Alaskan Bush Prospecting

[Ziggenation]

I have this crazy dream. I want to hire a bush pilot to drop me in a remote part of the Keani Peninsula with some supplies, a tent and a sluice box. I have started doing the research and wanted to reach out to the community as well. I want to get out past all the claims, on National Forest land, where it is less likely that the old timers cleaned everything out. Just a couple of buckets, a shovel and a sluice box.

Where do I start with this? I know it must be possible, but how to begin. Any guidance would be extremely appreciated.

 

[BoulderTroll]

Hello guys and gals, fellow prospectors;

I would like to keep this thread alive! Why? GOLD is going sky high! Alaska is the last frontier! It is a prospecting and mining FRIENDLY State! It's mostly State of Alaska Domain. Not Federal! Alaska has been surveyed by the Alaska State Department of Geological and Geophysical Surveys DGGS to identify WHERE the Gold and every other mineral/metal is located!

Think of a metal detector on steroids suspended by a helicopter flying back and forth at 90 miles an hour measuring 500 feet into the earth! It measures where GOLD and SILVER is located. It measures 10 times every second and that works out to every 12 to 13 feet.

You don't need a wet suit to dig up the Gold and silver! It's like a ship wreck loaded with bounty that wrecked on dry land!

- Geowizard

Careful Wizard, with hype like that, you might start the next gold rush!! lol I'm about to go sell everything, buy myself a pan and shovel and find my way up to the gold fields!

 

[Assembler]

Careful Wizard, with hype like that, you might start the next gold rush!! lol I'm about to go sell everything, buy myself a pan and shovel and find my way up to the gold fields!

If one sells everything one should be able to get / use more than just a shovel and pan........

 

[BoulderTroll]

If one sells everything one should be able to get / use more than just a shovel and pan........

I was having flashbacks of watching a movie as a kid, I think White Fang? all the prospectors fighting the elements in Alaska

 

[Assembler]

I was having flashbacks of watching a movie as a kid, I think White Fang? all the prospectors fighting the elements in Alaska

Now you are starting to ground yourself for reality. Some will call this a possible 'Death march'.

 

[ragtopman]

I grew up in Alaska and it's not going to be as easy as you think. Alaska is very remote and if the land isn't owned by a native corporation, private property, forest service or park land your choices are going to diminish. Because you had mentioned the Hope mining district, I liked going to Hope but most if not all land is either claimed already or the dredges already went thru there but there are areas that you can go prospect providing the claim owner will let you (go check out Bear Ck.).

 

[Assembler]

I grew up in Alaska and it's not going to be as easy as you think. Alaska is very remote and if the land isn't owned by a native corporation, private property, forest service or park land your choices are going to diminish. Because you had mentioned the Hope mining district, I liked going to Hope but most if not all land is either claimed already or the dredges already went thru there but there are areas that you can go prospect providing the claim owner will let you (go check out Bear Ck.).

Just the higher cost factor of working remote in Alaska is a big hurtle for most people in Alaska. You could also risk your life out there as well.

 

[ragtopman]

Just the higher cost factor of working remote in Alaska is a big hurtle for most people in Alaska. You could also risk your life out there as well.

....and you aint just a whistling Dixie either. People have died because they have underestimated Alaska and Mother Nature (I've known some) even as close to Anchorage which is where I am from so lets factor in some remoteness, lack of available help, the ever changing weather, Its not a good idea.

 

[Assembler]

....and you aint just a whistling Dixie either. People have died because they have underestimated Alaska and Mother Nature (I've known some) even as close to Anchorage which is where I am from so lets factor in some remoteness, lack of available help, the ever changing weather, Its not a good idea.

Even down in the lower 48 States one can risk their life. It takes some mental toughness to survive out in the sticks if things don't go right.
I had one warmup call with going without food except corn meal mush for nearly 30 days with some hard work, before snows set in when much younger.

I'm going to edit the post by pointing out the first two weeks was just a bit easier with some milk, oatmeal, and small amount of butter mixed in the mush. With that being said it is always about the mental toughness for the real survival out in the sticks with different people in the exact same conditions.

 

[OreList]

Late to this one, but for anyone reading it with the same plan: Vance's land-status point is the big one. USGS lists 110 historic gold producers on the Kenai Peninsula, mostly creek placers like Resurrection, Canyon, Lynx and Sixmile, and MSHA has 9 mine records there, one still listed as temporarily idled. We put both on a free map, with BLM land status where it's available:
https://goldminesmap.com/gold-mines/alaska/kenai-peninsula/
On general state land (not parks), Alaska's 11 AAC 96.020 lists recreational panning with hand tools as a generally allowed use. The Forest Service booklet Red_desert posted covers the Chugach side.

 

[ragtopman]

I don't know if I'd touch any of those listed, I've dredged Six Mile, Canyon and Resurrection before and providing that its not public or already claimed, for the most part those are winter dredging only.

 

[geowizard]

I have this crazy dream. I want to hire a bush pilot to drop me in a remote part of the Keani Peninsula with some supplies, a tent and a sluice box. I have started doing the research and wanted to reach out to the community as well. I want to get out past all the claims, on National Forest land, where it is less likely that the old timers cleaned everything out. Just a couple of buckets, a shovel and a sluice box.

Where do I start with this? I know it must be possible, but how to begin. Any guidance would be extremely appreciated.

I know this is an old post... thanks to all for reviving it!

Bush pilots do not drop people off in remote areas in Alaska alone. They have contributory negligence when the troopers find your pepper spray, bells and whistle stacked in a pile of bear scat.

Edit: Added "thanks to all"

- Geowizard

 

[geowizard]

Ziggenation said, "I want to get out past all the claims, on National Forest land, where it is less likely that the old timers cleaned everything out. Just a couple of buckets, a shovel and a sluice box."

The "old timers" walked hundreds of miles to begin prospecting for gold in Alaska.

I spent twelve years mining hundred year old tailing piles from mining operations that were prospected 120 years ago. The prospectors walked the Iditarod trail 250 miles to get there.

It's a book and it's a long story.

You aren't welcome on National Forest Land. You aren't welcome on BLM, national park or native lands. Within limits, panning is allowed on State of Alaska domain.

You need to KNOW how to get on the Gold. The old timers followed the Gold Rushes of the day. Today, you could randomly prospect forever. Color? There is color in every creek in Alaska. With five colors in a pan, you need to run 50 cubic yards to get 1/3 of a gram. I know because I've been there, done that.

One cubic yard of creek gravel/sand is 50, five gallon buckets. Do the math.

- Geowizard

 

[geowizard]

Is it fantasy?

The permitting and self education gauntlet is expected in any venture of this type today.

Payday calculation:

At $4200 per one troy ounce of gold today,
Raw gold might pay $4000 an ounce. ($200 is impurities)
$4000/31.1 grams = $128.62 per gram.
1/3 gram per one cubic yard (50 buckets) pays about $40.

It can be done. It takes a plan and bucks.

It takes a skid-steer loader with 1 cubic yard (heaping) bucket, 1/3 gram per cubic yard pay, water, wash plant with a pump pumping 600 gallons per minute of water onto a screen all within turning radius of the skid-steer, can run 50 cubic yards an hour. 50 cubic yards x $40 = $2000.

Load, swing and drop it on the screen every 60 seconds!

- Geowizard

 

[geowizard]

The cost:

This setup runs $100,000. up front.

Two refurbished Bobcats, three 50 cubic yard per hour wash plants, three 28 HP, 600 gpm Vanguard water pumps, 100 feet of 4" lay flat hose, 50 feet of 4" flex hose, and a drop valve. cam locks, misc.

You're there! Gas 'em up and Go!

- Geowizard

 

[geowizard]

Maxibankers; 40 cubic yards per hour. 3 ft x 16 ft sluice box, Astroturf mat, expanded metal screen.
Field assembled with two 9/16" combination wrenches.
They fit inside their 3 ft x 8 ft, 6" deep, back to back sluice boxes.
They fly into remote strips in a Cessna 207.
I designed them, I fabricated three:



- Geowizard

 

[geowizard]

No mid-scale wash plants exist on the market;

I designed and fabricated three prototype Maxibankers, shipped them and two machines to the interior of Alaska along with all of the attachments, pumps, nuts and bolts. The frame is 4 ft x 8 ft x 4 ft high. The screen and spray bars bolt on to the top and angle of screen is adjustable.

Fun stuff!

- Geowizard

 

[Crow]

Yeah, there are still parts of the world wild and untamed, full of gold, but it takes a person who does not fear death. A whole set of unique challenges. And a little luck.

The above was the result of 10 days of dredging mountain rivers in PNG. But that is another story. But it's true fortune seeks the brave, but dame fortune is a very hard mistress to please.

Crow

 

[russau]

Now that is a serious dredge and GOLD ! THANKYOU for the pictures Mr. Crow !! They brought back some GREAT MEMORIES !!!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Mr Crow, amazing pictures, would you check your PMs, thanks..

 

[Lanny in AB]

Well, I didn't do the "get dropped off in the bush by a bush-plane routine", but I did visit Alaska for a couple of weeks with the GPAA at their claims up near Nome, an experience I'll never forget. Saw Muskox, bear, giant whale skeletons, storms on the Bering Sea, the wonder of thousands of Salmon running upstream, miners camped and living on the beach, the mysterious glory of the Midnight Sun, an old abandoned bucket-line dredge, abandoned placer diggings, active placer mining with the gold running from the top to the bottom of the large sluice, the miniature majesty of the flora of the tundra, and lots of other prospectors enjoying the incredible beauty of Alaska all while getting some decent beach gold.
When I was there in the mid-90's, I had a buddy that had found a rich spot on the beach in an isolated area, and I recovered some really nice beach gold, hefty weight worth of it, by high-banking, lots of nice gold hiding in the ruby sands at that spot.
However, for me, the real treasure was the experience of just being in Alaska, low risk of dying when you go with a group, but you'd miss out on the adventure of being isolated and the risk of bear and other predator encounters. (Small chance of that where I was as many miners were heavily armed.)
The fishing was spectacular, caught so many salmon I got bored and went for a hike--true story, a first for me as a fisherman!
I have been in many remote areas prospecting before, and I've had many bear encounters, some hair-raisingly far too uncomfortable, but it's an adrenaline boost you'll never, ever forget, if that's your jam.
I've been briefly stranded in the wilderness as well, not something I wish to repeat, as between the blood-thirsty bugs and the ever-present risk of apex predators, I'm happier with a peaceful coexistence if safety and a fool-proof exit plan.
If you do decide to do it, follow the sound advice you've been given and go for the grand adventure, and if not, maybe try a tamer wilderness experience with a safety-valve that gives you a lot of the sizzle and aroma without the risk of losing that delicious steak.

All the best,

Lanny