Remote Prospecting?

[Geowizard]

Big Hurrah;

Big Hurrah serves as a reference and an example for a potential diggin'.

What we know;

The Eastern Nome and Council districts produced 1,019,513 ounces of placer GOLD between 1898 and 1999.

The Big Hurrah mine in the Council district serves as a benchmark for GOLD prospectors. The mine has a history of GOLD production up until recent times. There is a well developed placer deposit that produced GOLD and there were underground workings. Nova Gold drilled 260 core holes and intersected a GOLD deposit.

The Council Airborne geophysical survey was done in August 2002.

The survey covered 2833.4 line-miles.

From the survey, we can find an anomaly.

What we can predict;

Because there is a placer GOLD deposit, we can predict GOLD is disseminated around the buried hard rock deposit. The core drilling would reflect the degree of disseminated mineralization between the surface and the top of the deposit. With permitting and related approvals from BSNC, a prospector could potentially proceed to develop a GOLD mine.

One example of a path forward would be to drill a vertical borehole to the GOLD deposit. Information from the drill hole will help in defining the rock mechanics in terms of amount of alluvial rock and gravel, depth to bedrock and hardness of bedrock - all of which give a idea of the degree of difficulty in sinking a shaft.

Next, let's have a conversation about drilling a test hole and sinking a shaft!

Stick around!

Geowizard

[easy goer]

Okay, we loaded the container and got everything up to Nome. The season is over and winter is upon us. How do you winterize all this stuff?? Vehicles and everything else? Looking for tricks of the trade cause I surely won't think of everything!

Easy goer

[Geowizard]

easy;

First, I would like to chime in on the loading question posed earlier. I learned that there are companies that offer the service of properly loading shipping containers. They know the shipping regulations, complete a manifest, palletize with strapping, make crates, and organize the contents. The reg's concern shipping hazmat. Things like oxy-acetylene tanks should be properly packaged. You may want to ship propane cylinders too. If you buy a container at Seward (containers are for sale there NOW), you have the option of DIY loading or simply running your items to the shipping yard and let the professionals handle the details of boxing and packing. You can find containers on Craigslist or Alaska's List. I found containers at Seward. That leaves you free to run around Anchorage and get the shopping done for the items you want manifested. All of this is done before the barge hits Seward. I have used Alaska Logistics and know others that have too. Shipping requires planning and now is a good time to make a few calls. There are several trucking companies that can haul a container from the Dock in Nome to anywhere it needs to go on the road system. Many prospectors will have a base camp located on a decent access road before where the road becomes a trail. You can place a mining claim and use the claim for a mining camp related to a mining operation with an APMA.

Winterizing;

Everything that is water cooled needs to have appropriate 50/50 antifreeze. The issue that most mining companies have is 12 volt lead-acid batteries. A fully charged 12 volt battery won't freeze in the range of cold Alaska winters. The problem is that 12 volt lead-acid batteries have internal resistance that causes them to discharge. The result is a dead battery and the acid has converted to water which will freeze. The result is a broken battery case. My plan every season includes purchasing the few 12 volt batteries I may need just in case. Spare batteries are a good thing to have at a mine.

Anything that contains residual water - like water pumps need to be drained of water.

I would also add after investigation, you can rent cars in Nome. If you just need to make runs on occasion, it may only require a 4-wheeler and a trailer to haul provisions.

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

Air freight to Nome;

Northern Air Cargo offers scheduled Air freight service from Anchorage to Nome:

Schedule: Monday

Rates effective January 5, 2021

Minimum 1 lb. Rate 500 lb. Rate 1000 lb. Rate 5000 lb. Rate

$50.00 0.94 0.92 0.90 0.88


All Fuel Surcharges, Federal Transportation Tax, HazMat Fees and exceptions apply when applicable. Rates are subject to change without notice.

https://www.nac.aero/rates/

The aircraft is a 737 Combi and it gets your freight there quickly. It is a good way to get 4-wheelers, gen sets, and even small vehicles to Nome.

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

Communications;

We have had the discussion before about the importance of Communications in remote places.

Nome has a cellular phone store. The phone network provider is GCI. Personally, I would get a GCI phone in Anchorage. You can go the 1000 dollar smart phone or a 20 dollar flip phone.

Comm test;

We know cellular phones are limited by the location and visibility of cel towers. A planned base camp needs to have cellular phone service for all of the reasons you may need to communicate. Pizza orders, etc.

I used to have a GCI phone that I paid for 12 months a year and only used for three months. It only worked in McGrath. Once I bypassed McGrath, I no longer needed the phone.

Satellite providers are available in Nome. A Hughes Net satellite dish hookup has many advantages. A dish satellite system needs a view of the southern sky and the geosynchronous satellites.

Every remote mine plan has certain built in limitations that affect communication. I personally take a proactive position on planning the camp to have access to a southerly view of the sky for sat com access. Viasat is planning a wider coverage of Alaska and Eastern Asia too. There are other options coming in the near future with StarNet, etc. Satellite Alaska on Spenard Road in Anchorage can fix you up.

Although some smart phones will work through a satellite dish network, the service isn't always reliable.

I often make phone calls using Skype on the Viasat satellite dish system at my camp.

Don't go away!

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

Before you dig;

There is a COST associated with digging. Consider a simple cost analysis.

In the earlier post on "would you dig it?", we established priorities.

Let's dig a little deeper on the subject:

Given a hypothetical cost: It costs 100 bucks a foot to dig a hole.

Given the value of GOLD: Gold is $1820 an ounce. $58.52 per gram.

Let's evaluate the ten different proposed nugget digs:

Nugget 1 is a 10 gram nugget buried 6 feet. score was 1.70 priority was #1
Revenue = 585.20 cost = 600.00

Nugget 2 is a 5 gram nugget buried 4 feet. score was 1.25 priority was #6
Revenue = 292.60 cost = 400.00

Nugget 3 is a 13 gram nugget buried 8 feet. score was 1.625 priority was #3
Revenue = 760.76 cost = 800.00

Nugget 4 is a 6 gram nugget buried 10 feet. score was 0.60 priority was #9
Revenue = 351.12 cost = 1000.00

Nugget 5 is a 20 gram nugget buried 30 feet. score was 0.67 priority was #7 or #8
Revenue = 1,170.4 cost = 3000.00

Nugget 6 is a 2 gram nugget buried 3 feet. score was 0.67 priority was #8 or #7
Revenue = 117.04 cost = 300.00

Nugget 7 is a 7 gram nugget buried 5 feet. score was 1.40 priority was #4
Revenue = 409.64 cost = 500.00

Nugget 8 is a 17 gram nugget buried 13 feet. score was 1.31 priority was #5
Revenue = 994.84 cost = 1300.00

Nugget 9 is a 8 gram nugget buried 20 feet. score was 0.40 priority was #10
Revenue = 468.16 cost = 2000.00

Nugget 10 is a 100 gram nugget buried 60 feet. score was 1.67 priority was #2
Revenue = 5,852.00 cost = 6000.00

Which one would you dig first?

What if GOLD goes UP to $2000 an ounce?

From this we can see how the Cost of digging affects the Pre-feasibility study.

Stick around, we're going to study the Big Hurrah!

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

Big Hurrah Study;

It's probably reasonable to say, most remote prospectors ultimately want to find a "Big Hurrah".

The Big Hurrah mine developed into a hard rock mine after the placer deposit was mined out. We saw earlier in this thread that the remaining deposit can be defined by geophysical methods. Alaska Gold Company and NovaGold were moving forward to get approval of a mining plan.

Here's a link to the plan:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data ... it99-1.pdf

The details that are involved in developing a large mine are extensive as can be seen in the work that was done at Big Hurrah. The cost of developing a large mine represents a "barrier to entry" for small miners. The solution for a small miner is to do the initial leg work to define the extent and grade of the deposit based on his or her financial and intellectual resources. When the property is staked and claimed, it can be presented to medium or large scale miners or exploration companies.

- Geowizard

[Jim_Alaska]

I agree Chuck, this is what real, professional prospectors do. This is how they make their money, by doing the leg work and claim work, then sell it to those that are willing and able to provide the resources to bring the project to the point of a working mine.

This is the part that many present day, new prospectors miss. They may find a decent prospect, try to work it themselves with only minimal success, and then lose out on a possible "Big Hurrah."

Even worse, many times they don't even know what they have missed out on.

[Geowizard]

Jim,

One of those well known old prospectors was George "Buzzard" Massie.

Buzzard, for those unfamiliar hosted the GOLD FEVER program on Television.

Nome beach GOLD;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jiJOT53OLg

Buzzard also prospected the Casadepaga River - yes, It's in the Council Mining District!

Those curious about answering the question of "Where?", can research the actual mining claims.

Although the GOLD was there, the question of "Where's the figurative Big Hurrah?" went unanswered.

The geophysical surveys done 30 years later provide a probable answer to that question.

- Geowizard

[Jim_Alaska]

I never held much stock in what the "buzzard", or his son, the "Buzzardite Jr", did or said.