After the last week of mining we have decided to shut down on this claim. We got new grids made for the sluice box and found more gold. After trying a few new holes and not finding enought to pay the daily expenses we decided to shut down.
Well I knew going into this it would be a risky venture. I have learned alot and now really know that gold mining is hard work.
I have the trommel and all equipment for sale or partnership if anyone is interested.
(send email to james[@]miningstocksguide.com without the [ ] )
All The Best,
Gold Miner James
P.S. More videos and pictures will be uploaded soon
Monday, 1 August 2011
Friday, 22 July 2011
If its easy everyone would be doing it.
Well the title about sums it up. The last couple days we have worked hard to try and find some yellow with no results.
Wed July 20th - I arrive at site and instead of moving close to the river we decide to try another hole up top. After running all day we clean up and fine very little gold.
Thurs July 21st - Moving day. We decide to move the trommel closer to the river and dig down there. After a couple hours of moving the trommel, hoses, and setting it up again we start mining again. We mine for just over 4hrs before shuting it down for the night. We decide to leave sluice box and clean it tomorrow.Long day here I left PG before 8 am and got home after 8:30 pm.
Friday July 22nd - I am once again excited to arrive at site and see what the new ground brings. It is pouring rain when I arrive and we get to work after a minor fix on the pump. After 14 buckets from the excavator we take a quick lunch. It is now time to clean the sluice and do some panning. After cleaning all of the sluice and then panning it out we are left with very fine gold and a few flakes.
So.... we are running out of ideas?????
It is either the fine gold is so fine it runs right through the sluice.. OR ... not that much gold under the ground.
We might have to shut it down fairly soon as no point operating when we find $20 of gold a day.
All The Best,
Gold Miner James
Wed July 20th - I arrive at site and instead of moving close to the river we decide to try another hole up top. After running all day we clean up and fine very little gold.
Thurs July 21st - Moving day. We decide to move the trommel closer to the river and dig down there. After a couple hours of moving the trommel, hoses, and setting it up again we start mining again. We mine for just over 4hrs before shuting it down for the night. We decide to leave sluice box and clean it tomorrow.Long day here I left PG before 8 am and got home after 8:30 pm.
Friday July 22nd - I am once again excited to arrive at site and see what the new ground brings. It is pouring rain when I arrive and we get to work after a minor fix on the pump. After 14 buckets from the excavator we take a quick lunch. It is now time to clean the sluice and do some panning. After cleaning all of the sluice and then panning it out we are left with very fine gold and a few flakes.
So.... we are running out of ideas?????
It is either the fine gold is so fine it runs right through the sluice.. OR ... not that much gold under the ground.
We might have to shut it down fairly soon as no point operating when we find $20 of gold a day.
All The Best,
Gold Miner James
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Update: Losing my shirt
Losing my shirt: up the creek now with one paddle left!
"Follow your passion in life and don't get too complacent. Every now and then, it's important to take a blind leap"
Okay it is time for an update.
Sunday July 17th
I arrive at the site with 2 (50 inch v belts) to connect the generator to the pump ready to rock and roll. As I walk down to the pump I see Les has completed his path that he built yesterday. I think no big deal as it will be good for backup. We put the new belts on and fire up the pump and it flows all the way to the trommel!
The hose has a few minor leaks and the water pressure is ok. Les wants to get rid of the hose that leaks the most and have and put one of the new hoses at the pump for consistent water flow. I finally agree to this and spend the next couple hours moving hose to his new path. It ends up being 800ft (8 sections of hose) which is 100ft shorter than the other route. We are pumping water up an incline of about 100ft. While I am moving hose Les is digging a ditch for the pond to run off.
Game on we can now start running dirt through the trommel. We start the trommel and finally start mining. After a couple hours of running we decide its time to stop and see what we found. After cleaning the sluice we find only a little bit of yellow (about $25 worth). Les thinks we find so little because we ran quite a bit of overburden and that the sluice box was not catching all the gold.
O.K. fine by me.... We make adjustments to the rock chute and call it a day.
Monday July 18th.
I get up exited for a full day of mining and how much yellow we will find. I arrive at the site and we decide to re-arrange sluice box to hopefully catch more gold. We start mining and process dirt for several hours. The trommel is working like a charm and everything appears to be going smoothly. After the pump runs out of diesel we decide to give the sluice box a clean and see what we have. We expect alot more gold since we have ran double Sundays time and are not running overburden. After clean up and panning we find about the same amount of gold as Sunday. Very disappointing :( Les thinks since we are dealing with fine gold it must be running out of the sluice and our rubber matting is not catching it. He says we need miners moss and then we will know.
Tues July 19th (today)
I arrive at site a little later than normal with some miners moss. I picked some up in Prince George on my way out. The stuff is expensive $200 dollars later. We proceed to cut a 7ft long section by 15 inches wide the length of our sluice. After this is done we start mining right away. After just over 3 hours we shut it down and give the sluice box a clean. Things are looking up right from the get go as I can see little specks right after we take the grids out of the sluice.
BUT... after panning we discover we have only a fraction more than the previous 3 days. BAD NEWS.
3 days of mining and about $70-$80 worth of gold. This will not cut it.
Tomorrow we will move and go down the bench closer to the river.
If we do not find more gold soon we will have to shut down.
Not giving up yet!
All the best
Gold Miner James
P.S. Thanks for all the comments and emails. Please keep them coming.
"Follow your passion in life and don't get too complacent. Every now and then, it's important to take a blind leap"
Okay it is time for an update.
Sunday July 17th
I arrive at the site with 2 (50 inch v belts) to connect the generator to the pump ready to rock and roll. As I walk down to the pump I see Les has completed his path that he built yesterday. I think no big deal as it will be good for backup. We put the new belts on and fire up the pump and it flows all the way to the trommel!
The hose has a few minor leaks and the water pressure is ok. Les wants to get rid of the hose that leaks the most and have and put one of the new hoses at the pump for consistent water flow. I finally agree to this and spend the next couple hours moving hose to his new path. It ends up being 800ft (8 sections of hose) which is 100ft shorter than the other route. We are pumping water up an incline of about 100ft. While I am moving hose Les is digging a ditch for the pond to run off.
Game on we can now start running dirt through the trommel. We start the trommel and finally start mining. After a couple hours of running we decide its time to stop and see what we found. After cleaning the sluice we find only a little bit of yellow (about $25 worth). Les thinks we find so little because we ran quite a bit of overburden and that the sluice box was not catching all the gold.
O.K. fine by me.... We make adjustments to the rock chute and call it a day.
Monday July 18th.
I get up exited for a full day of mining and how much yellow we will find. I arrive at the site and we decide to re-arrange sluice box to hopefully catch more gold. We start mining and process dirt for several hours. The trommel is working like a charm and everything appears to be going smoothly. After the pump runs out of diesel we decide to give the sluice box a clean and see what we have. We expect alot more gold since we have ran double Sundays time and are not running overburden. After clean up and panning we find about the same amount of gold as Sunday. Very disappointing :( Les thinks since we are dealing with fine gold it must be running out of the sluice and our rubber matting is not catching it. He says we need miners moss and then we will know.
Tues July 19th (today)
I arrive at site a little later than normal with some miners moss. I picked some up in Prince George on my way out. The stuff is expensive $200 dollars later. We proceed to cut a 7ft long section by 15 inches wide the length of our sluice. After this is done we start mining right away. After just over 3 hours we shut it down and give the sluice box a clean. Things are looking up right from the get go as I can see little specks right after we take the grids out of the sluice.
BUT... after panning we discover we have only a fraction more than the previous 3 days. BAD NEWS.
3 days of mining and about $70-$80 worth of gold. This will not cut it.
Tomorrow we will move and go down the bench closer to the river.
If we do not find more gold soon we will have to shut down.
Not giving up yet!
All the best
Gold Miner James
P.S. Thanks for all the comments and emails. Please keep them coming.
Friday, 15 July 2011
Tough day
I arrive at site nice and early with a 2 and half inch camlock to connect the hose to the trommel from the pump. The pump had trouble pumping the 900ft to the trommel but I expected Les to have this figured out. I was excited to hopefully start running some dirt after a few minor things were settled. Les did not have the pump working and said we needed a bigger pulley. I headed into Prince George to pick up a pulley double the size of the current one.
I come back and Les has decided to cut a new path down to the creek with the excavator. The idea behind this was that it would shorten the length of the hose needed and slope so the water flow would be higher. The problem here is he failed plan this little venture correctly. First of all the forest was thicker then he planned and he didn't walk out his path so he would know the shortest route. So I get back and he is in the middle of this...... This is not needed if the new pulley rotates faster allowing greater water flow to reach the trommel. ... So frusturating.
Les proceeds to try and build this path but it gets to steep. I tell him lets try the new pulley and if it doesn't work we can continue his path as plan B. He agrees to this and we go and try and put the new pulley on. Here we run into many problems taking the 3 inch pulley off and putting on the 6 inch pulley. The keystroke was jammed in pretty good. We finally get the new one on and now need new belts.
I now need to pick up two 50 inch belts for tomorrow morning.
Lets hope the pump can flow all the way to the trommel!
I see gold hit $1595 getting close to $1600 we just need to start mining.
All the best,
Gold Miner James
I come back and Les has decided to cut a new path down to the creek with the excavator. The idea behind this was that it would shorten the length of the hose needed and slope so the water flow would be higher. The problem here is he failed plan this little venture correctly. First of all the forest was thicker then he planned and he didn't walk out his path so he would know the shortest route. So I get back and he is in the middle of this...... This is not needed if the new pulley rotates faster allowing greater water flow to reach the trommel. ... So frusturating.
Les proceeds to try and build this path but it gets to steep. I tell him lets try the new pulley and if it doesn't work we can continue his path as plan B. He agrees to this and we go and try and put the new pulley on. Here we run into many problems taking the 3 inch pulley off and putting on the 6 inch pulley. The keystroke was jammed in pretty good. We finally get the new one on and now need new belts.
I now need to pick up two 50 inch belts for tomorrow morning.
Lets hope the pump can flow all the way to the trommel!
I see gold hit $1595 getting close to $1600 we just need to start mining.
All the best,
Gold Miner James
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Gold mining update
Hi everyone,
We have yet to start running dirt unfortunately. Long days have been put in getting all the equipment ready to go. The last couple days have involved alot of work. We seem to be close but run into small problem after problem especially today. Some of the problems include bolting down the pump and diesel engine, leaks in the pump, and not having the right cam locks to connect the hose to the trommel. The grizzly has been built and attached to the trommel. For those of you who do not know what a grizzly is it put over the trommel to stop large rocks from going through.
The good news is the price of gold is trading at a record near $1585 an ounce. It is a good thing because the costs are staring to add up.
So far I have bought:
Trommel
New 10hp diesel engine
Hose with camlocks
Grizzly
Grease gun and grease
Diesel
Gas
Countless bolts,nuts, washers
Rented
Mini Excavator
Hopefully we start running dirt and find some yellow soon.
All the best,
Gold Miner James
P.S. A video tour of the mine site will be uploaded later tonight
We have yet to start running dirt unfortunately. Long days have been put in getting all the equipment ready to go. The last couple days have involved alot of work. We seem to be close but run into small problem after problem especially today. Some of the problems include bolting down the pump and diesel engine, leaks in the pump, and not having the right cam locks to connect the hose to the trommel. The grizzly has been built and attached to the trommel. For those of you who do not know what a grizzly is it put over the trommel to stop large rocks from going through.
The good news is the price of gold is trading at a record near $1585 an ounce. It is a good thing because the costs are staring to add up.
So far I have bought:
Trommel
New 10hp diesel engine
Hose with camlocks
Grizzly
Grease gun and grease
Diesel
Gas
Countless bolts,nuts, washers
Rented
Mini Excavator
Hopefully we start running dirt and find some yellow soon.
All the best,
Gold Miner James
P.S. A video tour of the mine site will be uploaded later tonight
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)