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I'm house cleaning and ended up with a small problem. I started a business with a high school buddy in Alaska in 1976 selling mining gear. Our main supplier was Keene Engineering. When I retired I grabbed a lot of the old documents that were no longer of interest to those running the place. This was mainly a large notebook I made containing catalogs, parts breakdowns, and other information I used almost daily in the course of doing my job selling gold dredges and such. So I'm looking at this pile and it seemed a genuine loss to just toss it all in the garbage. Much of this has never been made available on the internet in any form. Granted, it will have a tiny audience, things like parts breakdowns for gold dredges from the 1980s. Yet it is history that I hate to see lost and if I do not do it nobody else likely ever will. I am also sure it will be a real help to at least a few people who find old dredges and other related gear in garages and backyards. I also have complete Keene catalogs much older than anything currently on the internet, and more. Some of it is in poor shape, but I decided to scan everything I have, clean it up as best I can, and publish it here before tossing it in the garbage. It will take quite a bit of time so this thread will be an ongoing thing, with a new post from me as I get each new document done. For starters here is what is already out there. I'm not going to duplicate anything already available at two places. First we have the current Keene collection of pdf files of mostly new stuff though there are docs going back to around 2014 and earlier: https://keeneeng.com/pdfFiles/ Next, we have what I already placed online in the downloads section of this website for Keene Engineering. The new stuff will be added here but as I said, I'll note each new addition also on this thread with a link. https://www.detectorprospector.com/files/category/14-keene-engineering/ I'm just getting started with this but here is an example of what I am talking about. This is the first I am working on and not quite done, the model 2002 2" gold dredge from the early 1980s. I scan these, then do what can be some pretty laborious cleanup work in Paint.net, as some are copies of copies, hole punched, torn, etc. When done with the cleanup I will then be converting to pdf for upload. I'm also going to do ocr on the parts/price list images to make them easier to copy and edit. Probably going to too much effort in some sense but I always think if I am going to do something may as well do it right. Keene 2002 2" Dredge Early 1980s

Hi, My name is Gerard van der Schrieck and I like to inform you about a small book I wrote about the suction process of gold nuggets. I am a civil engineer age 75 and worked my whole life in the Dutch dredging industry. Recently I studied the behavior of gold nuggets during the dredging process and I came to some very interesting conclusions. So i decided to write a small book about the subject. You can find the book on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G2XVG8MY. The title is: Optimize Your River Gold Nuggets Recovery Paperback – November 18, 2025 by ir Gerard van der Schrieck (Author) ASIN: B0G2XVG8MY / ISBN: 9798275107289 Prices: USA UK Kindle 7$ 6,03€ Paperback 12$ 10,50€ Here is a short description of the contents of the book: The book explains several methods to dredge for gold using a suction system. Based on his experience being an expert on dredging technology for many decades van der Schrieck analyses the basic problems of getting heavy golden nuggets into a dredgers suction mouth and from there through an upwards inclining suction pipe into a horizontal discharge pipeline. It appears to be very difficult to suck up heavy Nuggets with only a simple straight tube end as suction mouth. The nugget is 19.3 times heavier as water and tends to sink rapidly deep into a sand bottom. The closer you get to the sand and the nugget in/on it with the suction mouth the deeper the nugget will sink into the sand layer! A special design of a suction mouth for golden nuggets is presented and using this design in the “Bottom Disc Cutterhead” appears to be the best option to get all the nuggets into your suction system! Next the suction system is analysed for the transport of the heavy nuggets to the surface. It appears to be very favorable to use a vertical straight suction pipe to the water surface, followed by a horizontal pipe to the dredge. By doing so the minimum water velocity needed to bring the nuggets to the surface is about halved! Finally the waterjet pump, being the most simple pump in the field, is described and a spreadsheet calculation program is presented and used to calculate a Q-H diagram and a working point for a waterjet pump. I hope you can bring this under the attention of your menbers and they enjoy reading! Regards Gerard van der Schrieck. glm@vanderschrieck.nl

I have a 2.8 HP, 2-inch water pump, 500l/min Can someone provide the dimensions for the suction nozzle? Thanks in advance.

Tl;DR- Can gold be very sparse and not worth mining in the top few feet, but contain a huge pay day on the bedrock, or are the layers above it a pretty good indicator of the gold at the bottom? Full version- I finally got my first claim after lots of research and scouting. It's in a valley that had old lode mines above it, and records of course gold being found in the alluvium below. A logistics problem stopped commercial mining attempts in the old days. From what I can tell, it has never been mined. Which is rare because all the rivers in my area were bucket dredged. I sampled all over my claim and it's depressing to say the least. I found one "paystreak" on a gravel bar bend. Not sure why, but where it should be on the other bends it doesn't seem to be. When I say pay streak, I mean 3-5 colors in a pan instead of one. I set up my sluice and ran five 5 gallon buckets of unclassified material. I got 0.02-0.04g. If my miners math is correct, that's about 0.16g/yd-0.32g/yd. Not great, but could be feasible with my dredge depending on how long it takes me to move the hard pack. What are the chances that gold is extremely low grade in the overburden but amazing at bedrock? I ask because this will entail me hiking 300 pounds several miles in on foot. I will also have to clear 10-15' of overburden to get to bedrock. Given the history of this place, I feel like it could have ancient gold in the massive high grade the old timers were getting. If never mined, perhaps that gold has had thousands or millions of years to work all the way down? Is this wishful thinking and likely to lead to disappointment, or am I on the right track and it could very well be great? Thanks.

Gold mining underwater, offshore I have a dream ? I want to build an underwater vehicle for gold mining (washing) underwater, in the coastal area of Alaska and other places. Background: I am a former Submarine Engineer, mechanical and electrical specialist (+ electronics). I really liked the series on the Discovery Channel, about how gold is mined from the bottom of the sea in Nome (Alaska). I am impressed with the courage of these people. But ... I see that already now they have problems with mining gold from a depth of more than 5 meters. The shelf area (underwater part) extends much further than those small areas that are now being developed near Nome. To work in bad weather on the surface of the sea, and not to depend on it, you need to have an underwater manned vehicle on a caterpillar track, with a dredge and a flushing chute. This will allow you to work autonomously, for several days underwater, mining gold. In my opinion (thoughts) it should be a submarine with tracked engines, ballast tanks, which can independently float on the sea surface and sink to the bottom for work. I can design, calculate, and build this. I need money for this, and a few assistants who can work with their hands ? Extraction of gold and minerals from the bottom of the sea is my old dream ... And I know how to make a submarine without spending millions of dollars ?

Thought some would find this interesting

First time out dredging this season with my partner Jeff. He cleared alot of rocks and got down to some hard pack on bedrock. While he’s working I’m tending to the dredge, clearing tailings, and cleaning some of the copious amount of black sands from the riffles…otherwise they fill & we lose gold. My pup was supposed to be supervising, but I think she was snoozing on the job! Ran the concentrates on my small recirculating sluice at home then panned(now that was work!). Ended up with 8.8 grams total(7g fines, 1.8 nuggies)…not bad for about 8 hours run time! I think I’m going to invest in a decent wetsuit etc so I can play underwater too!😊

Finally away from a summer season in which I did not even touch the water, the time has come for the first storms, and right now thunderstorms and threatening waves are hitting "my" coast. So all that remains is to hope for the opening of a few spots with a reduced layer. It often happens that something goes wrong and, for the purpose of removing sand, the storm brings more. At that point heavy strategies and calculations begin. Several years back I went so far as to build a dredge and test it successfully, despite not finding any interesting material in the same spot. Constant breakage due to salt water and corrosion make the equipment fragile for continuous use, and too many times the expense of repairing it does not pay off. Abandoning the massive excavation project, I went through the use of a dpv and came to the conclusion that darn it, no one operates as effectively as Mother Nature. Numbers matter, whether you are mining fine powder or nuggets in the form of rings, if you don't explore at least 100 square meters in 3 hours, you don't even have a clue what the bottom is really like. These are not exact figures, but a rough idea of what it means to prepare what is necessary and how much to expect in terms of results. No photos at the moment, I reinvested the (little) material collected in October for a setup change, hoping to improve the effort/output ratio.

I found some gold in a gravel area that slopes to the creek where we can pan ok. was getting 5-10 colors a pan and not the tiny points , decent size colors. There is flat bedrock at the base of the slope and then the large creek so I thought for sure the gravel was on top of the bedrock but its not. I dug right where the gravel meets the bedrock almost but I went down a foot instead of hitting bedrock right away. The gold got a bit coarser, one piece looks like an apostrophe and chunky. So, now what? Bring my mini highbanker there and wash the gravels? How deep is this bedrock? Maybe bring a metal rod and probe in numerous spots for it? I hit one larger flat rock but it looked like a flagstone from an old stone sidewalk. There are numerous old bricks in the woods next to the slope. I do have to fill in any holes I make same day. My hole had no water in it either even tho the creek is only a few feet away. Should I wait till spring when water covers this spot, then try to dredge the gravel with my big banker. I have both my big and micro bankers on wheels so easy to move around in my old age. I haven't posted much lately as these damn old age aches and pains make it harder and harder to get out and dig. At least I am still moving and not in an old folks home yet. How to fix my heel and ankle pains now? duct tape kinda helps and lots of pain pills. Had to put padded inserts in all my boots as there were none and my feets were screaming. I also made an odd discovery in another creek.I normally run away from spiders BUT took a chance.There were a bunch of baby wolf spiders running around this one patch of creek gravels. I have rarely found any color in this creek before. So, I stick my shovel in this spider infested gravel patch , VERY hard digging and the gravels are filled with roots. Then a horde of bugs come spilling out, millipedes, centipedes, pill bugs, carpenter ants, spiders. I go pan my gravel and my load of black sands like tripled and there was very fine gold with it, like 5-20 tiny points in every pan. I need to take my mini highbanker there too. A dredge hole was in the creek next to my gravel spot.I panned the persons tailings and got more tiny gold specks. Am also needing a 6 inch coil for my Goldbug 2, used is good, and am looking for a cheap Tesoro Lobo ST that works ok.Had to trash mine as it finally croaked, sure do miss it. -Tom V.

Hey all. We are recreational gold miners in Alaska. We have a small YouTube channel with some videos of our exploits. It’s been a journey. We are just getting started for the year and still waiting to access our main claims. Two Dudes One Dredge Channel https://youtube.com/channel/UCoPsZnjywJ9hQjJ9r283w5g

We all think we are finding very little gold. Try dealing with these conditions! https://rtd.rt.com/films/diving-for-gold/#anchor_watch_video

Big flotilla of illegal gold dredgers in Brazil A great Sunday morning read.. the pictures give an insight into the lives of Brazilian gold dredgers.. https://apnews.com/article/business-environment-and-nature-caribbean-environment-brazil-61fe580eb23761117331c10e0b7cfde8

This is for real so do not be afraid of tossing your hat in the ring. Raw TV has been involved in lots of stuff, including the original Gold Rush series. Pass it along to anyone who may be interested. Alan, you listening?

I was wondering if anyone might have a picture of an original Keene 2 1/2" dredge, it is the one that floated on an inner tube. I sent an email to Pat Keene, but have not got an answer. I just need the picture to see how it was set up and mounted on the inner tube. If anyone has one you can post it here or email it to me at: jfoley@sisqtel.net

I bought my first dredge and it is an old one, have a couple questions if someone knows old Keene gear. It’s a pretty vintage 3” Keene suction dredge, crashbox, power jet, 14x48 sluice and frame that was strapped to inner tubes. The old Copper BS 5hp with an old Johnson 155 air that seems to be working. Changed the oil, gas, checked the sparkplug, removed the pump and she started right up and runs great. Everything is in suprisingly good shape. The pump is a Keene P-150, I assume pumping in the 200 - 250 GPM range. It has the old paper gaskets for the pump housing, will Auto gasket maker work to replace those if needed? I think the main pump seal is still the same as modern pumps. For the Sluice it has a plate in the crash box then flat red carpet under the riffles. What would you recommend running in there? Miners moss over carpet? Change to rubber matting? Leave as is? Should anything go under the crash plate to help catch fine gold. Would love some opinions. I did clean out about 20 flecks of color from the tiny bit of sand left in the sluice, so I know it can catch some fine gold. Anyone know anything about the Johnson 155 Air compressor? I can’t seem to find any information on it. Seems to be working but not sure if any spare parts are available for it. Last question is what to do for floats. I would need new inner tubes but I may try to rig up something with a packraft I have. Anyone used pool noodle floats? I’m sure the hard floats are best for fast moving water, but curious what other options there are. Would like to keep it light to be manageable by one person and able to be hauled with an ATV. Thanks for any info.

https://www.icmj.com/magazine/article/plp-update-4454/?fbclid=IwAR3-OTlUQ3SqYmxYpp-BeaVHxKIee0IEIzY5ZlJc2kCiMhmNLq-HFTvSYq4 This effort deserves a vote of thanks from all of us.

Beautiful day out on the river doing some scouting and testing of new equipment. Only got to punch one sample hole. Little too much overburden at about 4 feet. Got a little color, just need to find more easily worked ground.

I'm starting a new thread (for an obvious reason -- change of topic), triggered by the following post: My question is specifically about this spinoff/version of the show. It's evolved into two related, semi-cooperative crews dredging McKinley Creek near the Northern end of the Alaska Panhandle. If somebody wants to bring up Todd Hoffman (oops, I just did), etc., well that's not what I'm hoping to read about. But it's a free world. I'm hoping some experienced dredgers will objectively critique.

Hey everyone! Its been a while since i posted last. Recently i did a comparison video of the Proline and Keene full size 4 inch dredges. It think it is a great resource for those looking to buy a dredge in the near future. I go through each component and talk about my reasoning and though process behind why one is preferred over the other. This is definitely not a video for fanboys of either brand lol. The main point of it is to get potential dredge buyers thinking about there intended use of the dredge and how various features on either one may be better for there intended use. Hope yall enjoy and please leave any feed back. Discussions are the reason im here !

Hello everyone on here. Im looking on upgrading my Subbie sluice box into a more efficient one. I have been looking into ideas of what others been doing on here and any suggestion of how should i design a larger Gold nugget trap. I see most sluice boxes with tiny riffles and i could just imagen a larger nugget go run straight out the back. I tested my sluice with a almost 300 gram copper nugget and i lost it. Now we are trying to upgrade the sluice because where we dredge we could find larger nuggets. Im thinking of placing a section with taller riffles like in the picture with the rails only going half way or 3/4 of the sluice and leaving the same size riffles or making it bit larger at the end of the box for the larger nuggets.

Been a long time guys... Found an old 8" dredge im thinking of bringing back to life. Curious if anyone recognizes this make/model of dredge. Owner says it has keene pumps and thinks maybe tecumseh motors but not sure. Have a couple of pics but wish I took more. Motors were in a locked cabin so I didnt get to see them yet. Planning on picking this up in a couple of weeks. Will be a long trip to get. If anyone has any info it would be much appreciated. Thanks

Indiana gold dredging

I am posting this here since there are folks on this forum from Arizona. I was wondering if anyone might have information like rules, regulations or possibly links to which agencies regulate and permit suction dredging. I know, there is not much water in AZ, but there must be places that a person might find gold in streams.

Hi all, hope everyone is ready for dredging . I have a 2" Keene dredge, with the hard floats. Dose anyone how much air to put in the floats? Don't want to blow them up, but need them to float good. Any help would be good, I tried to look on line but could not find how much pressure to put in them. Thanks Dean

I have been making Gold dredge nozzles in our business for quite a few years now and we sell them on our website and Ebay. We make them in 2", 2-1/2", and 3" OD Tube with slip on connections. Plus we give the customer the choice of a classifier or not, welded to the nozzle tip instead of charging extra for a "bolt on" accessory when they should be included. We always have made them with 1-1/2" OD tubing either slip on hose or threaded hose to the water pressure line with a reducer to increase the pressure to the nozzle. Are there any people who use 3.5" or 4" or even 5" nozzles? If so, what sized water pressure tube do you run for those? I am thinking about making a bigger product line for our customers and am all ears in your input. What would be your best nozzle? Short and stubby? with or without side handles? Different nozzle sizes? Water inlet tubes? I am also thinking about making them out of 316L stainless for the salt water people's. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Steve Stabler-Owner GBE Mandrel Bending Inc.- GBEMANDREL.COM We make them with OUR made parts, no someone else's.