were too late!
What a huge letdown. Just a short time later a plane flew over and landed. That is when I met Mike Fleagle of McGrath. It turns out Mike is Don’s son-in-law. Don had let the claims go by accident, and under state law you have to wait a year before staking the same ground again. They had just restaked the claims and in a way that made me feel better. I would not have wanted to take advantage of a mistake like that.
Speaking of that, however, Mike told us they had a problem because somebody else had filed on the claims just prior to them staking them. This despite Mike knowing for a fact the claims had not been physically staked and so were only “paper-filed”. Mike was pretty worried about it, but we volunteered to act as witnesses should a dispute arise. It was obvious Don’s new claim posts were the only ones in the area. Luckily it never came to a fight and the other person relented. Mike did appreciate that we had offered, however, and so we had an open invitation once again to visit the mine.
Old Tailing Piles at Moore Creek
We had newer and better metal detectors and Mike let us try and find gold. We got quite a few small nuggets but nothing like those mentioned in the literature. I remained convinced the gold was there to be found but the rest of my family was beginning to doubt it. I told Mike how I’d always hoped to have Moore Creek someday, and asked him to tell Don that if he ever wanted to sell to give me a call.
Gold prices declined in the late 90’s and by the end of 2001 gold was only $280 per ounce. This was too low for gold mining to be sustainable in very remote locations like Moore Creek, and Don finally decided to sell Moore Creek. I only but heard of the sale, however, as I never got that phone call. The mine had been sold to somebody Don knew in McGrath. I surely could understand that, but felt like my chance at Moore Creek had passed forever. I’d waited 30 years for Don to let the ground go, and now it seemed it would be another 30 years before I got another chance.
It was not even a year later that my phone did finally ring. It seems the gentleman who had purchased the mine had fallen on some hard luck, and could not keep the claims. He tried to turn them back to Don, but Don did not want them back and suggested that I be contacted instead. I listened to the proposed deal, and when I hung up the phone I yelled to the next office “Dudley, we are buying a mine”!
The fact is that the price was more than I could reasonably bear alone. In theory I could have pulled it off, but in reality I did not think my wife would be all that excited about borrowing a bunch of money to buy a mine when gold prices were admittedly in the toilet. So the only way I saw to make it happen was to spread the cost out to bring my share down. My long-time business partner Dudley was an obvious choice as we are just natural business partners. I called my father next, as he was the guy who first got me to Moore Creek and had been with me on every trip I ever made as pilot. Finally, I called my friend John Pulling, as he also had a hand along the way in making the deal happen. We promptly made a deposit on the purchase, formed Moore Creek Mining LLC, and then completed the deal. Thirty years after first setting foot at Moore Creek, and I was finally an owner in the mine!!
The first thing that happened after we got the mine is that I started getting inquiries about when we would make the mine available for visitors on a “pay-to-mine” basis. I actually had no plan per se when we bought the mine. After 30 years I just jumped at the chance. Gold prices were very low, however, and so actually mining for a profit would have been a real long shot. So a pay-to-mine operation made perfect sense to get some cash flow going. There was a lot I wanted to do at the mine, and once again dipping into savings was not my preferred option. Before we could start pay-to-mine operations there were a couple obstacles to hurdle. First, I wanted to prove there was some real gold people could find, as we hand not had much luck ourselves previously. Second, there were permit issues to iron out with the state.
The first problem was solved in large part due to new technology. For the first time we took Minelab metal detectors to Moore Creek and in my first week with my Minelab SD2200D I recovered two pounds of gold nuggets and specimens. It also turned out that we had simply hunted the wrong places in the past. The second issue took longer to solve but by the summer of 2005 we had permits and we were able to host our first visitors at Moore Creek.
Why Lode Prospecting is a good idea at Moore Creek
The price of gold had been very low, but it seemed that the minute we got the mine the price started going up, and has in fact been going up ever since. It initially seemed that mining for a profit was a near impossibility but rising gold prices made us more serious about investigating whether or not we could start larger scale placer operations back up at the mine. The biggest problem was lack of equipment exacerbated by the poor condition of our airstrip. We had a couple 1950 era D9 bulldozers at the mine, but one was seriously broken down and the other was stuck four miles from camp. It also would need substantial sums of money to make fully operational. We needed an operating dozer just to improve the airstrip to allow for better access of fuel and more equipment. So now the pay-to-mine operation became critical in providing a cash flow to achieve these goals. At the same time, better facilities and equipment would aid the pay-to-mine operation, and so the two goals dove-tailed nicely.
Rising gold prices also brought increasing interest in exploration in Alaska by the larger mining firms. Exploration budgets were on the rise and more and more activity was taking place. I decided it was time to pursue the lode potential at Moore Creek, In the fall of 2004 I took a briefcase full of my “rocks with gold in them” to the annual Alaska Miners Convention and showed them to representatives of Full Metal Minerals of Canada. I choose them as they were very high profile, with lots of prospects all around Alaska. They seemed aggressive and therefore the sort of company that might be interested in a long shot like Moore Creek. I told them a bit about Moore Creek, my thoughts of where the gold might be coming from, and referred them to a website I prepared just for the meeting. The website at moorecreek.com had maps, photos, and every geological reference I could collect about Moore Creek. They were polite and promised to look into it. I left it at that and did not hear back from them.
Our first season of visitors in 2005 was a smashing success with numerous nuggets and specimens ranging from one to six ounces each being found. The operation was topped off by the find of a spectacular 24.79 ounce specimen by a visitor from Pennsylvania in the last week. This huge chunk was actually a section of incredibly rich gold bearing vein material and was found only a few minutes walk from our camp.
Two Pound Chunk of Gold Vein
So once again I went to the Alaska Miners Association convention in the fall of 2005. Gold prices had continued to rise and interest was higher than ever. Once again I went to visit the folks from Full Metal Minerals. This time I got their serious attention and they promised to get back to me. I have to admit I was surprised when not much time passed before Rob McLeod of Full Metal called me back and said they wanted to work with us. I was ecstatic to say the least.
Some might wonder why we did not just go try and find the source of the gold ourselves. It was true that we had a pretty good idea that it was a hill just a mile north of camp that was the source of the gold. The biggest problem was simply time. We were not full time prospectors but part timers with jobs and families to support. To cover even a square mile of ground with a grid of soil samples followed by trenching and then hopefully drilling is quite an undertaking not just of money but of time. In Alaska everything is covered by soil and tundra so finding mineral exposures can be far more difficult than in other places. Like many small time prospectors we opted to partner with a larger exploration firm with more resources than we could muster in a short time.
Our deal ended up being pretty complicated as we wanted to retain the placer rights while optioning the lode rights to Full Metal. There were lots of legal issues to cover and so went dropped a pretty sum into a very good but also expensive attorney. With a matter of this importance we wanted the best we could afford. In a nutshell, the way these things work is the exploration firm in effect leases the property to do the exploration work, plus pays all the costs of exploration. In return they get an option to purchase the lode rights for a preset sum if a mine is discovered. Our first lease payment pretty much all went to that attorney but it was well worth it.
So it was that 2006 saw not only our second season of our pay-to-mine operation but we had a crew of geologists scouring the hills taking soil and pan concentrate samples. The idea is to blanket the area with these types of samples to try and define areas for more serious attention at a later date. By this time we had over 200 claims covering around 36 square miles of mountains and valleys and so this was quite an undertaking. We purchased and rented 4x4 ATVs to the crew for close in camp work and they had helicopter support for work farther out. We had finally got our dozer running and in camp and so the mine was also seeing improvements in the airstrip and around camp. We hosted about 65 visitors at the mine that summer plus the geologists, probably setting some kind of population record for Moore Creek in the process. It was another successful summer.
Happy Visitor Rich Lampright
The assay results from the sampling program were positive and revealed what I’d always figured – that the hill a mile north of camp had the best chance of good results with some follow-up work. I was surprised when the results indicated gold lower down near the base of the mountain, however. I’d always figured the gold would be higher up. Full Metal wanted to do some trenching, and so our big priority became getting a small excavator. The real challenge was in how to get it to Moore Creek. Our airstrip was still only about 1700 feet long, and the only plane that we knew could get in and still haul a decent load was a Skyvan. Even then you can only haul 4000 lbs at a time. The worst problem was that these planes are quite rare and in high demand, so getting one lined up to do the job seemed to be nearly impossible.
Still, we had to go with the plan and hope it would all work out. Frankly, although plenty of hard work and planning went into all this in many regards we just got lucky. But for awhile I felt like I was trying to push a string with my nose across a stadium floor. This ended up being one of the most complicated things I’ve ever tried to do and as a result my attention to the pay-to-mine operation slid somewhat in that I made no serious effort to promote or sign up people for 2007. We pretty much just coasted along but benefited from the fact that we had a very high return rate from the previous two seasons. So 2007 more or less just booked itself. The numbers were down but I was so busy I did not care. In retrospect I should have as 2007 turned out to be a very expensive year indeed.
The reason I was so busy is that assuming we were going to get a Skyvan, we figured we might as well go for broke and fly in as much gear as we could afford. There was the excavator itself, but also a small washplant with conveyor feed, lots of construction material, lots of fuel, and piles of miscellaneous supplies. The list just kept getting longer and longer. On top of rounding up all this stuff I was working on trying to get a pilot to fly it all in. A charter DC-6 had to be arranged to fly everything to McGrath, and the Skyvan would ferry it all into the mine from McGrath in 4000 lb loads. The excavator alone weighed 16,000 pounds, and so I had to arrange to have it taken apart in Anchorage and then reassembled at the mine.
The saga of this operation alone would be longer than this whole story so far. We were kept waiting until the bitter end for a pilot to commit but at the very last minute the missing pieces all came together. There were a few bumps but it finally ended seemed like a series of small miracles occurred that resulted in all that equipment landing safely at Moore Creek. Thank you Wild Bill!
The pay-to-mine operation went well again, so well that many of the repeat visitors insisted on getting their names on a list for 2008 while they were still at the mine. A lot of these people were booking for their third or fourth visit and so we took this as an indication we must be doing something right. A tremendous amount of work goes into hosting people at an extremely remote location like Moore Creek and so it is rewarding to feel like we are doing something people think is worthwhile. All the money has gone back into improving the mine itself and the pay-to-mine operation and so the people returning each year see very visible signs of progress that directly benefits them in their hunt for gold.
We arranged for the geologists to come in after the pay-to-mine operation which was one benefit of keeping that part of the operation short in 2007. That way we could devote more resources to supporting the geologists. Extra time was also required to let the ground thaw to depths sufficient for the planned trenching operation. If they started too soon then the excavator would run into frozen ground that is much harder on the equipment. So in July the geologists arrived and started digging for gold.
Trenching Tool!
They went at it for about ten days, and then suddenly stopped and wrapped up operations. I was not at the mine at the time, but my partner Dudley reported that although there were some positive indications there was nothing of obvious import uncovered. This combined with the sudden pull-out left me feeling like maybe the hardrock exploration was going to peter out. The way the game is played, the exploration people keep looking for positive signs that will keep investors interested enough to keep exploration going until something is either found… or not. I’d observed that at other locations companies would give it a couple years, and if nothing substantial was found would move on. They will often try and sell their option off to another company in the process.
So I’d kind of figured up front we had a couple years to get some good proof of a hardrock deposit at Moore Creek. Lode prospecting is a real 1000 to 1 long shot as very few prospects ever become a mine. I was not fooling myself in that regard. The trenching operation was our best hope of finding something that would be good enough to justify the serious expense of bringing in a drill rig and crew. Dudley returned to town and reported that the head geologist saw a few good signs, but there was no smoking gun that Dudley could see indicating a serious gold prospect. It seemed our big shot at the big time might be coming to an end.
It turned out we would get a second chance. A few weeks passed and I got a call from Rob McLeod of Full Metal. It seemed that they also felt the first trenching program had been wrapped up too quickly. Some preliminary assay results did look good enough to justify a second look and so he wanted to know about the feasibility of sending in another crew as soon as possible. We had demobilized our camp and sent the cook home. So I told Rob no problem other than getting camp fired up again and that the geologists would be cooking for themselves. The only real hurdle would be the availability of Troy Wilbur. Carl Wilbur of Wasilla is the mechanic who we hire to work on our bulldozer. His son Troy was hired to run the excavator on the first trenching program, and had proven invaluable at running the unit in rough terrain. Better yet, he is an accomplished mechanic and so can fix things when they break. Full Metal wanted Troy back for the second go round, but I knew he had a big hunting trip planned. Luckily he was willing to pass on the hunt to go back up to Moore Creek.
So everything was arranged for a return trip. Dudley suggested I that I fly up to meet with the geologists and check out the trenching since I had not been able to stick around the first time. I also wanted to be sure that the camp was properly buttoned up for winter when the geologists left. So I made arrangements to be up at the mine just before the geologists were to leave. That way I could see what they were finding and they would not have to worry about shutting the camp down for the winter. I would take care of that.
Coming Soon - Moore Creek, Alaska – A Prospector’s Story Part Two
Steve Herschbach
Moore Creek Mining LLC
Hi. My name is Steve Herschbach. I was born in the Territory of Alaska in the then small town of Anchorage. I’ve been a prospector most of my life and I have a story I want to share with you. The trials and tribulations of a prospector in Alaska.
It was 1972 and I was an enthusiastic new prospector. Fourteen years old and raring to go, despite the fact that when I first got interested in prospecting gold was only $35 per ounce. This was soon to change, but my initial interest in prospecting was not because I thought I could make money at it. I had a fascination with the history of prospecting in Alaska and the challenges one faces in discovering new mineral deposits. The old prospectors are my heroes, and the challenge alone was enough to get me interested. For it did not take me long to discover just how hard it is to go out and fill your poke with gold!
I read old mining reports and bulletins all winter, looking for places to prospect and dreaming of making that big strike. The Iditarod area drew my interest due to the large amount of gold found there and the fame of the Iditarod. Luckily my father is a pilot and I convinced him to fly us out to Flat, Alaska to look for gold.
We finally made that flight, and much to my surprise it was obvious from the air that there was lots of active mining going on. I had imagined that with gold prices so low that mines would be dormant and abandoned in such a remote location. In retrospect we should have landed and talked to the miners but instead we turned around and headed for home. I was very disappointed.
It was not too far back towards McGrath, however, when we flew over what looked to be an obviously abandoned mine. No sign of recent activity and kind of grown up with alders and willows. Dad got out the map and found we were over a place called Moore Creek. We decided to land and check it out.
Looking down Moore Creek valley
There were some cabins a short way from the airstrip. We headed that way, passing an old bulldozer broken down next to the road. The cabins were locked up but again no real sign anyone had been around lately. There was an old dragline parked nearby on a large patch of exposed bedrock. The bedrock had a little gut of water draining some ponded water, too small to call a creek. I scooped a little gravel out of the small gully, panned it, and there was more gold then I’d ever seen in a single pan before! And not just little stuff, but coarse, chunky gold. But what got my instant attention was the quartz.
I’d already done some prospecting around Anchorage and found the smooth, water-worn gold typical of the area. I’d also read everything I could get my hands on about practical gold prospecting. So when I saw that rough gold with sharp edged pieces of quartz attached I was instantly up and looking around. I had this very strong thought of “wow, the source is somewhere real close”! I had visions of quartz veins laced with gold - I was hooked on Moore Creek.
It did not take much panning to fill a half ounce vial. Years later I came to decide that what we had found by sheer luck was where the old miners had been doing their cleanups and that they had lost some concentrates and gold in the process. Try as we may we never found a spot as rich as that first little gully again.
We returned to town and I found all the information I could on Moore Creek. There was not really a lot but Moore Creek was noted as being the largest producing mine in southwestern Alaska for many years. But of real interest was mention of lots of large nuggets being found at Moore Creek, many with quartz attached. Again, this seemed to me to strongly indicate a nearby source of gold. Better yet, two small creeks entering Moore Creek from the north were mined for gold all the way up to a small mountain. That little mountain has a monzonite intrusive, which is a type of rock strongly related to gold mineralization. All the reports assumed the mountain north of camp was where the gold came from and looking at the evidence I was certain that was true.
Unfortunately, we came to discover that we had inadvertently been claim jumping, and that the ground was claimed by Don Harris of McGrath. But we met Don and he did not have an issue with us visiting Moore Creek and poking around as he had interests elsewhere. We made a couple more trips to the mine but never really did find anything very spectacular after that first little hot spot. I made my first attempt at finding gold with a metal detector at Moore Creek, but all it did was convince me the technology of the day was just not up to the task.
Detecting at Moore Creek 1973
I ended up getting interested in suction dredging in the Anchorage area and spent most of my spare time on dredging local creeks. This interest led to the founding of Alaska Mining & Diving Supply, Inc. along with my partner Dudley Benesch in 1976. Together we staked claims on Stetson Creek on the Kenai Peninsula and so my mining activities there and starting a business drew my attention away from Moore Creek. It was just too far away. But I never forgot the place and every once in awhile I’d check up on it. In some ways it frustrated me a bit as I was still hooked on the place but Don never really did much work at Moore Creek itself. He had most of his attention on another prospect nearby at Deadwood Creek. It just seemed to me Moore Creek was crying out for hardrock prospecting, especially as gold prices rose in the late 70’s and early 80’s.
Time passed, and I all but forgot about Moore Creek. Dudley and I eventually sold our claims on Stetson Creek. I ended up getting involved later in some claims on Canyon Creek and after that moved on to some claims on upper Mills Creek. These were all placer claims. I dreamed a lot about hardrock prospecting in the areas around my various claims but all my free time was taken up by dredging activities. Lode prospecting is a very time consuming long shot and at the time just getting gold was more important.
In the winter of 1995 I for no real reason decided to check up on the claims situation at Moore Creek and was shocked to find the claims had all lapsed! Moore Creek was open for anyone to stake. I should have jumped right then, but we decided to wait until spring to fly in and stake some claims. We did just that and I sure was excited. After all these years Moore Creek would be mine. My father, sister, brother-in-law, and I all got to Moore Creek on Memorial Day weekend and set up camp. After poking around a bit we wandered into a fresh claim post. Oh no, we were too late!
What a huge letdown. Just a short time later a plane flew over and landed. That is when I met Mike Fleagle of McGrath. It turns out Mike is Don’s son-in-law. Don had let the claims go by accident, and under state law you have to wait a year before staking the same ground again. They had just restaked the claims and in a way that made me feel better. I would not have wanted to take advantage of a mistake like that.
Speaking of that, however, Mike told us they had a problem because somebody else had filed on the claims just prior to them staking them. This despite Mike knowing for a fact the claims had not been physically staked and so were only “paper-filed”. Mike was pretty worried about it, but we volunteered to act as witnesses should a dispute arise. It was obvious Don’s new claim posts were the only ones in the area. Luckily it never came to a fight and the other person relented. Mike did appreciate that we had offered, however, and so we had an open invitation once again to visit the mine.
Old Tailing Piles at Moore Creek
We had newer and better metal detectors and Mike let us try and find gold. We got quite a few small nuggets but nothing like those mentioned in the literature. I remained convinced the gold was there to be found but the rest of my family was beginning to doubt it. I told Mike how I’d always hoped to have Moore Creek someday, and asked him to tell Don that if he ever wanted to sell to give me a call.
Gold prices declined in the late 90’s and by the end of 2001 gold was only $280 per ounce. This was too low for gold mining to be sustainable in very remote locations like Moore Creek, and Don finally decided to sell Moore Creek. I only but heard of the sale, however, as I never got that phone call. The mine had been sold to somebody Don knew in McGrath. I surely could understand that, but felt like my chance at Moore Creek had passed forever. I’d waited 30 years for Don to let the ground go, and now it seemed it would be another 30 years before I got another chance.
It was not even a year later that my phone did finally ring. It seems the gentleman who had purchased the mine had fallen on some hard luck, and could not keep the claims. He tried to turn them back to Don, but Don did not want them back and suggested that I be contacted instead. I listened to the proposed deal, and when I hung up the phone I yelled to the next office “Dudley, we are buying a mine”!
The fact is that the price was more than I could reasonably bear alone. In theory I could have pulled it off, but in reality I did not think my wife would be all that excited about borrowing a bunch of money to buy a mine when gold prices were admittedly in the toilet. So the only way I saw to make it happen was to spread the cost out to bring my share down. My long-time business partner Dudley was an obvious choice as we are just natural business partners. I called my father next, as he was the guy who first got me to Moore Creek and had been with me on every trip I ever made as pilot. Finally, I called my friend John Pulling, as he also had a hand along the way in making the deal happen. We promptly made a deposit on the purchase, formed Moore Creek Mining LLC, and then completed the deal. Thirty years after first setting foot at Moore Creek, and I was finally an owner in the mine!!
The first thing that happened after we got the mine is that I started getting inquiries about when we would make the mine available for visitors on a “pay-to-mine” basis. I actually had no plan per se when we bought the mine. After 30 years I just jumped at the chance. Gold prices were very low, however, and so actually mining for a profit would have been a real long shot. So a pay-to-mine operation made perfect sense to get some cash flow going. There was a lot I wanted to do at the mine, and once again dipping into savings was not my preferred option. Before we could start pay-to-mine operations there were a couple obstacles to hurdle. First, I wanted to prove there was some real gold people could find, as we hand not had much luck ourselves previously. Second, there were permit issues to iron out with the state.
The first problem was solved in large part due to new technology. For the first time we took Minelab metal detectors to Moore Creek and in my first week with my Minelab SD2200D I recovered two pounds of gold nuggets and specimens. It also turned out that we had simply hunted the wrong places in the past. The second issue took longer to solve but by the summer of 2005 we had permits and we were able to host our first visitors at Moore Creek.
Why Lode Prospecting is a good idea at Moore Creek
The price of gold had been very low, but it seemed that the minute we got the mine the price started going up, and has in fact been going up ever since. It initially seemed that mining for a profit was a near impossibility but rising gold prices made us more serious about investigating whether or not we could start larger scale placer operations back up at the mine. The biggest problem was lack of equipment exacerbated by the poor condition of our airstrip. We had a couple 1950 era D9 bulldozers at the mine, but one was seriously broken down and the other was stuck four miles from camp. It also would need substantial sums of money to make fully operational. We needed an operating dozer just to improve the airstrip to allow for better access of fuel and more equipment. So now the pay-to-mine operation became critical in providing a cash flow to achieve these goals. At the same time, better facilities and equipment would aid the pay-to-mine operation, and so the two goals dove-tailed nicely.
Rising gold prices also brought increasing interest in exploration in Alaska by the larger mining firms. Exploration budgets were on the rise and more and more activity was taking place. I decided it was time to pursue the lode potential at Moore Creek, In the fall of 2004 I took a briefcase full of my “rocks with gold in them” to the annual Alaska Miners Convention and showed them to representatives of Full Metal Minerals of Canada. I choose them as they were very high profile, with lots of prospects all around Alaska. They seemed aggressive and therefore the sort of company that might be interested in a long shot like Moore Creek. I told them a bit about Moore Creek, my thoughts of where the gold might be coming from, and referred them to a website I prepared just for the meeting. The website at moorecreek.com had maps, photos, and every geological reference I could collect about Moore Creek. They were polite and promised to look into it. I left it at that and did not hear back from them.
Our first season of visitors in 2005 was a smashing success with numerous nuggets and specimens ranging from one to six ounces each being found. The operation was topped off by the find of a spectacular 24.79 ounce specimen by a visitor from Pennsylvania in the last week. This huge chunk was actually a section of incredibly rich gold bearing vein material and was found only a few minutes walk from our camp.
Two Pound Chunk of Gold Vein
So once again I went to the Alaska Miners Association convention in the fall of 2005. Gold prices had continued to rise and interest was higher than ever. Once again I went to visit the folks from Full Metal Minerals. This time I got their serious attention and they promised to get back to me. I have to admit I was surprised when not much time passed before Rob McLeod of Full Metal called me back and said they wanted to work with us. I was ecstatic to say the least.
Some might wonder why we did not just go try and find the source of the gold ourselves. It was true that we had a pretty good idea that it was a hill just a mile north of camp that was the source of the gold. The biggest problem was simply time. We were not full time prospectors but part timers with jobs and families to support. To cover even a square mile of ground with a grid of soil samples followed by trenching and then hopefully drilling is quite an undertaking not just of money but of time. In Alaska everything is covered by soil and tundra so finding mineral exposures can be far more difficult than in other places. Like many small time prospectors we opted to partner with a larger exploration firm with more resources than we could muster in a short time.
Our deal ended up being pretty complicated as we wanted to retain the placer rights while optioning the lode rights to Full Metal. There were lots of legal issues to cover and so went dropped a pretty sum into a very good but also expensive attorney. With a matter of this importance we wanted the best we could afford. In a nutshell, the way these things work is the exploration firm in effect leases the property to do the exploration work, plus pays all the costs of exploration. In return they get an option to purchase the lode rights for a preset sum if a mine is discovered. Our first lease payment pretty much all went to that attorney but it was well worth it.
So it was that 2006 saw not only our second season of our pay-to-mine operation but we had a crew of geologists scouring the hills taking soil and pan concentrate samples. The idea is to blanket the area with these types of samples to try and define areas for more serious attention at a later date. By this time we had over 200 claims covering around 36 square miles of mountains and valleys and so this was quite an undertaking. We purchased and rented 4x4 ATVs to the crew for close in camp work and they had helicopter support for work farther out. We had finally got our dozer running and in camp and so the mine was also seeing improvements in the airstrip and around camp. We hosted about 65 visitors at the mine that summer plus the geologists, probably setting some kind of population record for Moore Creek in the process. It was another successful summer.
Happy Visitor Rich Lampright
The assay results from the sampling program were positive and revealed what I’d always figured – that the hill a mile north of camp had the best chance of good results with some follow-up work. I was surprised when the results indicated gold lower down near the base of the mountain, however. I’d always figured the gold would be higher up. Full Metal wanted to do some trenching, and so our big priority became getting a small excavator. The real challenge was in how to get it to Moore Creek. Our airstrip was still only about 1700 feet long, and the only plane that we knew could get in and still haul a decent load was a Skyvan. Even then you can only haul 4000 lbs at a time. The worst problem was that these planes are quite rare and in high demand, so getting one lined up to do the job seemed to be nearly impossible.
Still, we had to go with the plan and hope it would all work out. Frankly, although plenty of hard work and planning went into all this in many regards we just got lucky. But for awhile I felt like I was trying to push a string with my nose across a stadium floor. This ended up being one of the most complicated things I’ve ever tried to do and as a result my attention to the pay-to-mine operation slid somewhat in that I made no serious effort to promote or sign up people for 2007. We pretty much just coasted along but benefited from the fact that we had a very high return rate from the previous two seasons. So 2007 more or less just booked itself. The numbers were down but I was so busy I did not care. In retrospect I should have as 2007 turned out to be a very expensive year indeed.
The reason I was so busy is that assuming we were going to get a Skyvan, we figured we might as well go for broke and fly in as much gear as we could afford. There was the excavator itself, but also a small washplant with conveyor feed, lots of construction material, lots of fuel, and piles of miscellaneous supplies. The list just kept getting longer and longer. On top of rounding up all this stuff I was working on trying to get a pilot to fly it all in. A charter DC-6 had to be arranged to fly everything to McGrath, and the Skyvan would ferry it all into the mine from McGrath in 4000 lb loads. The excavator alone weighed 16,000 pounds, and so I had to arrange to have it taken apart in Anchorage and then reassembled at the mine.
The saga of this operation alone would be longer than this whole story so far. We were kept waiting until the bitter end for a pilot to commit but at the very last minute the missing pieces all came together. There were a few bumps but it finally ended seemed like a series of small miracles occurred that resulted in all that equipment landing safely at Moore Creek. Thank you Wild Bill!
The pay-to-mine operation went well again, so well that many of the repeat visitors insisted on getting their names on a list for 2008 while they were still at the mine. A lot of these people were booking for their third or fourth visit and so we took this as an indication we must be doing something right. A tremendous amount of work goes into hosting people at an extremely remote location like Moore Creek and so it is rewarding to feel like we are doing something people think is worthwhile. All the money has gone back into improving the mine itself and the pay-to-mine operation and so the people returning each year see very visible signs of progress that directly benefits them in their hunt for gold.
We arranged for the geologists to come in after the pay-to-mine operation which was one benefit of keeping that part of the operation short in 2007. That way we could devote more resources to supporting the geologists. Extra time was also required to let the ground thaw to depths sufficient for the planned trenching operation. If they started too soon then the excavator would run into frozen ground that is much harder on the equipment. So in July the geologists arrived and started digging for gold.
Trenching Tool!
They went at it for about ten days, and then suddenly stopped and wrapped up operations. I was not at the mine at the time, but my partner Dudley reported that although there were some positive indications there was nothing of obvious import uncovered. This combined with the sudden pull-out left me feeling like maybe the hardrock exploration was going to peter out. The way the game is played, the exploration people keep looking for positive signs that will keep investors interested enough to keep exploration going until something is either found… or not. I’d observed that at other locations companies would give it a couple years, and if nothing substantial was found would move on. They will often try and sell their option off to another company in the process.
So I’d kind of figured up front we had a couple years to get some good proof of a hardrock deposit at Moore Creek. Lode prospecting is a real 1000 to 1 long shot as very few prospects ever become a mine. I was not fooling myself in that regard. The trenching operation was our best hope of finding something that would be good enough to justify the serious expense of bringing in a drill rig and crew. Dudley returned to town and reported that the head geologist saw a few good signs, but there was no smoking gun that Dudley could see indicating a serious gold prospect. It seemed our big shot at the big time might be coming to an end.
It turned out we would get a second chance. A few weeks passed and I got a call from Rob McLeod of Full Metal. It seemed that they also felt the first trenching program had been wrapped up too quickly. Some preliminary assay results did look good enough to justify a second look and so he wanted to know about the feasibility of sending in another crew as soon as possible. We had demobilized our camp and sent the cook home. So I told Rob no problem other than getting camp fired up again and that the geologists would be cooking for themselves. The only real hurdle would be the availability of Troy Wilbur. Carl Wilbur of Wasilla is the mechanic who we hire to work on our bulldozer. His son Troy was hired to run the excavator on the first trenching program, and had proven invaluable at running the unit in rough terrain. Better yet, he is an accomplished mechanic and so can fix things when they break. Full Metal wanted Troy back for the second go round, but I knew he had a big hunting trip planned. Luckily he was willing to pass on the hunt to go back up to Moore Creek.
So everything was arranged for a return trip. Dudley suggested I that I fly up to meet with the geologists and check out the trenching since I had not been able to stick around the first time. I also wanted to be sure that the camp was properly buttoned up for winter when the geologists left. So I made arrangements to be up at the mine just before the geologists were to leave. That way I could see what they were finding and they would not have to worry about shutting the camp down for the winter. I would take care of that.
Coming Soon - Moore Creek, Alaska – A Prospector’s Story Part Two
Steve Herschbach
Moore Creek Mining LLC
