Remote Prospecting?

[Geowizard]

Lights, Camera, Action!;

Leonard, Thank you for stimulating my interest in high quality VIDEO production! Your video productions on electronics were well composed, instructional and interesting.

Because the mine is about to put on a SHOW of it's own, I have been gearing up for that event. Prospectors are generally too busy to take time and document what they discover.

Fortunately, I have with limited resources been able to prospect for the source of placer GOLD recovered over the past 100 plus years. Without years of video to back up the boring work involved in loading up and hauling mud off the bench, I am ready to cut to the chase! Like in a game of football, the ball has moved up and down the field. Now, it's time for a field goal.

Prospecting is like that. Success waits for those that never quit.

Gearing up;

One of the things a prospector should always remember to do is take a camera. Early in my ventures, I was everywhere shooting video and taking still images. All I had was a SONY Handycam. With that camera, much of the early work at Ophir was preserved for posterity.

I managed to acquire an original GoPro HERO, then this past year, a HERO 6. I recently picked up a Nikon DSLR with still image and movie functionalities and a Zoom lens. I picked up two nice tripods and RF remote for the Nikon. GoPro offers a Video editing package called GoPro Studio. With two or possibly three cameras, several views can be shot simultaneously.

I am looking for advice from anyone out there with tips on getting good studio quality video.

- Geowizard

[Leonard]

Ever wonder what 20 years of prospecting pictures looks like? Here some of the still pictures. Also some where I have a box of about 75 DAT movie tapes. Along the way I had about 10 cover pictures on the cover of the International California Mining Journal. I can go prospecting on my computer and relive the many experiences any time I desire.

So, I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures you take. Youtube makes it easy to post your movies.
Leonard

[Geowizard]

It's a brave new world;

As we approach the 2020 mining season in Alaska, it is not without limitation.

Before travelling to Alaska, miners must plan for a 14 day self quarantine. Mining is "essential", therefore, it could be assumed that those working in an industry that is considered to be related to essential infrastructure may be exempt. Read the rules.

When you arrive at a village - guess what? you will have another 14 day self quarantine.

The best plan is to have an approved strategy.

Plan ahead. Have PPE, practice the best accepted practices and know the rules.

Remote prospecting covers many of the aspects of social distancing and minimizing contact with others. The challenge in our "brave new world" is crossing the bridge.

Stay tuned for more!

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

Update;

Reopening Alaska has entered Phase 1A. Prospectors and miners as well as anyone travelling to and within Alaska need to abide by certain rules. The 14 day quarantine is still in place but it could be done at your remote mine!

The Digital Travel Declaration is a simple straight-forward declaration of your plan.

https://ready.alaska.gov/form

The normal social distancing and PPE all apply along with certification of your adherence to certain principles.

I filled my Travel Doc out. It was easy and took only a few seconds to get the reply by email.

- Geowizard

[Jim_Alaska]

Thanks for the update Chuck, I am sure it will help some folks.

[Geowizard]

Situational awareness;

I flew up to Anchorage on the 24th of May. I had scheduled two charters. The first charter was scheduled to fly myself and a Bobcat mechanic with parts and tools with food and provisions. The second charter was scheduled to fly the new Skid-steer Auger attachment, auger drive and auger with four new Bobcat tires, a Bead setter and air compressor.

The mechanic fixed the machines and flew out the next day. All went well. Everything is in place.

Although early in the season, mining is often met with frozen ground. I managed to open up some new bedrock and test the new Auger. The auger has a nine inch diameter auger bit. It uses the Bobcat 30C drive.

https://www.bobcat.com/attachments/auger/specs

The intended purpose is to drill/auger into soft shale bedrock that has been hydrothermally altered to softness similar to coal. Prior mining in the early days involved only cutting 18 inches into bedrock. I wanted to sample the bedrock for GOLD that may have been vented through hydrothermal forces into the shallow bedrock.

There was no GOLD.

No GOLD in this case increased the probability of where the GOLD actually may finally be. As I mentioned in earlier posts, my sampling along higher benches revealed no GOLD. Conclusion, no GOLD is coming in from the high ground. I sampled lower benches. No GOLD. This season, I drilled the lower benches, no GOLD. From the lower benches, the mammoth sized tailing piles are less than 500 feet away.

Watching the news, I became aware that the number of active cases of the virus was spiking in Alaska. At June 12, the number of active cases were 30 percent higher than at the peak of the pandemic. With exponential increases day by day, it became clear that the best way forward was to get out of this remote area before the political forces began shutting down the supply chain and possibly preventing evacuation from Alaska.

I am preparing an extensive deeper auger drilling campaign that will begin as soon as things get more stable.

Stay tuned!

- Geowizard

[Jim_Alaska]

Good virus information Chuck, thanks for it. Sorry about the "no gold" situation, but it happens. As you thought, it may well be an indicator of where the gold actually is.

[Geowizard]

The objective;

The challenge of remote prospecting in a world where the situation is "normal" is by most standards above and beyond the scope of most human endeavors. Remote prospectors by virtue of having set a higher than average objective are expected to meet extraordinary obstacles in order to achieve "the objective".

The obstacles are variable.

If you have machinery that operates using a diesel engine, the engine requires diesel fuel. An ordinary obstacle can become "extraordinary" when external forces are applied. The fuel supply is part of what is called "the supply chain. Mining requires continual supplies from the supply chain.

In order to operate, you need fuel.

Fuel is normally supplied from a vendor at a village 23 miles by road from the mine. Fuel vending is complicated by the fact that you need an account and a "fuel card". The cost of fuel is normally higher because of the cost of transporting fuel to a remote village, administrative fees, cost of transacting business, and transporting fuel over the road to the mine. All of this requires "an agent".

People require fuel.

In order to operate, you need food.

Food is met with similar obstacles. Consider the food supply chain. The "store" may be 200 miles away. You need an expediter service to do your shopping. In the "new normal", expediters are busy shopping for "stay at home" customers. With luck, the expediter does the shopping (for a fee), drops the food order off at the commuter airline in Anchorage (for a fee). The commuter airline asks; "Do you want it now?" If you "want it now", it goes "priority" (for a higher fee). The food arrives at the village, the "agent" at the village loads and transports the food to the mine (for a fee).

The objective?

Wait, there's more!

- Geowizard

[Leonard]

The wife and I are doing all of our food shopping via "expediter". We haven't been in a store since this all started. One difference here though is the stores do it for free. It opens up a whole different way of shopping. One other difference is you become way more flexible in what you order and what you get. You just feel lucky to get something close to what you wanted.

It may be a good idea to get back to civilization while you can. I don't see this ending for quite a while.
Leonard

[Geowizard]

The "Bluff";

My plan this season was submitted in my APMA renewal to DNR. The plan was to mine the Bluff.

The Bluff is a paleo placer. It is hydrothermally altered river rock. River rock as we know is rounded - slightly flattened, irregular shaped, rock that has spent many years being worn by the effects of washing in a river.

Most modern placer deposits are not hydrothermally altered. They were developed in recent geologic time. The Bluff contains more than a dozen stratified layers of different well sorted sizes and colors of river rock. From red beans a foot thick to ostrich egg sized river rock.

The river rock is hyrothermally altered!

This river rock is cooked! It was exposed to extreme heat from hydrothermal fluids AFTER it was deposited in the river bed. A river bed now 300 feet in elevation above the Innoko River. The rock is in places iron stained from hydrothermal solutions having been blown with extreme heat and pressure from deep in the earth to the surface.

The rocks are in some cases baked in appearance like an over baked, baked potato. They are in some cases, partially cracked from the instantaneous heat that applied thermal shock that partially cracked them open. When individual rocks are removed and broken with a rock hammer, they all exhibit an outer layer of iron staining. This level of staining can be measured and to a limited degree, the temperature and pressures calculated that were applied to these rocks in early geologic time. The different layers of rock are stained differently indicating different hydrothermal exposures and resulting probable pyroclastic flows. For example the layer of "red beans".

After I spent a couple of days digging into the bluff exposing the buried wall to sunlight, my mining buddy said...

There must be GOLD in this!

I suggested getting a Rubbermaid tub with water and a pan and screen so we can find out! After several pans of rock and sand - there was "NO GOLD".

Here's why;

The paleoplacer was deposited before GOLD was intruded to the Crust of the earth!

There was NO GOLD when the river waters flowed and the pyroclastic flows occurred.

- Geowizard