Pie panning...

We’ve got a story we just have to share!

Some friends of our family missed the opportunity to prospect one of our claims recently, so they picked a day and visited on their own, grabbing a couple of buckets of material to take home.

We did receive a phone call (never underestimate how many people watch for claim jumpers) about a party prospecting. We were happy to learn in the next few days that is was our friends, therefore we have this great story!

These friends have not done a lot of prospecting but had helped dig previously at the site, so they took what they thought were good gravels.

Now let’s talk about beginner’s luck! They didn’t have a gold pan so… they improvised with a pie pan. Pretty innovative, I think!

I’ve lectured that it’s not the pan that you use, but how you pan. This is a stellar example! The first pie pan full of dirt gave them a fingertip sized nugget!

Speaking of prospecting equipment, we’re pleased to see that the GPAA Gold and Treasure Show is at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center this weekend, Aug. 25-26.

It’s always fun to see what’s out there, but I doubt you’ll see any pie pans there! Do keep in mind though… you can spend a lot of money but you’ll still get the same gold!

We’ll conclude with a brief summary of our permit process. To make a very long story short, the permit site was declared not mineable unless conditions were imposed to ensure the integrity of the watershed. Those conditions… mining outside of the creek, erosion control, protection of creek resources… were all part of our plan from the get-go!

So don’t let politics get in your way… when it comes to permitting, where there’s a will there’s a way!