Remote Prospecting?

[Geowizard]

Jim,

I agree.

And... I thought it was just me...

- Geowizard

[Jim_Alaska]

I live just downriver from a large gravel pit that was deposited by the river long ago. It has been mined extensively, but not to bedrock. I asked the owner of the pit if he had ever had it sampled for gold and he said that he had. He also said he wouldn't go to the trouble to recover the gold as a part of his gravel operation because it only showed $20 per yard.

He didn't say, but I suspect that that figure was not consistent throughout the material. I'm pretty sure that he makes much more by just selling the gravel.

[Geowizard]

Jim,

No problem, he can run his gravel through my wash plant and I will screen it and wash it for him!

-Geowizard

[Micropedes1]

I have a friend that dredged the East Fork of the Kougarok last season. High water kept them from dredging where they wanted for much of the season. But they did find a good pay streak late in the season in the deepest channel of the river where annual currents had re-concentrated the gold. So, I would say that the gravels are definitely not consistent in their pay amounts.

I have found a bit of color in several of the creeks in places where the bucket lines did not go, but it was not enough to get excited about.

[Geowizard]

Experience counts!

Experienced dredgers know where to look for natural concentrations of GOLD.

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

The RUSH is on...

Kougarok GOLD on eBay and Amazon... Get it while it lasts!

Editorial note:
I am NOT associated with this company and this is NOT a product endorsement or advertisement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxQl-3RtvQ4

Put your "critical thinking" hat on and ask if it makes sense...

A 1.5 pound bag with .1 gram of GOLD. In 2000 bags that's 200 grams = 6.4 ounces of Au...

- Geowizard

[Micropedes1]

Someone mentioned using drones for something other than taking pics. It got me to thinking...

How about adapting one of the larger versions to handle transmit and receiving coils similar to that of the DIGHEM apparatus? I know that weight diminishes flight time. But I have some ridges that are totally inaccessible by foot. And my budget does not permit the expense of a block of helicopter flight time. But a high end drone???? Maybe.

[Micropedes1]

BTW, its not just one set of coils but two; CPX and CPI. Tuned to a specific frequency.

I can miniaturize the amp, receiver, and data logger. Its the blasted battery that weighs so much!

[Geowizard]

Everything runs on batteries;

Remote prospecting requires electricity to power many of the things we use...

Comm and Nav require battery power. Metal detectors need batteries. Don't forget spare batteries.

So, you want to do some extra special Drone surveys? Yep... Drones run on batteries... but there's more, the batteries may last on the order of 30 minutes and they need a "recharge".

That bumps up the support "payload"... You need to plan on a battery charger, inverter, solar power system with storage battery.

Heavy lift drones start out at $20K and go to $40K for 10 Kg to 20 Kg payload.

A survey system requires peripheral equipment not mentioned on the list... A Power Transmitter. A GPS receiver, A Radar Altimeter.

The coil system would need to be suspended and with associated cables and enclosure, could add 50 Kg or more.

Yep... the battery is an issue. I recently picked up four Valence 40 Ah Lithium batteries. They list for $750 each. They weigh 6 Kg each. A calculation has to be done on the power required for the mission and the appropriate power source can be specified.

Remote prospecting can be viewed as a mission... Like sending a man to the Moon... There's a calculation involved.

- Geowizard

[easy goer]

Lies, damn lies and statistics ! Attributed to Mark Twain, actually he said it was a British prime minister, but I digress! Dredge efficiency has been debated since the first bucket was dug. Dredge efficiency has been often overstated due to inaccurate samples, 160% of the gold available was found, huh? This pulled the overall recovery rates up, statistically.
Even if you accept some of the purported rates of recovery there is still a considerable amount left behind. In the Kougarok River area most of the 240,000 ounces known to be recovered comes from the upper portion. If they recovered 90% they still left about 26,000 ounces behind. 80% recovery rate leaves 60,000, 70% leaves 142,000 still out there.
Studies that have tested tailings piles have reported instances when more gold was left behind than was recovered.
The skill of the operators on board also lead to higher or lower rates of recovery. I personally hope that the crew that worked my area snuck a bunch of booze on board and just went through the motions! When the going got tough, they changed direction and dug where the digging was easy, missing significant amounts of gold. I am praying that the weather was cold and rainy, convincing them to stay inside instead of making sure the sluices weren't jammed up with black sand and the gold was just flying off the back. They were too drunk and tired to visual inspect the larger than 3/4" material that was going out the side loaded with nuggets. Hey, probably not likely but a man can dream!!
Seriously, I am counting on better technology helping me locate areas that may hold concentrated gold. Better sampling technique, using technology that was unavailable that will help me refine my efforts.
Most importantly superior recovery equipment! I will be able to recover gold that was not only not targeted, but was nearly impossible to catch with the technology at the time.
If all this fails, I am bringing my lucky rabbits foot.

Easygoer