Back In Montana

[s.young]

I hope you left some gold in Gold Basin.  LOL   Really enjoying your book.  Good Luck this season.

[Goldseeker5000]

Things are going good. Im not camped in a good spot for nuggets but this area is rich in Sapphires. I'll be doing some sapphire mining as soon as my Saruca's get here. Good money in Sapphires too. I'll do this til the snow clears out of the mountains to the point I can get some more gold. Got a buyer who will be buying every bit of gold I can dig up so won't be hurting for money. I've been sleeping like a baby in this 27 degree nights being back in Montana. I haven't used my heater once in the back of the truck since I have been back. Heck, I even slept in til 9:30 this morning. That is unheard of for me. I typically get up around 5 am. Gold Ryder and I are going to have to deal with a scoundrel former claim partner this summer, who apparently is going to be a thorn in our sides. Hopefully the bears will be out in force this year. 😆🤣

[jasong]

I found a pale blue sapphire deposit in Wyoming a few summers back. Crystals about the size of the tip of my pinky. There are kinda low quality in situ, but been thinking about taking a drywasher in the wash below the deposit to look at some of the stuff eroded from older parts of the deposit.

Figure if the drywasher catches garnets en masse, it should catch sapphires too? Probably miss more than I catch, but probably not many gem quality ones there anyways.

[Goldseeker5000]

Yeah, Jasong we might as well get those as well in areas that give them up. Sapphires settle in to same type of areas as gold, diamonds, rubies etc. Good colored sapphires can bring in some insane dollar amounts per carat. The area my claims are in supposedly have diamonds as well. I have heard they are industrial grade. I suppose you can find a good one or two amongst a bunch of pore quality ones. African Saruca's are the way to go. Dry washers should be another viable way I would think. You'll just have to give it a try and see what happens. 

[jasong]

I have a friend who's been at the diamond park in Arkansas for like a month or two and he's been doing pretty well with a saruca out there, like well enough that he's just ended up staying for a while after it was just going to be a short trip at first I think. 

I built a low budget saruca out of some mesh I had last year, took it to the diamond fields in WY, spent like 8 hours staring at endless quartz bits, thinking...is this a diamond, is this a diamond, is this a diamond haha. If I could find a way to automate and process lots more gravel I think I'd give it more of a go, since there are rubies here too (also not really gem quality though).

Do you have an outlet to sell sapphires you find? I wouldn't know other than jewelers, but jewelers around here don't want to buy anything gold, gems or otherwise. 

[Goldseeker5000]

Yes I do have a buyer for gems. 

[Gerry in Idaho]

Good to see you finding some nice color in the desert over the winter.  Yes the Rocky Mountains are certainly earning their name this winter with all the snow records.  I talked to a few customers down in AZ this winter and they said it was actually pretty cool and windy for much of it, so their gold counts were a little off as well.  At least in AZ you can still do it.  Hopefully next season I'll be in the position to head down for a month.  

Thanks for sharing.

[oneguy]

Gerry Said "Yes the Rocky Mountains are certainly earning their name this winter with all the snow records."

Pretty normal (but loooong) winter here.  Don't expect any major runoff in my area plus I'm not anywhere near any rivers so won't affect my searching any.  There's snow higher up (pic) and still snow patches limiting where a guy can go as of today.  I hit 2 places today, one was a bust so moved and picked up 3 little guys for 1.4g.  Also grabbed 9-10 pieces of float for the geo's from a new spot for them to eyeball? So first hunt of 2023 season and we're on board.....  It was good to get out FINALLY......

[IronDigger]

Hey Reese, good to hear your back safe in Montana, congrats on the nice pile of yellow. Hope this season shines for us all, lots of water, and run off form this years heavy rains. Would love to see some of your sapphires.

Fred