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
Friday, 22 July 2011
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
Saturday, 9 July 2011
Excited to get running some dirt
The list is getting smaller on things that need to be done before we start running dirt through the trommel and hopefully finding gold. I was out at the claim today for several hours. Les has hauled his trailer up to the claim and will be camping out all summer.
We have accomplished the following in the last few days.
Rented a mini excavator. A brand new machine with only 2.5hrs on it rented from Prince George. The excavator was delivered to the claim from Prince George yesterday afternoon. Les has already started clearing the mining area yesterday and today. We need to clear off the overburden, build a settling pond, and dig a trench before we can start running dirt through the trommel. The excavator now has 10 hrs of use already.
Purchased a trommel from Salmon Arm. We purchased a custom built trommel from an old miner named Hugh. Hugh was 84 and in awesome shape for his age (must have been all those summers prospecting). The trommel came with almost everything needed to run it. Included in the purchase was 600ft of 2.5 inch hose, a 1yr old (brand new) 5hp honda gas motor, sluice box, and a water pump. We think we got a good deal and could sell it for much more then we paid. Since the trommel is built on a trailer Les drove it to the claim. Today we tested the trommel and everything appears to be running very well.
We bought a new diesel motor (to run the water pump) and 300 more feet of 2.5inch hose in Prince George. The 900 feet of hose we have will be used to pump water from the creek up to the trommel which will be located by the trench.
That's it for now.
All the best,
Gold Miner James
We have accomplished the following in the last few days.
Rented a mini excavator. A brand new machine with only 2.5hrs on it rented from Prince George. The excavator was delivered to the claim from Prince George yesterday afternoon. Les has already started clearing the mining area yesterday and today. We need to clear off the overburden, build a settling pond, and dig a trench before we can start running dirt through the trommel. The excavator now has 10 hrs of use already.
Purchased a trommel from Salmon Arm. We purchased a custom built trommel from an old miner named Hugh. Hugh was 84 and in awesome shape for his age (must have been all those summers prospecting). The trommel came with almost everything needed to run it. Included in the purchase was 600ft of 2.5 inch hose, a 1yr old (brand new) 5hp honda gas motor, sluice box, and a water pump. We think we got a good deal and could sell it for much more then we paid. Since the trommel is built on a trailer Les drove it to the claim. Today we tested the trommel and everything appears to be running very well.
We bought a new diesel motor (to run the water pump) and 300 more feet of 2.5inch hose in Prince George. The 900 feet of hose we have will be used to pump water from the creek up to the trommel which will be located by the trench.
That's it for now.
All the best,
Gold Miner James
Mining Season Goals
My goals for the 2011 summer gold mining season.
1) To have fun and learn as much as I can about placer mining.
2) To find some yellow :)
3) To put the guys from the hit discovery channel show "Gold Rush Alaska" to shame.
All the best,
Gold Miner James
1) To have fun and learn as much as I can about placer mining.
2) To find some yellow :)
3) To put the guys from the hit discovery channel show "Gold Rush Alaska" to shame.
All the best,
Gold Miner James
Thursday, 7 July 2011
About James
My name is James Fraser. I am 26 years old and have had an interest in gold for several years. It all started back in university when I started investing in mining stocks with leftover earnings from a summer sales job. Why mining stocks?. I could not honestly tell you as I had no previous interest in rocks maybe because Vancouver is home to 90% of the mining companies on the TSX venture (TSX-V).
I still remember one of my first investment Ocean Resources Inc (OCRI) on the otc bb in the United States. Ocean Resources was developing a new technology to extract minerals from the bottom of the ocean. To make a long story short I ended up losing money as Ocean Resources went bankrupt and does not even exist anymore. This taught me investing lesson number 1: Do not invest on the OTC BB in the US (the majority of companies are scams).
I would'nt give up though and continued to learn and invest in mining companies. I started investing on the TSX-V home of the junior mining companies. While finding little matieral online on how to trade mining stocks I created an online e-book Mining Stocks Investor Guide. After writing the first couple versions a good friend of mine Kevin Pederson decided to become a partner in the project. Kevin was like me and had been investing in mining stocks for several years. With Kevins help and many long hours the ebook was re-written an taken to the next level (Thanks Kevin!).
Since university I have continued to invest in mining stocks. Pretty much every stock I trade is a commodity related stock on the TSX or TSX venture. Most people would say these are risky stocks but with the risk comes high reward. I would take them over a mutua fund any day. A good return on a mutual fund is 5% in a year you can do that in 1 day on a mining stock! My favourite stocks to invest in are gold stocks. I am a long term gold bull and believe gold is only headed much higher in the future. As the US government continues to print paper and dive deeper in debt.
All this has lead me to my latest adventure placer gold mining. I met Les Adams about a month ago online. He was looking for an investor to get some equipment to get a placer mine up and running. After completing extensive due dilligence I decided what the heck lets give it a shot. Worst case scenaio I would lose money and have a crazy story while best case scenario is we actually find some yellow. To be honest I probably could make more trading mining stocks this summer but it will be worth the experience. As my friends will tell you I am a big believer of loving your work. You only live once and its not for long so enjoy life.
Its my hope that my blog helps you learn something new or just simply makes you laugh or smile.
Looking forward to your comments.
All the best,
Gold Miner James
I still remember one of my first investment Ocean Resources Inc (OCRI) on the otc bb in the United States. Ocean Resources was developing a new technology to extract minerals from the bottom of the ocean. To make a long story short I ended up losing money as Ocean Resources went bankrupt and does not even exist anymore. This taught me investing lesson number 1: Do not invest on the OTC BB in the US (the majority of companies are scams).
I would'nt give up though and continued to learn and invest in mining companies. I started investing on the TSX-V home of the junior mining companies. While finding little matieral online on how to trade mining stocks I created an online e-book Mining Stocks Investor Guide. After writing the first couple versions a good friend of mine Kevin Pederson decided to become a partner in the project. Kevin was like me and had been investing in mining stocks for several years. With Kevins help and many long hours the ebook was re-written an taken to the next level (Thanks Kevin!).
Since university I have continued to invest in mining stocks. Pretty much every stock I trade is a commodity related stock on the TSX or TSX venture. Most people would say these are risky stocks but with the risk comes high reward. I would take them over a mutua fund any day. A good return on a mutual fund is 5% in a year you can do that in 1 day on a mining stock! My favourite stocks to invest in are gold stocks. I am a long term gold bull and believe gold is only headed much higher in the future. As the US government continues to print paper and dive deeper in debt.
All this has lead me to my latest adventure placer gold mining. I met Les Adams about a month ago online. He was looking for an investor to get some equipment to get a placer mine up and running. After completing extensive due dilligence I decided what the heck lets give it a shot. Worst case scenaio I would lose money and have a crazy story while best case scenario is we actually find some yellow. To be honest I probably could make more trading mining stocks this summer but it will be worth the experience. As my friends will tell you I am a big believer of loving your work. You only live once and its not for long so enjoy life.
Its my hope that my blog helps you learn something new or just simply makes you laugh or smile.
Looking forward to your comments.
All the best,
Gold Miner James
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
First Post
This blog will follow the adventures of setting up a placer gold mine in Northern B.C. for the summer of 2011. It will include pictures, videos, and posts of my experience.
I hope you enjoy following this crazy venture.
Looking forward to any comments.
All the best,
James
I hope you enjoy following this crazy venture.
Looking forward to any comments.
All the best,
James
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