PUBLISHED MONTHLY

VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON

NOVEMBER 1998

NEXT MEETING THURSDAY NOVEMBER 5, 1998

MEETING MINUTES FOR OCTOBER: Meeting call to Order at 7:30 pm; Minutes read and accepted; Treasurers report read and accepted; 2 -guests was present; ********************************************************************************************************************************** New business: Rich Costellow from WF&W was at our October meeting to find out more about what we are about. The club would like to extend their appreciation for his initiative in fact finding about mining.

Al Worley and Roger Shaw debriefed us on the Fish and Gold Book hearing that was held in Vancouver last month. There is another meeting coming up December 4th in Olympia. Rich stated that there had been some changes in the works due to comments brought up in these hearings. Committee reports:

Membership Committee: There is 125 paid members.

Activities Committee: October 17th and 18th there will be a outing at Ore/Wash 4 on Willow Creek.

October 17th and 18th there will possibly be an outing with one of the rock hounding clubs on the Calapooia River. Contact Duane Flackus for more Information.

OIM report: Haydn Piper attended the OIM pot luck. They are looking into money raising activities. It was brought up that Eastern Oregon Mining Assoc. is going to file suite against the City of Portland and Metro for not filing all the paper work for work being done on the Hawthorne Bridge. ********************************************************************************************************************************** Name tag drawing: Carol Cherry won 5 raffle tickets.

#658-Gloria Cripin was drawn for the 50 grains of gold. Gloria was not present to claim her gold, so it will be 50 grains next month.

16.1 grain gold nugget was raffled off and ticket #3720 was drawn. The lucky ticket was brought up with Ron Buchholts firmly attached to it.

Ken Ripple won the hand painted sweatshirt raffle. Meeting adjourned.

PRESIDENTIAL AWARDS: Presidential awards will be given out at the December meeting. They will go to members who have done something special for the club. We are asking members to suggest other members for this award. Please place suggestions in the suggestion box at the meeting with the persons name and what they have done.

MAILING IN DUES: If you mail your dues to the club's P.O. Box it may take up to 2 months to get your membership card to you. If you would like it sooner, please give Lloyd Haines a call and get his address and mail it to him.

CLUB OFFICER NOMINATIONS: At the November meeting will be taking nominations for club officers. So come with names of individuals you would like to see become a club officer.

UP AND COMING EVENTS: The December meeting will be our Christmas potluck. Also elections will be held for new club officers.

FUN ACTIVITY OF THE MONTH: One raffle ticket will be given to anyone that warring obviously mismatched socks.

NEWS THAT YOU CAN USE: Starting October 15th The Lifestyle Store in Hesperia California will launch a free used equipment Bulletin board on their web site where you can buy, sell or trade used mining equipment, metal detectors and related goodies. You can access the bulletin board through the Lifestyle Store web site at http://www.lifestylestore.com. There is no charge to the sellers or buyers for the service and the parties negotiate their own deals. It is a easy way to list your equipment for sale by filling out a simple on line form. If you have other ideas about internet services that would be beneficial to gold prospectors please let the folks at Lifestyle know about them by contacting them via E-mail through the site or by calling 1-800-900-6463.

Mojave John @ The Lifestyle Store

NAME TAGS: There will be name tags available at the next meeting. Everyone is encouraged to ware one.

SPECIAL RAFFLES: For the November meeting raffle tickets will go on sale for a Gold Buddy. Tickets will be $3.00 each or 2 for $5.00.

GEE CREEK COFFEE STOP: The Gee Creek coffee stop is coming up at the end of December.

It is time to start getting you cookies together to bring in During the December meeting. Also there will be a sign up sheet for volunteers to work at the coffee stop.

CLUB APPRECIATION THANK YOU'S: The Club would like to thank The Lifestyle Store for the special raffle items that they have sent us. (The Lifestyle Store - 10180 "I" Avenue Hesperia, California 92345 - phone # 1-800-900-6463 Web Address http://www.lifestylestore.com)

Dave Semuks at Precision Fabrication & Welding, Inc. He removed the rust, rewelded the angles, attached the caster, and primed and finish painted Clarence's steel rack, that the club now has for our library cart. And he did it all free of charge to help out the club! If you ever need something welded, or maybe just a piece of steel or pipe, come on in and see Dave at Precision Fabrication & Welding located at 7755 S.E. 82nd Avenue in Portland (Just 2 blocks south of Flavel Street). Dave is a certified welder, and welcomes walk-in Business. Tell him you are from Northwest Mineral Prospectors Club.

Recreationists Charge:

"Wilderness Advocates Are Hate Groups

Examples cited put the 'Green Agenda" in perspective

(By Clark Collins, Blue Ribbon Coalition executive director) Reprinted from the Washington Prospectors Mining Association newsletter

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: A Utah recreation spokesman charges Utah Wilderness advocates with inciting violence. "An Associated Press story that is making the media circuit is just one more illustration of how far the green advocacy groups will go to get their way", says Blue Ribbon Coalition Vice President Dean Richardson of Salt Lake City. The article, by Associated Press writer Greg Beacham, is about the debate over recreation access in the west. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance attorney Heidi MacIntosh is quoted saying 'It's going to be a fight to the death". Richardson charges that "irresponsible statements like MacIntosh's should not be taken lightly".

Convicted Uabomber Ted Kacynski allegedly took his target list from an Earth First Publication. The EnviroLink website's Church of Euthanasia link (at http:\\host.envirolink.org/) encourages people to kill themselves to save the earth. "It's time to quit calling these green advocacy groups environmentalists," says Richardson, a rock hound and volunteer leader of the Blue Ribbon Coalition. "Their plan for locking up millions of acres in Utah is just plain selfish. While back country recreationists are working together to enhance our recreational opportunities, These extremists are pushing to eliminate everyone else's access but their own. They promote hatred for those who make a living from the earth. They even attack recreational interests they disapprove of. They have evolved into nothing more than 'hate groups'. It's time that we recognize them for what they are".

Wilderness advocates often use the argument that recreation and tourism will replace the resource industries that they despise, but another green spokesman exposes their deception. Fund for Animals spokesman Andrea Lococo made it clear they hate tourism too, when she was quoted in the July 15, 1998, Jackson Guide newspaper, referring to Yellowstone Park gateway cities as "parasite communities".

Green advocacy groups have also viciously attacked the recently re-authorized Recreational Trails Program that will provide over $430,000 for trail improvements in the state of Utah for fiscal year 1998. The Washington, D.C. based Friends of the Earth called this program "Trails of Destruction" in a recently released antirecreation report. They charge that this federal trails program, funded by off-road vehicle fuel taxes, provides a disproportionate percentage of its funds for motorized trails. "A minimum of 30% of these funds are required to be used on non-motorized trails". Counters Richardson. "The Blue Ribbon Coalition has been a major advocate for this program, providing $270 million for trail improvements nationwide over the next six years, and we've been willing to share. The majority of the funding will be used to correct environmental problems and maintain existing trails, yet these so-called environmentalists oppose it. We are the real environmentalists in my view".

"It should be clear that these extremist groups will settle for nothing less than the elimination of all human use of all our back country areas", Richardson continued. "The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is pushing for Wilderness designation of virtually all the scenic rereation areas in Utah. Their 5.7 million acre proposal has recently been expanded to over 8 million acres. They are intent on denying access to the majority of back country users for their chosen form of recreation. SUWA's MacIntosh is apparently saying that SUWA is willing to "fight to the death' on this issue. I think that is pretty extreme"!

At an International Mountain Bicycle Association (IMBA) board meeting in Park City, Utah on April 25, 1998, SUWA, The Wilderness Society, The Sierra Club and other green advocacy groups in the Utah Wilderness Coalition attempted to convince the IMBA board of directors to support their Wilderness plans for Utah. IMBA leaders asked these Wilderness advocates if they would support allowing mountain bikes in designated Wilderness areas. Every one of the representatives of these groups made it clear that their organizations could not support allowing this rapidly growing recreation group into the Wilderness.

Blue Ribbon Coalition Executive Director Clark Collins was asked by IMBA to represent the other viewpoint at this historic Wilderness debate. "These mountain bike leaders were very interested in our proposal for a 'Back Country Recreation Area' alternative to Wilderness". Said Collins. "Mountain bikers are likely the fastest growing trail user group in the country. They are finding themselves increasingly at odds with green advocacy groups over Wilderness designation of back-country areas they are just beginning to explore. Equestrian trail users are also finding their use threatened in designated Wilderness areas. "Wilderness designation is not user friendly"!

IMBA leaders, understandably, couldn't support a precedent setting proposal of the magnitude being pushed by the Utah Wilderness Coalition. "They realized that even if they support the concept of setting aside Wilderness areas, where mountain bikers and other recreationists aren't allowed, support for locking up this much land in Utah could jeopardize their protection of mountain bike access in other areas," said Collins. Collins asked the Wilderness advocates at the IMBA meeting if they would be willing to consider a more reasonable alternative to Wilderness that would accommodate a range of recreation interests. "Their answer was a flat NO!" said Collins. "They are unwilling to consider cooperating with back country recreationists until they get all the Wilderness they can".

"Its's time to stop giving in to green advocacy group demands," says Blue Ribbon spokesman Collins. "It's time to realize that these selfish extremists will not consider anything but their own 'anti human use' agenda. They won't be willing to compromise until the media and our political representative stop calling them environmentalists and stop catering to their selfish demands. They are not environmentalists! They are nothing more than "hate Groups"!!!

(The Blue Ribbon Coalition is a national grassroots advocacy group that champions responsible multiple-use recreation on public lands. It represents over 550 organizations and businesses with 6000,000 members. )

Finding More Gold

Tips for Successful Prospecting

(By Paul J. Badali) Reprinted from the Washington Prospectors Mining Association newsletter and as previously published in the May, 1987 International California Mining Journal.

I have heard many prospectors use the statement, "gold is where you find it," to explain the occurrence of gold in a place where you would not normally expect to find it. I have also heard prospectors use this same phrase to explain why they are not successful in their efforts to find gold. When used in this negative way, they are saying, "I'm not finding any gold because there isn't any here to find," even though they originally thought it would be a good place to find some. Is this little cliche really a useful explanation for the occurrence of gold, or does the use of this phrase do the prospector more harm than good? Well, let's take a look. A few years ago I was up on Willard Creek. I came upon a beautiful crevice in the bedrock just above the present stream level that had about 1/2 cubic yard of soil in it. There was a hole in the middle of the crevice where 2 or 3 panfuls of material had obviously been removed. This hole was full of leaves, and looked to be 1 or 2 years old. Plenty of time had passed for the original prospector to have come back and cleaned it out had he or she so intended. But the crevice had not been cleaned out, and I decided to try a pan or two there. I got three tiny flakes in my first pan, and one in my second. Why did the first prospector walk away from this hole? Because "gold is where you find it"...we sure weren't finding much there, so there must not have been much to find, right? Well, that's not quite how I chose to look at it. Four flakes from the overburden...this could get interesting closer to bedrock. I needed an axe to get through the tree roots, and get to the bottom. Over the next few weeks I came back to the crevice again and again to finally clean it all out. I found more gold in this one crevice than I had found anywhere else I had panned on that creek, and also the biggest nugget I found on the creek. But, the first guy quit this spot because he wasn't finding gold.

Is the statement "gold is where you find it" a true or false statement? Well, that depends on whether you are finding gold or not. If you are finding gold, then gold is present, so it is where you are finding it. But what if you're not finding much, or any gold? Since "gold is where you find it," and your not finding it, then it must not be there, right? Well, not necessarily! There is another possibility. Maybe there is gold present in paying quantities, and you're just not finding it. In this case the gold is where you are not finding it, so the statement is false. But how can that be? If there is gold present, you ought to be finding it, right?

Well, yes and no. And here is where the use of this line may be harmful. If there is enough gold present... and if you use the proper equipment... and if your equipment is working properly... and if you know what you are doing... and if you work in exactly the right spot... and if you put in sufficient effort to give the spot a really good test... then you ought to find some gold in paying quantities.

You see, there are many conditions which must be met in order to recover gold in paying quantities. The gold being there is only one of these conditions. Yes, it is a prerequisite to success, and yes, you cannot find more gold than what is actually present, but any one of the other conditions, unfulfilled, can keep you from finding paying quantities of gold even when paying quantities of gold are present! So you should familiarize yourself with the conditions that can keep you from finding gold even when it is there.

Here is an example of what I mean. Let's that you are working on a pester on the Klamath River in northern California, that will pay an experienced dredge using a 5" triple sluice dredge an average of 1 ounce per day. You are working with a 2" backpack dredge without air. Let's say the water is 4 ' deep, and the material on bedrock is 3 feet deep. Are you getting paid 1 ounce per day? Of course not. You can't move the volume of material the larger dredge can, and how can you work bedrock 7 feet below the surface without air? Well, you can't. Are you finding much gold? Heck no! You got 1/2 dwt. At the edge of the river yesterday, and only 1/4 dwt. A bit further out today with a snorkel. This place stinks, right? There must not be any gold in this whole river, right?

Wrong! This is a bonanza paystreak that you are working on top of! So why aren't you getting much gold? You're using the wrong equipment for this job. I'm not saying that a 2" dredge is wrong equipment for every job, but it is wrong for this one. Why don't you move up 300 yards to where all that bedrock is exposed on the bottom. And the water is from 6 inches to 3 feet deep, and clean out some cracks and crevices? Heck, when you did that before you were pulling 1/4 ounce per day and telling everyone, "Boy, this Klamath River is really hot"!

If you plan to stick with the equipment you have at present, then start in a spot suited to your equipment. If you find a good spot and your equipment is too small to handle it effectively, then bring in bigger equipment. You could have gone down to mining shop and purchased a 5-inch dredge to clean up that ounce-per-day paystreak you found with your smaller equipment. But chances are you would never have found it because you never would have gotten down to it. The same thing would happen if you tried to use a 5-inch dredge to sample 15 feet of material in 12 feet of water. Only an 8-inch or 10-inch could give you a true picture of what's down there. So, before you decide there is not gold, decide how big the job is that you want to tackle, and use the right equipment. But that's not all....

Let's put you back into that ounce-a-day spot on the Klamath with a brand new 5-inch triple sluice dredge. You fire that sucker (pun intended) up and start dredging. Will you get an ounce per day now? Not unless you know how to make sure your equipment is working properly, and you also know how to dredge effectively. Many things can need adjustment on a new dredge: the slope of the sluice boxes, exact adjustment of the flotation angle of the power jet into the header box etc., all effect gold retention. You need top know how to open a dredge hole properly, where to throw the cobbles, how to extend the hole, how to work the nozzle, how to properly tie off the dredge, how to quickly and correctly remove plugs from the hose or jet, etc., etc., etc. So if you are not pulling as much gold as you want, it may not be the paystreak. You might need to learn how to get the most out of your equipment, or more about dredging, or both. Okay, let's put you back on the Klamath with the know-how and that 5-inch dredge. What else might go wrong? Well, you could put your first test hole down to bedrock just outside the boundary of that paystreak, and find only 1/2 dwt. With a tank of gas. Now, finally, you are absolutely correct in concluding that you're not into an ounce-a-day deposit. But to conclude there is none nearby after only one sample hole would be a mistake. You right say, "I'm not finding any gold, so I think I'll head down to the American River. I had good luck there three years ago. After all, 'gold is where you find it', and I found some there, and I'm not finding much here".

Or you could say. "1/2 pennyweight? Not too bad for my first test hole. That proves there is gold on this river. There just might be a good steak close by. There isn't enough gold to go into production in this exact spot, but before I abandon this stretch of river, I think I'll try a couple more holes a bit further out, or maybe a bit closer to the bank. I think I'll try further out first".

And you may not hit that paystreak on the second hole, or the third, but if you work hard enough and sample everywhere that it might be, you will find it.

And here we come to the last obstacle in your path: hard work. Picture this in your mind. Two guys with the same kind of dredges, same experience, working side by side in the same paysteak. Day after day, one guy pulls 1 ounce, and his buddy pulls 1/2 ounce. Is there more gold on one side of the paystreak? No. One guy does twice as much work as the other. Oh, they work the same number of hours, they burn up the same amount of gas. But one guy moves twice as much stream material across his sluice box, and pulls twice as much gold. How does he do this? He hustles. He doesn't waste a single move. The half-ouncer isn't in poorer ground, he is less enthusiastic, less energetic, and thus less effective. That's why he finds only half as much gold. By moving a little faster, and working a little harder and a little longer you can always increase the amount of gold you pull in a day.

Some projectors use the phrase "gold is where you find it" to justify quitting, when they could have found good gold if they had only learned a bit more, or brought in the proper equipment, or stuck to it longer, or worked a little harder. The amount of gold you recover from a given location depends on the equipment you use, your experience with that equipment, you knowledge of dredging, your knowledge of placer geology, you ability to work, the amount of work you actually do, your effectiveness, and finally, how much gold is present. The next time you are not finding gold, don't automatically suspect your work area. Consider the other reasons why you may not be recovering enough gold. This may keep you from waling away from a rich deposit, and leaving it for someone else who is willing to do what-ever it takes to recover the gold.

If you choose a likely spot and you're not finding gold, rather than assuming there is not gold to be found, ask yourself what you might try doing differently. "This looks like a good spot. There should be gold here. What can I change in the way I am looking for it to increase my chances of finding it? This new approach will help you to stick with a spot until you prove it, or definitely disprove it, and can confidently move your operation to a new spot to thoroughly test. It will put you into more gold!

E-MAIL AND WEB PAGE ADDRESSES: NWMP Club Web page Website-NWMP.www.Geocities.com/Yosemite/Gorge/6503/

OIM Web page Http:\\www.grantgg.Com/-OIM/

THE OLE PROSPECTOR'S TRADING POST: For Sale: Older 4" Keene Dredge on Mylar floats, has air with hoses and regulator. Powered by an 8hp B&S which has been overhauled this year. Asking $990.00. Give Lloyd Haines a call at (503) 659-0116.

Highbanker: Used once, 3.5 HP Northern Star motor, 100' hose included asking $600.00 Call Carol J. Berg at (541) 389-5102, or E-mail at: CarolBBMC@Juno.Com.

NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONS: Submissions to newsletter can be sent to Gary Klier at 8433 SE Lambert Street, Space #39 Portland, Oregon 97266. E-mail address: glk@grpmack.com Deadline for articles is the 15th of the month.

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