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GhostMiner

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  1. So now I'm thinking back and remembering that season so long ago. Seems like yesterday but they're all gone now.
  2. For anyone keeping score that makes 85.8 ounces of gold out of that cut so far. Will it hold up or get better? Stay tuned. The fun is just about to begin.
  3. September 11 2002 Bound For Glory Jacob was already up before dawn and eventually the entire crew was at the morning breakfast meeting and having coffee. We all took a minute in silence to remember those who had died in the Twin Towers attack last year. We had breakfast and Jacob and Clay went up to the dig site while Conor and I started the cleanup process. We were done just after 1:00 PM and I radioed Jacob and Clay. They came down to camp and I showed them a jar of gold. It was from this morning's weigh. It was good. The jar contained 56.8 ounces of coarse gold with some fine mixed in as well. I figured somewhere around 11 grams to the yard. Even old Jcob got excited. He stated that the further down he went the better it got. And it also was widening out to the west. Conor was nearly out of control and Clay was almost as bad. Jacob spoke softly and told everyone to calm down. He said it was bad luck to get too excited. He also told everyone to keep their mouths shut if they went to town. News of a strike could send all kinds of hooligans and prospectors out here looking for gold. We had dealt with enough of that kind of thing. After lunch we all got back to work. Conor and I washed another 40 yards of material by dusk and we called it a day. When Jacob came down the mountain with Clay just before dark he went straight to the sluice and grabbed a small scoop of the concentrates with his pan. We all followed him over to a water tub and shined flashlights down on the pan as he worked the black sand away from the gold. The pan was heavy with coarse gold. I think Jacob just wanted us to know we were still on the streak. We went back over to camp and I heated up some canned hash and fried up some Spam. Jacob uncorked a bottle and we all filled our cups. We did a toast to the mine and all the miners who had worked here before us. Then Jacob did a very somber toast to his brother Jed and the crew of 1936 and 1937. I saw a tear run down his face. Then he turned to us and flatly stated “Boys, we are bound for glory.” TO BE CONTINUED ...............
  4. We ended up doing good on this low cost plan. At one of the trenches on the operation we hit a honey hole that we got pretty excited about. I was at a creek about half a mile away running concentrates through a spiral wheel (Gold Magic) while my partners were running gravel. I saw my partner pull in with his truck and told me I needed to come check out the area they were digging. I had him stay with the cons while I drove up to the the dig site. They were test panning from the trench and were pulling pans of coarse gold like I hadn't seen there before. This stuff ended up being in the ounces to the yard. We all thought we had struck it rich but as soon as it started it faded away. It was a hot spot but it didn't last long. Mining can be cruel. However, sometimes I think running the small and inexpensive plans are the best ways to go. You have little to lose but your time and if you have done your homework on the ground you should make some money. For me it's not a fever any longer but a business. I like to get paid for my work. So do my partners. However, it will always be a thrill to see gold in the pan. It's something that never grows old. I just got smarter about how much money I spend to get it.
  5. We actually ended up using a Kubota 80 on this plan. We got a deal from a guy who owned it. They are good machines & fairly powerful for their size. Normally I would not go smaller than a mid size but the big mini was all we needed. Bedrock was only 6 - 10 ft in depth and there weren't any huge rocks to worry about.
  6. A low cost and small scale start & then scale up if possible. Some may prefer to stay small. Usually when the larger scale is considered it is time to find investors.
  7. Here is an old start up cost sheet set up about 8 yrs ago to run 100,000 yards per season. I'd have to check but i'm guessing you'd need to add about 20% to the final number today. Fault Line Gold Mine & Extensions Start Up Expense Sheet Additional Permitting & Bond $150,000 Trommel & Spare Parts 235,000 Water Pumps 100,000 Pipe & Hose 20,000 Excavator 100,000 Backhoe/Loader 60,000 Company Truck 50,000 Company Step Van/Storage/Workshop 15,000 Company 4 Wheeler with Utility Bed 10,000 (10) Steel Mesh Utility Trailer 2000 (11) Campers (5) @ $7500 ea 37,500 (12) Diesel Fuel Storage Tank (500 gal) 2500 (13) Gasoline Storage Tank (500 gal) 2500 (14) Generator 15,000 W 2500 (15) Generator 4000 W 500 (16) Storage Building/Workshop 5000 (17) Gold Room (Gold Cleanup & Smelting) 5000 (18) Shaker Table 10,000 (19) Pro Camel 24 in Spiral Wheel 900 (20) Repairs (2 Seasons) 40,000 (21) All Fuel (2 Seasons) 80,000 (22) Skidsteer 50,000 (23) Loader 100,000 (24) Kiln 600 (25) Misc & Shipping 20,000 (26) Total : $1,113,000
  8. So here is a small scale plan executed in 2020. It was a 3 month operation involving 3 - 5 people. It used 4 separate plans of operation so as not to trigger SMARA (surface mining and reclamation act. SMARA is triggered when surface disturbance exceeds 1000 yards and requires much more detailed and expensive permitting. We do our own plans of operation at no cost by using federal and state agencies to do the proper environmental evaluations. Average time for plans to be approved can vary depending on how busy the agencies are but 4 - 6 months should be expected. Our bond was moved from one site to the next as each plan was finished and reclaimed. If you want to run multiple sites at once you would need a bond for each site. Our bonds vary from around $3500 for a small plan like this upwards to $10,000 or more for larger scale operations. The bonds are refunded as reclamation is finished and approved and all equipment removed. I am posting a very small scale plan here first. We did this plan after several years of hand prospecting to ensure success by proving the ground as best we could. One word concerning mining in California now - I noticed on Dave Turin's new show when he was up at Happy Camp he kind of clouded the issue on mechanized mining. Mechanized mining can still be done in California but you must be at least 300 ft from the creeks. For our claims this is not an issue as our commercial grade ground is anywhere from 600 - 2500 ft from any creeks. If you are planning to mine with equipment closer than 300 ft to a creek in California you may as well forget that plan for now. Perhaps it will be changed someday. Here is the small scale plan with the gold values conservatively adjusted for today's price per ounce. I will be posting a larger scale mining operation here as well. MINING PLAN FOR 2020 Equipment & Starting Expense : Super Hog Highbanker $ 2033 Custom built hopper/grizzly 500 Small 2 Yard/Hour Highbanker (Vern) 0 Semi Trash Water Pumps 2000 2100 ft 3 inch Lay Flat Hose & Fittings 2267 300 ft 2 inch Lay Flat Hose 149 Extra Fittings & Clamps 100 Bobcat E85 Excavator Rental (one month) 4667 Delivery & Return Fee 500 Porta John (one month) 300 Storage Shed 2000 Fuel 500 Misc & Shipping 500 Total : $ 15,516 Production Estimates : Run Time (8) hrs/day Monday - Friday Saturday/Sunday make up time & gold cleaning & processing. 7 yds/hr 56 yds/day 280 yds/wk 1120 yds/month $ 50/yd gold value after refining $ 2800/day $14,000/wk $56,000/month Operating Cost : $ 5467 1st month (fuel & excavator rent & misc) Net Revenue : $ 50,533 per month Would be scaled up to the larger operation Description of Operation : At Site #3 the north bluffs at Upper North Mine have 300 ft of baseline gravels that will provide 37 cuts or trenches into the base to bedrock. From each trench 45 yds of pay gravel will be processed. At Site #2 the west facing bluffs at Upper North Mine there will be 250 ft of baseline gravels that will provide 31 cuts or trenches into the base to bedrock. From each trench 45 yds of pay gravels will be processed. Site #2 Production : 31 cuts 1395 yds @ $ 50/yd $69,750 Site #3 Production : 37 cuts 1665 yds @ $ 50/yd $ 83,250 Total From Production : $153,000
  9. I was thinking it might be interesting to take a look at our mining equipment & supply information from one of our exploration & mining seasons. I will see if I can post something later. This would give anyone who is interested in starting a small operation an idea of what it takes in costs to get started. The latest yrs I have are from either 2019 or 2020 so you could figure to adjust the expenses at least another 20%.
  10. We didn't bother to take very many pictures in 2002. However, I will look around or see if anyone else has any. I am not much for taking pictures & didn't even own a camera back then. Even today I do not own a smart phone but have a chrome book for occasional pictures. There are some pictures taken on the mine from much later yrs that were taken by one of my partners but by then that 2002 project was completely reclaimed and buried. The bond was huge for the 2002 project because of all the ground we were disturbing. Cheers.
  11. September 10 2002 Part Three We ended up the day stopping with 100 yards of washed gravels. The cleanup will be done tomorrow with Conor and myself while Jacob and Clay continue to dig and haul pay gravel to the processing site. It actually started to rain as the crew was getting ready for supper so we went into Jacobs camper and ate. We were all eager to get that cleanup done tomorrow and find out if the gold values were getting even richer. Jacob figured they were and I thought so as well. We were all talking about gold and mining. Jacob told us that this glory hole was something for all of us to remember. He said we would be able to tell our kin about it someday. He seems to think that there is over 1000 ounces in the hole but possibly much more. There is a big drop in the bedrock there for sure. He is down about 25 feet and also widening the dig to the west. We all want to see the bottom of that pit. We finished supper and hit the sack. Tomorrow will give us more answers. TO BE CONTINUED ................
  12. A glory hole. Without an excavator we would have never found it. And on top of a faultline. A bit unusual. Kind of like walking down into a secret gold vault. I still get the chills. I found another in a remote area 2000 ft to the south on top of that fault line back in 2020. Completely mined out by the old hydraulic crews. They left me very little. But those old boys missed the one we found in 2002.
  13. Hey Big Clay - you may soon be able to buy yourself an entire fleet of trucks.
  14. September 10 2002 Part Two After lunch I helped Conor get the pump going and told him I was going up to the dig site to have a look at the area Jacob was working. I jumped in my truck and headed up the mountain. When I got over to the area where Jacob was digging I got a good look at what he was talking about. I was amazed. He had started into a section of mountain with a long trench and then was widening out the dig and descending his work down and forming a kind of rectangular shaped hole that was a good twenty feet in width and just as deep. He had backed out of the trench and reset his operation to form a deeper but less steep ramp which had increased his footprint. That allowed him to go deeper than the twenty feet his excavator arm was limited to. Jacob saw me and gave me a grin and climbed down off the machine. We were looking into a big hole where the entire north or back wall as well as the east wall was bedrock. I went down the ramp and got into the bottom of the hole with a pan and personally took out a good sample. Then Jacob and I walked over to a water tub and he watched me pan it out. I could hardly believe my eyes. There in front of me was a pan half full of black sand and the other half heavy gold. Pickers and coarse gold like I had never seen. Clay was in the truck waiting to be loaded and came over to have a look. He let out a soft whistle. I looked at Jacob and told him I was having a hard time believing what I was seeing. My hands were shaking. Jacob just chuckled and told us it just kept getting richer as he got deeper into the cut. I asked him how deep he thought it could go before bottoming in bedrock. Jacob flatly stated he was not sure but if it held up for another several days it was going to get pretty interesting. He said the rich ground might also extend to the west as well because it showed no sign of being contained to the twenty feet of lateral area. He said it was something like the 1936 strike but actually might be much larger. How rich the bottom might be was anyone’s guess. TO BE CONTINUED ...............
  15. September 10 2002 Part One Staggering Prospects Clay fired up the old Mack and he and Jacob rode up to the digsite as the sun was coming up. It was fun to watch them in the truck. Jacob was in his element and the two of them were becoming good friends. I got the pump going and Conor and I started processing pay gravel. I was looking at the sluice and the concentrates were showing some nice gold. We were on a real pay streak that could turn our season into a big time strike. We will have to wait to see if the ground holds up over time. Around noon Jacob rode back down the mountain with Clay as Old Bulldog delivered us another lode. We decided to stop for lunch. Over some sandwiches Jacob was talking with us about the pay he was digging. He said he had stopped twice to take some pan samples and he had one with him. It was absolutely brimming with heavy gold. I had to ask him if this was just from one of his pans he sampled and he said yes. Jacob went on to say that this was starting to remind him of the big 1936 gold strike which was just northwest of where he was digging. He said our current dig site was just a little east of the faultline but he had a suspicion that he had started to uncover a big pot hole or kettle at the top of the fault where gold may have been trapped before it traveled along the ancient river another 100 feet and tumbled over the old waterfall in that area. He said the strike of 1936 had occurred at the bottom of the old falls. The gold had piled up in a pothole and was buried over time. He said he was butting up against a rim of bedrock that was dropping straight down. That, according to him, was the first signs of discovering a kettle or natural gold trap. Jacob told us that depending on the size and depth of the kettle there could be the potential for big gold. I asked him what he meant by big. He looked each crew member in the eye one by one and softly said maybe 1000 ounces or even more. TO BE CONTINUED .............
  16. September 9 2002 Big Time Gold Again The morning finally came. I didn’t sleep all that well. I kept thinking about the gold weigh. What if we were wrong and were over estimating how much gold was in the concentrates from 100 yards of washed gravel? Today we found out. We finished the cleanup just after noon. It was a good one. We had 29 ounces of gold. Nearly 9 grams to the yard. Jacob was right, we are onto something special. If this holds up we are going to end the year on a high note. Big Clay was dancing around camp at lunch time like he was a new millionaire or something. Everyone was in a good mood. We finished lunch and got back to mining and worked straight through until dusk. The tom had processed 60 yards of gravel and we could see the pickers practically jumping out of the sluice. Jacob said we would run another day and then do a cleanup. The morning couldn’t come fast enough for us. TO BE CONTINUED ..................
  17. Yes, ours weren't very good and we had safety concerns as well. More on Dreamwind Canyon in the future.
  18. MORE ON DREAMWIND CANYON : I've got a lot of information on this canyon and a few more experiences to relay. This particular one came about in the Fall of 2016. My brother in law & his wife along with my wife Lindy and I were doing a bit of exploring in the canyon. The weather was much cooler than the extreme Summer heat that sucks the water right out of your body. There had been some old rumors of an old mine entrance on the west side of the steep cliff. We had an old map from way back but there was no date on it. It did show a drift marked out in a location that seemed to match up with the stories. We hiked out early in the morning wearing heavy back packs. We were heading north from the lower elevation and climbing in altitude. The going was tough and slow. The canyon floor was strewn with heavy rocks and boulders as well as thick Manzanita. All four of us were also sporting snake gators for safety as the rattlesnake here may be more abundant than the gold. We took a short break around noon and the girls stated they thought we ought to go back. I talked them into continuing for another hour. What happened next is something I can't explain. About 45 minutes into the extended hike my brother in law hollered out and pointed to the left. There was the entrance that was marked on the old map. I couldn't believe it - the stories were true. The entrance was timbered but they were old and partially rotted. They looked to be hand hewn and were probably set back in the mid 1800's. I shined a flashlight inward and the tunnel looked to be solid. The adit was just tall enough for me to stand upright and was about five feet in width. Who wanted to venture inside? My brother in law and his wife said they wanted to take a look so they headed in as my wife and I watched. I asked them how the air was and they replied it was good so far. As they got in about 100 feet both their flashlights died. They came back out. It was strange for two flashlights with new batteries to die at once. More than strange. However, they were not ready to quit so my wife and I gave them our flashlights which also had new batteries. Well, about the same distance in both lights went dead and back out they came. Now they were visibly disturbed. This just wasn't right. Reluctantly, the four of us eased on out of Dreamwind Canyon. The mine had seemed to want to keep its secrets. And it did, at least for that day.
  19. September 8 2002 Well the day finally came and we were mining as the sun came up. It was perfect weather as well. I told Conor to go ahead and feed the new tom with the skid steer. I wanted him to get his confidence back. He was being extra careful but after an hour I could see his confidence return and he was operating the machine like a pro. Jacob was up on the mountain digging pay gravel and Big Clay was hauling. Jacob loves to run that excavator and he knows how to stay on the pay gravel. At noon I jumped in my truck and took some sandwiches up to Jacob and Clay. Jacob climbed down off the machine and walked me into a fresh cut in the mountain. He scooped out a pan of gravel and panned it out for me to see. There were seven pickers and a lode of coarse gold. Jacob gave me a wink and told me he was onto something special in this location. I asked Clay to come have a look as well. He blinked twice to make sure he was really seeing the pans’ contents for real. I told him he was hauling some very rich material. Then I headed back down to tell Conor. The plan was to process carefully and not overload the tom. That way we could get a good read on the values we were mining. The toms’ sweet spot seemed to be around ten yards an hour so that’s how we fed it all day. We shut down at sundown having washed 100 yards. Then Conor and I pulled the mats. The concentrates were heavy and we could see abundant gold in them. Tomorrow morning we’ll do a cleanup and get back to work after lunch. I am hopeful that this gold weigh is going to be a whopper. TO BE CONTINUED ...............
  20. September 7 2002 Part Two Just like the Forest Service agent said, when I got to the ranger station my paperwork was approved and waiting for me. I asked if I needed to talk with anyone and the lady in the front office told me I was good to go. When I got back to the mine I drove up to where the crew was working and showed them our approved permit. As long as we didn’t go near those reclaimed areas we were good to mine. Clay hauled gravel until dark and the crew got together for supper, just like a family would. We were all anxious to put the new tom to work in the morning. We had a huge mound of pay gravel to start working on until we got the trommel back. I fried up hash and cooked up some hot dogs to go with it. We all had a couple of shots of whisky to celebrate. Clay was going on and on about how anxious he was to see that gold come out of the mountain. I told him we were digging on rich pay ground up there and we should have gold soon. We all turned in except for Clay who once again sat up drinking beer. TO BE CONTINUED ................
  21. Howdy Skip. Hope you are doing great. Dave offered the crew a chance to buy the mine in Alaska with all equipment for one million but supposedly they turned the offer down which may have been smart. The operation there was prone to flooding which caused many problems. I think Dave was just sick of fighting everything and wanted to spend time with family.
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