You are a ripping guitarist and master fly fisherman, how did you get into gold mining?
I’ve always been the kind of guy that likes to keep discovering new things. I got into gold mining because of two reasons. After 12 years of beating up on trout in western Montana, I longed for a new scene. I wanted a new hobby, but one that kept me in the woods and provided good exercise. I also have always like coins and collecting silver, but could never afford gold. When I discovered there were multiple gold placer fields in my area, I had to give it a try. I got a couple pans and went to my first place I was turned on to. I found about 5 or 10 flakes of gold on my second trip, and have been hooked since. As of now I have only been a hand miner, not us- ing any mechanized equipment. In montana getting out the water pumps and excavators require tons of permits and bonds, as it should.
Do you mine on your own land or others?
I have one unpatented gold mining claim. Unpatented means I own the mineral rights to the land, but I do not own the surface rights. In my case the surface right are National Forest. I also constantly prospect new public land, in hopes of finding a hot spot to stake a mining claim.
hotos: Billy Pfeifer
How complicated is it to buy land for mining?
It is very easy to buy a mining claim, but another story entirely to stake a claim yourself. I’ve seen mining claims for sale on Craigslist all over the Rocky Mountains and Alaska. I was lucky enough to meet a man who procures land for mining claims. He let me follow him around on mul- tiple trips last year, teaching me the ins and outs of staking claims. He also taught me how to read the land, and determine what land is good to mine. I was very grateful for this information and purchased one of his claims. His claims are available for sale online at here.
Can you walk us through the mining process?
Mining and prospecting are two different things. Prospecting is looking for signs of gold rich land and testing new ground with pans or something else like a metal detector. Mining is the process of harvesting as much gold as possible after you have found a good spot. Gold is one the very heaviest things in the world. About 4x heavier than iron and 2x heavier than lead. This property allows you to separate golds from dirt with gravity. Gold will always be the heaviest thing. When slurried in a pan of pay dirt and water, the gold goes directly to the bottom as you wash the worthless sands and gravel away. After you have found a good spot with a couple colors of gold in the pan, you could go then about mining. I often like to sluice buckets and buckets of pay gravel after I find a hot spot.
A sluice box is a metal slide, with traps to catch the heavies. You place it in a gentle creek riffle and let the creek do the dirt washing for you. You slowly feed the head of the sluice making sure the rocks are getting properly scrubbed and dropping out all the heavies. With a sluice you can work all day, and do just one clean up pan of your heavy concentrates from the sluice box at the end of the day. I also own a nice metal detec- tor and on other days in known nugget country, I may just run that all day. This would be considered “high-grading” or just looking for that big ol’ nugget.
Gear?
Carhartts, gloves, any digging tool imaginable. probes and picks and sledges and splitters... lots of buckets, tarps, pans, dirt classifiers (sift- ers to get out big rocks). My juicy sluicey and my trusty Gold Bug II metal detector
How much gold have you found?
I’m not sure, I’ve never weighted it! I just keep putting it into new vials after every trip
Is mining more of an art or a past time or a get rich quick type scenario?
Mining is far from a get rich quick scenario. Nowadays with the big gold rushes long gone, most the big easy stuff is gone. This isn’t to say that you couldn’t out of the blue have a couple thousand dollar days. It hap- pens often enough for the diligent prospectors. Especially for the guys running metal detectors out in the desert...
I find about 50 to 150 dollars worth if I work hard by myself all day. I can triple that pretty easily with the help of another hard worker. I honestly mine for the thrill of discovery and the exercise. If it pays for the gas and lunch, well that’s just another awesome hobby.
Billy also mentioned you had gotten into coins and silver. Can you tell us about that?
I’ve always loved collecting coins. I remember my father having a bunch from different countries that he acquired while in the Navy. My quest to collect silver strengthened more not long ago while researching eco- nomics. I discovered our dollar is basically based on debt and nothing physical. This made me have zero faith in the $USD. I use my silver as a savings account.
Can you draw us a map to a great spot?
Trust me if I got my maps out, I’d talk your ears off for days. I love maps and have tons. I don’t really draw any though.
Anything else city artists should know about what they are missing out on?
Man work muscles. Girls like man work muscles.
