Remote Prospecting?

[Geowizard]

Why bother draining the swamp;

The swamp has a one foot thick layer of dense gray clay on bedrock with a couple feet of water on top.

There's an old relic, trommel there! Was someone using the trommel to separate GOLD from the clay?

Of further interest, the swamp is central to the side channel that had a man made water course through it!

Was the water course designed and constructed for the purpose of mining GOLD?

Stick around, we're about to find out!

- Geowizard

[Jim_Alaska]

Chuck,

You have me wondering about how you determined that there was "7 million cubic yards of tailing piles containing 140 million dollars in GOLD."

I ask because like many other things in life, all tailing piles are not equal. In this respect I think specifically of the exacting process of "grab samples" for hardrock mining.

Doing it wrong is easy and expensive. Not allowing for "nugget effect", is a recipe for disaster.

So, I guess my question is, how did you determine the value and quantity. Hopefully it wasn't by estimating the "whole" volume of tailings, but only sampling "some" of them. Have you identified and eliminated over burden piles from actual tailings?

Care to elaborate?

[Geowizard]

Jim,

Good question!

CAUTION! There's a math test!

It is a matter of record that GOLD was produced.

It has been "estimated" that the recovery was 50 percent. Was it 40? Was it 10? 35?

So, if they took 50 percent and left 50 percent, They left GOLD in the tailings.

My mining experience at has revealed the same as the prior operator that the TENOR of the GOLD is .0 ounces per cubic yard.

Probability of error;

Probability of error depends on the number of samples, n.

Probability and Certainty as a percent can be calculated with enough data.

I took thousands of samples (n), the "mean" and Standard Deviation can be calculated. Suffice it to say the mean is .0 ounces per cubic yard. The deviation above and below is naturally wide because of the variability in the GOLD that was being mined at the time.

Did I sample ALL of the tailing piles; NO

I did not sample all of the tailing piles. so, It was an (almost) random sample.

Random chance;

Maybe I randomly sampled ONLY tailings that had GOLD!

Maybe the estimate of recovery was WAY off!

My recovery is based on MY recovery process. Maybe, I lost GOLD! I estimate my recovery using almost the same method I use for recovery. Does a better test need to be used?

Disclaimer: I am not buying or Selling.

Oh, yes, there's more!

- Geowizard

[Jim_Alaska]

Thanks for the detailed reply Chuck, you are working hard at it. I hope it pays as your projections indicate. Running tailing piles as opposed to thawing permafrost and stripping barren over burden has got to be the miner's dream come true.

[Geowizard]

The uncertainty;

GOLD mining and prospecting involves risk. A popular subject today is risk management. How do we go forward and manage the risks involved in the work we do?

In the realm of GOLD Mining, given a resource that is at eyeball level, quantifiable, all ready permitted, access and logistics all worked out, there is a degree of uncertainty. Uncertainty is the unpredictable part of managing "things" that may or may not happen as expected. Fuel is a good example. In a remote setting, the process of getting fuel and the risk of NOT getting fuel is a problem. A good risk manager will develop contingency plans. The contingency plans cover the question of "what if" I don't get fuel according to plan A? The selection of plan A was likely based on lower cost or easy access. Suddenly, plan B is the only option. Plan B has added cost! In addition, plan B can have delivery time issues that make GOLD production intermittent. There are other forms of risk that make what would appear to be a cut and dried GOLD mining opearion a remarkable challenge!

- Geowizard

[Micropedes1]

More math

I’m afraid Chuck’s estimate is a bit off. I checked my notes. I walked around the perimeter of several of those tailing piles and estimated their circumference at a bit over 600 feet. Circular piles with near 200 foot diameter, 100 foot radius. Built with a dragline with a a 40 foot boom, so piles reach 35 feet high before requiring a move.
I counted 30 +/- cones, each roughly the same dimension. That is roughly 14,000 cubic yards per pile or 400,000 cubic yards total. After a lifetime of building ponds and running heavy equipment, you can consider those numbers to be a fairly accurate.

Pay gravel gets exhausted and work area gets too tailings bound requiring sluice to be moved. Most tailing piles were perfect cones although a few were elongated. And some were already spread. Smaller cones near the headwaters, increasing in size moving downstream. So, a lot of averaging here. If I miscounted piles, please enlighten me. But I do not see 7,000,000 cubic yards of

[Geowizard]

Fuzzy math;

Fuzzy math is used in calculations that have no exact basis for their origin. It can be used in a process of estimation that with each additional repetition, gets closer to the "real" answer.

Using Glen's number ounces of GOLD doesn't work. If true, there would be MORE GOLD in each cubic yard! Another possibility is the early miners were more efficient and recovered over 90 percent of the GOLD!

If, in fact there is more GOLD than I am recovering, then, I am getting a lower percent recovery!

They are reported to have worked 20 hour days.

There's only a Fuzzy solution. In the end, it really doesn't matter how many cubic yards there are.

Stick around, there's GOLD in them tailings!

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

Here's a sample;

Two days ago, I set up my Proline 2" Combo High banker and ran a sample from the tailing pile I plan to mine.

I loaded a bucket of the tailings on the Bobcat and positioned it for "easy" shoveling!

After a few minutes of shoveling, I shut down the High banker and collected the Concentrate in a 5 gallon bucket.

Proceeded directly to the cabin for a clean up! After assembling the tub, several buckets and going to the creek to get full buckets of water, then screening through several screens, 8 mesh, 16 mesh and 20 mesh...

I got some COLOR!

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

I carefully cleaned the GOLD;

After about half a day of work, I had pure GOLD!

Remote Prospectors know there's 31.1 grams in a Troy ounce. They know there's 1000 milligrams in a gram.

Assay;

I shoveled about one 5 gallon bucket for the sample. There's 200 gallons on a cubic yard, five gallons equals 1/40 of a cubic yard. So the analysis is 10 milligrams x 40 = 400 milligrams of GOLD per cubic yard.

Yep, there's GOLD in them tailing piles!

Stick around, Next, we will set up the wash plant!

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

Glen,

Back to your prior post, you described cone shaped tailing piles with a 200 foot diameter and 100 foot radius, 40 feet high.

Could a drag line with a 40 foot boom cast a bucket 100 feet horizontally and 40 feet vertically?

I will post a few pictures of the tailing piles.

- Geowizard