Eastern Oregon Mountaineer

[Johnnybravo300]

How do like that sawmill? I finally found a backhoe, now i need a mill.

 

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[Mountaineer2020]

I'd throw a ball valve on the end of the spray bar for quick cleaning, but it looks like a great little tromel over all. Great job 😃

Great idear! I'll put it on the parts list with a new spray bar without the water feature. Spray bar was constantly clogging. I was thinking last night about the clean up. I panned everything from the sluice but there was alot of heavy material left in the trough below the trommel barrel I cleaned up but didn't pan. Might be I had the angle set too gradual for the trommel barrel and trough and my gold settled on the smooth trough surface. I'll have to pan that next time I get to the mine. Might be more gold than I thought.

 

[Mountaineer2020]

How do like that sawmill? I finally found a backhoe, now i need a mill

I like it alot! I can fill that 16 ft. white trailer in about 3 hours with custom cut lumber. Couple things I would do different though. The dogs and stays on the mill leave alot to be desired. Setting the height is done with a pin which tends to bend and breaks the chain it's attached to which leaves you fishing for it in the sawdust. Get a trailer! Or pour a concrete slab and fasten the mill to it. Mine is just setting on the ground and getting it all leveled up is a pain. Once those things are fixed it's a good mill. I was chaining logs to the bucket of my tractor to load the deck which is also a major time loss. Got a couple forks that fit on the bucket which speeds loading up signifigantly.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

I like it alot! I can fill that 16 ft. white trailer in about 3 hours with custom cut lumber. Couple things I would do different though. The dogs and stays on the mill leave alot to be desired. Setting the height is done with a pin which tends to bend and breaks the chain it's attached to which leaves you fishing for it in the sawdust. Get a trailer! Or pour a concrete slab and fasten the mill to it. Mine is just setting on the ground and getting it all leveled up is a pain. Once those things are fixed it's a good mill. I was chaining logs to the bucket of my tractor to load the deck which is also a major time loss. Got a couple forks that fit on the bucket which speeds loading up signifigantly.

Hope you don’t mind a stranger jumping in here. I was curious if you have any thoughts on an optimal height for that mill. Of course when it’s set up on a trailer it will be higher than what you show in your picture. I’m getting ready to pour a slab and really don’t know if I should make accommodations for having it elevated. Thanks for any suggestions you can provide.

 

[Mountaineer2020]

Hope you don’t mind a stranger jumping in here. I was curious if you have any thoughts on an optimal height for that mill. Of course when it’s set up on a trailer it will be higher than what you show in your picture. I’m getting ready to pour a slab and really don’t know if I should make accommodations for having it elevated. Thanks for any suggestions you can provide.

All good man Tesoro I enjoy talking about milling. Eventually, I would like my mill 2 feet off the ground for a couple reasons. Alot of setup is done at the bottom of the log. Wedging the end to account for taper, dogging the log, picking up the cut lumber all involves bending to ground level which I dont like. Getting a couple feet higher would be a back relief. Plus when it snows I wouldn't have to unbury the mill! Turning the log with the peavey might be more difficult with the additional height but I dont know because I only have 25 hours on the mill. There is a increased risk of injury with the additional height. You'll love the smell of fresh cut pine or whatever wood is in your area. Pine is my favorite smell.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

All good man Tesoro I enjoy talking about milling. Eventually, I would like my mill 2 feet off the ground for a couple reasons. Alot of setup is done at the bottom of the log. Wedging the end to account for taper, dogging the log, picking up the cut lumber all involves bending to ground level which I dont like. Getting a couple feet higher would be a back relief. Plus when it snows I wouldn't have to unbury the mill! Turning the log with the peavey might be more difficult with the additional height but I dont know because I only have 25 hours on the mill. There is a increased risk of injury with the additional height. You'll love the smell of fresh cut pine or whatever wood is in your area. Pine is my favorite smell.

I’m looking forward to it for sure. Thanks for the info!

 

[Mountaineer2020]

2 months of prospecting! I panned I crushed I milled I assayed and I .... FAILED! All is not wasted though did find some tasty mushrooms. Bumper crop year for Corals and Admirable Boletes (not pictured) and a smackerel of morels. The other good that came out of the prospecting was I know where not to look. I now know I am not an assayer. We got the mill fired up and running what a contraption that is! Water slinging everywhere off the shaker table, noise to wake the dead with rocks cracking against steel, 3304 cat engine roaring in the canyon, ball crusher tumbling cannonballs and quartz it was a beautiful mess. Ran one ton of material through it not a speck of gold which made sense after I got the official assay results back from a real assayer. Other thing I learned about is the sierra blaster. Did quite a bit of blasting breaking up a huge boulder of float quartz which went very well. If I do find the golden boulder it will be reduced to crushable chunks rather quickly. The last day I was there I found a tunnel I hadn't yet explore. Didn't really have time to do it properly but did a quick peek and it cross cutted 100 feet into the hill before hitting the vein. At that point the cross cut tee-d following the vein. To the right I could see where they had pecked at it with a pickaxe and it ended abruptly. About a 2 foot wide seam of blackish clay gunk material. Nothing exciting. To the left I looked up and my flashlight could not see to the top of where they had stoped! This is the first stope I have found on the claim. Being that stoping isn't really done unless there is valuable ore the stope has given me new hope. However I won't be able to sample until next year which is irritating. So... Wait...... Then I'm going to cut a trench in the floor of that stope send the sample to a proper assayer and hope for the best.

 

[Mountaineer2020]

The assay from my stope sample came in! Now it was off to the side of the stope and rather than directly in the floor under the stope which is probably a more likely place. Came to .25 opt au and .25 opt ag. Not great but figure it's the best I've found going to try mining that. So to that end packed my snowgear and headed to the claim winter weather advisory be hanged.... 2 feet of fluffy powder and snowing when we arrived. Managed to get the car plowed in and the snowmobiles up to the mining shop/cabin. That was the end of that day then we woke up to 1 foot fine powder snow burying the sleds and last nights tracks. They aren't bad sleds but they aren't your 3 inch lug light nimble powder munchers either. So, hours later and alot of stomping around in snowshoes we finally made a path to get up enough speed to get down the hill the 6 miles to a groomed road. Otherwise it was looking like we were packing out in snowshoes 6 miles in 3 feet of powder. Good times! Any mining get done? Nope. 6 minute disjointed unprofessional video sums up the weekend.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

The assay from my stope sample came in! Now it was off to the side of the stope and rather than directly in the floor under the stope which is probably a more likely place. Came to .25 opt au and .25 opt ag. Not great but figure it's the best I've found going to try mining that. So to that end packed my snowgear and headed to the claim winter weather advisory be hanged.... 2 feet of fluffy powder and snowing when we arrived. Managed to get the car plowed in and the snowmobiles up to the mining shop/cabin. That was the end of that day then we woke up to 1 foot fine powder snow burying the sleds and last nights tracks. They aren't bad sleds but they aren't your 3 inch lug light nimble powder munchers either. So, hours later and alot of stomping around in snowshoes we finally made a path to get up enough speed to get down the hill the 6 miles to a groomed road. Otherwise it was looking like we were packing out in snowshoes 6 miles in 3 feet of powder. Good times! Any mining get done? Nope. 6 minute disjointed unprofessional video sums up the weekend.

.25 oz per ton in the winter weather?? Sounds like a learning experience and an adventure. Good for you. Best of luck when the water flows! Is that gold free milling and did the assay agree with your sledge hammer and pan results?

 

[Mountaineer2020]

.25 oz per ton in the winter weather?? Sounds like a learning experience and an adventure. Good for you. Best of luck when the water flows! Is that gold free milling and did the assay agree with your sledge hammer and pan results?

The gold is mostly free milling by the historical records and from what I see not alot of sulfides. The assay agreed with a very generalized that looks like about 1/4 opt in the pan that I crushed. My dream is to mine underground in the winter weather get a good tonnage stored up and then mill it come the melt sometime in May. The spot is only 100 ft back under the hill just enough to be a bit warmer and not be working in the snow. Dream has to wait a few more years though.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

The gold is mostly free milling by the historical records and from what I see not alot of sulfides. The assay agreed with a very generalized that looks like about 1/4 opt in the pan that I crushed. My dream is to mine underground in the winter weather get a good tonnage stored up and then mill it come the melt sometime in May. The spot is only 100 ft back under the hill just enough to be a bit warmer and not be working in the snow. Dream has to wait a few more years though.

You would be surprised what you can do with very little $$ and a bunch of sweat equity. It does necessitate a bit better returns which may be just feet from your sample depending on the nature of your general geologic location. What is holding you back if I may ask? Time is our most valuable commodity, so I’d suspect that’s a major factor. By the way I was hunting east of Ukiah this fall and if I knew I was that close to gold bearing ground, I would have been distracted.

 

[Mountaineer2020]

You would be surprised what you can do with very little $$ and a bunch of sweat equity. It does necessitate a bit better returns which may be just feet from your sample depending on the nature of your general geologic location. What is holding you back if I may ask? Time is our most valuable commodity, so I’d suspect that’s a major factor. By the way I was hunting east of Ukiah this fall and if I knew I was that close to gold bearing ground, I would have been distracted.

It's time and I have kids in school right now. They will be graduating in the 3 years so I can wait for a full time operation till then. For now I just take time in the summer, prospect and familiarize myself with mine safety, rock breaking methods, assaying, smelting, mucking, and getting the mill operating. Hard rock is something I just dug into the past couple years so there's a steep learning curve. East of Ukiah is definitely getting to the gold country. All the North Fork and many of it's tributaries are good placer gold spots. Been all over the old mining districts, Cable Cove, Greenhorn, Sumpter, Granite. Haven't found much gold but the history and work of the old timers is a treasure by itself. I'm hoping going down into the floor of the stope will have better returns than the sample I took on the side. Either way I'll put some work into it as you said there may be a rich pocket a couple feet further and that's what keeps the miner going.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

It's time and I have kids in school right now. They will be graduating in the 3 years so I can wait for a full time operation till then. For now I just take time in the summer, prospect and familiarize myself with mine safety, rock breaking methods, assaying, smelting, mucking, and getting the mill operating. Hard rock is something I just dug into the past couple years so there's a steep learning curve. East of Ukiah is definitely getting to the gold country. All the North Fork and many of it's tributaries are good placer gold spots. Been all over the old mining districts, Cable Cove, Greenhorn, Sumpter, Granite. Haven't found much gold but the history and work of the old timers is a treasure by itself. I'm hoping going down into the floor of the stope will have better returns than the sample I took on the side. Either way I'll put some work into it as you said there may be a rich pocket a couple feet further and that's what keeps the miner going.

Ok so definitely not anything holding you back, just higher priorities. That’s admirable. Is your garage full of 5 gallon buckets of potential ore waiting to be crushed? If not it probably will be eventually

 

[Mountaineer2020]

Out of hardrock country and closer to placer so the winter time gold fever struck and I went out and froze! Mostly John Edmonton's fault as watching his videos of snow prospecting was inspiring. Went to my old favorite hydraulic pit and 2 new one's I found. Also tried some high bank road cuts which were mediocre. 6 consistent colors to the pan very small. The 3rd hydraulic pit has promise though! 15 colors in a not quite full pan of dirt. I had to pick axe through 2" of froze ground and wasn't able to get to bedrock through my pickaxed hole. Probably one foot down. I would expect the colors to get more and bigger as I get closer to bedrock. The pit was on a high bank about 40 feet up with large boulders all piled on the side that flowed to the river. They had set the pit up so that there was a trough in bedrock which broke through either naturally or they blasted creating a 5 foot deep notch in the bedrock that would drain the pit and I'd assume that's where the sluices were. That's where I was digging. Course it's either cross the icy river or hike 2 miles down a closed road to get to the pit. Pretty sure forest service put up the guardrail blocking the road and probably the 20 dump truck loads of boulders in the road bed too. Packing that 1/2 full bucket of dirt out was a pain in the shoulder. River was too iced over to pan in so I had to pack it home which is what the video shows. Got a workout some fresh air and a couple specks of yellow!