Remote Prospecting?

[Micropedes1]

When I saw the beaver pond, the dam was only 5-6 feet high, but extended almost all the way across the upper valley. To reach those dimensions that you listed, they must have been busy little beavers indeed! By raising the water level and dumping into that ditch, they have actually diverted the creek. Must have been a real mess.

I have an unwelcome colony of those critters here down south. They stoppered a culvert and flooded 40 acres of prime pasture. We dynamited the plug-up and shot the repair crew. Problem solved.

Can you imagine the downstream damage should you manage to breach that beaver dam suddenly? As I recall, it impounded several acres. Just like a giant hydraulic sluice.

[Geowizard]

Beavers;

"Beavers are our Friends!"

I protect beavers and their dams. They work hard with no pay to store water by making dams!

It's a partnership

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

Volume of water;

The beaver pond covers about 5 acres and is on average 5 feet deep.

One acre foot equals 325,851 gallons of water.

25 acre feet equals 8.14 million gallons of water in the pond!

Considering my pump runs at 600 GPM, and in siphon mode about 300 GPM, there's more than enough water to run a sluice. There's water continually filling the pond. The operational consideration is the demand on the water supply. Using the Clarkson recommended 15 percent slurry, works out to 12 cubic yards an hour for one pump. The plan is to double the width of the sluice and run TWO pumps.

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

Ophir Creek Mine;

Using an example of a Remote Prospecting scenario, I would like to provide a sketch of what the mine looks like.

This is a short segment that shows the relationship of the creek, tailing piles and the access road.

I will include later references to proposed mining plans!

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

Early placer mining;

What was the method used by early miners to avoid covering ground that contained GOLD?

The early miners used a dragline to stack tailings from a sluice box. The area was mined and tailings were stacked.

Next, the area was mined and the tailings were stacked at a previously mined area.

Stick around, next, we will look at HOW to mine these tailing piles!

- Geowizard

[Micropedes1]

I panned all up and down that creek and found nary a speck of gold. I concluded that either the old timers were very efficient miners (not likely) or the gold was buried too deep for me to reach (more plausible).

I did find a bit of color on an undercut bank on the far west bench, but it was not enough to get excited about. And there was considerable FRESH bear sign near the top.

[Geowizard]

Glen,

I know the feeling.

I'm working on site prep to begin running tailing piles.

Don't go away!

-Geowizard

[Micropedes1]

I did a little arithmetic and that works out to 0.01 oz gold/yard. For that to pay, you will need a very large thru-put.

That means that you cannot gently feed the bucket contents from your bobcat. Rather, you need to be able to dump and run for the next load. You'll be fighting to keep up all day long. I know that your Maxi-Banker can process the 1/4 minus efficiently. Your problem is that you need a small wash plant to take care of classification and get rid of the oversize. I saw the beginnings of one, but it was not of sufficient size for a "dump and run" operation. Too much angle on it to retain material for sufficient washing. And sized wrong for the necessary feed going into your recovery system.

Did it work? Yes. But required slower feed than you need to make a profit. I cannot see how you can make this pay with a one-(old)man operation. You need someone younger to tend that screening system that knows how to clear jams AND can also run your spare bobcat to remove tailings and stack them. I can tell you from experience that getting on and off of the equipment multiple times per day is rough on old knees. And to do it day in and day our is not something that I would wish to contemplate

[Geowizard]

Where's the Pay;

Visitors pan the creek. There's NO GOLD. They bring expensive metal detectors. They find lots of trash. There's NO GOLD. Where's the Pay?

The pay is buried. Millions of years of erosion of sediments, mud and mossy over-growth have buried the GOLD. On one of the cuts made back in 2010, across-section can be seen. The top layer is eight to ten feet of mud. Under the mud is eight to ten feet of rounded sorted gravel. Then bedrock. Exploration Drilling was done along the River back in the 1940's. The records show on average 20 feet of overburden on top of the pay. The pay? The pay that was found is the same as I have in tailing piles and in many cases less!

There are undoubtedly thousands of placer GOLD deposits that have never been discovered because the GOLD is buried.

The mine was originally mined using heavy equipment. The model going forward will require heavy equipment to move sufficiently many cubic yards of gravel in an economic manner that a profitable operation can be sustained.

The good news is that the tailing piles represent a vertically elevated resource. There is no stripping required. The GOLD is "FREE GOLD" in the sense that it can be liberated by washing and concentrated in a sluice.

Don't go away, there's more!

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

There's a Test;

Unfortunately, Remote Prospecting doesn't happen in town, next to a convenience store. The reality is that it happens out away from the city. Mother Nature rules. Mother Nature is an excellent teacher! She gives you the TEST first.

Yes, It's a test of physical endurance;

If there wasn't a test, everyone would be a GOLD miner or Remote Prospector. Simply put, not everyone is cut out to do this kind of work. Many people have physical disabilities that make it difficult or impossible to do the work involved.

Problem solving skills are important. In this thread, we have had discussion on the many possibilities of problems and along the way shared solutions.

In preparing a mine site, I must "drain the swamp".

I establish the elevation of the water in the swamp and the lower elevation needed to place the drain. I use the Bobcat to cut a channel to drain the swamp! Seems trivial. It takes a design, time and effort to do the work. Yes, it's messy too. Hauling a bucket load of mud on a bouncing Bobcat and dumping the mud requires attention to details! I am working alone. If I get the machine STUCK, I find a solution to the problem. It goes on, day after day.

One test after another!

- Geowizard