Alaskan Pay dirt

[SteveDigsGems]

Earlier this evening I decided to pan some Alaskan pay dirt that I bought from an eBay seller. I bought 1 pound for $15, and it is guaranteed to have gold, because the lady sprinkles a pinch in. I didn't get rich, but I am really happy with the experience I got out of it. I have a lot of friends that want to travel out to my local gold bearing rivers with me to sluice, but before we go, I'm probably going to have them pan some of the dirt in my backyard. It is a good opportunity for them to see how the gold behaves, and it will motivate them for the upcoming trip.





Sorry about the quality, my camera ran out of batteries, this is an iPad picture. I'll get some batteries next time I'm at the store and upload what I found.







-Steve

 

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[Sample Pan Dan]

That's great. Hope things work out for up there.

 

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[Jeff95531]

So...can you tell us "who" we are supporting? My first draft is a little rough...

Dear Mr. Malecek,

Please support the passage for my bro elkie13
Sincerely


I can quote where the location is but thought an actual name would be nice to throw out so he knows we know what a responsible miner you are.
PM me if ya don't want to go public

 

[elkie13]

It's listed on the second line but it just occurred to me why it's confusing!

Our last name is Winter so you are writing in support of the Winter supplemental plan of operations. They weren't referring to a season here. Yes yes we live in Alaska and our name is winter ha ha... :-)

 

[Jeff95531]

LOL You are so right! TY

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

Elkie.
Sorry about your problems. That's what happens when you try to do it right. Ughhhh.
I get tired of that. Happened to me too many times and that's not my prospecting.
I did have a forest ranger thank me for cleaning the forest of the trash. LOL!!!
Our rules are funny. You can prospect but not remove valuable minerals. You can pan but do too much they put you in the mining category. This is for national forest. I'm confused and hope they never find me with my gold. I do it for fun and recreation, but the gold is the goal. We as a group probably do more and care more than our antagonists.
Next year you should be ready to go. If you'd like a temp hand up there, maybe I could break free from our heat. Lol. I can always dream.
Your posts have been uplifting. Yet upsetting. Keep up the fight. Next year will hopefully have less turmoil.
GarretDiggingAZ

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Our rules are funny. You can prospect but not remove valuable minerals. You can pan but do too much they put you in the mining category. This is for national forest. I'm confused and hope they never find me with my gold. I do it for fun and recreation, but the gold is the goal. We as a group probably do more and care more than our antagonists.


I hear ya AZ...... Im digging in national forest also. Following their rules, but I too fear "the man" walking up on me in the creek. This is a small seasonal creek and by next summer we will have a nice little swimming hole dug. All by hand and shovel, but is that "significant damage"?
Luckily we only see "Ranger Rick" when deer season is open... ;-)

 

[KevinInColorado]

Our rules are funny. You can prospect but not remove valuable minerals. You can pan but do too much they put you in the mining category. This is for national forest. I'm confused and hope they never find me with my gold. I do it for fun and recreation, but the gold is the goal. We as a group probably do more and care more than our antagonists. I hear ya AZ...... Im digging in national forest also. Following their rules, but I too fear "the man" walking up on me in the creek. This is a small seasonal creek and by next summer we will have a nice little swimming hole dug. All by hand and shovel, but is that "significant damage"? Luckily we only see "Ranger Rick" when deer season is open... ;-)

Here in CO I've been told by the Forest Service that anything over a 40 x 40 foot area of impact is considered 'significant'. That might apply to you too?

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Here in CO I've been told by the Forest Service that anything over a 40 x 40 foot area of impact is considered 'significant'. That might apply to you too?

I need to look into that, not planning on digging a swimming pool per say, but I could easily toss a few politicians in the hole when I fill it :-)

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

Yeah here they pretty much say 200' in length but of course can't expose tree roots and such. That's what I've heard. That was awhile ago.
I was asking them if could use highbanker. Got a complete different answer from several people from forest service.
I figure if I run material and then replace it. What's the harm? Ohh yeah. The removal of a valuable mineral. But prospecting is ok.
They did say I could take buckets of cons out. I guess it's the definition of cons to me.
Is it classified to 1/4 or 1/8? Or is it black sands after running through high banker? Or is it only panned cons?
I've seen spots where it looks like processed material from highbanker was used. It's just that they probably weren't caught. So I stick with oldies method of panning.
Anybody want to hit these hills with me?
Could always use another hand.

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

Oh yeah. It's hunting season now too. Hopefully I befriended the last forest ranger. I pointed her to a grave I found while detecting/cleaning the forest. She thanked me for that. Lol. That felt good. Finally not the dirty look.

 

[elkie13]

Go for it everyone! Govt shut down, might as well mine right?! They aren't gonna be looking today!

Of course we were supposed to hear about the status of our plan this week, so I guess this delays us some more.

 

[greenerlumber]

Elkie I gotta tell ya, this thread has been one of the best reads I've had since joining Tnet.

I don't care what anybody says about the scripted "Gold Soaps" that Discovery slings, your posts have got them all beat by a mile.
If one just goes through this thread and reads only your posts it reads like a pocket adventure novel. A great story that makes you want to turn the page.
When I got to the post where you describe why the FS didn't want you in their office because of your 2 year olds need to relieve herself under the conference room table I had to stop reading for like 5 minutes cuz I couldn't stop laughing!

What ever you do don't stop. You've got a great gig up there in God's country and it's easy it see you have a real passion for it.
Don't let the Forest Nazis get you down. Play the game by their rules but learn to win the game. It can be done. I'm in the sunken log recovery business down in Central America and have to deal with a Forestry Dept. that is way under staffed and under funded and have a set of rules they can't afford to enforce. That along with the pervasive corruption within the whole government makes it a challenge that sometimes has me wondering what the heck I thought I was doing when I decided to pitch a 21 year career that kept me fat and basically happy. But in the end when I see a piece of furniture or a fine guitar made with this material that we have recovered it makes it all worthwhile.

Keep up the great work and for Gods sake don't stop posting your progress. All of us here on Tnet need our "Elkie Fix"!
Rich.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Yeah, what he ^^^said!

 

[elkie13]

@greenerlumber - thanks for the post! It really does help to have your guys support. Believe it or not I do know about what you do, I have some very good friends who have a bowl turning studio and have seen the kind of stuff that comes out of those logs. Wouldn't it be weird if they have turned one of your logs? They would love to meet you I'm sure!

I do have a post for you guys. Since we are not mining, we've had a lot of time to explore our claim, so I half heartedly started my search for the long lost Buster Prospect. Since we bought our claims a few years ago, its been kind of a hobby of mine to research our claim's history and previous owners. Back in the early 1900's our area was worked by a couple of guys named William Fairman and John Madsen. They had a big hydraulic operation on the claims above ours but they also staked a few hard rock prospects.
The two on my claims were the Yellow Jacket and the Buster. I am fairly certain that I know where the Yellow Jacket is, the old guy we bought the claims from told us he was driving his tractor up the river one day (cause you know, they did that back then) and saw an old tunnel and opened it up with his tractor. I think I have found that spot, I'll get a picture for you guys, the tunnel is collapsed though. The other one, the Buster, I've never been able to locate here's an excerpt about it:
The Buster prospect is on the left bank of Quartz Creek about one-eighth of a mile below Devils Creek. The country rock consists of sheared slate and graywacke that generally strike northeast and dip northwest. Little or no fault gouge occurs on either the footwall or hanging wall of the vein. The vein consists of vuggy quartz and massive or crystalline arsenopyrite. Some small stringers of quartz are in the footwall slate. These stringers, when crushed and panned, contained free gold (Martin and others, 1915). No assay results are reported for the main vein. The Buster vein was exposed in an open cut 10 feet above the stream level.
Another report from the 1980's USGS said they couldn't find it when the geologists were looking for it.

Anyway, we were picking berries in this canyon that we call Fern Gully because it looks kind of jungle-ish. I looked up at the canyon wall and I realized it looked like maybe someone had dug along it and then the hole had filled in with stuff that sloughed off from above. It was about the right location from Devils Creek. We climbed up there a ways, moved some moss, and what did we find but a great big quartz vein! You can also see from the picture in the middle there is a gray crystalline substance, I'm no geologist, but I'm betting its arsenopyrite. Maybe I've found Buster? Is it a new vein? I'll have to explore it more next summer. I may go get some samples and have them assayed. The claim where Fern Gully is located is actually one of two we have that is actually filed as a hard rock claim (probably from when Fairman Madsen staked it back in the day) - a fact that gives the Forest Service apoplexy every time I ask about it. Anyway I'm not really setting out to be a hard rock miner but hey its exciting to find a piece of history.

Back in college, we used to find these reports about these old hard rock workings and then hike out and try an find them. I've never understood how the Forest Service will worry about preserving an old trail or even an outhouse (no joke I knew a guy who had his whole operation shut down so archeologists could explore an outhouse pit) but they will blast in an old mine tunnel or make the claim owner do it without hesitation. Fairman and Madsen had an extensive tunnel on the claim above ours and the Forest Service made our neighbor fill it in because the gate he had over the opening and the no trespassing signs was apparently not safe enough. Isn't a mine tunnel historical? Its a double standard.

 

[panner59]

There is some darn fine dirt that comes out of Alaska. Thanks elkie!

 

[keitha43]

I understood everything up to "left bank of Quartz Creek" then everything got blurry!

 

[elkie13]

Too much huh, I'm sorry. Not everyone is crazy about this stuff like me.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Too much huh, I'm sorry. Not everyone is crazy about this stuff like me.

on the contrary, I love all this info and history...thanks for sharing!!

 

[mr_rich]

Keep the posts coming Elkie. I've learned a lot, Thanks!

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

Elkie. I'd like to drag my wife and couple kids up to see Alaska next year funds permitting. Hopefully we could swing by and visit. Would love to see ya at work. Maybe I could lend a hand for a couple days. Health permitting. Maybe we could reopen that mine. Lol.
Hopefully they'll get back with a response shortly. Though as you said. Looks like seasons over. When does the freeze hit ya? Are there plans that show the shaft locations for that mine. Are there regulations about how close you could dig to it? Maybe you could run through the tailings on your down time. Sure they missed some.