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

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