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

[GhostMiner]

 

[GhostMiner]

NOT IN THE JOURNAL  :  Kind of excited to say I am working on a plan to re open the upper dig site talked about in the journal. With gold nearly $2200/ounce currently it is making a lot of sense. Back in 2019 & 2020 we ran 300 yards of material through a trommel and averaged a little better than a gram per yard. A gram is now worth around $70. At that time we only had a water license for the pond and were limited on production because the pond is replenished from a 150 ft deep flooded mine shaft. Since then we have obtained a water license for both the north/south running creek as well as the lower creek. This will solve the water issues. Luckily the dig site is nearly 3000 feet from one creek and 2000 feet from the other. That put us well out of the 300 ft buffer zone where it's impossible to permit. I'd rather pump water over a distance than haul material that far anyway. With a Gold Claimer 30 we were able to process 15 yards of gravel per hour. Trommels usually are rated for nearly double of what they can actually do in the real world. Doing the math, running the trommel for 50 hours per week which is conservative but leaves room for downtime which always happens gives us 750 yards of pay X $15 =  $11,250/wk. or around $45,000/month less expenses. A 6 month season would come out to $270,000 less expenses. A larger trommel would produce more gold but require more water & produce more tailings to deal with so I am inclined to start on this smaller scale for a trial run. This plan would also be able to be run by three people. The Gold Claimer trommel was very reliable and not prone to jam up like some others we have used. I am still working on all these details. 

[dig4gold]

Another side of the equation is how long the gold remains to be there & that is the unknown. A mine doesn't close down because it has made too much money but because the gold runs out or it costs too much to get it out. Drill testing can give very good indications of values & longertivity of the deposit.

Gold here in New Zealand has broken through the NZ$ 3,500 an ounce. First time in history. Our "new" government is pro mining so the West Coast Miners are rubbing there hands together. Good times.

D4G  

[GhostMiner]

52 minutes ago, dig4gold said:

Another side of the equation is how long the gold remains to be there & that is the unknown. A mine doesn't close down because it has made too much money but because the gold runs out or it costs too much to get it out. Drill testing can give very good indications of values & longertivity of the deposit.

Gold here in New Zealand has broken through the NZ$ 3,500 an ounce. First time in history. Our "new" government is pro mining so the West Coast Miners are rubbing there hands together. Good times.

D4G  

In our situation the mining area was left abandoned in the late 1800's due to water delivery issues as well as law suits stopping hydraulic mining. Our tests were done by trenching which I always prefer for small ventures. It has shown a 50 ft thick pay zone. The bedrock is exposed from the the hydraulic workings but ends at the virgin bluffs which can now be high graded by trenching methods. Of course, as you say, nothing is certain but I am confident enough to give it a go. Most likely this would be my last go around out there. 

[GhostMiner]

  September 3   2002     Part Three     The Crew Meets Big Clay Ekins and Old  

                                                                           Bulldog 

 

   Clay rumbled into camp with his old Mack truck about an hour before sundown. I introduced him to Jacob and Conor and we helped him with his gear and got him squared away. Clay took us over to his truck and introduced us like it was a living thing. He said “Bulldog, this here’s the mining crew we’re a gonna’ be workin’ for and I want you to mind your manners and do a good job for these men”.  One thing I noticed right off the bat was his stock of beer - all 20 cases of it that he brought to camp. Clay said he’d had his supper but we heated up some canned hash and Jacob brought out a bottle of whisky. He and Clay had a shot and seemed to hit it off pretty well right from the get go. 

   The air was chilling and I got a campfire going to help keep us warm while we sat around and got acquainted with Clay. He passed out some beer and proceeded to tell us about Old Bulldog. Clay was a big guy and as outgoing and friendly as could be. He had a kind of booming voice and liked to laugh about everything it seemed. He said his dad used the truck back in the day to haul coal out in Wyoming. He remembered his dad putting him in the truck when he was just a little kid and riding along while his dad worked. Clay had moved to California with his girlfriend a number of years ago and he got work as a truck driver. Freight or dump truck, it was all the same to him. When his father passed away he had the truck hauled out to California and he put it to work on the gravel quarries around the area. He said he and his girlfriend had split up a few years ago and he was footloose and fancy free. He seemed like the kind of guy that enjoyed that lifestyle. 

   Clay didn’t know anything about gold mining but was fascinated and excited to get the chance to work on a real gold mine. I noticed that he sure could drink beer. He’d down one in ten minutes and open another without losing a breath. In an hour he’d downed six of them and kept right on a going until we retired for the night at 10:00 PM. I counted eleven beers in about two hours. I told him we’d show him the haul road in the morning and see if it was fit for Old Bulldog. Clay said that would be fine and he was going to sit up a little while and have a few more beers. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[GhostMiner]

   Here's to 'Ya Big Clay

 

 

[dig4gold]

21 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

In our situation the mining area was left abandoned in the late 1800's due to water delivery issues as well as law suits stopping hydraulic mining. Our tests were done by trenching which I always prefer for small ventures. It has shown a 50 ft thick pay zone. The bedrock is exposed from the the hydraulic workings but ends at the virgin bluffs which can now be high graded by trenching methods. Of course, as you say, nothing is certain but I am confident enough to give it a go. Most likely this would be my last go around out there. 

I wish you the best of luck.

D4G

[GhostMiner]

1 hour ago, dig4gold said:

I wish you the best of luck.

D4G

Many thanks. Luck is always good to have.

[GhostMiner]

   September 4   2002     Part One     Mining Again

 

   When I got up this morning Clay was still sitting in his chair and the campfire was smoldering. He was sound asleep and I counted 13 beer bottles laying near his camp chair. I got some coffee going and Jacob and Conor came out to have a cup and eat some breakfast.

   I woke Clay up and he looked mighty rough. He said that was just a normal night for him and he'd be ready to haul gravel when we were ready. I handed him a cup of hot coffee which he downed and he poured himself another. We all had bacon, eggs, and biscuits. The sun was up now and we all got ready for the day ahead.

   Clay fired up the Mack and let it idle for a spell. I drove Jacob up to the dig site and he got the excavator started. I came back down and jumped in the Mack with Clay. We drove up to the dig site slowly as he checked out the haul road. He gave it his stamp of approval and I walked back down the road and back over to camp. 

   Conor and I set up the longtom about 100 feet from the creek. We had decided to go ahead and run gravel with the tom until we got the trommel back from town. We could stockpile as well as run the tom. The run rate on the tom was somewhere around 5 to 7 yards an hour. We could at least make a little gold and stockpile the extra gravel.

   It wasn’t too long before I heard the Mack coming down the mountain. Clay brought the load over to where we were standing and I showed him where to dump it. He pulled away and Conor used the skid steer to scoop gravel and feed the grizzly hopper. We were mining again and it felt good.

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

[GhostMiner]

   September 4   2002     Part Two     Did I Do That?

 

   The mining didn’t last long. When Conor went to place the first scoop of gravel on the grizzly hopper he came down too quickly and smashed not only the grizzly but also the hopper and the top of the tom. We were done before we started. 

   I let out a long string of curse words I won’t write here in the journal and Conor had a sheepish look on his face. Clay was going to think he was working with goofballs. Before I could get over to the tom Conor attempted to back the skid steer up but the bucket was caught up on the hopper which caught the tom and the entire wash plant got dragged across the ground. I hollered for Conor to stop but it was too late. The top half of the tom was destroyed. I screamed for Conor to shut down the skid steer which he eventually did. I turned and walked away to take a seat on a nearby log. Everything would need to be rebuilt. I was thinking “What next” to myself. I needed to calm down before talking with Conor.

   TO BE CONTINUED .............