Little league, and Don't Know go Mining: A sad but often repeated tale

Summer 2008

Little league tested his ground, and ran out to buy a big 15,000 pound bulldozer,
it even has the backhoe attachment. He bought a sluice box, and now has no money
left to haul it to the claims, no money left for fuel, no money left for food. So
Little Leage finds a partner, his old buddy, Don't Know, Little leage being an
expert miner by this time, tells his old buddy about how they are going to get
rich. So Don't Know sells his Motorcycle, his boat, and his '57 t-bird. Now they
can hurry up & get in the dirt. (It's already mid July). The trucker says He will
drop off the equipment 8 miles from the mine, so they figure to be in camp by
night. Three weeks later, they get the dozer, and half the supplies un-stuck from
the sink-hole, and they make it to camp (first week in august). They argue a little
about the arangement of the mining cut because their other friend, City Dude,
filled out the permits & it looks like the water is suposed to go uphill to get
into the settling pond. Not City Dude's fault; no one told him the elevations at
the mine site. Don't Know tells Little League, We can just start with some of the
un-tested dirt, after all this is a bonansa strike & even if it's only 1/4 of the
estemated $4000.00 dollars per day, we will still make plent of money. They had
tested the dozer, digging back home in a gravel pit, but now it seems that a
shallow depresion is all the dozer will make. They know they need help, they look
for, Local Miner, but Local Miner is busy mining, so they travel down the road, a
little further to find Local Miner's Cousin, Loco Miner. Loco Miner lives in the
tavern just 50 miles from the claims. Loco miner tells them, their ground is
frozen, but all they need to do is weld a ripper shank on their backhoe bucket, and
the permafrost will quickly yield. This idea sounds good to Little League, and
Don't Know, but they don't have a welder, or a ripper shank. So Loco, offers to
help he used to be a welder, before he caught Gold fever, and he still has a
portable machine. "Just count me in as your 3rd partner & we can use all my other
equipment too". Three weeks later the pond is still way too small, but we got to
get mining, so Loco welds up a special low water suction screen. Now with water at
the pump they can't wait to hook up the box. . They are a little short on hose
though, so Loco borrowes some 6" hose from his Cousin Local, and after making the
adapters they have the water conected to the box. God had providenced to let their
first cut be thawed, so they dug in with the backhoe, and filled the box. Wow a 3"
diesel pump, and a 24" wide box 12' long, this is Mining! The water ran over the
top of the material, and spilt over the sides. Too much elevation for the water.
The pump just wouldn't supply enough water to move the dirt. Again Loco saves the
day, He has another pump at home & with both the pumps we'll have plenty of water.
The first week of mining they take out 10 oz. They give it to the local fuel
distributer to fill their tanks, they were more carefull traveling the trail & made
it to camp, with the fuel in only 3 days. They mine hard for the next 2 weeks, they
take turns raking rocks through the box. Hard work, but they're taking in $1500.00
per day. Loco's pump blows up... Better do a quick clean-up get to town & buy
another pump, winter's coming quick & you can't mine with solid water. they
clean-up another 15 oz. go to town, find out about melt loss, assay loss, quick
sell discount, and get $7500.00 for their 15 oz. of gold. not enough for a new
pump, no used ones around, so they fast express the parts for Loco's pump & after
shipping still have $2500.00 which goes for a little more camp food, and a few
drums of fuel. While repairing the Pump snow starts falling on our friends. The
pump is fixed, back in operation. But mining is only 6 hrs, each day now, because
of the frozen box in the morning, the dark night, and extra time spent draining
water every evening. Finaly the box is frozen solid. We got to get out of here, but
the gold is in the box? Loco gets a weed burner, they heat some water, thaw the
box, clean-up the gold & get the final tally. 20 Oz. to divide. Loco takes his 10
Oz. (although we were free to use my stuff," we still have to pay me for wear &
tear")???? Our friends each take their 5 Oz. & head for town. (spent $110,000.00 to
date)

Winter 2008-2009

Don't Know learned a lot this last year, he tries to talk, Little into selling his
house so they can buy-out Loco, and get some better equipment, Don't dosen't own a
house, but his rent is low & he got a temp job at the corner store, Little sells
his house, moves in with Don't, and they start planing. Raking rocks is out, lets
get a Supper-gold--o-above-all-amatic. They cost $75,000.00 I only got $125,000.00
out of my house after paying off the bank. We need to buy out out Loco, and It's
going to cost at least $25,000.00, he knows as well as us, that ground is rich, and
we see what kind of partner he is. All their talk, has got City Dude, Convinced he
should be mining with them, so he sell his 1968 camaro convertable, sends
$35,000.00 to Loco & lets his friends know he is now their new partner. City goes
to scool to learn to weld, as they see this is needed at a mine. Little buys the
super...matic. Don't is buying the grocs, and City is in school all day learning
welding, geology, and mechanics. Little is busy every day making notes, charting
gold futures & pouring over the catalog from super...matic co.

Summer 2009

The permit maps are drawn better this year, they know where the pond needs to be.
They gather the supplies, pay the trucker for hauling the new equipment, before the
ground thaws, so they get droped 20 miles from camp, but with solid froze ground
they won't get stuck. Now they need to wait 2 months for the paydirt to thaw, as
they reside in the "lower 48", they don't want to waist money flying back home, so
they just hang out & visit with Loco. Loco reminds them they forgot that the 2nd
pump was still his, they grumble a little, but relise they better go to town & get
a good pump. By the end of July they have the new pond dug to a usable depth, and
they set the super...matic over by the hot material. They dig down with the back
hoe, but can't reach up to the plant, so they pile the material with the backhoe,
then push it with the blade, then position the backhoe for feeding. With all the
double moving of material they could only move 10 yds per hour, heck the old box
got them 20 yrd & was easier to feed. Little knew he either needed another machine,
or they had to go back to raking rocks. City new he wasn't going to rake rocks. He
could always buy another airplaneanyway. So City sold his cesna 170, ($45,000.00)
and bought a used 2 yard wheel loader. They still had $15,000.00 left from little's
house money, and the loader was only $35,000.00. So they have $25,000.00 left for
operating expences. City got on the dozer, took some doing, but he got a good pile
of paydirt pushed up. Little got on the loader, scooped some of the precios ore,
and dumped it into the super...matic. The water has running all over everywhere,
but none in the box. They had got some 1' rocks wedged in the feed shut, and what a
mess. City said they should have a grizzley on the plant, He had heard of these
from his geology profesor. They see in the fine print about the super...matic that
is is designed to "take the largest of normal material even up to 4" in size" Does
super...matic make a grizzley for this? A quick call to the lower 48 & they find it
can be got in a powered model, for $45,000, with a 2 month lead time. No grizley
for this year, if we are carefull we can dig with the hoe, fill the buckett of the
loader, and keep the rocks to a minimum. so they manage to get about 25 yrd/hr.
into the plant. 10 days later, Don't asks his partners, Why does the cut look like
an exploded mine field? City didn't know for sure, but it was realy hard to dig in
some places, so he had grooves in between the hard spots, that being where the
paydirt came from. City decides they better clean the box, and see how we're doing,
they get 49oz. out of the box, and they still have $20,000 in cash to work with. If
they sell on a slow settlement they will get nearly $49,000 (Gold is up to
$1400/oz. now). Lets keep the gold though, we all know gold will be $2,000/oz. by
january. After a small time more, the grooves became too deep, so that the loader
couldn't get around. must be down to "bedrock" better fill in the grooves with
tailings & move up the valley. Our friends set up their next cut, but as they mined
the water did not return to the pond, as well as they thought it should. Even the
area filled back with tailings was a mess. It was all just a big muckhole? they new
moving up stream, and having cleaned off the "bedrock" they should have good
drainage, but it wasn't working. City figured that they better move the dozer down
to where the worst impounding was, and open a chanel for the water to drain. A rain
squal happened about that time, and their pond washed out. The Super...matic was
listing at 20 degrees, They parked the loader, and the dozer in the creek to keep
the plat from washing away. After the water stopped. Everything was a mess. The
loder was on it's side, the dozer was baried up to the bottem of the cab, and the
super...matic was ready to fall over. We need help. They spent the next day
counting resorces, and deciding where to get help from. at noon Little was going to
go see if Local Miner could be hired to help. Just as he was leaving, they got
visitors from the BLM & the EPA. The field rep for BLM wanted to know why the area
where the old pond was, hadn't been filed in, as this years permit had agreed to
do? We had no time, We had to get mining (wrong answer, guess the BLM gotno idea
what gold fever is like). Well if you want to keep mining it needs to be filled in,
and you will get charged $500/day fine till it is. The EPA wanted to know how long
it would take them to fix the breach of their pond, so She could fill out the
paperwork with a reasonable expectation of the number of days in violation
($20,000/day). The "visitors" left. We never cried for help from our neihbor,
"Local Miner" before, but he just got to stop & help us, Were despirate. All three
of our friends go to see Local, the boys are impressed at how much work Local's
dozer can do, and the 6' trommel was taking all his. excavator could feed it. They
cry on Local's shoulder, he feels sorry for them, and says "I would like to help,
but my machines don't run for free either", so they agree to give him 10oz./day for
his fuel, machine wear, and lost mining time. Local is supprised at how messed up
the lay-out is, and how their site looks like another place he had seen before.
Taking his 140,000 lb. dozer, he pushes a drain through the "bedrock". Our boys
were suprised to find that the hard spots were actualy large boulders. Local fixes
the site to aproximate the EPA/BLM requirements, he gets their machines unstuck,
and goes back to his mine, with his hard earned 40 oz.. Early september now, a bit
warmer than last year, but winter is coming. All the Pay-dirt pushed up by Local, a
good drain, somewhat of a pond, the repairs to the equipment finished, with fresh
oils, and full tanks, ($5,000 and 9 oz left) Lets Mine! This is easy now, were
getting close to 35 yrds/hr. Little is begining to think the super...matic co.
might have exagerated, when they said the 3'x4' shaker plant would wash 150
yrds/hr. They had to remove all the super catchers, stirinators, and even the
clyclospinsizer, as all these bent & broke in the first few hours of hard use. They
mounted their old box under the shaker and went back to mining. At night Don't has
a great idea "with only 2-3 weeks left till freeze-up, lets go 24 hrs/day, we can
get another guy, and put 12 volt lights on everything, even on the plant & pump,
the box won't even freeze, cause we aint goin to stop". They offer Loco $300/day
cash (they know they don't want him as a partner again) he says he needs to get one
oz./day, that's what he got in '94 & he won't take less. Look with inflation one
once is worth more now. Does it buy anymore fuel? food? clothes? They had to answer
that it didn't, but then City chimes in, It buys more beer! Well I don't use much
of that other stuff no-how so give me 3/4 oz./day & you got me. It was a good thing
they hired Loco, cause they had 14 hr./day welding of repairs. they either had
something broken on the super...matic (now also known as "the stupid matic"), or
ran over something in the dark. They got in a full 3 weeks of mining. lets
clean-up, before freeze-out this year. They clean-up with 147 oz. they give Loco
his 14oz. They have 103 oz. left after paying the last fuel bill. They plan to
winter together, so they don't even split the money they just keep it for all of
them together. ($285,000 + 2 summers work. Equipment in current condition would
sell for $65,000 so the gold cost our miners 220K/103oz. = $2135.92/oz).

Winter 2009-2010:

Little sees that the only way to make any money mining, is to use larger equipment,
like Local does. So he wants out, he just can't handle the idea of a profitable
business using large equipment. His partners agree to let him leave with 80. oz.,
and they will own the equipment & claims. Little sells some of his gold, rents a
farm, and buys, an emu, to breed? & sell. as the single male emu doesn't produce
much, he sells some more gold, and buys a zebra, then, a tiger, etc. untill he has
once again proven to be true to his name.

Loco, while not realy as bad as you might think, is however a bit forgetful, ...and
loco. Loco forgot he had gotten paid, so he filed a complaint with the Alaska
Department of Labor, requesting his pay for 28 days@ 500/day . The Labor Department
wants not only to see that Loco gets paid $14,000, but also the unemployment
insurance, and to see their workman's compensation insurance policy.

Don't & City sell the 23 oz. of gold they have left. After melt loss, assay &
charges, on a 15 day settlement (spot=$1349.08), they recieve $24,841.74 . $532 to
Alaska Dept of labor & work, $14,000.00 to Loco, and $3745.87 for the workers
compensation insurance. Don't asks City? "How can they charge so much, when they
know it is an expired, and won't be charged against?" City answers "They may be the
bigger crooks, but it keeps us out of jail" they have $6563.87 left.

Don't thinks they will get rich this next summer, but City is not sure. City wants
to go get bigger equipment & mine for real, he has almost finished his degree in
Mine technology, that plus our equipment, should get the bank to loan us the ??? we
need. City figures if he is real carefull he can get going good for $350,000 if
nothing breaks, so he goes to the bank to borrow $400,000 to leave a little buffer.
The banker thought they might have a chance at making money, but they needed a
business plan, and the ground needed to be assesed by a registered geologist. So
bottem line mister City how much per year have you profited to date? City new it
wouldn't do to tell him he had lost money every year. 2 weeks later City gets a
call from the banker, Do you still want to be a mineer? You bet! Well, I have a
client that owns some hard rock claims, and he needs a grunt with mining experiance
to look out for his interests, it pays $23/hr, do you want his number? Ah well,
no-maybe, Yes I better get the number, 907-555-5555. Thank You Mr. Banker. Don't is
so convinced that the gold will just jump out of the ground next year, but he also
knows that they need some cash & $23/hr. is more than he can make at the corner
store. Even though he has become a self-employment addict he takes the J-O-B.

Summer 2010:

Don't heads out to mine by himself, City told him he could keep everything for
himself, City's job has worked into a $300,000/yr presidency of the Newmonumetal
Mining Company. Don't manages to borrow some money from an equipment trader against
his equipment, so he has a grub stake of $20,000.00 for the summer. The BLM says
that the State bond pool wouldn't take his acount this year, because of last years
infractions, and he would need to post $40,000 cash before he could mine again.
Another friend from from the lower 48 sugests that he let the claims drop, and just
file state claims over the top. Don't asks the BLM if he can turn the claims over &
let them go to State selection. Sure you can, as soon as your reclaimation is done
& signed off. So Don't spends a month reclaiming his past work & gets it signed off
by the BLM. Now how long before I can claim it as a State claim? Well The State
won't get it for a year or two, but at any rate you have to check with them to file
the new claims. Don't is begining to think he didn't know something he shoulda
known. The state said he could file a claim if he wated, but at present, if the
Feds conveyed this State selected ground, the previous filing by Local Miner would
be of more importance. Don't is broke, and out of business.

Don't hasen't got a clue how this all came about, cause he still Don't Know, but
hopefully you Do Know..