Public Diamond Mine......For Real?

 Well this post is not about gold mining it is about Mining Diamonds, obviously.  I had a business trip down to the states and I had a few days between meetings, so I hopped online to see of there was any recreational mining sites near by.  To my surprise I came across a public Diamond mine in Arkansas.  The mine was call the " Crater of Diamonds National Park. "  It was a very nice establishment. They provided me with everything I needed to begin my quest to find diamonds, for a fee of course.  After I got my equipment I went out the back doors to the mine to find it was a just a plowed up field.  I spent all day, from when they opened to when I realized that I had gotten a very bad sunburn(Unfortunately late in the afternoon).  So, I got Sunburned and skunked.   I was just really excited to do some diamond mining.  It was a ton of fun and recommend you check it out if your ever in the Arkansas, if all you have is the internet here is the link to their website - http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/

Mov'in on Up

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You Look Like Your Getting Weak!

This picture is a typical day of running pay dirt that is about a quarter ounce of gold if we run all day.  Lots of people ask me the question, "Does your Mine Pay for Itself?"  I always answer with,"Heck no no it does not pay for itself, but my family and me sure do enjoy being out there mining either rain or shine."  I cant put my finger right on the exact reason we like it out there, maybe its working together, or running equipment, or playing save the puppy with my daughter(there always seems to be a puppy stuck in a tree).  I guess all of this can be summed up into to two words, Gold Fever, and we all have it.  People always use the term gold fever in a bad way, but that is not really what it is to us.  Everyone gets gold fever a different way, some cant get it at all.  My family and me are running a fever of 104.0 Degrees, and we don't need any doctor to look at us.  A few more sunny days would be nice though.

Essential Items to Gold Mine in Alaska

With the below list and a bit of determination you should be able to successfully find some gold. 

1. MAP, so you know that your not claim jumping

2. Sluice box

3. Gold pan

4. Waders, at the least mud boots(Extra Tuffs)

5. Black sand magnet

6. Snifter bottle

7. Gold vial

8. Rubber gloves(elbow length are nice) to keep you hands warm in the water

9. Shovel

10. Crack pick

11. Turkey baster (this helps to suck the gold out of cracks in the bedrock)

12. Gun (or bear spray if you prefer)

13. Lots of bug spray

14. Bucket to haul material to creek

Thats my dog!

When we first acquired the mine on quarts creek the previous operator gave us a tour of the the mine. He pointed out places that had been worked, placed he thought there was gold and this spot.  We all stopped here and just took in the very amazing spot, while we were looking around the operator tells us that this was his lunch spot.  He and his dog would have lunch here whenever he was working the mine.  "The spot just helped me relax," he said.  Then he says, "you see that pile of rocks there."  He pauses for a second and then finishes his sentence with,"That is where I put my dog, under those rocks."  We just left the pile of rocks and the dog, right where it was, and we now call this spot"Dead Dog Point."

BEAR ATTACK!!!!

We had a little bit of an issue with a bear at camp who was not very happy that we never left any food out for him to snack on, so he tore up a couple canopy's and I guess he wanted to see what My 4-wheeler seat tasted like.  The least he could have done was to eat the piece he bit off of the seat, but it was not a flavor he liked so he just spit it our right next to the 4-wheeler.  We took some large cans of finely ground black pepper and sprinkled A LOT of it around the camp and on every surface.  After that we have not had any issues with bears in camp.

Dreams of finding "PAY DIRT!"

This is a photo of me in a sample hole I dug inspecting my handy work and collecting samples to run back at camp.  There was hardly any gold in this hole.  I found out later in the season that the reason I did not find any gold here was because I dug to deep/not deep enough.  The gold in this seems to be in one of two places, we find it sitting on a clay layer and we also find it sitting right on the bedrock.  This hole I dug just past the clay layer but not to the bedrock.

Have you seen our tools?

 Here is a good front back and side view of our wash plant.  Antonio did an excellent job constructing this gold finding monster, he also made our trommel, bunk-house and he wrote another book(which is available on amazon) called "Talking Ice."  All this he did last winter so we were ready for the next season of mining as soon as the ground had thawed.  We did not want to break it so we loaded the gravel very slowly most of the summer, till we found out that it can handle a full loader bucket from the Kubota.  After that we flat moved some dirt, Very useful tool!

I'm King of the World!!!

That is what my Daughter would be yelling out if she had ever seen that dreadfully long move Titanic.  This is when we first placed the wash plant.  Everyone wanted their pictures with it........It was SO COOL! It is still super cool.  Anyone who wants to come up a visit we will take your picture with the wash plant too, free of charge.  It took a whole weekend with the 480D and Kubota to make a flat spot for the wash plant then a raised area for loading the wash plant.  There also had to be enough room to stage gravel to run in the wash plant, so the loading area had to be fairly large.  We had some trouble with the plywood restraining wall collapsing on the wash plant (It still worked was just a bit more of a pain to dig it out at the end of the season).  We will be constructing a steel retaining wall this winter for use next year.

To dig or not to dig?

Just down the hill from the Quartz vein that we found, it looks like at some point in time someone dug a very deep sample hole by hand.  Its a kinda creepy looking hole I was planning on digging it up next year with the backhoe to find out what the digger was chasing.  You don't dig a hole that big by hand if your not finding anything.  It looks like one of those holes you would see in a scary movie, you know the cursed ones that everyone in the audience says don't go in there stupid, and they do anyway.  Hopefully next season I will be able to report a mother load find in this spot, and not a Zombie.