GOLD RUSH ALASKA season 2

[Goodyguy]

On the Discovery Channel Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9PM e/p.

Well folks it wont be long until the drama continues
Here's a sneak preview...

 

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Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Gork]

Those are some beauties
I am still chomping at the bit to join the 1oz. nugget club.

GG~

Thanks for the kind words GoodyGuy. I will only be at the computer for a short time as I am heading to Quartzite right after the first of the year. I have been asked to give a talk at the library by a fellow from the Quartzite Historical Society about the Butterfield Trail.
It will be based on my just published book titled "The Butterfield Trail and Overland Mail Company in Arizona, 1858-1861. It is amazing the misinformation about Butterfield Trail in Arizona. There are even some who think it ran through Quartzite. I will probably also do a book signing at the "naked guy's" book store. The trail is being made a National Historical Trail shortly and my book is being used as a reference for the Arizona section. I was an adviser to the National Parks researcher on the subject.

Gerry

 

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[Goodyguy]

I would feel privileged and honored to purchase an autographed copy from you.
Please PM me with the details.

GG~

 

[Goodyguy]

Gerry,

Check your mail, Payment sent via PayPal.
Does it come with a gold nugget?

Thanks again,
GG~

 

[Goodyguy]

Season 2 Episode 7 - Gold at Last

Click on continue as free user.

http://www.putlocker.com/file/7A1E17E6B2BD82F9#

 

[Gork]

Season 2 Episode 7 - Gold at Last

http://eztvstream.com/gold-rush-alaska/gold-rush-alaska-season-2-episode-7-gold-at-last

I thought you might be interested in the fineness of Quartz Creek gold so you could do some figuring. Attached is part of the chart from the "Yukon Placer Mining Industry" by Yukon Energy, Mines, and Resources. Also, I just heard from a friend in Whitehorse that he heard through the "moccasin telegraph" that near the end of the season they staked claims over on Carmack Fork on Upper Bonanza Creek. I knew the family that mined there and it is "thin" ground, but who knows. Also same chart enclosed here states that the gold there is just as bad, it states it is 670-692 fine. You top all that off with about 5% for refinery costs in Dawson City and you are not left with much.

 

[GrayCloud]

Thanks a million Gork. Beats the heck out of my finds. Hopefully one day I can have the honor of buying you a steak, just to hear some of the history stored in that head of yours.
Buddy, send me the info on Gork's book and I too will order one. Just don't do paypal, so I will slow boat the payment if possible. If not Buddy, buy me one and I will forward a check to ya. You can give it to me when we meet up this Summer. Wouldn't hurt my feelings if Gork put his John Henry on it fer me.

 

[Goodyguy]

Thanks a million Gork. Beats the heck out of my finds. Hopefully one day I can have the honor of buying you a steak, just to hear some of the history stored in that head of yours.
Buddy, send me the info on Gork's book and I too will order one. Just don't do paypal, so I will slow boat the payment if possible. If not Buddy, buy me one and I will forward a check to ya. You can give it to me when we meet up this Summer. Wouldn't hurt my feelings if Gork put his John Henry on it fer me.

Will Do

 

[Goodyguy]

I just watched episode 7 again... I could have saved those guys a lot of work with my end of the sluice fluid bed gold trap!
Could custom make one to fit at the end of their hydraulic riffles (or any sluice for that matter) and saved them time and money and most importantly.....GOLD!

GG~

 

[Gork]

I just watched episode 7 again... I could have saved those guys a lot of work with my end of the sluice fluid bed gold trap!
Could custom make one to fit at the end of their hydraulic riffles (or any sluice for that matter) and saved them time and money and most importantly.....GOLD!

GG~

GoodyGuy: I was surprised when they finally did something sensible. In there Alaska operation, you will notice all the different complicated sluice equipment they had. The more moving parts, the bigger possibility of a breakdown. Their going to the simpler riffles was a good idea. The gold just above the mouth of Toronto Creek, on Quartz Creek, is generally fine gold, so the large expanded metal will do. They even got the angle right. They stated it to be 15 degrees, which is the standard in the Klondike. This is about 1 3/4" drop per foot.
I will say this though, about 20 years ago a number of New Zealanders showed up in the Klondike. They are some of the best placer miners I have ever come across. They are great technicians concerning placer mining recovery equipment and they have introduced some great recovery equipment to the miners in the Klondike.

 

[Goodyguy]

Are any of them using fluid bed gold trap technology (absolutely no moving parts) to recover gold, that you know of?

 

[Astrobouncer]

A fluid bed/ gold trap is just a newer fancy name for hydraulic riffles. The whole episode about them thinking they were losing gold just showed their inexperience with the equipment. 15 minutes of adjustment from someone who knew what they were doing (someone like me) would have fixed the riffles to function properly. They caused the packup of material in the riffles from either feeding too much material way too fast, not having enough slope on the riffles to clear the lighter material (yes some fluid beds do need slope), or not having enough pressure from the spraybars to liquidize the material properly (this was the most likely cause!). Another possibility is they introduced the material into the hydraulic riffles before they had adequate water flow. And if you pack up the riffles early on like that, then the only way to fix it is stop the equipment and do a cleanup and start over with adequate water flow to start with.

 

[Goodyguy]

Astrobouncer,

I respect your ability as an engineer and gold prospector.
While I agree that a hydraulic riffle system shares similarities with a fluid bed gold trap, they are still two distinctly separate animals. (at least the design I propose)

I also submit that your appraisal of the problems with the hydraulic riffles and your solutions for their correct operation was right on the money.

However, I will stand by my statement that the addition of a properly designed fluid bed gold trap placed at the end of any sluice will eliminate the loss of the extra fine and flour gold (or any size gold for that matter) that would have otherwise escaped even when the sluice or hydraulic riffle system was properly adjusted for maximum recovery. (especially true with the high volume commercial operations)

I believe that the addition of a fluid bed gold trap as a safety net, would be a prudent cost effective solution for any wash plant operation to end gold loss.

GG~

 

[Gork]

GoodyGuy and Astrobouncer:
There seems to be as many designs as there are miners. Over the past 35 years there as been an evolution of placer mining technology in the Klondike region. It started out with very basic designs. There are lots of ways to think about this. The Klondike Placer Miners Association hired a scientist to study placer mining techniques in the Klondike. His name was Randy Clarkson and he came up with a great many excellent techniques that were adopted in the Klondike. Next came the New Zealanders. Their methods are the most efficient of any seen in the Klondike. Their introduction of hydraulic riffles that produce 7 pounds of pressure through very small holes in the riffles to keep the material loose is very efficient. The introduction of a "nugget trap" was simple but ingenious. This method will not only trap the nuggets, but will trap most of the fine gold too. It is usually at the head of the box and can be cleaned out on a daily basis in just a few minutes. This is important because cleaning up too often takes time away from sluicing.
It is interesting to us in the Klondike about the many criticisms of the miners methods. I remember one time in the Snakepit listening to a miner (just one individual) from the south criticizing the methods on Dago Hill. This was an extremely efficient operation from the expense point of view. It was estimated they were losing over one million dollars a year in the tailings. But the operation was so cheap they didn't care since they were profiting by two million dollars a year. In my many years in the Klondike, I found it is silly to criticize the successful when 9 out of 10 go bankrupt. Then again, maybe it is just jealousy by the other miners up there.
Most of the miners up there go bust not because of their inefficient sluice boxes but because they don't prospect and qualify the ground.

 

[Goodyguy]

Well I guess it was a good thing Clarkson and the New Zealanders showed up to help those "full time miners" when they did, otherwise 10 out of 10 would have gone bust. Gork, I have studied Clarkson's findings and I'm sure Astrobouncer has as well.

Wow loosing a million dollars a year in tailings and don't even care
I freak out if I loose a flake or two.

Hey Astrobouncer....... you wanna go to the "Snake Pit" with me and give advice along with the rest of the jealous hobby wannabe miners?
Sounds like with 9 out of 10 mining operations going bust in the Klondike they need our help real bad

Seriously though....... Gork you are absolutely right!
I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would not do their due diligence before sinking money into a full time mining operation.



GG~

 

[Gork]

GoodyGuy and Astrobouncer;

Have you ever heard of miners losing nuggets instead of the fine gold? That would make of an interesting discussion. I have seen it happen. It can happen based on "Cory shape sizes." A flat nugget shaped like a coin can hydroplane right out of the box.

 

[Goodyguy]

GoodyGuy and Astrobouncer;

Have you ever heard of miners losing nuggets instead of the fine gold? That would make of an interesting discussion. I have seen it happen. It can happen based on "Cory shape sizes." A flat nugget shaped like a coin can hydroplane right out of the box.

Yep, seen it .......also seen tiny "floating" gold when it's just the right size and shape to not break the water surface tension.

GG~

 

[Gork]

GoodyGuy and Astrobouncer;

Have you ever heard of miners losing nuggets instead of the fine gold? That would make of an interesting discussion. I have seen it happen. It can happen based on "Cory shape sizes." A flat nugget shaped like a coin can hydroplane right out of the box.

Yep, seen it .......also seen tiny "floating" gold when it's just the right size and shape to not break the water surface tension.

GG~

The tiny "float gold" is very interesting. My wife and I took a prospecting trip on the Stewart River (a tributary of the Yukon River) in 1980. This river was mined before the Klondike. It was noted for the great quantities of fine gold at the head of the sand bars. We could pan 40 to 100 of these to the pan. But, they weren't much more than 1 micron thick and so weighed very little. There wasn't enough (by weight) there to make a buck.
In case your wondering what the heck I'm doing. I keep taking breaks at the computer. I just finished up helping a friend make out his water and land use license for the next 10 years. You have to make it out at least a year ahead of time to get through all the bureaucracy.
It consists of about 70 pages, many diagrams of the valley before, during, and after mining. Then comes the reclamation drawings with much technical data and graphs. To keep my little pea brain clear, I am using this to give it a rest. I don't know if it is working.

 

[Goodyguy]

The tiny "float gold" is very interesting. My wife and I took a prospecting trip on the Stewart River (a tributary of the Yukon River) in 1980. This river was mined before the Klondike. It was noted for the great quantities of fine gold at the head of the sand bars. We could pan 40 to 100 of these to the pan. But, they weren't much more than 1 micron thick and so weighed very little. There wasn't enough (by weight) there to make a buck.

I once ran my already processed concentrates down a miller table to capture any gold that my spiral wheel may have missed.
Lots of tiny specks would show up and after several hours of work and many gallons of concentrates were ran, the specks didn't add up to a half a gram
Talk about not being cost or time effective, course what I lost in time I made up for in enjoyment.

GG~

 

[Gork]

Here is a photo taken about five miles from Quartz Creek where the Hoffman crew on the "Gold Rush" show is mining. It was taken from the deck of my cabin looking at the bottom of my valley. Maybe they should be looking for the pot of gold at the bottom of the rainbow! Then again, maybe I should.

 

[Goodyguy]

Wow Gerry

What are you waiting for ......an invitation from God?
Oh wait that is an invitation from God

Looks like a great spot to do some sampling.
As Jack Hoffman would say " My gut tells me there there is some drop dead gold down there"

GG~