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Another Huge Win for Our Side! – January 2015

Jan 172015

New 49'er Newsletter

FIRST QUARTER, JANUARY 2015 VOLUME 29, NUMBER 1

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

San Bernardino Superior Court Judge Ochoa awarded California suction dredgers a huge win on January 12th by declaring California’s “scheme” of first passing a law that requires us to obtain a permit, and then passing another law making permits unavailable, as an unlawful interference with the intention of congress. This is truly a great win for all gold miners! Since we have invested so much for such a long time to get here, I strongly encourage you to read the decision.

Here is a shorter summary from our attorney.

There are different perspectives circulating around the industry on how this ruling will affect the coming 2015 dredging season. But I will voice my own opinion that at least until the California Supreme Court weighs in (or chooses not to) on the recent Rinehart Decision (we will know within a few weeks), I do not believe there is any chance the State of California could successfully prosecute any person for operating a suction dredge without a permit.

For your benefit and mine, it is important that I disclose that I am not a licensed attorney. So I cannot provide legal advice. Since there is not much certainty remaining these days when it comes to legal matters, it is important that we seek our own council from people we trust, and we must each find our own way.

My own opinion is that the end result of all this is going to hinge upon what the California Supreme Court decides to do about the State’s Petition for review of the Rinehart Decision, along with their request to have it de-published. There is much more about this in last month’s newsletter.

If the Rinehart decision is allowed to stand, my thinking is that a healthy portion of the ongoing litigation in San Bernardino will become insignificant, and the entire burden is going to be placed upon the State to come up with a reasonable set of regulations which protect their interests while not placing a material interference upon mining. In those instances where material interference is necessary (such as to protect an endangered species), the State will have to be willing to pay property owners for their losses.

Until they finally do come up with a reasonable permit scheme, it doesn’t appear that the State can successfully prosecute anyone for operating a suction dredge. Though I would not be surprised to see them make another try at it; we will have to see.

Stay closely tuned, because the California Supreme Court must decide whether to review Rinehart even before you will see the next newsletter. For those of you who want to stay updated, I suggest you join our free Internet Message Forum.

Today we have an important ruling in San Bernardino that basically has declared California’s existing permit “scheme” as unlawful and unenforceable. That sure is a long way from where we started!

Once again, I want to thank all of you who have supported this effort. It just goes to show that sometimes the good guys actually do win!

K-17A – China Point Claim

K-17A

I am pleased to announce that we have acquired 2.4 miles of the Klamath River downstream of China Point and have extended the upper boundary of our Gordons Ferry property (K-18) another half-mile upriver. This adds nearly 3 miles to our extensive property holdings. These have already been added to our Claims Guide which is also available from the office.

China Point K-17A -topo map

Pan samples there have turned up gold out of the exposed bedrock cracks, and the advanced sampling team was excited about trying out our new form of gravity mining and some booming in the areas where the old-timers left off.

This stretch of river is mostly a remote canyon that does not include dangerous rapids. Our advanced sampling team voyaged through by rubber raft and described the area as so remote; it reminded them of something out of the movie, Jurassic Park. Our initial impression is that the stretch is going to be ideal for crevice mining and suction dredging.

Google earth view of the entire claim, the location of private property, and our Gordon’s Ferry location downstream.

It’s still too early to tell, but our initial guess is that the best way to gain full access to this claim is by launching a raft or small boat from China Point River Access and then getting picked up later in the day (or week) at the river access on our Gordon’s Ferry Claim (K-18). The distance between the two points is just a little more than 3 beautiful miles. With the exception of a 1-mile stretch of private property (see maps), we have mineral access to the entire stretch. The floating distance is short enough that you could make day trips in and out of your mining site. Or, this would be a fantastic area to do some remote camping along the river. Here are some video sequences that will give you an initial look at the property:

There are just a very few long, remote stretches of the gold-bearing Klamath river that are not blocked by dangerous white water. In fact, this may be the only one. So we are very lucky to have it!

A lot of bedrock Sample gold

Some gold panned out of exposed bedrock

PROSPECTS: Because of remote access, we suggest almost no prospecting has taken place in this area during the modern age. Shortly before the dredge moratorium took effect in California, several of our members devoted about a month of dredging directly at the top end of this property. They were bringing their gold into the office for us to see; and the golden treasure they recovered, consisting of mostly large flakes and nuggets, took our breaths away! This is a very proven, rich section of the Klamath River, with gold mining history going back to the very early days. Members have done exceptionally well both in and alongside the river on our Gordon’s Ferry Claim just downriver.

PLP President, Jerry Hobbs, Passed Away on December 28

Note: parts of this announcement were borrowed from a GPAA announcement.

Jerry Hobbs - PLP For those who have not heard, I am saddened to announce that Public Lands for the People (PLP) founder and president, Jerry Hobbs, has passed away after a long battle with kidney and heart disease. He was 71 years old.

PLP is a land rights advocacy group. The membership-based, non-profit organization was established in 1990 and has been fighting to keep public lands open for multiple uses, including prospecting and mining. They are equally responsible for the recent legal battles we have won.

Jerry joined the U.S. Marines after graduating high school in Pueblo, Colo. After leaving the Marine Corps, he moved to California from Colorado and became involved in gold mining. He supported himself by dredging for gold in the Mother Lode region for several years and then moved to Azusa, Calif., where he opened a gold prospecting store, Azusa Gold.

Jerry was first and foremost a miner. He was tough, and he was strong. He believed in conservative principles, the U.S. Constitution and the Mining Law of 1872. He fought against big government interference in the daily lives of prospectors and miners. He was not afraid to speak up and stand up for the rights of others. He was a freedom fighter; and despite being delivered some knockout punches in life, he always rose to his feet for the next round. He never let down his guard. He was steadfast in his belief in the rights of the individual and was fiercely independent.

Jerry served as president of PLP for more than a decade until his passing. He also served as vice president under past presidents Barry Wetherby and Dee Stapp, both close personal friends. He was also friends with Pat Keene, who also was instrumental in forming PLP. Jerry had thousands of friends and supporters. While there is always some differing opinions on the sidelines of our industry, Jerry was highly regarded and respected by all of our industry leaders.

I first met Jerry in 1993 during the first attempt by the State of California to completely eliminate suction dredge mining. It was that dire situation which brought most or all of California small-scale mining community together in a united front. Barry Wetherby, Terry & Dee Stapp, Pat Keene, Jerry and several others were there representing PLP and the southern part of the state. Several other industry giants were present throughout that very tiresome and lengthy process: Ron Stockman was representing the Motherlode Miners Association and Goldhounds. Lyn Gunn, who was smarter than everyone put together, represented the Miners Alliance and the Trinity County area. Both Ron and Lyn passed on years ago. John Oats represented the Shasta Miners. There was a guy named Dennis Raft who represented GPAA. He’s also not around, anymore. I was representing The New 49’ers and the mining community of Siskiyou County. There were a few others that came and went. But I believe it would be safe to say that this was the first string of players who represented small-scale gold mining during the modern age in California.

The truth is that, between ourselves, we disagreed on nearly everything. The thing that held us together was the determination we all shared to save our industry. Serious gold miners are generally a hard-headed bunch of independent nonconformists. You are required to be this way to overcome Mother Nature’s formidable obstacles to recover golden treasure from the earth or the bottom of raging rivers. Miners are tough. We don’t like to ask for permission – from anyone. This is especially true about things we have the right to do in the first place! This nature places us in direct confrontation with government agencies and anti-mining activists that seek to make mining more difficult than it already is. We are fighting for freedom!

Our nature also often puts us at odds with each other on the different paths we could take to defend our industry. Jerry and I often disagreed on tactics. The same situation existed between most of us who were actively fighting for the industry back in the 90’s, and even today. None of us have ever disagreed on the ultimate destination. All or most of us have matured through the process, realizing that we can disagree without becoming enemies. I am certain that it was the combination of our separate approaches, along with the efforts of other industry leaders, and the overwhelming support of the industry, that saved our day in 1994 – and also during these more recent times. That initial very substantial effort kept our industry strong all the way until the suction dredge moratorium was imposed upon California in 2009. That was quite an accomplishment considering we did it without attorneys; something that would be impossible these days.

Most everyone knew Jerry during his later years as he was getting older and struggling with health issues. He just looked and acted like a good old guy (unless you got into an argument with him). That’s the reason I am printing the image of Jerry that was taken when his body was younger. That’s who he really was! Jerry was a warrior all the way to his last breath. And, although he would cringe at the thought of being called a martyr, there is no doubt that he sacrificed most of his life for the sake of others and to preserve the small-scale gold mining industry.

Above all, Jerry was a man of principle and was loyal to his members and the industry. He would not accept compromise! He believed miners have already given up too much ground.

Many people don’t know it was Jerry Hobbs that took up the fight to defend two small-scale miners on the South Fork of the Salmon River that ultimately resulted in the landmark Decision of Lex & Waggner. That case effectively neutralized an ongoing U.S. Forest Service policy of abusing miners on the public lands and ultimately resulted in the USFS Section 228 Rules that support our industry today.

Jerry was the first to take up the more recent fight to defend Brandon Rinehart who was being criminally prosecuted for having the courage to make a stand against California’s suction dredge moratorium. If Jerry had not taken the initiative to lead that charge, there is a reasonable chance we would not be where we are today.

If I had to sum up my own recollection of what Jerry said over and over again, sometimes loud enough to silence the whole room, it was this: “The government does not have the authority to materially interfere with mining on the public lands!” We all agreed with this. Our internal struggles have always been about how to get the government to see it our way. Jerry’s view above summarizes what the Third Appellate Court recently decided in Brandon Rinehart’s case. That was the most important win in support of small-scale mining in the modern age. And it is a fantastic legacy for the first wave of our industry defenders to leave behind. Most of them are gone now. But new leaders are emerging.

Jerry Hobbs fought harder than anyone else to get us here. I am so glad he lived long enough to see his dream come true. And I’m sure he is in a good place smiling at Judge Ochoa’s Decision this week.

Proline Donated a 4-inch Dredge to Our Next Legal Fund Drawing!

4" Proline dredge

There will be 21 prizes in all:

Grand Prize: 4-inch Proline dredge

Twenty tenth-ounce American Gold Eagles.

Come on you guys; let’s make this the most successful fund-raiser in the history of our industry!

Gold Eagles The New 49’ers Legal Fund drawing will take place just before the close of business at our headquarters in Happy Camp on Friday evening, 27 February 2015. You do not need to be a member of our organization to participate. You are welcome to be at the drawing, but you do not need to be present to win.

Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc.). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win. Look for more information here:

Join us for our Weekend Group Mining Projects Next Season!

There is a learning curve to successful gold prospecting. One of the most effective methods of progressing through the learning curve is to go on prospecting adventures with others who more experienced than you are.

Our 2-day Group Mining Projects are one of the primary benefits of New 49’er membership which set us apart from other mining associations. All weekend events are free to Full & Associate Members.

Schedule of 2015 Events: June 6 & 7; June 27 & 28; July 18 & 19; August 8 & 9; and August 29 & 30.

Schedule of Events

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

We strongly encourage you to sign up for the free on line version of this newsletter. The Internet version is better. This is because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories. Actually, the video segments show the adventures better than I can write them!

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team. Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail. As an example, in a matter of hours, we generated a big portion of the recent letters to the California Supreme Court by contacting our supporters this way. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster. Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012 www.goldgold.com

Print This Post

Sample Letter to California Supreme Court

Legal Affairs

Nov 222014

November _____, 2014

BY FIRST CLASS MAIL

Supreme Court of California
350 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102-4797

Re: People v. Rinehart, Third Appellate District, Case No. C074662

Response to the People’s Request for Depublication

To the Honorable Tani Goree Cantil-Sakauye, Chief Justice of California, and to the Honorable Associate Justices of the California Supreme Court:

Pursuant to California Rule of Court 8.1125(b), I write to request that the Court deny the People’s request to depublish the opinion issued in People v. Rinehart, Third Appellate District Case No. C074662, 230 Cal. App.4th 419 (September 23, 2014).

As a suction dredge miner in the State of California, I have been denied my federal statutory right to explore and develop mineral claims on federal land in the State of California since 2009. Ever since the first statute stopping the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s longstanding permit program, the mining community has been engaged in civil litigation to establish that the State may not arbitrarily single out suction dredging for precious metals from all other suction dredging and other dredging activities, and refuse to issue any permits whatsoever. But no judge in any of the multiple civil cases has reached the merits of this claim, despite multiple motions and requests to do so.

Mr. Rinehart, at great personal cost, undertook to get the criminal justice system to demonstrate that the State’s regulatory power does not extend to a blanket prohibition that frustrates mineral development on federal land. The civil lawsuits now remain before the San Bernardino County Superior Court. There are settlement negotiations underway that could lead to the resumption of permit issuance. If the opinion is depublished, it will embolden the opponents of suction dredge mining who seek a permanent ban, and threaten to cause those settlement negotiations into pointless relitigation of the question.

It is worth noting that the State itself, in a joint motion seeking calendar preference before the Court of Appeal, acknowledged that the Rinehart opinion would “provide important guidance to the Superior Court in the coordinated proceedings”. Now that the case has come out confirming the position of the miners, by its request the State seeks to prevent the miners from even citing it to the Superior Court. This is unjust.

The Rinehart opinion meets the standards of publication because even though it addresses a particularly unique misuse of legislative authority to destroy a long-standing permit program, and applied clear federal and state precedents, it clarifies an issue of continuing public interest, and explains longstanding rules of federal supremacy in the mining context so that all parties can fashion a reasonable and workable permit program.

Please deny the State’s request for depublication, and thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

(Name and Address)
__________________________

__________________________

PROOF OF SERVICE

I, __________________________, declare:

I am a resident of the State of _____________________ and am over the age of 18 years, and not a party to the above action. My address is ________________________________________________________.

On November ______, 2014, I served the attached letter requesting publication in this action by placing true copies thereof in sealed envelopes and mailing them by First Class mail, postage prepaid, addressed to:

Matthew K. Carr Deputy District Attorney Plumas County District Attorney 520 Main Street, Room 404 Quincy, CA 95971	Marc N. Melnick Deputy District Attorney Office of the Attorney General 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2000 Oakland, CA 94612
Clerk of the Court Plumas County Superior Court 520 Main Street, Room 104 Quincy, CA 95971	Jonathan Evans Center for Biological Diversity 351 California Street, Suite 600 San Francisco, CA 94104
Lynne Saxton Saxton & Associates 912 Cole Street, Suite 140 San Francisco, CA 94117	Damien Schiff Jonathan Wood Pacific Legal Foundation 930 G Street Sacramento, CA 95814
James Buchal Murphy & Buchal LLP 3425 SE Yamhill Street,#100 Portland, OR 97214	Clerk of the Court Third Appellate District 914 Capitol Mall Sacramento, CA 95814

I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on November ______, at the following location: _________.

_________________________________ (Signature and Address)

Six inch Dredge For Sale

For Sale

Aug 022014

6-inch Proline dredge with 4^th-generation double-screen classification

Price: $20,000 (U.S.)

This is the most advanced 6-inch dredge ever built!

Dave Mack

By Dave McCracken

I came into this 6-inch Proline with very few hours on it from a friend, waiting years for the California moratorium to be lifted, who has finally retired from suction dredging. Master dredge builder, Gary Wright, and I have devoted countless evening hours (labor of love) turning this into the best 6-inch dredge ever built.

Click on thumbnail for larger image.

This 6-incher is a step up from my own Pro-Mack 5-incher (which is the 3^rd generation of double screen classification) largely because we have added a high-grade gold recovery section at the head of the box which recovers all the larger sized gold and has preliminary fine gold recovery section that can be cleaned up every day with minimal effort. This is a huge time saver because it allows you to leave the super-fine gold recovery sections alone (without any worry of gold loss from them) until they are worth the time to clean-up.

Two additional floatation modules have been added, along with decking so one or two people can get onto the dredge even when it is operating. The 263-Gast compressor allows for two divers. Very low hours on the twin 9-HP Honda motors with authentic Proline pumps (best in the world).

Click on thumbnail for larger image.

The most valuable part of this dredge is the double classification system. After the high-grader up front (which recovers an important portion of your daily gold), there is initially a 3/8-inch classification screen which allows all the larger-sized material to be immediately discarded as tailings. Under the 3/8^th in screen is an additional 1/8^th inch screen which allows another cut of the oversized material to be discarded into tailings. Material which drops through the 1/8^th inch screen (all of the gold that is not trapped in the high-grade section at the head of the box) is then washed across a combination of turned-up expanded metal over top of ribbed rubber matting. From years of extensive testing, we have found that it does not get any better than this for processing volume amounts of material through a suction dredge. This system and technology is basically priceless, since it only exists through custom-made fabrication by only a few people. The two classification screens are adjustable in height. This allows flows to be modified on all three levels according to the needs of different locations. Machining to allow these adjustments is by far the best ever done.

Here are some live videos which demonstrate this dredge:

Here is what is included:

6-inch Proline dredge platform with an extra set of pontoons on the front end (dredge is in brand new condition).
Non-slip decking to allow ease of movement and gear-storage on the platform.
T-tie-offs on all four corners
Twin 9-HP motors in brand new condition
263-Gast compressor with storage tank and pressure gauge that will supply air to 2 divers (brand new condition)
Tachometers on both motors so you can set the desired RPM’s.
Oversized 6-inch power jet and flare that will prevent nearly all plug-ups. Quick connect system allows the suction hose to be easily removed by triggering two snaps.
25-foot 6-inch suction hose in new condition.
Six-inch swivel nozzle with break-away flap in new condition.
Double-screen classification system for the best fine-gold recovery possible on a suction dredge, with a high-grade recovery system at the head of the box for quick and easy daily or controlled sampling.

This dredge is located in secure storage at Happy Camp, California (near the Oregon border). Viewing can be arranged by calling Montine during normal business hours at 530 493-2062.

We are (slightly) negotiable on the price in the event you are willing to pay in cash or gold. Full payment will be required in advance before the dredge is taken away; no exceptions!

Buyer must arrange shipping from Happy Camp, California. We can help dismantle the unit, or help load it onto your trailer.

Click on thumbnail for larger image.

New Era Productions, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California, 96039 USA. 530 493-2062 <montine49ers@goldgold.com>

We are Now Using Boats to Access the Richer Gold Deposits on The Far Side of the Klamath River! – June 2014

Newsletters

Jun 142014

New 49'er Newsletter

SECOND QUARTER, JUNE 2014 VOLUME 28, NUMBER 6

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

We have been on the lookout for a new place to do our Weekend Group Mining Projects for quite some time. This is because we have done every Weekend Project on the upper bar of our Mega Hole property at K-15A for the past five years. That amounts to 35 separate projects in just one area, even though we have 80+ miles of good mining property to choose from (It used to be 60 miles, but we have grown). We kept returning there because the Mega Hole property always produces gold for our projects.

We used boats a lot during our earlier years when there were not so many people on the projects. The truth is, with an occasional exception, the better gold deposits are always richer in the places that are more difficult to get to; especially those places that are just out of reach. This is the nature of gold, and is one of the reasons it is so valuable.

The upper gravel bar at the Mega Hole is still producing gold. All you have to do is dig in the remaining undisturbed areas and the gold will immediately start adding up. Our Weekend Project team leaders and I are just tired of going back to the same place over and over, again.

So a few weeks ago, Rich Krimm and John Rose, two of our Project team leaders, and I found ourselves looking at the extensive gravel bar on our new Elliot Bar property at K-25AB. We already know that the bar on the Highway-96 side of the river pays very well in the surface deposits alongside the river. The problem is that the existing trail down to the gold deposit is perhaps a little too difficult for some members that might arrive for a Weekend Group Project. We were expecting more than 70 participants on the first project of our season.

As a second alternative, we made plans to organize a small group of experienced members to meet up and make use of my jet boat to do some sampling on the far side of the river on our new A & D # 3 property at K-23AA. This is the property where a bunch of members did quite well last season, both in and out of the river. These numbers, by the way, identify each of our many properties on a published Claims Guide along with maps.

Dave in jet boat Claim A&D #3

Several days later, the day before Memorial Day, I found myself launching the jet boat with longtime supportive members, Rich Krimm, John Rose, Derek Eimer, Steve Jones, Sean Hart and Steve Kleszyk. Our initial target was the sizable gravel bar on the far side of the river at the top end of A & D #3. We chose this place because quite a lot of members have been doing well on the far side of the river about a half-mile downstream. John said a small family were prospecting on this upper bar last season. They told John they were pleased with the gold they were recovering. There is a pretty good trail going down to the river from the Highway 96 side of the river directly across from the gravel bar. There is also a huge pull-off for plenty of parking and camping. This place is nine miles downriver from Happy Camp.

Once our prospecting team arrived across the river with the jet boat, we scattered across the gravel bar and started sampling. Initial results were rather poor. Rich and I found a place where some rocks were tightly wedged together just above where we could see some exposed bedrock. We were wishing we brought a pry bar along. Our progress was moving along slowly. The results in our gold pans were not getting better as we dug deeper, which is also often the case when we are beginning from scratch in a new location.

John's Gold

We had been out there for perhaps thirty or forty minutes when John came over with a pan with maybe 15 or 20 gold colors in it. It was a good pan. It was a heck of a lot better than what the rest of us were finding. I felt this huge sigh of relief as soon as I saw the gold. The first moment of an important gold discovery always takes my wind away just for a moment. This is the moment of magical alchemy, when something of little value is suddenly turned into raw wealth. There are not very many other experiences in life that are so exhilarating. Derek followed just a few minutes later with about twice as much gold from a single pan. Eureka!

The rest of us immediately gathered up our prospecting gear and followed Derek and John to where they dug their samples.

It does not take very much gold in a sample pan to signal an important discovery. This is because the volume of material processed in the sample is very small. We then follow up with more tests to establish exactly where the gold is coming from. Further testing is done along the trail that leads to the richest material. Then the amount of gold in a single pan, or perhaps even a 5-gallon bucket, needs to be related to how much volume of material we can process once we get into production.

Initial strike with Derek

There are a few important lessons here that are worth pointing out: The first is that your chances of making a good gold discovery in a new place are vastly improved when you go out with a group. If Rich and I went out there alone, we may never have made the strike. Perhaps the most important lesson is to keep your ears and eyes open all the time when you belong to an active mining association like The New 49’ers. The reason Derek and John were sampling in that place was because they had watched where the family was mining last season. Once the rest of us got over there, we could see where the earlier prospectors had been scraping bedrock. John and Derek had just picked up where they left off, and that’s all it took.

Bedrock Blue pan

More than 100 colors from a single pan out of Rich’s vack machine

The location of the strike is in a transition between the lower gravel bar alongside the river and an elevated older gravel bar from some earlier time. The transition is mostly exposed bedrock with a thin layer of sand on top. The sand is loaded with fine gold, sometimes 100 colors or more to the pan. The bedrock is made up of decomposing shale which is very easy to break apart with a hand-pick (garden tool). Gold is also packed down into the shale about as far as you care to dig. The bunch of us spread out across several hundred feet of the bedrock transition, and our sample results were about the same wherever we dug the material. Talking about easy; all we had to do was dig a thin layer of sand and clean up the bedrock underneath. Every pan was producing a handsome showing of gold. We had arrived on the bar about an hour and a half earlier, and we had discovered a new place to do our Weekend Group Projects! Here is some video that captured the moment:

We got ourselves a brand new strike!

It is challenging to separate fine gold from volume-amounts of sand, difficult to accomplish with a normal high-banker. Ultimately, we pulled together three Le Trap fine gold recovery sluices and connected them to a single water pump down alongside the river. We normally use these Le Traps to concentrate the material from our high-banking and suction dredge recovery systems at the end of the day. They are very effective, but a bit slow to keep up with volume amounts of material. Derek also offered up his new Gold Well recovery system, which, I believe, is the most exciting gold processing system on the market at this time.

Then we pulled one of The New 49’er Colorado River rafts out of storage and pumped it up. We did not expect it to hold air. This was because we have not used the big rafts for about 6 years. But the quite sizable boat blew up like it was brand new! Then we added in the floor boards and pulled out the outboard engine. The outboard had been worked over just a few years ago. Once we got it started and ran it awhile, it sang like a well-oiled machine. Later that day, our whole prospecting team and some more members loaded everything up and hauled it down to A & D #3. That Colorado River Raft is so tough; we just slid it down the hillside and into the water.

Sampling team initial test pan

Gold recovered from a single bucket of pay-dirt

70+ members A few hours later, we had all the recovery gear set up on the far side of the river. John Rose wanted to do a small production run just to be sure everything was going to work when we arrived with an army of 70+ people. It is always better to be safe than sorry! We dug up a bucket of the sandy pay-dirt, directed it through an 8-mesh screen, and ran it across one of the Le Traps. The amount of gold we recovered gave us solid confirmation that we had made a fantastic gold discovery. Here is some video:

Not bad for a bucket

There were 78 members signed up for the project on Saturday morning. This was an enthusiastic, friendly bunch. We met over at the Happy Camp Grange Hall where I introduced our team leaders who would help manage the project. We are so lucky to have a bunch of experienced members that enjoy helping with these Group Projects!

I then provided the group with my talk on how to pursue a sampling program.

Members on the raft Rafting across the river

Once we all arrived out on A & D #3 on Saturday afternoon, it took less than 30 minutes for us to get everyone across the river in the raft. Our team leaders and I had preplanned how we would get everyone into and out of life jackets with no lost time, and also how we would launch and recover the raft on both sides of the river. All that went off without a hitch. Here is some video that captured the action:

Since we had already made the gold strike, the only real objective for my team on Saturday afternoon was to teach beginners how to pan for gold. We consider that as one of our most important responsibilities. This is because the whole sampling process comes back to effective panning skills. If you cannot pan, you cannot sample. If you cannot sample, the only way you are going to find high-grade gold is if someone else gives it to you!

Young boy having fun Members having fun

At least 2 nice nuggets were panned on Saturday afternoon!

We do a New 49’er potluck every Saturday evening during the summer months. This meant we needed to get all these people back across the river so they would have time to freshen up for the evening event. Once the beginners were all lined out, me and my team mates were eager to start transferring people back across the river. But they didn’t want to go! There was so much fine gold in their pan samples, just about all of them kept saying, “just one more pan.” We literally had to peel the last of them off the gravel bar late Saturday afternoon. Truthfully, I was worried some of them were going to hide over there so they could continue mining. There was no other way back across the river unless they wanted to swim. Gold does have that effect on people!

It was a full house at potluck on Saturday evening. The enthusiasm and excitement was so noisy, it was challenging for me to get the meal started! After a bunch of great food, we had a short meeting, did our weekly prize drawing, and let everyone go home earlier than normal. This is because we were planning to meet out on A & D #3 at 6:30 the following morning. We have found over the years that it is better to start early on Sunday so we can get most of the physical work done before the heat of the day sets in. The whole objective on Sunday is to come together in a well-organized team to process as much pay-dirt as we can.

By the time I finished ferrying everyone across in the boat, our team leaders had already positioned everybody into a well-organized production crew. Did you ever see the war footage of the American D-Day invasion? That’s what this reminded me of! This bunch was charging ahead to fill buckets with pay-dirt as fast as they could. There were people picking, digging, screening, vacking, carrying buckets, and feeding the recovery systems. The noise out there was almost deafening! The following video sequences captured the different parts of our production program:

I had left word up in the parking lot that I would return with the boat after a while for any stragglers. Thirty minutes or so later, I was stunned by a very directed shout from across the river. Sure enough, there were enough people over there for another boat load. It was lucky someone over there had a strong voice. By then, I was so involved with all the productive activity that I might never have remembered about stragglers!

Le Traps Smiling

Emily & I are loving this!

It is a good thing we brought Derek’s Gold Well recovery system to support this project. The easy digging in the sand and shale, along with the very substantial energy of this group, was producing screened pay-dirt several times faster than the three Le Traps could process the gold out of it. If you try to process sand too fast, you will overload the recovery system, and the gold will just wash out with the tailings. This crew was doing it just right. Excess pay-dirt was being directed to Derek’s crew on the Gold Well. And even the Gold Well could not keep up. That’s what happens when you have 70 people filling up buckets as fast as they can!

Derek's team Gold Well

Derek’s team operating the Gold Well

Mid-day clean-up!

We cleaned up the Gold Well and one of the Le Traps at about mid-day, just to see how we were doing – and the amount of gold was even shocking to me! This bunch was so jacked up; at least half of them did not even stop digging to take a look at the gold! The buckets just kept coming and coming. Pretty soon, we were filling extra wash tubs because we were running out of buckets!

We stopped the digging at around 11 AM. This was because we had already dug more pay-dirt than we would have time to process. The crew went around and filled the few holes we had dug. There were not many. This gold discovery is mostly resting on exposed, decomposed bedrock. In most places, after you scrape it off, you are left with clean bedrock and no hole to fill in! Eventually, we were all down watching the recovery systems struggle with more material than we could feed even if we stayed out there for another hour or two.

Get this: In nearly 30 years of doing these Weekend Group Mining Projects, this is the first time the digging crew ever supplied more pay-dirt than we had time to process! So I called a meeting to order out there on the gravel bar and made a motion that we split up the remaining pay-dirt into buckets and allow everyone who wanted a share to take it across the river to process at home. The motion was passed unanimously, and at least 30 buckets of pay-dirt were carried off towards the raft without any delay. The material disappeared so fast, it was as if it were never there!

Crew in production Alan

We met back at the Grange Hall at about 1:30 on Sunday afternoon, and all worked together to complete the final gold separation. Then we split the gold. It was the most fine gold I have ever seen on one of these projects. There were 10 small gold nuggets. In the end, we split off a half-ounce of gold between 70 participants. There were lots of smiling faces. That’s the part I like the most.

Final gold recovered Gold Extractor

Legal Update: Federal Preemption Decision Coming Soon!

As many of you are aware, our legal specialists have brought a federal preemption challenge in front of the Superior Court of San Bernardino. We also have a similar challenge in front of the Third Appellate District of California. We are arguing that the Supreme Court has already decided that the State does not possess the jurisdictional authority to prohibit suction dredge mining on the public lands, which is exactly what they have done with the existing Moratorium in California.

All of the briefs have been filed with the Third Appellate District, and they have just scheduled this 28 July for oral arguments concerning the Eighth Circuit’s Decision on federal preemption. This development is a hopeful sign that we are going to get the hearing we have been asking for on this very important matter. Here is how the Eighth Circuit weighed in. And here is a short update memo from our attorney.

If we win this important challenge, we suspect the Appellate District will instruct the State of California that they cannot cite prospectors for using suction dredges unless the activity violates reasonable and lawfully-issued permit regulations.

Meanwhile, in a completely separate case, we are making similar arguments challenging the existing Moratorium in front of the Superior Court of San Bernardino. If we win that motion, we anticipate that the judge may order the State of California to immediately resume issuing suction dredge permits. During a motion hearing last month, the judge Ordered that we attempt to settle all of the mining-related issues in front of him on June 24^th before he issues a Decision concerning federal preemption. Here is a short memo from our attorney which provides further explanation.
I will personally attend the mandatory settlement discussions alongside our attorney in San Bernardino in just a few weeks. Cross your fingers that this will lead to the judge deciding for us on the federal preemption motion.

Please take note that we only have 3 more weeks remaining in The New 49’er Legal Fund active fund-raiser. We will be giving away 25 gold and silver coins during our weekly potluck in Happy Camp on July 5^th. To date, the Legal Fund has only brought in $2,124 in contributions to support this fundraiser. That’s only somewhere around half the value of the gold and silver prizes that will be given away. Ouch! This will be the last newsletter we send out before the drawing. So I am I encouraging you to send in some contributions. This is how we generate the necessary funds to pay for legal support.

Thanks for all your support, you guys. I know you will all do your best. The fight would have been lost a long time ago if it were not for you!

Make a Legal Contribution

Join Us This Season on Our Weekend Group Mining Projects!

Our 2-day Group Mining Projects are one of the primary benefits of New 49’er membership which set us apart from other mining associations.

The remaining weekend events for the coming 2014 season are scheduled for June 21 & 22; July 12 & 13; August 2 & 3; August 23 & 24. These events are free to all members. We appreciate it if you contact our office in advance to let you know that you will attend: 530 493-2012.

Schedule of Events

We have free long term (dry) campgrounds available to participants who prefer to enjoy the complete outdoor experience. There are also private RV and other lodging options in and around Happy Camp for those of you who prefer more accommodations. The staff in our office will go out of their way to help you with your individual needs. Montine specializes in helping you guys get the most enjoyment from your visits to Happy Camp. Here are our contact details.

What We Can Do on Our Properties in California

Members have been calling in wanting to know what we can and cannot do these days for prospecting activity on our extensive property holdings in Siskiyou County. While I do not have a license to provide legal advice, I will follow with my own understanding of the current state of affairs.

1) We all know that suction dredging in the active waterways is closed until we overcome the existing moratorium in California. As explained above, this is presently being challenged in two separate legal proceedings. It is possible that either of these two challenges could be decided in our favor during the 2014 season.

2) Surface mining (high-banking) is still alright.You can do that on your own, or you can join in on our Weekend Group Mining Projects.

3) The State of California has adopted modified regulations which now define “suction dredging” as using any type of motorized vacuum or suction to excavate material off the bottom of a waterway. Therefore, the underwater suction gravel transfer systems we used last season will no longer be allowed until we overcome the suction dredge moratorium.

4) There is no problem with booming (motorized suction mining) 100 yards or more from the active waterway. There is also a way to boom using blowing methods (see below) which should not be affected by the 100 yard rule.

Please note that all surface mining activities on New 49’er properties are governed by our internal set of Surface Mining Guidelines.

5) Underwater crevicing is what most active members were doing within the waterways at the end of last season. Some were using the hookah and pump from their 5 and 6 HP motors on floating platforms to provide air for breathing and a jet of water to help blow material out of the way. Our attorney agrees this cannot be classed as “suction dredging” under California’s expanded definition.

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team. Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail. As an example, just a few years ago, in concert with other mining organizations, our Internet Action Team killed anti-mining legislation in Oregon in less than a week. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster. Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012 www.goldgold.com

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2014 Season is off to a Strong Start! – May 2014

Newsletters

May 132014

New 49'er Newsletter

SECOND QUARTER, MAY 2014 VOLUME 28, NUMBER 5

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

Story by Rich Krimm, Director of Internal Affairs

Panning in tub Gold in Pan

Lots of members have already arrived in Happy Camp to start the season off early this year. Our office and store in Happy Camp have been busy each morning even with some members waiting out front before the door is opened.

First time panner First gold

Craig and Alicia Hill finding their first gold last week up on Indian Creek

While more members are around, most people are only just getting started with mining activity. Jeff Hight and Stuart Allen have been doing pretty well working the bedrock down on the Ukonom Claim K-25AA recovering some very nice course gold. Jeff enthusiastically shared that he has already recovered as much gold this season as he has accumulated during the past four seasons. Further down river, I saw Jim Shannon at the Elliot Bar Claim K-25AB doing some diligent sampling out on the gravel bar where very few members have been. Dennis Turner has been doing very well for the past six weeks working at the Wingate River Claim K-23A. He has been working large cracks and crevices in the bedrock, classifying material that he takes back to his camp where he processes the material through a small recirculating high-banker.

Panner on river Gold in pan

I have seen members working at a number of claims from K-2A all the way down to K-25AB. Last week, four members spent several days at our long term camping area at Schutts Gulch K-11. They were high-banking on the gravel bar. Montine had a chance to talk to them before they left the area to go home. She says they were very pleased with the gold they recovered.

Gathering Indian Creek

Father & son John Rose, one of my Internal Affairs assistants, organized a gold panning outing up on Indian Creek just a few days ago, and at least ten people went along for a day of fun. John says everyone had a blast. They finished up the day with a great meal sitting around a campfire.

I talked to Derek Eimer and Dan Collins just a few days ago. They are working on some type of an underwater blowing system that they can use to uncover more of the extremely rich gold discovery they made last year on our new K-23AA property. Clearly they want to have their equipment ready to take advantage of this year’s low water opportunity. Other members have been preparing to begin using underwater blowing techniques — and also hand-operated suction devices to recover the gold from underwater cracks and crevices. This is going to be a great year for crevice mining both above and below the water!

Heightened river scene Low water

Speaking of low and slow water, I was coming downriver a couple of weeks ago and saw two kayakers paddling ‘up river’ faster than I could drift down river in the current. The current is now flowing almost 3,000 cubic feet per second slower than the average for this time of the year. The river is over three feet lower than where it should be. The Forest Service Snow Report for May 1^st shows several sites that normally record 28-to-55 inches for snow depth and water content at this time of the year. The most recent survey reveals there is no snow at these sites, which means there is no water. My guess is that the current and water level in the creeks and river are going to continue to drop through the summer. This will expose more areas that members can access for our gold prospecting activities.

Demonsration Over the past couple of years, a few members have shown some interest, and have actually used small boats and kayaks to prospect on the other side of the river. Lower and slower waters this year have caused several of our members to take that idea more seriously. A couple of the members are already making plans to coordinate their efforts and work together to place their vehicles in position so they can shuttle their equipment and kayaks after they drift the river sampling our claims on the far side. Stuart Allen told me that he called his girlfriend and asked her to bring his kayak down on her next trip. Stuart has convinced me to get my kayak out and join him.

We have been doing some concentrate cleanup sessions in front of the store on Friday mornings during the early spring for the past few seasons. Several pieces of cleanup equipment get set up and operated. This allows members a chance to see demonstrations of the latest innovations in mining gear and the processes. Quite a few members show up for these events. A couple of weeks ago, John Rose set up a rather large panning station, and even Montine from our office was out there showing off her panning skills! These Friday morning get-togethers also provide our members a chance to meet each other, drink coffee, eat donuts, and tell stories. Here are some video sequences we captured during the last event:

This coming Friday morning, we will be joined by Steve Herschback. Steve will be present to talk to members and answer questions about using our metal detectors for gold prospecting. Steve owned and managed Alaska Mining & Diving for many, many years, and is one of the world’s leading experts in electronic prospecting. Several members who have recently arrived have told me that they have metal detectors with them, and they are looking forward to talking to Steve to get some welcomed tips so they can become more efficient while using their equipment.

We have scheduled the Saturday evening potlucks at the Happy Camp Grange Hall to begin May 31^st. They will extend through August 23^rd of this year.

Legal Update: Federal Preemption Decision Coming Soon!

All of the briefs have been filed with the Third Appellate District. We are patiently waiting for them to issue a Decision. If we win this challenge, we suspect the Appellate District will tell the State of California that they cannot cite prospectors for using suction dredges unless the activity violates lawfully-issued permit regulations.

Meanwhile, in a completely separate case, we are making similar arguments challenging the existing Moratorium in front of the Superior Court of San Bernardino. If we win that motion, we anticipate that the judge may order the State of California to immediately resume issuing suction dredge permits. During the motion hearing several weeks ago, the judge Ordered that we attempt to settle all of the mining-related issues in front of him on June 24^th before he issues a Decision concerning federal preemption. Here is a short memo from our attorney which provides further explanation.

My best guess is that any such settlement would require all outstanding issues in front of the Court to be resolved once and for all. This is because they are all connected in one way or another to the preemption motion.

Don’t get your hopes up too high on a successful settlement agreement. I only suggest this because there are many different interests that would have to come together, some whose only interest is to prohibit mining on the public lands. Though the judge has ordered that we should try. So we will. He will preside over the settlement discussions.

I will personally attend the mandatory settlement discussions alongside our attorney in San Bernardino next month. Cross your fingers that this will lead to the judge deciding for us on the federal preemption motion.

Thanks for all your support, you guys. The fight would have been lost a long time ago if it were not for you!

Note that we only have a little more than a month remaining in The New 49’er Legal Fund active fund-raiser. The Legal Fund will be giving away 25 gold and silver coins during our weekly potluck in Happy Camp on July 5^th. To date, there has been very little participation. I encourage you to send in some contributions, since this is how we generate the necessary funds to pay for legal support.

Make a Legal Contribution

Join Us This Season on Our Weekend Group Mining Projects!

Running high-babker Happy smile

There is a learning curve to successful gold prospecting. One of the most effective methods of progressing through the learning curve is to go on prospecting trips with others who are further along on the curve than you are. We are fortunate in The New 49’ers that we have experienced members who take pleasure in going out and helping on the weekend projects.

Our 2-day Group Mining Projects are one of the primary benefits of New 49’er membership which set us apart from other mining associations. We started them during our second season in 1987 with the purpose of helping members to learn how to successfully prospect for gold on their own. Long since then, the weekend projects have evolved into fun events that many members attend just for the adventure and shared camaraderie with other members.

The weekend events for the coming 2014 season are scheduled for May 31 & June 1; June 21 & 22; July 12 & 13; August 2 & 3; August 23 & 24. These events are free to all members. We appreciate it if you contact our office in advance to let you know that you will attend: 530 493-2012.

Schedule of Events

We have free long term (dry) campgrounds available to participants who prefer to enjoy the complete outdoor experience. There are also private RV and other lodging options in and around Happy Camp for those who prefer more accommodations. The staff in our office will go out of their way to help you with your individual needs. Montine specializes in helping people get the most enjoyment from their visits to Happy Camp. Here are our contact details. On that note, if you prefer private accommodations, I suggest you don’t wait until the last minute. Sometimes they fill up!

What We Can Do on Our Properties in California

2) Surface mining (high-banking) is still alright.You can do that on your own, or you can join in on our Weekend Group Mining Projects.

4) There is no problem with booming (motorized suction mining) 100 yards from the active waterway. There is also a way to boom using blowing methods (see below) that should not be affected by the 100 yard rule.

Please note that all surface mining activities on New 49’er properties are governed by our internal set of Surface Mining Guidelines which are available from the office.

5) Underwater crevicing is what most active members were doing within the waterways at the end of last season, using the hookah and pump from their 5 and 6 HP motors on floating platforms to provide air for breathing and a jet of water to help blow material out of the way. Our attorney agrees this cannot be classed as “suction dredging” under the expanded definition.

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team. Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail. As an example, just two years ago, in concert with other mining organizations, our Internet Action Team killed anti-mining legislation in Oregon in less than a week. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster. Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012 www.goldgold.com

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Big Win for Underwater Suction Miners in California! – July 2013

Newsletters

Jul 142013

New 49'er Newsletter

THIRD QUARTER, JULY 2013 VOLUME 27, NUMBER 7

By Dave McCracken

Things got very busy for us this past month when we were provided just a few days of notice that California Department of Wildlife (DFW) intended to submit an application to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) to enact Emergency Regulations to broaden the definition of “suction dredge” in a way that would include the new method of underwater suction mining that we have developed. That would effectively eliminate our new activity as part of the existing Moratorium on suction dredging for gold in California.

Dave's program

Even after our attorneys made a very substantial legal presentation arguing that no “Emergency” exists within the law, OAL issued the following Decision on Friday afternoon, June 28^th:

“The Department of Fish and Wildlife (Department) submitted this emergency action to amend the definition of suction dredging in title 14, California Code of Regulations, section 228(a) for purposes of Fish and Game Code sections 5653 and 5653.1. In this context, suction dredging or suction dredge mining is a method of vacuuming material from rivers, streams, or lakes for the extraction of minerals. There is currently a statutory moratorium on suction dredge mining pursuant to Fish and Game Code section 5653.1 (b). The existing definition of suction dredging in section 228(a) is prescriptive and has resulted in members of the public evading compliance with the Fish and Game Code by modifying suction dredging equipment. The Department’s proposed amendment to the definition of suction dredging closes the loophole in the current definition in order to allow the Department to enforce its regulatory and statutory authority over suction dredge mining activities.”

The formal Rulemaking can be found here:

Most Gravel Transfer Devices pretty much look like this. We counted a total of 15 on over 100 miles of the Klamath River. Most were sitting idle. How is this an emergency?

Through quite a substantial effort, and some awful good teamwork over the weekend, we helped organize a lawsuit in Siskiyou County against the California Department of Fish & Wildlife on behalf of 20 local businesses just after lunch on Monday (1 July) – with an emergency hearing scheduled in front of a local judge on Tuesday at 1:15 PM. Our Motion was for an immediate Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to prevent DFW from enforcing the Emergency Rulemaking.

The Judge who presided over this case is the honorable Karen L. Dixon. Our attorney, James Buchal, drove down to Yreka from Portland, Oregon on short notice to make the case against the State. The DFW attorney appeared at the hearing by telephone. After listening to initial arguments on Monday, Judge Dixon continued the matter over to Tuesday afternoon, asking the attorneys to further brief her on matters of law with which she was not familiar.

In short, DFW was arguing that since this was a “suction dredging” matter, it should be transferred to the San Bernardino court which has already consolidated around 6 ongoing lawsuits concerning suction dredging. Our side was arguing that this was not about suction dredging at all; but about what constitutes an “Emergency” for the purpose of bypassing the normal rulemaking process in California which must consider the economic consequences of new regulations upon small business interests.

I want to thank everyone who attended the hearings in Yreka on both afternoons. The courtroom was filled to capacity on both days. I have the impression that this does not happen very often.

Here is the initial Order that was signed by the judge before we left the courthouse on Tuesday, 2 July. The Order granted the TRO we were hoping for.

Our motion was for a temporary restraining order (TRO) that would apply to all of California. But the issues are complex, as they always are; and Judge Dixon was only comfortable ordering a TRO for Siskiyou County. It is a step. This means we can continue with our underwater gravel transfer systems through the 30^th of July when Judge Dixon will consider a more permanent injunction. Both the Karuk Tribe and DFW are working furiously to get the Superior Court of San Bernardino to take this case out of Siskiyou County even as we go to press with this newsletter, so it is difficult to predict accurately when and where our motion for a permanent injunction will be heard.

I want to especially thank longtime supportive members, Mark Chestnut, Richard Krimm and Jim Foley for helping to make this all happen. Our attorney, James Buchal, dropped everything else for five continuous days to make it happen. We are so lucky to live in a community where all or most of the other businesses are willing to fight on our behalf to push back the harmful impacts from too much government and unreasonable regulation. Thank you to everyone who attended the hearings – and especially to all of you who provide financial support so we can cover the costs of doing battle, which are substantial.

I don’t think I have ever felt more proud than the moment when nearly everyone in the crowded courtroom erupted into a standing applause when the judge issued her ruling for our side. She looked pleased. Even the Siskiyou County Sherriff and his deputies were congratulating us for our win.

We pushed the machine back one click on the 2^nd of July. That was a big win for us. We should savor the moment since we have not had a win for a while. But the machine never stops grinding away at the traditional way of American life. Let’s not overlook that anti-mining advocates have already regrouped and are coming back at us, again.

If all remains as is, this next hearing on 30 July will determine if we can continue our underwater suction mining for the remainder of this season.

Legal Fund Drawing Winners

We did the drawing for our most recent legal fundraiser for 3 ounces of my personal gold nuggets at our Saturday evening potluck in Happy Camp on July 13 in front of a full house. Diane Pierce drew all the tickets. The winners are as follows:

One-ounce bag of gold nuggets: William J. Burrage.

Quarter-ounce bags of gold nuggets (4 prizes): Brigitte Mueller, Elvin Watkins, Douglas Hurt & Barb Pettigrew.

One-pennyweight bags of gold nuggets (20 prizes): William V. Gallagher, John Benson, Jan Craig, Ed Tillotson, Maury Hammond, Clifford Paul Ryland, William Pechtel II, Donald Barnhart, John R. Smith, Craig John Kitchen, Robert Dilworth, Uwe Mueller, Doug Carlson, Scott Gainey, Bill Ransom, Skipper J. Phagan, Lucas Scott, Justin David Haines, Jim Varonfakis & Ernist Bassi.

Drawing

Congratulations to all of the winners and thank you very much to everyone who participated. I want to especially acknowledge the substantial response to my calls during these final several days before the drawing. You guys really came through for us! It makes me very proud to know we have so many loyal supporters out there.

The substantial response has prompted Richard Krimm and me to put up 3 ounces of the gold we are mining on the Klamath River this season for the next drawing prizes.

Here is the next drawing!

Any contributions received after noon on July 13th will have automatically been issued tickets in this next fund-raiser.

2013 Season is Going Great!

Derek Eimer recovered a pocket of nuggets out of a single crack in the bedrock on K-23AA

Derek Eimer recovered a pocket of nuggets out of a single crack in the bedrock on K-23AA

We have so much activity centered around Happy Camp this season, the town almost looks like the bustling economy that it was in the 1980’s and 90’s!

There are some good gold strikes in play at the moment. We have done 2 very successful weekend Group Mining Projects on our Mega-hole property at K-15A, with another planned for this coming weekend.

There have been a lot of members doing surface mining on the far side of the river, and a few in the river (finding nice nuggets), along our new A & D #3 property at K-23AA. There is a New 49’er encampment there on the large pull-off along the side of Hwy 96.

There has also been quite a lot of action and excitement down on the new Middle Independence property at K-24A, where there is also a New 49’er encampment.

Here are some beautiful nuggets Cliff & Sandy Jones have been recovering with their high-banker!

I am also hearing of extraordinary gold strikes happening up on Indian Creek. These are just the highlights. There are members scattered all up and down our properties. Most of them are doing surface mining activity. At last count, there were only 15 underwater suction mining programs on over a hundred miles of the Klamath River (hardly a statewide emergency). My perception is that there are fewer now. Some of those initial guys have immigrated up to Oregon to operate suction dredges.

I am a little late with the newsletter this month partly because we have been devoting our creative resources to legal, and because I have also been spending some time on the bottom of the Klamath River prospecting for high-grade gold.

After 6 weeks of part-time sampling on K-24A, Rich Krimm (my mining buddy this season) and I finally struck high-grade just a few days ago. We are using an underwater gravel transfer device. The following video sequence shows how my device transfers material to a shaker box on a floating platform.

wide

Dave’s machine on the Klamath River

In all this time, I could not figure out what the heck was wrong. I knew the gold path was traveling down the east side of the river. Yet, our samples were uncovering excellent bedrock traps under fantastic original streambed (never been mined before). Our best day was little more than a quarter ounce. While many would be happy with that, I have vivid memories of how good it used to be. It used to be a lot better! All I could figure was that Richard and I were sampling between pay-streaks. So we kept sampling. We went from the top of the property more than a mile to the bottom – and then to the top, again.

Moving my platform back up to the top of the property for another try!

My old buddy, Al Copp, paid a visit just last week, and I took him on a boat ride, showing him all the places we sampled along K-24A. Al knows the property better than anyone, having recovered 800+ ounces of gold there during the “good old days” when we could use suction dredges. Al chuckled at my sampling choices, admitting that he made similar ones over the years — but it turns out that the high-grade gold path on K-24A is on the west side of the river (Hwy 96-side)!

Al told me if we just switched over to the west side of the river, we would be into high-grade gold right away. Rich and I swung our sucking unit over to the road side on the 4th of July, just after Siskiyou County decided we can continue suction mining out in the river. My first attempt found loose cobbles with sand around them under about 18 inches of hard-pack — probably from the 1997 flood. Those loose cobbles would have been from earlier dredging.

This gold came out of our initial sample, which was not much more than a pothole to see if we could reach bedrock!

Rich and I tried a second sample about 20 feet in front of the first. And while we found original streambed there, we had to eventually give up because the streambed material was too deep for us to reach bedrock. We devoted a full day to the effort.

Then we tried third sample 30 feet upstream and found bedrock in about four feet of material, the bottom two feet being original streambed. I’ll bet that streambed material has been there for 10,000 years! We spotted a nice nugget, maybe a pennyweight, as soon as we uncovered bedrock. Boy was that a game-changer! Our first two dives in opening this hole, maybe three hours of underwater time, nearly doubled the volume of gold we had recovered all season. There were 13 nuggets. We were seeing gold all over the bedrock. We even uncovered one pocket that the gold flakes just kept coming out of like a slot machine that was stuck in the bonus mode! It was fantastic! We recovered a half-ounce of gold just putting down a pothole!

We are in high-grade now!

This gold mostly came from a single dive once we organized our hole so we could work it safely!

We put 2 dives (underwater suction mining) in our new discovery a few days later. It was the second day in this deposit. We needed to devote the entire first dive to just opening and organizing the hole to make it more safe. This was because all we did on the first day was make a pothole straight down in the material to see if we could find bedrock.

We devoted the second dive to processing Klamath River original material on bedrock. We are now seeing gold in the material and on bedrock, even as we push out in the direction of the faster water. We recovered 3/4 of an ounce mostly from our second dive, which included 66 nuggets that were +10 in size. The largest nugget was just under a pennyweight. The following video sequence captured Rich and I talking about the excitement at this last week’s potluck:

We are into high-grade!

It looks to me like this pay-streak is going to be good! This is a strong demonstration of why it is so important for us to fight for the right to develop high-grade gold deposits which rest on the bottom of California’s waterways. If Richard and I can do it, so can you. And so can the generations of prospectors who will follow us. We should not allow misguided government officials take these opportunities away from Americans.

It turns out after all that the high-grade is on the Hwy 96-side of the river on K-24A. I’ll make some adjustments to the claims guide.

Oregon News

Despite our strongest efforts, Senate Bill 838 has now been passed through the Oregon legislature and is waiting for the governor’s signature. As I understand the law, it does not affect the present season, and the state agencies are continuing to issue suction dredging permits. We have members dredging up in Oregon at this time.

The new law, as amended, will affect the next two seasons by reducing the number of permits issued, impose distances between suction dredges, impose operating hours, and even require that suction dredging equipment cannot be left unattended on Oregon’s waterways. For a closer look, you can find the language of the bill right here.

My best guess is that there will be legal challenges to the new law since it is unlikely that the State of Oregon has the authority to dictate many of SB 838’s provisions on how mining is conducted on the public lands.

The prospecting associations in Oregon took the lead and did everything possible to kill SB 838. Thank you to everyone who participated in the effort to overcome this bad legislation. While we were not able to completely kill it, we at least have managed some time to challenge it in the courts.

Schedule of Weekend Projects for 2013

All members are invited to attend our weekend Group Mining Projects and keep an equal share of the gold that we recover. Here are our remaining events for 2013; August 3 & 4; August 24 & 25.

Schedule of Events

5-inch Dredge for Sale!

Speaking of contributions, two of our most supportive members recently donated a 5-inch Keene side-by-side triple sluice suction dredge, along with all of the extras, weight belts, wet suits, pry bars; even fuel containers – pretty much the whole package to get started. The gear is in good running condition, and is available $3,500 (about 3 ounces of gold). Please call Montine for more information: 530 493-2062.

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team. Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail. As an example, just two years ago, in concert with other mining organizations, our Internet Action Team killed anti-mining legislation in Oregon in less than a week. It is a near guarantee that we will be calling for another industry-wide action to defeat this new legislation being proposed in Oregon before you even see another of these newsletters. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster. Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012 www.goldgold.com

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Using a Swing Line to Anchor an Extended Suction Hose Further Out Into the River

Suction Dredging

Dec 022012

By Dave McCracken

I don”t know why it is; but more often than not, the very best gold is just out of reach. It is like the universe is putting us to the test to see if we deserve to find the really good stuff. I usually only gain access to rich deposits when I make the extra effort to get out where it is more difficult. This sometimes requires extreme effort! It takes a lot of discipline to exert extreme effort when you are not sure that what you are looking for is even going to be there. Your head has to be in the right place. But this is the way I find high-grade gold! High-grade comes easier to some others.

Towards the end of June on a recent season, Mark Chestnut, Jim Yerby and I found ourselves dredging for gold along a stretch of fast, deep water on the Rogue River about a mile below Gold Hill in southern Oregon without very much gold to show for the effort we had invested so far. Our two-week target to locate high-grade gold was nearly up, and all of us were beginning to feel like we were just spinning our wheels. You know that feeling? It’s like doing a heck of a lot of work for almost nothing!

I had seen several dredgers in this particular stretch of river during the previous season. And even though they said they were not doing very well, all their body language gave me the feeling like they were doing pretty well. The problem was that they were dredging way out in the middle of the river, a place which was going to be difficult to reach with the water still flowing high and fast. Nobody was dredging down there yet this season. Conditions were still too difficult.

I took the first dive on this particular sample, with Mark and Jim topside attempting to prevent the dredge from submarining while I was dredging the deep, fast center-part of the river. “Submarining”  is when the front of the dredge dips underwater and then gets forced down by the current, ultimately ending up with the dredge upside down in the water. I have been there and done that. It is not fun!

Submarining is a real concern when you are dredging in deeper water, because the weight of streambed material in a longer stretch of suction hose that is not sitting on the bottom of the river will sometimes pull the front of the dredge underwater. Fast, deep, water is even worse, because the strong current usually completely suspends the entire suction hose (placing all the weight of the suction hose on the front of the dredge), and the strong drag against the hose can cause nearly any dredge to take a dive. This was nothing new to our team, since we had already been sampling deep, fast water for two weeks.

A big rain storm upstream had caused the river to run turbid on this particular day. I only had about two feet of visibility on the surface. Doing the best I could, I crawled out into the river on a shallow shelf of some ancient cemented gravel. We have found that there is a lot of this “false bedrock” along the Rogue River.

The fast current swept the suction hose back as I was crawling out into the river with the suction nozzle in hand. I didn”t have any good traction on that slick surface, so I got dragged out with the hose, and was thinking, “Here I go again!'”

Extreme conditions require extreme solutions: This is not something I would advise others to do. But sometimes in dredging situations like this, the only way I have found to get out into the middle of the river is just allow the current to sweep me out there with the suction hose and hope that I will get dragged across something along the river-bottom that I can get a hold of. Then I start a sample hole from there. I do this by crawling straight up in front of the dredge to the end of my suction hose, in this case 25-feet upstream, with a firm grip on the suction nozzle.

Jim Yerby and Mark were managing the dredge on topside with ropes on this particular dive. Their objective was to allow the dredge to get pulled out as far towards the middle of the river as possible, without allowing it to do a full submarine dive. Then I made a full charge towards the middle of the river along the bottom as the current on the suction hose swept me around in a 25-foot ark.

Using this method, once I get out as far as I believe the circumstances will allow, I start trying to capture a hand-hold along the bottom without surrendering the suction hose to the current. Sometimes, I cannot make it happen and end up down below the dredge at the end of the suction hose. Sometimes I do not make it on the first try, but I see a starting point that I can try for on another attempt.

I know this method may seem risky to some people. And it is. There is risk anytime you do something in the water. For some, it is more risky than for others. The more extreme the conditions are, the less margin there is for error or surprises. I almost drowned on a project in Cambodia several years ago when I was using this very same method and my airline got caught around the base of some boulders, trapping me out in the fast water with my air supply kinked off. That was a close one!

The thing is, we could have just waited two or three weeks to sample this section of the Rogue, and most of the serious risk to Mark and I would have been reduced with the slower, summer flows. But we didn’t want to wait; we wanted to get into some high-grade!

When I swept around into the fast water in this place, I was immediately surprised to discover that the shelf ended and the river dropped straight down about 12 feet to the bottom of the river. While in free-fall from the shelf, with the poor visibility, I had no idea how deep it was going to go. It was pretty scary. This, by the way, is one of the reasons we tie our suction hose off to the dredge with rope. Worst case, if all else fails, I can always try and shimmy up the 25-foot suction hose to safety.

The sudden drop into deep water shook me up a bit. But with 90 pounds of lead strapped to my waste, all I could do is go with it and hope my ears would clear with the increased pressure. Fortunately they did. Visibility was only about a foot in the deeper water. So I landed on the bottom before I even saw it.

It took a few seconds for me to reset my internal foundations (get over the trauma and fear). My air supply was still working alright and warm water was flowing into my suit. This meant that I had not sunk the dredge when I dropped over the edge with a death-grip on the suction nozzle. That was good! Mark told me after the dive that he had to put his full body weight on the backside of the dredge to keep it from submarining when I got dragged off the shelf with the suction hose.

It is good to have good support when you attempt difficult operations like this! Here is an introduction to Mark Chestnut. We have been dredging together off and on since 1987, and even had a great adventure together in Borneo:

Mark Chestnut Intro

While the fast water was pulling really hard on my suction hose, I was able to maintain a fixed position on the bottom of the river and get a sample hole started. This is always the most challenging part, because you have almost nothing to help you hold a position on the bottom of the river. Once you get a hole going about the size of a wash tub, things get quite a bit easier. I don’t really mean “easier.” I mean less difficult. Sometimes, holding the suction hose against fast waster can require so much effort that my arms go numb. But if I let go of the suction hose, chances are that I will never be able to get the hose back into the sample hole unless I start all over again with the hose up in front of the dredge and make another jump for it. It is easier (less difficult) to just tough it out and capture the sample on the first try!

This sort of extreme sampling is something we do in a first effort to find high-grade in fast water or on a wide section of river. Then, once we find the gold deposit that we are looking for, we try and rig up something different so that we can work the deposit with less physical effort all at once.

Along the bottom of the river, I found hard-pack which was so compacted that I first thought it was the cemented gravel. But it wasn’t. The material came apart with some effort. The hard-pack here was only about two feet deep, sitting right on top of the cemented gravel. Cemented gravel in this area would require more than a suction dredge to pull apart. Water visibility on this day was too poor for me to slow down and look for gold. So I invested all my effort into sucking a sizable amount of material through the dredge.

My arms were exhausted after about an hour of holding the suction hose against the strong current. I had sucked enough material to get a good idea of how much gold was present. So I let the suction hose go and surveyed the steep cliff towards the side of the river to try and find a route back to the surface. There wasn’t one! You cannot just swim up there wearing 90 pounds of lead, and you cannot jump that far. If I tried jumping for it, the strong current would sweep me to the end of my airline even before I touched down on bottom, again! That would not be good.

This drop-off from the shallow shelf on the side of the river was like a vertical underwater cliff. Poor visibility prevented me from seeing how far it was to the top. There was no way that I could find to get up the cliff except to try and pull myself hand-over-hand by holding onto rocks protruding from the cemented gravel which provided poor, slippery hand-holds. The current swept me off the wall twice and I ended up down at the end of my airline, a place I do not like to be. This is the same as being at the very end of a rope over a bottomless pit. I just barely made it to the surface on the third try. This was a dangerous place to dredge!

Here was the gold from a handful of material from the upper-end of the sluice; definitely a good sign!

We were totally surprised to see how much gold was in the clean-up! Nearly all of the gold was in the form of tiny flakes. The bottom of the river here was packed with fine gold! We still needed to do another sample to confirm the deposit was more than a small star-burst. I have turned up good initial sample results a number of times, only to find out afterwards that there was no workable high-grade deposit present. But a second positive sample in near proximity is usually something to get excited about. Still, Mark, Jim and I were feeling pretty good about this. It was the best sample we turned up in two weeks of effort. Our level of enthusiasm had been turned up a notch or two.

The water in the river had cleared up quite a bit by the following day. We moved the dredge forward some distance and repeated the same exercise with me getting dragged off the shelf by the strong current into the depths of the Rogue River. It was all easier the second time, because I was expecting the steep drop and I could also see better on the bottom with four or five feet of visibility. Still, it was everything I could do to get the sample done while holding 25-feet of 5-inch suction hose suspended against that strong current. The results from the second sample were about the same, millions of small flecks of beautiful gold! We found a new pay-streak!

Mark Jim Yerby captured our excitement in the following video sequence shortly after we confirmed the gold deposit:

Made A Hit!

From earlier experience, we already knew the Rogue River is loaded with fine gold. So I had retrofitted this 5-inch dredge with a special double-screen classification system; the purpose which is to direct finer particles of gold into a more-protected, slower-moving recovery system where smaller-sized gold can drop out.

The best way to see how well a new recovery system is working is to dredge a bunch of gold into it. Mark, Jim and I took our time to establish where most of all this fine gold was stopping in my box. Fortunately, most of it was in the top third. And there was almost zero gold in the final portion of the box. Things were looking good!

Recovering Fine Gold

The big, remaining challenge we faced was how to work this new pay-streak out in the middle of that fast, deep water. When we have faced this problem on our properties along the Klamath River, we usually used boulders along the river bottom to anchor the suction hose to the bottom. But I was not seeing any boulders to use as anchors along the bottom of the Rogue in this area. We had to come up with some other way to reduce the pull of the suction hose out there in the middle of the river.

Our initial idea was to couple an additional 15 feet of suction hose onto our existing hose, increasing the entire length to 40 feet. The idea was to anchor the coupler out in the river with a long pendulum line (“swing line”) that we could angle out from a tie-off upstream on the side of the river. This worked pretty well on the next sample which I dredged, but still did not help me get out into the river as far as I wanted to go. So then we strapped a 60-pound weight belt to the coupler to hold it to the bottom of the river. The combination of the swing line and weight belt out on the coupler then enabled us to anchor the coupler pretty-much as far out into the river as we wanted to go. This allowed us 15-feet of working suction hose on the bottom of the river that was relatively unaffected by the (very) fast water. This has evolved into a standard way to rig our dredges so we can work out in the middle of this or any other wide river. Here follows Mark’s visual demonstration of this new rigging method:

Adding 15 feet

Mark's first cleanup Important note: You have to be extra careful when working with any ropes in moving water to make sure there are no loose ends or unattached lengths of rope that you or your airline can get caught up in. When working in deep and/or fast water like this, you should also rig your airline so that it does not end up wrapped around anything or become caught up in any way that will prevent you from reaching the surface in an emergency. And you should never attempt doing things that you are not comfortable with. Safety is a personal matter. You are the one who is most qualified to know what your limits are. These stories I tell about the things that I personally do are not meant to be an encouragement for you to reach beyond your own capabilities.

Jim pointing to Mark’s first clean-up. Not bad!

Our first clean-up weighed in at 1.9 ounces. This was a good start, so we paused to congratulate each other that we had met our initial target of establishing a new high-grade pay-streak within the first two weeks of the season, even if it was on the 14th day.

A day later, we rigged Mark”s 5-incher with the same coupler concept and a swing line supporting an additional 15-feet of suction hose. We launched Mark out into the middle of the river about 80 feet downstream of my dredge. He was into good gold on the first day!

Here is where you can buy Gold Prospecting Equipment & Supplies.
Here is where you can buy a sample of natural gold.
Suction Dredging for Gold
Fast Water Dredging
Production Gold Dredging
Tuning Into the Wavelength of Success
Never Give Up Hope!
Schedule of Events
Books & Videos by this Author

Animal Planet Special! – August 2012

Newsletters

Aug 062012

New 49'er Newsletter

THIRD QUARTER, AUGUST 2012 VOLUME 26, NUMBER 8

By Dave McCracken

I recently teamed up with Discovery Network and four other specialists to participate in an adventure-packed expedition to locate the famous Golconda diamond mines of India. Lost for maybe 250 years, the world’s most famous diamonds originated from these very same mines, including the Hope Diamond.

India Diamond Crew Dave Mack

The (very) challenging project forced our team to overcome a myriad of obstacles, including extreme weather, treacherous locations on land and in water, venomous snakes, crocodiles and language barriers, all within a culture that is rife with superstition and an unshakeable belief that anyone who attempts to find the lost mines would be cursed.

Pro-Mack Diamond Dredge

We constructed and shipped a very special suction dredge to India from Happy Camp, California to support this project. While you will have to watch the show to see how it all plays out, I believe you will be pleased with the expanded exposure to suction dredging as a means to uncover fortune and economic opportunities.

I personally believe a big part of moving the legal and political realities more in our favor is to increase awareness broadly about what we do. Surveys show that most people like the idea of being able to go out and discover fun and fortune. The Discovery specials on suction dredging in Alaska are also helping a lot with this.

It is with this in mind that I have devoted a big portion of this last year pulling my very best prospecting stories together in a new adventure book titled, “Extreme Prospector.” This is now available on Amazon as an ebook for half price at $9.95. Conventional printed books will be available in November.

Extreme Prospector Book Cover

2012 Annual Dues Billed This Month

We bill $50 for annual dues to all Full Members in August. This is because most of the costs, especially property taxes, associated with maintaining our extensive mining properties come due before September. The Bureau of Land Management just substantially increased annual filing fees to hold mining properties. So we thank you for your support on this!

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

We strongly encourage you to sign up for the free on line version of this newsletter. The Internet version is better, because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories.

Sign up for our Free Internet Newsletter!

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012
www.goldgold.com

Making the Most out of Your Effort! – May 2012

Newsletters

May 072012

New 49'er Newsletter

SECOND QUARTER, MAY 2012 VOLUME 26, NUMBER 5

By Dave McCracken

Happy smiles Running high-banker

Successful gold mining on any scale must be accomplished in two separate steps. The first is prospecting. We also call this “sampling.” We sample to try and find a high-grade deposit. The idea is to not invest very much of your time into any given location until you find something that is going to pay off. Once we find a good location through sampling, we switch gears into what we like to call “production.” During the production phase, we try and process as much of the high-grade material as possible given our rather limited resources.

Nearly the entire focus of our Weekend Group Projects is on these two phases. And it was no different on this particular project. After reviewing the theory Saturday morning using a backboard demonstration, all 48 of us met after lunch out at our famous K-15A property, otherwise known as the “Mega-hole.” While the theory is important, nothing can compare to actually doing it out along the river with experienced prospectors.

Once out on the river, the first thing we always do is provide a substantial demonstration on how to take a proper sample. Sampling is not just about shoveling some streambed material in your pan. You have to focus on gathering up targeted material. Since we know that the gold on K-15A is concentrated directly on top of a special brown layer which is about a foot deep in the streambed, the best sample will be from filling our gold pan with that particular material. We do this by first shoveling aside the material which is on top. Once we get down to the target area, we carefully gather up the material which is in the contact zone between the two different layers.

Then we pan that material very carefully. We need to be careful, because the sample is so small. We cannot afford to lose a single speck of gold if we want to have an accurate look at how much gold is in the contact zone. Sometimes a sample pan will just turn up a few specks. Seeing those specks might prompt you to take a few more samples. Then one of those additional samples might show a better result. The better result might prompt you to process 25 or 50 buckets of the target material through your high-banker to see how good the area really is. This is how high-grade deposits are found.

Sample result Showing gold

After providing this group with a sampling and panning demonstration, we passed the pan around to show how much gold we recovered. It was better than an average result. Doing this provides newcomers a baseline in two important ways:

1) They can compare how much gold they get in their own pan samples to what they saw me recover. Then they have an idea if they are getting an acceptable result.

2) They will be able to compare how much gold we get in our single sample pans to the amount of gold we recover when processing the same material in volume on the following day. Tying the sample result to the production result gives a prospector judgment in what he or she is looking for during prospecting.

After seeing my result, this enthusiastic group spread out across the bar and started doing their own pan samples. Thankfully, I had eight experienced members helping me with this particular project. While half of them were helping beginners with their panning techniques, the others set up our high-bankers for the following day. A “high-banker” is a gold recovery system which can be set up some distance from the waterway, which will process much more volume than a gold pan. This means pay-dirt does not have to be carried very far, or can actually be shoveled directly into the high-banker.

About half of the participants in this project were beginners. So my helpers and I stayed out on the bar on Saturday afternoon until everyone out there was panning correctly. Since many were recovering their first gold, which was theirs to keep, there were still plenty of people going hard at it when we departed.

Saturday night potluck at the Grange Hall in Happy Camp lured in most of the participants, along with plenty of other members who either live in the area or were doing their own mining programs. There was more food to go around than we needed, and morale was very high – which always makes me happy. We had a short meeting and ended with a prize drawing. These weekly potlucks have been a New 49’er tradition during our busy months all the way back to our first season in 1986.

We were shifting over into a production mode on Sunday. So my helpers put their “Team Leader” hats on and split the whole bunch of people down into smaller, more efficient groups. We started early, about 7 o’clock, so we could get most of the hard work done before the worst heat of the day was upon us.

Connie People digging

All of the gold we recover on Sunday goes into a common bucket. Everybody who helps will get an equal share at the end of the day. The production focus on Sunday switches to volume of the target material. We want to fill buckets with as much pay-dirt as we can, and process it through the high-bankers. Having said this, there are three important points that we stress:

1) Processing volume is most-effectively accomplished by reaching way out and dragging a bunch of material into the hole. We call this a “top cut.” Once in the hole, it is easy to remove oversized rocks from the loose material and shovel the remainder into buckets. Then we do the same thing again with a “mid cut.” The wider you are making the top cut, the easier it is to take apart the puzzle of rocks that are wedged together. This method is much faster than just working one rock loose at a time, a practice we refer to as “nitpicking.” Here are some demonstrations from me of how to use a hand-pick to get optimum results:

Three guys

2) It is important to not fill the buckets with low-grade material. By this, I mean loose sand or gravel on the surface seldom have enough gold to justify being processed through a high-banker. But because beginners want to feel productive, sometimes we really have to impress upon them to stop filling buckets with non-producing material. Since we will be feeding the high-bankers at full capacity, every bucket of worthless material will subtract from a bucket of pay-dirt. This will directly affect how much gold we will recover at the end of the day. The same principle applies to the material which is below the contact zone. The amount of gold we will recover is directly related to how much of the target material that we process. Here is Ray Derrick’s explanation of the way we like to do it:

Ray Derrick

Feeding high-banker

3) To get the most out of a high-banker recovery system, you must supply it with a steady feed. Dumping a whole bucket in there at once will overwhelm the system, and some of your gold will wash right out into the tailings. You can tell where maximum capacity is by watching to make sure the riffles do not get overwhelmed and pack up. Here follows Richard Krimm’s explanation of the proper way to feed a recovery system:

Feeding High-banker

We normally do not break for lunch on Sunday. It is understood that everyone will take breaks whenever they need them. Otherwise, we just try to keep the high-bankers running. When they run out of fuel, it gives us an opportunity to clean out a front portion of the recovery system from one of the high-bankers. We work this down in a pan and show the gold around to all the participants. This goes a long way to convince everyone that their effort is adding up to something good. It also always motivates another 150 or 200 buckets of pay-dirt after we refuel. The following video segment captured the mid-day look at how we were doing:

Mid-day Clean-up

Pan of gold It starts getting pretty hot out on the bar by about noon. So that’s normally about the time we are shutting things down and going into our final clean-up stages. By “clean-up,” I mean removing the gold and other heavy concentrated material, mostly iron, from the recovery system, and going through a step-by-step process to reduce it all the way down to just the gold. We begin this process out on the bar; but the final part, and the gold split is completed in Happy Camp.

The main purpose of these Weekend Projects is to expose our members to all of the essential parts of a successful small-scale gold mining program. It begins with sampling. Then it switches to production. And then we go through the final clean-up, separation, weighing and gold split. All participants are invited to participate in every step.

In all, we recovered 285.5 grains of beautiful gold. That’s about 6/10ths of an ounce, or about $1000 at today’s gold value. Not too bad for less than four hours of production work. There were also 23 natural gold nuggets. There were a lot of smiling faces as we split the gold evenly amongst the participants.

Final gold

High-banking in California this Season

While Oregon is more user-friendly towards suction dredging; our best high-banking opportunities remain along our extensive properties on the Klamath River in northern California. Therefore, Our Weekend Group Mining Projects will take place during 2012 near our headquarters in Happy Camp. They are scheduled as follows: June 2 & 3; June 23 & 24; July 14 & 15; August 4 & 5; August 25 & 26. These events are free to all active Members, and everyone is invited to attend. Please contact our office in advance to let us know you will be there: (530) 493-2012.

2012 Schedule of Events

New Legal Fund Prize Drawing

On behalf of The New 49’ers and some individual members, our attorney filed a legal challenge to California’s new dredge regulations last month in concert with a “takings” claim against the State of California. If we cannot overcome the incredibly-restrictive regulations, then we will force the State to buy all of the mining properties which have been rendered valueless. Defending the rights of small-scale miners, this now places us in three separate litigations, in three separate jurisdictions. Since costs are mounting, we greatly appreciate your participation in our legal fund drawings!!

Gold Eagle Coins

We will be giving away 15 prizes in our new legal-fund raiser:

Grand Prize: 1-ounce American Gold Eagle
Four ¼-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1/10^th-ounce American Gold Eagles

The drawing will take place at our weekly potluck in Happy Camp on Saturday, 7 July (2012).

The girls in our office automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution that we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win. Contributions can be called in to our office at (530) 493-2012, or they can be mailed to The New 49’ers, P.O. Box47, Happy Camp, CA 96039. Or you can do it on our web site by going here: Make a Donation

2012 Group Insurance Policy

All Members are eligible to sign up for $10,000 of accidental medical Insurance which covers you while camping, prospecting for gold, and also during any activities which we sponsor. Dental accidents are included, along with $2,500 for accidental death or dismemberment. The policy has a $100 deductable. It is an annual policy which extends through January of 2013. This insurance is available for $30 per year, per person. More information can be found here.

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter: We strongly encourage you to sign up for the free on line version of this newsletter. The Internet version is better, because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories.

Sign up for our Free Internet Newsletter!

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012
www.goldgold.com

Having a Blast and Finding Gold on the Klamath! – April 2012

Newsletters

Apr 112012

New 49'er Newsletter

SECOND QUARTER, APRIL 2012 VOLUME 26, NUMBER 4

By Dave McCracken

Clean Up Diggers

I have been managing these weekend group mining projects for the past 26 years. All this experience has taught me that every single group has its own chemistry. There are probably a lot of different things that contribute to this; the different personalities, the weather, how the bigger world is doing at the moment, and perhaps even how I am feeling. But every group is different.

We always begin with a morning of theory on Saturday. This gives me an opportunity to size up the participants and the group-chemistry, organize things with my experienced helpers and provide a presentation of the long-proven procedures that we have developed to find gold. We call this a “sampling plan.”

These days, we do the initial meeting and the morning presentation at the Grange Hall in Happy Camp. Nearly everyone was already present there when I showed up at about 9 AM. And I knew even before I got out of my car that this was going to be a lively bunch. They were already having a lot of fun. This is all good; because my seasoned helpers and I know how to direct all that enthusiasm into the hard work which would be necessary later in the day, and especially on Sunday.

After going over the weekend plans and covering the theory on sampling, I always take time to answer everyone’s questions before we break for lunch. But this time, I had to cut it short with this lively group or we would not have had time for lunch! I know the participants are really into it when they are asking all the right questions.

Digging Rich Krimm

Saturday afternoon found us all up at k-15A, otherwise known as the Mega Hole. This is one of our more popular high-banking areas. By high-banking, I am talking about mining up out of the water. We also have a very popular camping area at K-15A. This makes it convenient for participants to just walk down to the gravel bar where we are doing the project. K-15A is quite a long mining property. Over the many years, we have done plenty of weekend and week-long mining projects there, on both sides of the river. The property has been very productive for us, and we are lucky to have it.

On this particular project, we were up towards the upper-end of the property. We have been doing these weekend events there, because boats are not required when we have larger groups, and because there is this very distinct brown layer which is usually only a about a foot deep into the gravel bar. We get lots of nice gold right off the top of that layer!

There’s your Layer Change!

I am lucky to have a bunch of experienced members who enjoy coming out and helping me to organize these events. With their help, we split the larger group into smaller ones, each with one of my helpers as a team leader. The team leaders went out and did some sampling in advance on Saturday morning, while the rest of us were still busy at the Grange Hall. So, when we showed up out on the gravel bar on Saturday afternoon, my helpers just pointed to several hot-spots where I could provide a sampling and gold panning demonstration. It’s always better if I turn up some gold in the sample. This gets everyone motivated to find more gold!

Participants get to keep any gold they find on Saturday afternoon. So after seeing the gold from my sample, this group went right to work. It wasn’t long before people started showing me the gold in their pans. For many, these weekend projects provide the first gold they ever found. “First gold” is always the most precious! I still remember my first gold. It didn’t come this easy! But it was still a very magic moment. So I enjoy this part as it unfolds, sharing the “first gold” moments with others, watching for the sparkle in their eye at the first moment of realization. I love my job!

Resting USA Scarf

Really, we were just going through the motions out there on Saturday afternoon. My helpers had already confirmed where we were going to dig on Sunday. So we devoted the afternoon assisting beginners to dial in their gold panning techniques. It’s not that panning is difficult. It just takes a little practice to teach your body the correct motions. This bunch was catching on fast!

As the afternoon progressed, we set up the high-bankers close to the places where we would dig pay-dirt. We wanted everything to be ready for an early start on Sunday morning. This is because we like to get most of the physical work done before the summer heat of the day sets in.

A high-banker is a portable sluicing device, like an aluminum trough with baffles (called riffles) along the bottom edge. Since gold is 5-to-6 times heavier than normal gravel and sand, it gets trapped in the riffles, while the lighter material is washed through by water. Because water is pumped to it, the recovery system of a high-banker can be set up close to the dig-site. This eliminates the need to pack the pay-dirt closer to water.

After getting everything set up, my helpers and I left to go get set up for the evening meal. There were a bunch of participants lagging behind out there still panning for gold. Some of them probably stayed until dark!

Nearly everyone met up back at the Grange Hall that evening to participate in our Saturday evening pot-luck. These pot-lucks are a tradition that dates all the way back to 1986 when we started The New 49’ers. Mostly, they are just get-togethers. Lots of members come. We have a great meal, enjoy each other’s company, exchange helpful information and do a prize drawing. Mostly we just have a good time.

Workers High-banker

Almost everyone was out on the bar ahead of me on Sunday morning. The team leaders had everyone organized, and Rich Krimm informed me that two or three hundred buckets of pay-dirt had already been processed. This was good! Man, there was a lot of productive activity going on. The enthusiasm was infectious. I’m not sure I have ever seen so many people having so much fun playing in the dirt! Here are some explanations of what was going on:

Since most of the work gets done before lunch on Sunday, we just encouraged the flow of material from off the top of that brown layer, into buckets, and through the high-bankers. The harmonious sound of picks, shovels, rocks being tossed out of the way and material being poured into the high-bankers is like music to my ears. There was a lot of laughing and joking going around. Morale was high out there. This always makes me feel good!

This is American Mining!

We don’t normally shut things down for lunch on Sunday. People just take breaks when they are ready. We usually only stop when the water pumps run out of fuel. This also gives us an opportunity to clean-up one of the high-grade portions a one of the high-bankers. A “high-grader” is a smaller portion of the high-banker that recovers perhaps about 50 percent of the gold. Because it can be cleaned up fast, you can get a good idea how an area is producing when you run production samples. A few hundred buckets is a pretty substantial sample!

Nuggets Onlookers3

Rich made quick work of recovering the gold from one of the high-graders. Then he made sure to take it around and show everyone out there on the work site. You would have thought we were at a sports event the way everyone was cheering. The hard work was really paying off!

We actually do this on every project so everyone can see how their physical energy is being converted into Mother Nature’s most-favored treasure – gold! This always motivates at least another few hundred buckets once the pumps get fueled up. But on this day, the group never stopped filling buckets even while we were preparing for a second run. They only stopped digging when they saw that others were cheering over the gold! The following video sequence captured how jacked up this bunch was:

All Jacked Up!

So that we can be completely finished by dinnertime on Sunday, with everything put away and the gold split up, we like to end off on the dig by about noon. This was a real struggle with this group, because they just wanted to keep digging. I imagine some of them would still be out there digging if we didn’t shut the high-bankers down!

Le Trap Onlookers

After cleaning out the high-banker recovery systems, we ran the concentrated material over a special “Le-Trap” sluice that we use to reduce the amount of iron with no loss of gold. It is always a treat to watch the gold accumulate in the riffles. Some of the participants were wondering where the ice cold beer was! But that would have to come later, since we were not yet finished with our day. Here are two video sequences which captured a Le Trap demonstration, and also the fun we were having during clean-up:

After back-filling the holes we had dug out on the bar, we made plans to meet back up at the Grange Hall where we would finish the clean-up and split the gold.

Let me just say that this is real mining. The participants get to assist in every step along the way. In addition to being part of the process, the experience rubs off on all the participants, allowing everyone the knowledge to do it on their own. I demonstrate the process exactly how I do it in my own mining programs.

Final gold Onlookers2

Once we got it all separated and cleaned up, our work from several hours of hard work that morning produced 290 grains of gold, which is 6/10ths of an ounce. That’s around a thousand dollars, and it would have bought us plenty of beer. And pizza, too! There were also 21 nuggets, the largest being 6 grains. We split it all up evenly between the 43 participants, and I’m not sure I have ever seen a happier bunch of people!

High-banking in California this Season

2012 Schedule of Events

New Legal Fund Prize Drawing

Gold Eagle Coins

We will be giving away 15 prizes in our new legal-fund raiser:

Grand Prize: 1-ounce American Gold Eagle
Four ¼-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1/10^th-ounce American Gold Eagles

The drawing will take place at our weekly potluck in Happy Camp on Saturday, 7 July (2012).

We greatly appreciate help from you in regenerating our legal fund!

2012 Group Insurance Policy

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The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012
www.goldgold.com

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Six inch Dredge For Sale

6-inch Proline dredge with 4^th-generation double-screen classification

Price: $20,000 (U.S.)

This is the most advanced 6-inch dredge ever built!

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Big Win for Underwater Suction Miners in California! – July 2013

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Using a Swing Line to Anchor an Extended Suction Hose Further Out Into the River

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Animal Planet Special! – August 2012

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2012 Annual Dues Billed This Month

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Making the Most out of Your Effort! – May 2012

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High-banking in California this Season

New Legal Fund Prize Drawing

2012 Group Insurance Policy

Having a Blast and Finding Gold on the Klamath! – April 2012

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High-banking in California this Season

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Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

K-17A – China Point Claim

PLP President, Jerry Hobbs, Passed Away on December 28

Proline Donated a 4-inch Dredge to Our Next Legal Fund Drawing!

Join us for our Weekend Group Mining Projects Next Season!

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6-inch Proline dredge with 4th-generation double-screen classification

Price: $20,000 (U.S.)

This is the most advanced 6-inch dredge ever built!

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Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

Legal Update: Federal Preemption Decision Coming Soon!

Join Us This Season on Our Weekend Group Mining Projects!

What We Can Do on Our Properties in California

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Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

Legal Update: Federal Preemption Decision Coming Soon!

Join Us This Season on Our Weekend Group Mining Projects!

What We Can Do on Our Properties in California

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By Dave McCracken

Legal Fund Drawing Winners

2013 Season is Going Great!

Oregon News

Schedule of Weekend Projects for 2013

5-inch Dredge for Sale!

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By Dave McCracken

By Dave McCracken

2012 Annual Dues Billed This Month

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By Dave McCracken

High-banking in California this Season

New Legal Fund Prize Drawing

2012 Group Insurance Policy

By Dave McCracken

High-banking in California this Season

New Legal Fund Prize Drawing

2012 Group Insurance Policy

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6-inch Proline dredge with 4^th-generation double-screen classification