??? for Starmac

[Peter Drouin]

Is there that much gold up there? And have you pan for some??

[starmac]

There is a lot of folks that make their living with gold mines. There is a lot of different areas, some probably better than others. I have panned very little at the public recreation areas, but have found a very minute bit of color.
Those that make a living, at least those I know of have actual mining claims and the equipment needed to mine it, then there is some very large scale mines too, ft knox is here local and not too far to pogo mine.

[starmac]

Peter up at Nome the beaches are called free gold. One does not need a claim to set up on the beach up there, and they claim folks do really good there. I have never been there, so no first hand experience.

I knew a guy that retired and moved to Texas, that was in the military, stationed at Nome. He claimed that he worked it like a job and panned until he had 1/2 ounce every day after he got off his shift in the military. Back then it was only worth 36 bucks an ounce, but he claimed he did well on it.

[Peter Drouin]

That's the one thing I would like to try, Maybe some day I'll sell all my junk here and go, But i'll keep my house.

[starmac]

My friend, the retired logger has a brother that has a mine up in the Chicken area. He has had it for year sand as far as I know is his sole source of income. He lives in Montana and just comes and works the mine in the summer. I have no idea how much equipment he has, but he does have some and hires an outside the family operator or two. I don't know what his average take is, but know a couple of years ago they took out a little over 700 troy ounces for the season.

He bought a fuel truck I had and sent one of his sons(grown) and a hired hand after it on their way in for the season, judgeing by the new diesel pickup and brand new gooseneck, they weren't doing too shabby.
I do know a guy that worked one season for him, a nephew I belive. I don't know what his share was, but do know he didn't have to work for over a year after the season was over.

No one actually knows how well most of the miners around here actually does, many of them sell what they need to and hold on to the rest. I know sometimes one will move to town for various reasons and cash in enough gold to buy a house in town.

[Peter Drouin]

I bet there's a lot to it, Just getting a claim that's not been all gone through where all the gold is gone.
I bet it's hard. Seams the whole state has been dug up at one time or another. :D

[starmac]

Well claims are advertised for sale all the time, you know they are all money makers, at least they claim to be.

Some of it like the beach gold at Nome is constantly replenishing itself, some little guys go there and camp on the beach with shovels and small sluice box setups, even small dredges, but some large dredge setups go up there too.

The gold prospector club (I think that is what it is called) has a claim up there and offers vacation packages. The claim is close to Nome but not on the beach, but a river. In the vacation deals they had, they housed you for a week, maybe two and you could either pan on the beach and keep all the gold you found, or work the mine and divide with the other vacationers. My wifes uncle went twice, and did the claim deal, iirc it was 1800 bucks plus the plane ride, and he actually came ahead after they divided it up one of the times.