Well worth watching if you are planning on getting rich in Nome

[Oakview2]

 

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[Prospector70]

What the FRICK?
That backhoe could have been a game changer...

 

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[goldenmojo]

I think the two things that killed the project were 1) underfunding and 2) bad timing. "Doing" Nome should be a TWO YEAR startup process. Year one is planning and TESTING the equipment. Like put some steel pellets or bb's on the bottom and see if the dredge gets them, and then the NEXT year start out at the beginning of the season to go to Nome. Or Wherever you want to go.

The old Nooby BB Test...Gets em every time....

 

[smokeythecat]

EVERY time!

 

[Goodyguy]

You just cant hit the ground running if you haven't learned to walk first.
Anyone who buys a dredge (even a small one) before they learn to pan is just setting themselves up for failure.

Building and running a wash plant without even having used a sluice is another recipe for disaster.
But converting a tugboat into a dredging operation complete with back hoe and wash plant and going to Alaska with no idea of what you are doing is just plain asking to join the ranks of those who don't make it. Especially when the only mining experience you have is watching a TV show.

Just look at Vernon and the money he's thrown at his operation in Nome. A perfect example of someone not knowing what they're doing and trying to run before they learned to walk. He lost money on one dredge from his inexperience so he figures he can make up for it by running even more dredges. Now that kind of thinking will get you bankrupt faster than a dozen donuts can disappear off Todd Hoffman's plate.

Don't get me wrong I wish them all well, God bless their hearts, but c-mon just because you watched a Nascar race on TV it doesn't make you another Dale Earnhardt. Could you imagine building a race car and entering a race without ever having driven a car.

GG~

 

[goldenmojo]

I'd like to see Todd Hoffman racing a homemade special with a plate of donuts on the dash...... What The Frick...

 

[2cmorau]

what a bummer for the guy
ani't that the truth G1 i have been in construction a long time and would show the guys at work, shine shine shine, they would get all worked up " can i go, when ya goin again" take them up do a little camping in the class one RV LOL, yuup after a couple of hours, they would have this freddy krueger look, Hard to find partners when they find out what real work is

yea I saw that ! Big eye opener for sure..
But I'd add this to your comment .its possible to make it in nome obviously some do . But I'd say if you struggle in the lower 48 to support your family or make a living You can only expect it's going to be more difficult there..
Back to the tug boat story .. This is more to this story than it being hard in nome.. This fella could not make anything work!
I think his problems stemmed from more than it being difficult there .. You have to be capable of working on your equipment and repairing it with little to no parts and make so,e preparations befor you go. And long befor you drive a tug up there ya need to visit and learn just what it's gona take to get the job done...
It certainly is not the get rich scheme so many fools chase ... But I think a lot of that is the way the tv shows lay it out ..
They don't give a realistic time line as to how many hours these folks spend digging or dredging ! . They just some it up in a hour...
They never see the 80 plus hours that these folks put in .. Just digging digging digging it long and boring work ..the fun wears off quickly..
I take a lot of folks dredging and usually after about a hour there done ... The young men seem to last the longest. But they still want to shut down every 30 minutes and try to do a clean out ... Lol or at least look for that 4 lb nugget they missed.

 

[Prospector70]

Not to mention a load of laundry costs 10 bucks at the dingy bar.

I think the best way would be to go like you are going to be at sea for 3 or 4 months, everything you need is on the boat when you show up, and like everyone said be ready when you get there with everything dialed in already. Work till the season is over, sell the overages and take your butt back to warmer weather when the season end nears.

Edit:

Maybe he could have make more money opening a laundry mat there. Fill a tug with washers, dryers and SOAP.

 

[Lanny in AB]

That was a great video about one man's attempt to get some gold in Nome.

I admire his courage and dedication. He spent a ton of time working very, very hard to get that tugboat refitted as a gold platform. It's too bad he didn't have any previous mining experience as that most likely would have made a huge difference to the outcome of his adventure.

I'll give him props for having the guts to make the effort, but I hope lots of others realize that dredging for gold on the open ocean is no backyard party hobby.

I mined for gold on the beaches north of Nome, and spent some time prospecting on the surrounding rivers, and there were quite a few days where the rough Bering Sea conditions shut things down on the beach, conditions were just too rotten. That sea is so shallow that wind makes huge waves right quick! I believe that's one reason why the tugboat team didn't get the chance to refine their operation and learn how to do things. The weather beat them, and that's another reality that doesn't get enough press about the mining season near Nome.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[AK_Au_Diver]

I watched this whole thing unfold. I have seen pretty much the same story unfold over a dozen times in Nome, even again last year.

When this thing showed up in Nome it was obvious to all the experienced miners that this would fail. Their bucket was 1/4 the size as the CR or smaller. They had no good washplant. Their sluice was crap. They did not have a sufficient anchoring system. And most importantly, he had no experience in Nome or with gold mining and had no idea what the material was like that they were trying to mine.

If I recall correctly, they got to Nome in July, which was very stormy for 3 or 4 weeks. But there was 6 or 8 weeks of good weather the rest of the season, especially since they didn't need to see underwater.

Even his vocabulary was all wrong.

Of all his errors, his biggest one was NEEDING to get gold. One should not attempt to gold mine unless they can afford to lose all the money they put into it and have nothing to show for all their time. If a person cannot afford the time and money, then they should not attempt it; especially if they have zero experience.

-Andrew C. Lee

 

[KevinInColorado]

As always, thanks for sharing "the rest of the story" Andrew very interesting. His issues are a good example of why you should learn to walk before you run in any enterprise.

 

[AK_Au_Diver]

If he had spent $2k on a trip to Nome for a week, he would have saved himself $100k.

If he had just asked any experienced Nome dredger (or any Nome harbor user) what they thought about using a tug boat, they would have told him about the ban on leaving anything in/near the water over the winter, and they would have told him about the lack of any sort of hoist or crane big enough to pluck his tug out.

For a couple years there was a tug boat and buy-back crab boat glut; neither one is suitable for Nome dredging. Although Jimmy's tug is pretty nice. Buy-back Crab boats draft too much to enter the harbor, they can only dock on the outer harbor jetty, but they have lowest priority behind barges, research boats, cruise boats, and everyone else doing actual business.

The problem is that it costs $20k to $30k per year in fuel to drive to a safe winter harbor and back, and it loses you 3 weeks of mining time.

We have a $50k to $75k trailer that we use to put our boat in and out of the harbor each year, plus the $1200 each time for the giant front end loader needed to move the boat and trailer. And our boat is perhaps 20% smaller and lighter than the Capt Hendren.

If he had come to me with his budget, I could have made him a working, functional operation with his backhoe idea that would have gotten him gold, probably not enough to live off, it's too small of a design and budget. It would have needed some upgrades over time to really make it run smooth, the bootstrapping method of get it working then improve over time with a portion of the gold.

 

[AK_Au_Diver]

Here is a link to a profile of this guy that a local radio station did the summer after the year after he drove his tug aground.

Profile: Brent Tuttle | KNOM Radio Mission

There are some other interviews of other miners and wannabees, they don't all have consistent tags, but will some up by searching for various gold terms.

 

[G1sammons]

Well here's my plan ! Tell me were I'm going wrong ! I'm gona come up in July and work for article gold, for about a month ,learn enjoy the stay and if it works out maybe I'll get some dive time ..on a dredge up there. I plan on leaving with nothing but a smile on my face and the experience of diving in the bearing sea... And what ever artic gold teaches me....sure I'll have some digging time on his machine .. But I believe the riches I'll leave with the friendships and experience of working up there for a bit ... Hope I'll bring enough to the table for him that he will have me back for many years to come ...

I figure not planing on getting rich up there and not having to make any money .im bound to be happy with what I end up bring home .. Most of which I hope is a good time ..

 

[Oakview2]

You are directly on target, go for the experience,make some friends, if you find gold, icing on the cake

 

[AK_Au_Diver]

I plan on leaving with nothing but a smile on my face and the experience of diving in the bearing sea...

The most successful gold miners I know are the ones who define success the same way you do: a fun experience.

If your only expense is airfare and work clothes, and you are working for a successful operation, then you should at least break even, maybe more than triple it. But if you can afford the time and expense, then yes any result where you have fun, learn something, and don't get hurt is a success.

It seems to me that Jim has one of the best operations to work for. Although with your goals, half of the operations would likely provide enough entertainment for a few weeks.

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

Yeah pretty insane without going to Nome first and see what one would be faced with on conditions, laws on docking, where to put the boat, The first I saw if his tugboat in the video the frist thing that came to my mind was the deck was too low to the water line.

I have a good idea of a good way to get gold off the seafloor and even with possible 2 feet into the sediment to recover deeper gold, (yes I thought about all the big rocks and stuff on the seabed), I would love to go do it but I don't have the money to put it all together, but I could guarranty that all the gold recovered would be 3 times the amount of the Christine Rose got per season and my idea would be one heck of a work horse! GPS navagation covering every square inch of a claim, (while mining), to follow would definitely bring in the gold!

The other dredgers and diggers out there would be really P.O.ed at me!

 

[AK_Au_Diver]

The other dredgers and diggers out there would be really P.O.ed at me!

Not likely. Even if your design worked and was as successful as you think, people would not be mad at you because you would be after different gold. Almost everyone making money gold mining off Nome is well established with their own leases or claims. And any leaseholder would be very happy to collect at least 20% off the top from an operation doing 3x what the CR produces.

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

Not likely. Even if your design worked and was as successful as you think, people would not be mad at you because you would be after different gold. Almost everyone making money gold mining off Nome is well established with their own leases or claims. And any leaseholder would be very happy to collect at least 20% off the top from an operation doing 3x what the CR produces.

I know, I don't think that they would really be P.O.ed I think it could bring some jealousy a bit , but then again after everyone else saw my idea working, they all would be wanting to do the same operation, especially if it recovered more gold than what anyone has seen going out dredging, or excavating and getting what they can.

 

[G1sammons]

I know, I don't think that they would really be P.O.ed I think it could bring some jealousy a bit , but then again after everyone else saw my idea working, they all would be wanting to do the same operation, especially if it recovered more gold than what anyone has seen going out dredging, or excavating and getting what they can.

just maybe someone has already tried your idea and found reasons it wont work ...it hard to have a full proff idea when you have never set foot or mined in the area you already have figured out ....

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

just maybe someone has already tried your idea and found reasons it wont work ...it hard to have a full proff idea when you have never set foot or mined in the area you already have figured out ....

I understand what you are saying, the thing is if someone used my idea it would already be used and in use. I KNOW my idea will work. I have discussed it before with a couple of close friends when Bering Sea Gold first aired and the discusion was that it could cost up to 3/4 of a mil from someone who knows money and boats, depending on how much you buy the things needed. I believe it could be done with a couple of hundred thousand. Either way when we discussed it, even if it did cost close to 3/4 of a mil to build and put together, it would still pay for itself within 1 season, 2 at the most.

AND STILL NO ONE has come up with it or seen any pictures of it. But I know everyone has an opinion and you have people that are just negative about it. I can say that if I posted my idea all over here someone would build it/put it together, and people would understand how it would bring in a lot of gold, and I would be out of it while they raked in the gold.