Permit me!

Winter in South Dakota equals “down time” for prospectors, at least physical prospecting!  Now we want to be clear, we still get out there and sample, have been known to haul ore home to sluice on a nice day, have even panned (brrrrrrrr) in some icy creeks!

There’s a lot to be said for research and it’s a great (warm) way to spend those winter months.  That is how we usually while away the months of January and February; researching and pinpointing prospects for the spring season.  We lined up a block of great claims in the Central Hills before the real winter hit, so if you're interested you might want to contact us now.  Our website, http://www.blackhillsgoldmines.com/ has all of our contact information for some very good, historically proven nugget claims. 

This year, however, we are immersed in what is a large-scale project for us, called a small scale placer mining permit.  We think we’re doing pretty well, but time is the real test!

A friend of ours was discussing placer mining with an individual who works for the U.S. Forest Service.  The word we got back is the focus of our discussion today.

Anyone who knows anything about gold prospecting in the Black Hills is aware that South Dakota law does not allow mechanized mining without a permit.  There are a lot of prospectors who “fudge” a little on the issue; that is not the focus of this discussion.

The feedback from the U.S. Forest Service is disturbing;  loaders, backhoes, tractors stockpiling ore for sluicing.  The Forest Service staff has encountered a lot of this, from what we are hearing, and is forced to remind them they need a mining permit for mechanized mining.  These parties then show up at the ranger station expecting to fill out a form and be handed a permit!

Now if that was all it took to have a mining permit, ourselves, our family and friends would all have pockets literally lined with gold and no worry about retirement!

So let’s talk a little about the permitting process.  There are two elements to a small mining permit on an unpatented claim:  the state (in our case South Dakota) and the U.S. Forest Service.  Both entities have to be involved in the permitting process, each on their own timetable.

We started with a phone call to South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).  They recommended a draft of the “Request for Determination of Special, Exceptional, Critical or Unique Lands”.  Let me state here that the staff member we talked to was cordial, informative and very helpful.  The reason for the draft was it does not start the 60-day review process and allowed us feedback on the draft application before submitting by certified mail to various agencies. 

We prepared that application, a six-page document, and submitted it to DENR.  We were very pleased that it took only one week for the reply.  Two items on our application needed modification.  We are extremely pleased about that… both our efforts and a heartfelt thank you for the efforts of a family member who is a PE mining engineer consulting with a mining attorney on some of the more critical elements of the mining plan.

The letter from DENR also reminded us that “the process to obtain an approved Plan of Operations from the Forest Service could take up to two years” and encouraged us to get that process started.

So we’re on our way, getting ready to submit a Request for Determination of Special, Exceptional, Critical or Unique Lands to all entities required while coordinating submittal of a Plan of Operations to the U.S. Forest Service.

Whewww… so much for filling out a form and being handed a permit!  We have up to 60 days to wait before we can even file for a permit! That’s okay, because we need that 60 days for permit preparation.

We expect to learn a lot throughout this process.  It’s been a study just to get the applications all going in the right direction at the right time and to the right agencies! A legitimate estimate of time involved would be about 100 hours to this point; another 100 hours devoted in the upcoming weeks.  We still have, after those hours, several more application forms, advertising, hearings and inspections!

You can read along with us through the process, and/or we would be happy to consult on our specific experience in the permitting process with interested parties.  We could save you several hundred hours with what we’ve accomplished so far, so we would suggest that only serious applicants request consulting, a fee-based service.

Our whole emphasis here is to make it clear what we have stated before; do it the right way!  Sure, we could sit around and bemoan the fact that it’s a relatively complex process, but that process will help filter out a lot of (dare we say it!) amateurs who have no respect for the forest, environment and Mother Nature in general!  We applaud that effort.

Robey, now 9 years old, is our oldest
grandson and a more experienced  prospector
than most adults we meet! Quartz and calcite
crystals are his specialty. 

Now let's take a look at amateur prospectors as referred to in "Anatomy of a Mine" General Technical Report INT-GTR-35 by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service.  

"Amateur Prospectors -- In recent years, as full-time professional prospectors have almost disappeared from the scene, amateur prospectors have become far more numerous. To many outside of the mining business it is difficult to distinguish between the two.”

The Black Hills gold rush brought thousands of amateur prospectors looking to find nuggets for the pickin’.  Early newspaper articles repeated time and again that rather than follow to the newest “rush,” prospectors might be well advised to stick it out on a paying claim. 

We see this same principle in modern-day prospecting… the historically popular placer creeks are rushed, swarming with would-be prospectors.  Now we don’t blame anyone for prospecting where there is proven placer, but just the sheer number of prospectors should point to the fact that “easy” gold might be found at less known drainages. The popular placer creeks are, however, a good place to study how and where gold might be found.  The flip side of this would be that we’ve seen the same prospect hole dug and re-dug and there still is no show of gold!

What indicates to us the difference between what we call a “greenhorn” and a professional would be, first, observation.  How do we know when we go to our claim and see diggings whether it is a casual panner, a greenhorn with a new metal detector, or a serious prospector looking for good pay dirt?

Every gold panning guide gives virtually the same advice… inside bend of creek, ripple areas, black sands behind large boulders… you know the drill.

A good example would be our Boulder Creek claim.  Every time we go to that claim we see evidence of claim jumping.  It is usually indicative of the amateur prospector following a panning guide book… scratching behind large boulders, inside bend of creek, ripple areas.  That’s our first clue that someone is a greenhorn, both in exploration and ignorance of mineral trespass!

The indication that someone is a little more knowledgeable shows up when they have created a hole (disturbance) within the creek boundary.  At least they’ve figured out you have to scratch more than the surface to find pay dirt! 

The unfortunate fact is, however, it takes time and hard work to establish a good hole.  If you are guilty of mineral trespass, the more time and effort you exert the more obvious it becomes!  You might be lucky enough to go unobserved for a limited time, but every tick of the clock, every shovel of dirt brings you closer to being found out! 

To some there is a sense of adventure in mineral trespass… but we not only respect a claimholders’ rights, we don’t like watching over our shoulder all the time!

Our claim on Boulder is a true test of amateur vs. professional miner; each spring brings a flood of some magnitude.  The creek swells with the spring thaw.  The spring flood usually washes out the crossing to some extent.  The crossing has sometimes washed to a point where there are 6-foot cut banks.  We actually watched a pickup try to navigate during flooding; it floated downstream!

That may be one of several floods each season.  The point we’re trying to make is that this seasonal flooding re-distributes huge boulders as well as in-creek gravel bars, trees, etc. It may expose bedrock that was previously buried under feet of overburden, or it may bury bedrock that was previously exposed! A really good flood can re-route the water channel!  A greenhorn would find this to be like putting together a puzzle missing key pieces!

Bob loves this natural phenomena… observing currents and small eddies to determine how the creek deposits gold.

This is called, in general, reading the creek.  It’s most awe inspiring during flooding, but can be done with physical observation of any drainage. 

To us, this would be one way to distinguish an amateur from a professional… can they “read’ the creek?

"The publicity, sometimes highly distorted, given to rushes..., the convenience of modern off-road vehicles, and the increasing amount of leisure time available to so many, have combined to produce tens of thousands of amateur prospectors.  Some of these individuals make great efforts to equip and train themselves, and they are capable of finding prospects worthy of exploration and development.”

The above statement strikes a chord, but there is so much it doesn’t say! The phrase “equip and train” is often left trailing at the word “equip.”  A fancy 4-wheeler gets you there; a bunch of expensive equipment looks good; but if you can’t pan and set up a sluice box, what good is any of it?

Our first judgment of a gold panner would be the pan itself!  It doesn’t matter what brand or what material it is made of… a shiny new pan screams greenhorn! 

We have maybe 10 gold pans.  Teresa usually uses the little cheap black pans for test panning… I think we have about 4 of those.  You can screen the material (if it is dry enough) to get a larger sample or rough pan which is what we call panning everything.  Why the cheapo pan?  A test pan is just that… the cheap ones are small and extremely portable and you’re not panning to recover a quantity of gold, just see what’s there.  The material in the pan when it is washed is as much an indicator as the gold you do or do not find!  Is there black sand, is there evidence of quartz… gold is a bonus in a test pan! The other pans we use for various reasons… the one quality they share is a well-worn appearance! If you can’t pan, don’t make any further investment. Everything you do, short of a commercial operation, ends with panning.  We probably have a couple hundred dollars invested in equipment over a period of 25 years, none of it is shiny or new and we recover gold just about every time we prospect!

So our second judgment would be based on whether the test pan can be interpreted to be a good prospect?  Teresa is a knowledgeable panner, but usually shows test pan results to Bob for interpretation.  He is a better judge of what the test pan might mean.

“However, the majority of the amateurs are poorly motivated and so lacking in the most rudimentary knowledge that they create difficulties for those seriously engaged in prospecting and exploration.”

That’s a pretty fair summary of a lot of grievances… but most of our statements so far dwell on what we consider a professional placer prospector.  There’s so much more, but we need to address lode prospecting as well.

First of all, a good grasp of geology is necessary.  That’s to Bob’s benefit; he was mentored by about 15 degreed geologists in his mining experience… they appreciated his grasp of the subject and compensated with shared knowledge.  It became office amusement to test new geologists against Bob! He has also read extensively on the subject.

The Black Hills have a unique geology, such as does every geologic occurrence.  Several of those degreed mentors specialized in gold occurrences of the Black Hills and made an effort to share that knowledge. 

Knowledge of gold occurrences in the Black Hills is a specialty that few appreciate.  There’s a reason you see geology teams from various colleges in the Black Hills… it’s a geology education in itself!

"The amateur's common lack of consideration for the rights of land owners, his abuse of laws and regulations, and his ill-conceived bulldozing of the surface have become so offensive that there is mounting pressure for drastic restrictions on all prospecting and exploration activities.”

Offensive to us, as evidenced by past blogs on mineral trespass, claim etiquette and mine safety. On the other hand, it is also offensive some of the  dramatic measures taken to prevent prospecting!  This brings us to the final excerpt of the statement…

  “A great deal of wisdom and fine judgment will be required in finding ways to regulate the recreationist-prospector while not unduly restricting serious prospectors and geologists upon whom the Nation depends for future mineral discoveries."

We don’t know if there’s another “Homestake” out there, but current politics does not encourage large gold companies to explore the Black Hills.  We think the Hills are a wonderful prospect for professional prospectors of small operations… that is why we are in the permitting process for a placer operation and have staked several lode claims with the intent to permit them also!

What is mineral trespass?

Every year, without fail, we encounter multiple cases of mineral trespass.  They range from casual panners to groups digging extensive holes on our claims.

The majority of those guilty do not understand the full extent of their actions.  How many of us would willfully commit a federal crime?  That is exactly what you do if you remove minerals from a registered mining claim.

Another form of mineral trespass is the subject of this week’s discussion.  Do you recall in a previous blog an issue where placer claims had been overstaked by both individuals and a company?

I chanced upon this discussion on the “Nugget Shooter” Forum.  It addresses the issue of staking a claim over an existing placer or lode claim.

The forum states, “No you cannot locate a claim of any kind on land that is already claimed without notorized written permission of the senior claims owner. Any portion of a junior claim extending into a senior claim is null and void regardless of type.”

People make mistakes, and we are tolerant of that because we have made mistakes ourselves.  We are becoming less tolerant all the time… the Lawrence County Sheriff’s office has already escorted one group of diggers off our claim.  That's relatively minor action; we could have pursued each on trespass charges and demanded resitution for damage and any gold they had mined.  

We have photographic evidence of one overstaking effort… hmmmm, what to do, what to do?

The next excerpt of the forum creates even less tolerance on a big scale.  It states, “If a group of junior claims extend into senior claims the entire group of junior claims are void.”

We do not find any further validation of this statement, but it raises some interesting questions.  The company that staked a lode claim over our placer has voided their entire block of claims?  If the mining companies' claim block is void, our neigboring claim owner still has a right to his claim but no right to overstake our boundary?  How would the courts rule on this one? 

The forum concludes, “Any prospecting, mining or metal detecting by the junior claim owner on senior claims is criminal trespass and subject to prosecution and civil suit for damages.”

We’re a little tired of the whole business:  We see evidence of digging on our claims; we have evidence of parties staking claims over a registered claim; we get phone calls from people that they or their ancestors had our claim “once upon a time” and therefore they have a right to be there!

A new season approaches.  Ttechnology which allows us to monitor activity on our claims is relatively inexpensive compared to gold losses at today's price.  Faces, license plates, activity will be videotaped in the new season.  Maybe we’ll post some of those photos here!  Is mineral trespass worth it?

gold prospecting the Black Hills of South Dakota: Placer pit design

gold prospecting the Black Hills of South Dakota: Placer pit design: "You’ve found a good prospect! The test pan shows a piece of gold, or two, or as one test pan we chanced to run showed 18 small piece..."

Placer pit design

You’ve found a good prospect!  The test pan shows a piece of gold, or two, or as one test pan we chanced to run showed 18 small pieces of gold!  Experience has taught us to expose several feet of a lateral face to determine the depth of the pay zone, then work horizontally.

Why?  Anyone who has some digging experience, whether post holes or trenches, even digging a garden, has found out how much easier it is to break ground and expand from that broken ground.  A vertical exposure allows you to work forward, which is a lot easier digging than down! A vertical exposure allows you to roll out a good-sized rock that you wouldn't have the strength to lift!

Invariably, as was the case here, weather or the end of the day calls a halt to developing what might be a good prospect.  We’re not young and invincible :) and have way too many obligations to just block out the world and mine! This time it was dusk on a Sunday evening followed by a day of rain…

The delay was a mixed blessing.  It gave us time to discuss and develop a plan of action.  That is the point we’re trying to get across here; make a plan.  Bob worked in different gold mines, and office chatter quite often turned to the gold deposit buried with waste, or under the mill and lab…  We want you to plan better than that, not only for yourself but for the environment!

Let’s go back to the 18-piece test pan prospect.  We had exposed enough to know there was a nice band of gravel and it was probably the source of gold.  Ore exposed was 6-8 inches deep.  Our plan was, obviously, to remove some overburden and run that gravel! 

The nature of the deposit was such that we would remove overburden as we mined into the hill and deposit waste behind us, filling our old workings as we progressed into the deposit.  The rationalization of this would be to never have to re-dig the same material and create as little disturbance as possible. 

I will explain what we see a lot -- throw your rocks and topsoil wherever seems easiest which is often on the bank in front of you!  Think about it… do you want to move that material time and time again?  Do you want to dig the same old rocks back up and move them because you deposited/rolled them where it was easiest?  As you widen your hole, do you want to re-work the waste you’ve already dug once? 

I had called the dusk encroaching and a rainy day a mixed blessing.  As always, there is more to this saga!  We returned two days later to our prospect.  Remember that we had exposed the lateral face to get a jump start on mining.

I can’t even begin to express what we felt when we saw the large hole that had been excavated!  The lateral face was now exposed about 5 feet deep and 12 feet wide!  The dirt and rock they had excavated was, gratefully, piled behind the hole.  They had dug below the pay zone but left a huge amount of overburden to be removed before we could work safely.  We also had to knock down and smooth over their waste pile so we weren’t waist deep in a hole with 5 feet of excavation in front of us and 6 feet of waste piled behind us.  The waste pile  also blocked aceess to the creek, so we would be climbing out of the hole over waste to sluice at the creek about 25 feet away.

We learned several lessons in this experience.  Don’t expose any more than you might work that day… and try to disguise your workings with some fill; we like to arrange some good-sized rocks in the hole to discourage others but also give us an immediate notice if someone does dig in our workings.  Some downed tree branches would serve the same purpose.

This constitutes a good pit design:  Look at your prospect; decide where to deposit waste in relation to future mining and creek access; expose a day’s work and camouflage it when you leave.  You might be able to realize a good day's pay without “giving it away” to everyone else!

A trick we have found helpful.  A digital photo of the lateral exposure can, when downloaded and viewed, give you a better defined view of the workings!  Another helpful tool is to view the workings when they have had a chance to air dry.  This is most helpful in identifying a clay band, it solidifying and oxidizing to expose a defined zone.