A furious little thunderstorm took out my modem last week, so I’m catching up this week!
A family member did us the courtesy of sending the Discovery Channel series, “Alaska Gold.”
It is not only the type of show we love to watch, but also plays perfectly with our permitting project. We have looked at this project from just about every angle, preparation-wise, and were entertained by the manifestation of what can and will go wrong!
We can’t even begin to enumerate the errors, except to say that if you are not a prospector and used to preparing for an outing, please consult someone who is!
My first impression was that they were treating this like a weekend camping outing! Sorry, but families separated by thousands of miles are not on an outing! This trip to Alaska was a huge commitment treated like a weekend trip to the woods. There are no available resources in the remote recesses of Alaska… you can’t just hire a hand when someone can’t work and you can’t just pick up some lumber and steel at the local hardware store!
So this bunch of greenhorns, with a lot of planning and preparation of things that were kindof irrelevant, encountered multiple problems getting there and getting set up. That took up a good half of the season.
The only thing I’ll digress to on that portion of the show was guns and bears. Bob and I both grew up in South Dakota. That means we grew up hunting, fishing and hiking in the woods. The only reason I bring it up is that it portrays the total lack of reasoning portrayed throughout the show. Buy a gun, that’s a good idea for working in that area. But if the gun isn’t available, hasn’t been sighted in and everyone taught to use it, why did you buy it?
So once they get to mining, and you can correct if I’m wrong that they had looked at some drill reports for the area, they proceed to mine tailings for the first weeks.
Surprise! The gold is sparse but the digging is easy! Now if someone has already mined it, wouldn’t it be a foregone conclusion that the ground has been disturbed and is therefore easy to dig, etc. My next best alternative hobby, gardening (yeah, I love to dig dirt!) follows that same principle. I’ll even go further than that. If the same area has been planted over and over, most of the nutrients are gone, right? Minerals, either way, have to be replaced by Mother Nature or man.
So they accumulate 30 buckets of black sands, pan it out and have more or less nothing! Ever hear of a test pan? But that’s right, only one of them even knew how to pan before they commenced this operation.
They finally, toward the end of the season, get down to virgin material and start getting some real gold. The problem is the season is over, the snow flies and they are S.O.L. for the season.
I don’t have to preach each lesson they learned, that would ruin the show. I do want to say that one really experienced prospector would have made them the money they were looking for. The claim is good, they lucked out on that.
Some geology, some mining experience in both equipment and theory, some good common sense and a few less egos butting heads would have made the operation! There’s a whole lot of lessons all encapsulated in one sentence.
Do you need our help?
We spent Saturday with some cyber-friends from Pierre interested in geology! It’s always refreshing to be reminded of the intrigue of discovering a new interest… not to mention a fresh perspective on the always beautiful Black Hills.
A stop in Keystone was largely enhanced by a generous sample of SilkFudge… we tried the original, dark mixed nut, walnut and krispy caramel treat. All were sensational and we encourage you to purchase the many varieties for gifts, or just to try yourself!
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