** Lost Gold At The Dead Man's Mine ** A Miners Journal **

[GhostMiner]

10 hours ago, Jim_Alaska said:

340 buckets makes me wonder if he actually had that many buckets, or if they took what they had down to John at the Tom and dumped them on the ground. They certainly couldn't take 340 buckets of material all in one load.

When Jed started the mining operation he said the truck could only haul 20 buckets at a time due ro poor springs. That makes me think the buckets weren't completely full.A 5 gal bucket full of gravel weighs 60 - 70 lbs. So 1200 - 1400 lbs for 20 full buckets. Or the buckets were smaller than 5 gallon. They rotated rhe empties back up to the dig area. The pay gravels were dumped in some kind of large container if they ran out of buckets. I'm guessing they had 50 - 100 of them but he never mentioned that in the journal.

[BobC]

It was mentioned to use GPR, which may be in the right direction, but yes expensive. another ought would be LIDAR, which can be attached to drones and used to find bedrock deposits. Priced range from $250 and up to (beyond my price range).

Auto makers are starting to install in vehicles for crash protection, apple has an app, the US gov has a web page that already has many areas surveyed (free)

https://www.lidarusa.com/products.html

https://www.microdrones.com/en/content/drone-lidar-in-mining-go-with-the-workflow

https://spectrum.ieee.org/sweep-lidar-for-robots-and-drones

[GhostMiner]

1 hour ago, BobC said:

It was mentioned to use GPR, which may be in the right direction, but yes expensive. another ought would be LIDAR, which can be attached to drones and used to find bedrock deposits. Priced range from $250 and up to (beyond my price range).

Auto makers are starting to install in vehicles for crash protection, apple has an app, the US gov has a web page that already has many areas surveyed (free)

https://www.lidarusa.com/products.html

https://www.microdrones.com/en/content/drone-lidar-in-mining-go-with-the-workflow

https://spectrum.ieee.org/sweep-lidar-for-robots-and-drones

Thanks for the info. I think LIDAR can be layed on the ground as well? Yes. all very expensive. That's why the saying : What's the best way to make a million dollars in gold mining? Start with 2 million.

[delnorter]

Thanks for the link to IEEE Spectrum Bobc. Very interesting.

Mike

[GhostMiner]

   JULY 20   1936

   Yesterday’s dig got us much lower in the gravels and the results were good. We had 3 ounces in the pan. There seems to be very rich pockets remaining in the fault line. I don’t know how many there are but we will keep exploring and digging. There is always the hope of finding another kettle.

   We didn’t see any new groups of prospectors this morning. Maybe the rush is slowing. John said they will probably all be robbed by the roaming gang of thugs and if they stake a claim will be forced into the co operative. We all know by now that mining here is a dirty and dangerous game. The more gold we mine and the longer we are here the more the risk builds for us. None of us want to leave our mine and if pushed we will fight to keep it. We can’t rely on the law dogs to protect our interests and must take care of ourselves. 

   At the new trench we are down about 6 feet and there is no country showing. Hopefully this holds  up for us and we get another pot. We set ourselves a ramp of gravels and flat stone to walk out the buckets. The ground is clear and we are able to get the truck close. We took an afternoon break in the shade with the thermometer kept at the trench showing 109. I rolled a Burley and sat on a log with the crew. We were all feeling the work. We take salt pills and drink gallons of water. It is too hot to eat much during the day. When we finished up near dusk we had another good bucket count of 310.

   Down at camp we unloaded the truck and helped John finish up. We cleaned up in the cool creek and warmed up beans and bacon with hot water corn bread. The crew drank some of the cool Lucky’s and I poured a big cup of whiskey and rolled a Burley. The work felt good for my soul and I was both exhausted and happy. After my first cup the soreness in my body started to fade. By the end of the second it was gone. John took the first watch and I stared into the night sky for a spell and retired to my tent. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...................

[GhostMiner]

To Jed and his crew. Make sure you watch it to the end. Cheers!

 

[DOOGY-MD]

22 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

That place is permanently closed according to their website.

Sorry, see below!

 

Pine Environmental Services, LLC

CA - Oakland

2375 Lincoln Ave.
Building 7
Hayward, CA 94545 US

Phone: (510) 732-6591

[GhostMiner]

11 hours ago, DOOGY-MD said:

Sorry, see below!

 

Pine Environmental Services, LLC

CA - Oakland

2375 Lincoln Ave.
Building 7
Hayward, CA 94545 US

Phone: (510) 732-6591

OK & thank you.

[GhostMiner]

   JULY 21   1936

   The morning air was cool but not cold which meant we were in for more heat today. The weigh gave us our fuel for digging with 5 more ounces shining in the pan. After a good breakfast we went up to start digging before the heat settled in. By noon it was nearly 100. We paused for a quick lunch break and resumed the battle with the gravels. The rounded channel rock was becoming more plentiful as we got deeper. We were used to seeing this and it meant more gold to us. That gave us the energy to swing the pick and shovel the gravels. The buckets always seemed heavier in the later part of the day. The smell of pine is heavy in this heat and the sap runs like the devil. If you make the mistake of leaning against it on a tree trunk you nearly become glued to it. 

   Late in the day Jacob hollered over for me to take a look at something. He had hit on a large boulder. The three of us grabbed bars and began to pry. As we got it to move we wedged a timber for support and kept working it out of it’s resting place. After about an hour of hard labor we had moved it a good three feet. I grabbed an empty bucket and scooped some gravel from where it had laid. I took it up to the tub and we all three of us grabbed some pans and worked it. In a few minutes we began to see our treasure. All three pans were full of heavy course gold. We were drenched in sweat and so tired we could hardly talk but we just stood there and laughed. After a short break we went back to prying the boulder another couple of feet away until all was clear. We dug out the gravels  another three feet and encountered country rock. The slab was raised in that area and we cut across it with our shovels keeping the buckets separate from the other gravels in the trench. It was nearly dark when we finished up the raised country area and took 89 buckets out of it. From the other gravels we had 145 buckets. John processed them separately and we will see what we get out of them tomorrow at the weigh but I think it will be a good payday.

  TO BE CONTINUED .....................

[flakmagnet]

It's really quite amazing to read of their successes, we are vicariously living our dreams through this timeless journal.