Have you though of ever buying a claim and go mining
goldrealmoney79
Posts: 417 ✭✭✭
I see claims for sale all the time, and i wonder if anyone here has ever had a claim and went mining or with small trowel?
Feel like I could collect gold for a cheap price and do something that I love. Have any of you done it?? Im thinking of buying a small claim and with a tromell and just go to town. Hoard all of the gold for myself. Things are getting crazy out there. Maybe the guys from Gold Rush were right. Messed up economy time to start digging and holding on to things worthy of true value. I could potentially get tens of thousands of ounces, and it would cost me about 2k. A lil less than 2 ounces of gold to start.
Im thinking this trommel would be sufficient to get through the material and deposit gold, at least initially. Could bring a gas generator to run the trommel.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-8-inch-gold-trommel-portable-electric-12-volt-dc-custom-made/153887998934?hash=item23d47083d6:g:ecgAAOSwPBlc6aoj
Comments
I've elk hunted there when I was much younger. Shot a nice Mule Deer not far from that claim. Beautiful country. I can't even imagine trying to mine at my age in those mountains.
We have a 20 acre claim in Arizona.
It's not a matter of buying a claim,
It's a matter of putting in a claim with your local Bureau of Land management, registering your claim with the county and paying the fees.
We run a hand crank trommel that I built and a 12volt drywasher.
Years ago I dreamed of such an endeavor. This last year I worked with a member of from Gold Rush TV show and had the dream reignited. The plan was this summer to vacation in Alaska on a claim and work it. Not sure what's gonna happen now.
Sounds like hard work, but must be fun !!!
Yes. Myself and two others. It's another issue since 2 of us are over 60
I never had a claim...but panned gold in AZ, CA, WA and NZ....always found dust and did find a couple of nuggets...not large, 5 and 6 grams....A lot of fun. Working a claim though, demands some dedication...Cheers, RickO
I almost bought a mine on ebay, but then figured I'd have to go claiming.
The government is incapable of ever managing the economy. That is why communism collapsed. It is now socialism’s turn - Martin Armstrong
Alaska currently has a 14 day quarantine period upon arrival, but most everything is opening up again, and it’s not like you’ll run into other people out in the boonies.
@rte592 Woah seems like your living the dream. How long have you worked the claim for? Are you seeing any returns?
I live in idaho and gold mining however you do it is hard work plus you have to deal with the bureaucracy! I do know a few miners and several of them have done well most are just hobbyists. Machinery is the way if the gold is there.
It's a lot of fun, but always a lot of hard work for little return. I'd recommend joining a prospecting club that has claims and try it out before sinking a lot of money into a claim.
Prospected the Cosumnes River in California's gold country years ago. One summer I spent literally hours in that frigid cold water panning. I did find colour, was a valuable experience. Hard work. Cold, even on a warm summer day in the mountains. The Cosumnes is a snow melt and spring fed river - no wonder so flipping cold.
It's a recent claim that we started 6 months ago.
We are actually in with a group of 6 couples that have a combined 200 connected acres of ground to work.
Some others have pulled some small nuggets out detecting.
I havent found any gold nuggets yet with a detector, just copper,lead, steel wire bristles from previous Prospectors.
We are still scouting/testing our area for the best probable spot to shovel, but for the most part the ground is a bit harder then it looks.
The area pictured has been doing ok but with the limited times out and now the heat coming on it's more of an exercise program than a money maker.
So far the general area is recovering about 1/3 of a gram per cubic yard with a drywasher.
With all the recent rains some have been hauling in water and using a recirculating sluice with about the same results.
With the rains come fixing the access roads into the claims.
That sounds like our stays at Roaring Gold Camp.
roaringcampgold.com
My grandfather cursed that place. Only ever heard about it.
You see, the family was kind of a bit put out by the tourist aspect of "Roaring Camp" "colour in every pan" ie salted stuff. My great grandfather worked in the Kennedy Mine in Amador county which was adjacent to the Argonaut Mine where they had a fire that trapped 47 miners who lost their lives in 1922. My great grandfather was forced to quit the job by my great grandmother - bless her soul - 4'10" but a strong willed woman whom even intimidated me some 55 years later - I respected and feared her. So the carbide lamp - this was his lamp and I still have it.
A 5 or 6 gram gold nugget sounds like a good day's find.
Any pictures?
@thisistheshow....Yes, I just happened to have them handy..... Cheers, RickO
Beautiful!
Friend of mine moved up to Placerville CA and had a claim on the American river. We dredged together a few days summers ago with full scuba gear. Still flood gold was getting down to bed rock along with Mercury, old iron , and rafters gear from tourists flipping over. He did get over 100 ounces one summer. That water was COLD even with heated suits. I would join a prospectors club first.
100% Positive BST transactions
I had a friend in Grass Valley, Ca who did scuba for gold, he had a gallon jug of nuggets...one was as large as a jumbo hen's egg.....was saving them for retirement.... Lost track of him over the years....I would bet he is comfortable in retirement. Cheers, RickO
I can remember people with rocker boxes and dredges even doing the Dry Creek in Sutter Creek and Jackson Creek in Jackson in Amador County. My preferred spot was on the Cosumnes in El Dorado county, go upcountry the water is colder than even the American River in Plasterville and the looky loo tourists are far fewer.
I used to as a hobby years back. Had a dredge and everything. As others have said, its alot of hard work.
I never had a claim but my grandfather did, and many of them. He would buy old mines and leach the tailings. After it was said and done work flow wise he/we (I was 15) would deliver a 20Kg loaf of bread size bar of 90% silver, 10% gold to our local brick and mortar every two weeks. I wish I would of tried to convince him to of kept just one of those babies. Back then silver was 3-4$/oz. One interesting lesson learned about transporting dense heavy objects happened when he was involved in a car wreck. The silver was behind the passengers seat on the floor. It travel under the front seat taking out any seat mounting like warm butter, hit the firewall laeving a four inch dent before traveling up through the heater core and all that happiness to finally end up denting to hood in the engine bay. A half inch thick steel box was mounted to prevent that in the future.
That would be so cool to own.
Good thread.
The area that this claim is in has an average elevation of 10,000 feet. You will relearn how to breathe at that elevation and working will be stressful. The ores there are mostly of the telluride type and the gold is easily smelted out of the ore. Heat the ore and the gold flows out... This claim may or may not have gold that is accessible to the panner/high banker. So much overburden of shales that getting to the gold might present a problem. You will have some great weather for about 4 months of the year with afternoon downpours and lightning during June, July and August. Getting there to work is a waiting game as the snows have to melt off first. Temperatures are great with afternoon highs in the 70's and lows in the 30, 40 and 50's.
Looking at the creek pics I see very angled shale rocks. Not stream worn and rounded. This tells me that the mountain is sloughing shale and those chunks have not been there long (geologically). Beautiful country. I don't know what the requirements to keeping a claim active are in Colorado as they might very by state. But, here in Nevada the claim has to be worked not just paid for yearly. It used to be we could just pay a yearly fee to keep it active but no longer, now we have to show that work was done and that there were positive results (assays) and plus pay the money. Tens of thousands of Nevada claims came off the books when the "working" became the requirement as it was the prospector that held the claim not the miner. Now it only makes sense if you mine. A prospector with 10 or more claims just can't work them all and then prospect as well.
What you want to do is admirable and it does take money to make a go of it. I suggest you get a drone or get up high and take a really good look at the layout and geology. See where the rockslides are originating, see where they go and what they cover. See if you have any bedrock anywhere. Sample, sample and sample some more. The best mining might be a long way from the water in a part that is not covered with overburden.
I've had two working mines in my life, and both were busts. I'm above 70 now and everything has changed as to laws, etc. I still prospect. My first mine was on Mt. Davidson (Virginia City Nevada) and after two years of blasting, mucking and damn hard work the mountain decided to reclaim my mine. Had several very low moisture winters which made it easier on the mining but then came a doozie with 7' of snow at my adit. All that moisture, come
Spring, became torrents and the mountain tried to absorb it all, water filled the mine and then the top came down and buried it all. Nobody was inside when the collapse came. Just my equipement and $10 grand of lumber. My next mine was the Lucky 13, west of Carson City. Very rich on copper and sprinkled with gold. Managed to make money by cutting the ore into slabs 5/8" thick and selling for stone floors. It was quite beautiful when laid down, polished and such. Sold 5,000 sq ft to Bill Harrah (Harrah's Club, Reno and Lake Tahoe fame). He put my ore in the entry of the home he was building on Lake Tahoe (you can google that). I sold that off and ended up breaking even overall.
Mining is fun but unless you find the lode you likely will just pay for your gas to get there. Great family fun. Those mountains do contain black bears that like to investigate camps and there are also mountain lions so just be weary and alert.
Enjoy and welcome to mining 101. Thank goodness you don't have to get a blasting license for Dynamite or such...
bob
My family is from the Dixie valley and Carson City Nevada area. My granparents had claims when I was a kid and it was always an adventure going on day trips to those spots. Chasing lizards, avoiding rattlesnakes and finding obsidian "apache tears" all over the ground. One place in particular I recall had sunken shafts and long abandoned working mines. There were drilled core samples littlered all over the place as well as raw turquoise rocks so deep blue if you stuck your tongue to them, it would stick.
Fond memories for sure! Nowadays, I do some recreational panning on trips to Southern Oregon. Nothing too fancy and I have not found much but I do enjoy it as a hobby. In fact, I just ordered myself a 50" Keene sluice box to upgrade this little 2 footer I've had for years. Here's some pics from a couple weekends ago.
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
@Meltdown Reminds me of the Little Umpqua with all the ferns, etc. What's that rock you are holding? Host ore?
bob
It's Quartzville creek, not to far, as a crow flies from the little Umpqua... Just a hunk of what I hope is host ore I thought looked neat.
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
Lots of nice agate there too. Some beautiful gem striped aggates (zebra). Sure do miss S. Oregon. Folks moved from CC to Medford and were there 20 years or so. Loved the visits and the salmon floats on the Rogue river.
bob