Mining is Alaska?

[lackin199]

ive done some recreational gold mining and would like to get more into it just for summers then go back home. What are some of the costs with going to alaska? are the figures they claim in that gold rush show correct 1000 a day? how much do you think it would cost to get all of the equipment for mining? would you recommend going up there to do something like this? I dont mean to sound like a newbie but just wondering if this is even possible to do

 

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[63bkpkr]

Hi Lackin,
$1,000 a day may be cheap for heavy equipment, food to feed a camp of folks, repairs, human needs and the like but not if it is just yourself. What it costs you at home to go prospect (gasoline, food, camping permit and the like) is what it costs you in Alaska (okay Hoser at least out of Anchorage, not way up there or out of McGrath) unless you will be mining on say the Gains Creek Mining Claim then you need to pay a fee. Regardless of where you are mining you MUST make certain it is not someone elses claim as in Alaska you might just get shot for claim jumping so plan ahead. As a matter of fact, do not just jump at this and go for it as you will likely waist a good deal of money and time, plan this in advance so you really know what your are doing.

In Alaska folks sluice, dredge, pan, high bank as well as move overburden with D-8 Cat's, it is an unusual place. You must know something about Alaska before going to where you want to go. The state bird is the Mosquito and it sucked the blood out of the things that came in 2nd and 3rd place for that title. Bring a thin coat that is kept in a heavy plastic bag and keep the coat soaked with mosquito repelent and put the coat on when you need to keep the bugs away. This way you do not put the repellent on your skin as after a week or so your skin will crack from constantly applying the repellent. The "Bug's" in general are bad there especially the flying biting ones, they only have a short season to eat, mate and die so they are very active all day long. Oh and the days are nearly 24 hours long with light, at 3 in the morning it looks like the sun is just about to set in Illinois.

Then there are the Black & Griz Bears, the Moose and a few other large and dangerous animals as well as a couple of small ones but no snakes unless you play poker. The country has a lot of water, mountains and glaciated areas and stunted forests as well as regular size forests, either type of forest is a turd to get through due to all the dead falls. The rivers and lakes become highways and it is easy to get lost. Feeding yourself is at times easy as the fish will bite on nearly empty hooks on a line that is tied to a stick, no fancy stuff is needed but it will work as well as what I described. Visitors guides are free for the asking as Alaska likes tourist money and even tell them that you will be prospecting and to include information on that, please. $1,000 a day for one guy naa but you may need one detector for heavily mineralized ground and another for easy ground, a gold pan, a high banker and some gas cans as well as water cans and a GOOD water filter system as they do have Beaver Fever in Alaska, comes from drinking water contaminated by beaver droppings.

Look into it, know what you are doing and then make sure you know what you are doing and then go do it if you still want to.

Good Success with your adventure............63bkpkr

 

[Hoser John]

Been there twice and no fun in the sun place. 1/2 gallon of milk=$9.95 on a good day. All costs are 10X the lower 40 and playing with artic bears ESPECIALLY polar bears is no fun. We fought off a polar bear with a D-9 stripping overburden and the bear won. Opened steel door on cabin and Mel was greeted by a great white who wanted him for breakfast. That bear whisperer(and his girlfriend)ended up in a pile a bear poop. Video was online for years. Nuttn' like hearing humans scream as bear crunched bone and ate'm'up---yum yum tourists taste great with bear pepper spray,and thats if the mosquitos(think b-52) don't drain ya dry or the flys eat ya- John

 

[63bkpkr]

John, can you be more direct with your comments. I mean don't hold back with your opinions! Let it out.

The first time I was in Alaska my brother took me to Saint Anns Creek at the back end of Copper Lake. I went for a walk in the bush along this thin line of water, chocked with these purple salmon, bunch of Bald Eagles in the High tops of the pine trees all burping and complaining about too much salmon roe. I walked in about a 100 yards, came to this bend in the sandy creek, moved the bushes aside to step across and there right in front of me was this sizeable clear/clean hind leg bear paw print in the sand. I looked at my .44 Mag in its shoulder holster in my left arm pit that I wore on the outside of my jacket and thought to myself "dang that 44 looks mighty small right now". I put the heel of my hand up aginst the heel of the print and the print extended WAY Past my fingers, I mean way past. I walked back to my brother and the boat. Yup, they got bears up there. Some folks say the Black Bears are the worst, some say the Griz are worst (Kodiak and Polar being extreme Griz species) but I'd guess the worst of them all IS whichever one is eating you at any specific moment. Oh and on a raft trip with my brother, outback in AK, we had a Moose trailing us and I think he wanted to pick a fight with us. Now of course in Anchorage there is a sizeable Moose population so all you need to do is BE in Downtown Anchorage to get stompted to death by a Moose. (Note: the bears come in and raid the Moose herd to eat the young moose so yes there are lots of bears around Anchorage) Sounding like fun yet?......63bkpkr

I think even Hoser John might admit that the adventure of being there is a good adventure but there are certain shall we say drawbacks to being there as well, one of them being that each time you go out to the biffy you might not come back. My brother stills lives up there, has been there for many years and loves it. His home in Eagle River, just above Anchorage, is visited irregularly on a regular schedule by B Bears as well as Moose, the moose eat his apples off the tree right in his/their front yard.

It is an adventure.........63bkpkr

 

[lackin199]

thanks for the responses guys, an adventure is kinda what I am looking for. How much do you think it would cost to get a whole operation up and running? i would have to get just about everything because like most people i dont have a bulldozer and other equipment just laying around. Do you think that you could find enough gold to cover the costs and make a few bucks? (not looking to become rich off of this but make a few extra thousand over a summer would be nice) Do the risks outweigh the rewards or is it possible to do with the right stuff and people and come out on top.

 

[russau]

not knowing your work ethics,knowledge of mining,haveing the MSHA certificate, and the location that you want to mine,then i couldnt say if youll make anything at all! i dont think anyone could!

 

[Hoser John]

Yes 63 great adventure BUT I was being paid "LOTZA" cash by Cirtel Nevada to be there and I quit even then as single parent of a 9 month old baby at the time. Went back to Nevada to run the factory in Carson City(much safer) and Alaska is for younger men than I and at the time could do just what I wanted then in kalif and Nevada sooo. 2nd shot was Cape Yakataga (sp??) in 85 and beach mining for miniscule specks don't start my motor either,I like NUGGETS and much less bears and them MOSQUITOS/FLYS were most irritating---devastating is more like it. Beauty--grand vistas--can't be beat but myself and many other associates,experienced miners,have come and gone as 1 tough expensive sob with a miniscule mining season-tons a au 2 u 2 -John.

 

[Alaskan Adventurer]

Wow, you guys are being drama queens. Yes, for the totally unprepared, Alaska CAN be dangerous. Do you have common sense? If yes, then you should be okay. Have someone in your group be packing just for last resort. I have lived and did quite a bit of prospecting in my 20 years in Alaska, and I am still alive. I once thought about how many bear encounters I have had, and it is at least 30. Never once did we have to shoot a bear. A couple times we had a bear charge and bluff and we had to fire our firearms in the air simply as a warning. The only exception is if you get trapped between the mother and her cubs, then you had better be quick and accurate. Alaska overall is more expensive than most states, but unless you are talking medium to large scale mining/prospecting, you won´t spend 1000.00 a day unless you spend that day in the bars, and on the ladies and not prospecting. If you are running an 8 inch dredge, then fuel costs will hurt and of course if you are running an excavator then yes, you will most likely exceed the $1,000 a day total, but you had better have done your due deligence and already found the gold before running your excavator. The only worry about polar bears is if you happen to be prospecting far north as around Barrow. Most likely you will be working around South Central, or Central Alaska and no polar bears there. Again, use common sense, be absolutely prepared and have fun!

I am finding working here in Ecuador to be more difficult than working in Alaska, but as always....fun.

 

[Hoser John]

AA- not drama queens--Just would rather folks are TOOOOOOOOOO cautious than dead'r than a doornail. Newbie fever is rampant and the uniniated are getting hurt and killed by forum advice.
Example: Guy off forums, Larry XXXXX, bought my claims on the SF American a couple a years back. I absolutely told him NOT to dredge at head of the rapids outta Coloma as deadly. He got MUCH forum razz for being a wussie and told to go for the gold there. First day,swept into the rapids and dead'r' than a doornail and crawdad food immediately. Sooo YES I do tend to be over cautious--and graphic--with the "truth" to try and get the newbies to be careful as peer pressure can/will kill ya in a flash and I truly do not want want anymore deaths on my conscience by my actions. John PS--in my post I said 1985 but it was 1975--sorry for mistypes.

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi AA,
I've had similar experiences as John has with dead folk. An inexperienced fella after seeing "my river" in the summer decided he'd gone in for opening season, that's in April. He went by himself, his body was found down river late in the season. Me, I've hiked out on a broken leg/sprained ankle myself. I've also used my 454 as a noise maker and concur with your "do NOT get between momma and her cubs". I've also never had to shoot a bear but I've lost lots of food and equipment to them and have had far too many very close calls with them even when my food bag was up a tree on a steel cable so they could not get to it. People with no or limited experience going into Any back country need to get the picture that it is rugged where you are going. As a "stupid" example - One early morning in Tempe Arizona I went out for a hike in the hills out by the old GM proving grounds. A nice day and as I got towards the top of the hill, well I was getting tired so I decided to lean against a tree to catch my breath. Glad I'd put on my leather gloves as there are NO trees out there and the cactus spines went right through my glove. Simple thing like forgetting where you are at or chewing some really smelly bubble gum or not looking under a log you are going to step over or not having some relevant but required piece of equipment for the specific country you are going into could spell the difference between a good or a bad adventure. Also, I notice in you post that you were with a group of people and that is a good idea in most if not all locations.

Stay alive, have fun, enjoy the aventure, plan ahead, carry a Spot GPS messenger with good batteries with/on you at all times and you will come back with some good stories! .............................63bkpkr

 

[2cmorau]

AA is a great story teller
I remember a tail; he told, of a time, a near death exprience
where three grils stole his purse and pushed him off a curb,
but like a good lib he changed the facts
and the drama unfold
he holds the hand of a burlyface man
drives his car to and fro
the rough outdoors he says
yes some do think
hotel sleep is for the dogs
no tent, no dirt for me
he runs his water with the twist of the brass
not like the rest of us
scooping with glass
his boldest adventure, maybe hooking live wires
to shower with warm water
his waitress saunters over with game under glass
we true miners glass are game
my time in the jungle
taught me well
never to trust a man
who just tells storys

 

[Hoser John]

Stories are usually based in fact---from past BAD experiences----and as such are the basis of knowledge the important foundation of science and knowledge. To have NOT learned from your own----and others misfortunes is to lead a life of ignorance and repeatition of the same stupid mistakes---live and learn and prosper or John

 

[Alaskan Adventurer]

AA is a great story teller
I remember a tail; he told, of a time, a near death exprience
where three grils stole his purse and pushed him off a curb,
but like a good lib he changed the facts
and the drama unfold
he holds the hand of a burlyface man
drives his car to and fro
the rough outdoors he says
yes some do think
hotel sleep is for the dogs
no tent, no dirt for me
he runs his water with the twist of the brass
not like the rest of us
scooping with glass
his boldest adventure, maybe hooking live wires
to shower with warm water
his waitress saunters over with game under glass
we true miners glass are game
my time in the jungle
taught me well
never to trust a man
who just tells storys

Woah, woah! Stories eh? Come to Ecuador and I will give you every bit of proof you could ever need. Please tell me where, when and how I changed the facts? You and I have had our differences in the past, but don´t ever call me a liar.

 

[lackin199]

Thanks again for all of the posts guys. I have been looking into doing it and am coming up with about 200k to start from scratch and thats including all of the equipment (used), supplies needed for the first year, and a claim. Does this number seem right cause it is a very large amount of money? Also where would a good spot to look for a claim? the interior of alaska near fairbanks, the southern parts or right up near canada?

 

[63bkpkr]

For some interesting reading as well as looking about Alaska & mining checkout the website akmining.com

Read the answers to questions by Steve Herschbach.............63bkpkr

 

[wwace]

I currently live in Alaska, and have for almost 40 years. You will definately need to research any area thoroughly before making any investments/plans. $200k would make a nice start on an operation. Mining season here is short, you need to be ready to hit the ground running and not let up until it freezes again about the first of October depending on your location. There are many good areas to mine but few unclaimed and for sale claims. With all the publicity prices are crazy also. Absolutely look where gold has been found in quantity. Mines that did not pay when gold was cheap are getting very attractive now.

Fairbanks and central Alaska including East to Fortymile country is plagued with many feet of overburden. Friends of mine have taken years to get to pay gravel on some claims. Dredging is the only way to mine without dealing with overburden in vast amounts. You could buy a 20ft conex and load it with gear and have it shipped to Nome, at least when you gave up you could sell your equipment for a profit. If you go to Nome remember there is nowhere to stay, make sure you pack a four wheeler.

We have had record snows this winter, so the thaw will be long and wet, lasting well into summer in our vicinity. Bugs are worse than bears, but do not take just one persons advice. Alaskan Adventurer may have been lucky during his Alaska escapades with bears, in the early 90's I knew two people who were attacked and killed one week apart. One by a 150 lb black bear, one by a Brownie. There are very few actual attacks, you are more likely to go years without seeing one, but you would be stupid to be unprepared also, just be smart and be aware of your surroundings. Bears are unpredictable, yes it is good advice not to get involved with a sow and cubs, you do not have to be between them either, close can be just plain bad also. If you are running equipment 24/7 you will be fine. When you are away though they will come by and destroy anything they can reach.

Good luck, if you decide head up this way send me a message if you have more questions

 

[Cable]

Hi Lakin 199, for the best answer, and all the answers so far are correct, go to Alaska Mining and Diving Supply's forum and get more answers.

 

[Hoser John]

Thanx much Waace as nuttn' beats current feets on the ground from someone who is/was walking the walk and NOT jus' trying to sel ya something. Much respect as a spolied kalif miner--well not much now CENSORED-I just hated the place to mine--visit and party LL ya-but otherwise much prefer the lower 48-tons a au 2 u 2 -John