Prospecting our Iron Creek claim

It’s snowing and cold…. Brrrrrr! We can’t trek the Hills, but we have several placer claims of our own and will take you on a verbal prospecting tour of each through the next few weeks.
We acquired a claim on Iron Creek in the northern Black Hills in 2001 and named it after our first grandson born that spring. New placer claims in this area are not available due to a mining company having blanketed several sections with lode claims.

We have recovered ¼ ounce per yard with small pickers and peanut-sized nuggets. It appears that some of the nuggets are still attached to quartz, which gives us rough specimen as well as rounded, well-traveled placer gold from the ancient placers.

We’ve found gravels to be 8-10 feet deep, with 1 foot of material on clay false bedrock which appears to be an old river channel. We’ve observed 2, possibly 3 of these old channels, which appear to be quite rich. The lower portion of the claim was trommeled, documented as producing an ounce an hour with a small steam shovel and trommel operation using 1-½ inch hose for hydraulicing. It appears that some boulders were too large for this old machinery to handle and the equipment bounced right over them!

Black sands are plentiful! Black sands of this area are known to bear Hematite, Magnetite, Cassiterite and Tantalum plus an array of heavy pegmatite minerals. The claim has an intermittent stream which usually runs into July and August.

The claim is 60 acres and also has a lode deposit and old shafts. The lode deposit appears to be a fractured zone in limestone. Old reports tell us the gold ran up to $10/ton at $20 ounce. Even though this vein is narrow, it runs at least ½ ounce per ton. The other shaft, which appears to be 70 feet deep and open, was in
a porphyry/igneous deposit with unknown values.

Multiple trails on this claim provide good camping, and less than ¼ mile away is the Iron Creek Campground, with a seasonal store and restaurant, rustic cabins and camping, fishing, swimming and family fun!

We are in the process of acquiring a small-scale placer mining permit for this claim.  We'll keep you posted as the project progresses!