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Beginnings
A small mining operator/owner
A small mining operator/owner
Being raised as s farm boy in Minnesota, I was taught how to build and make do with what was available to build with.
A small mining operator/owner
A small mining operator/owner
A small mining operator/owner
I started out working for a mining company in Kantishna at what was then the end of Denali park Within 4 years the federal government extended the park and the miners had to go elsewhere. Eventually I found a place where I am still at today, Gold Creek.
In 2019 I built these cabins for people to enjoy what I have at Gold Creek
Gold Creek
A small mining operator/owner
Gold Creek
Gold Creek has no road access but instead is accessed by the Alaska Railroad or by boat on the Susitna River
Washplants
Washplants
Gold Creek
The first year of mining, the company I worked for, had a washplant built by a fab shop in Anchorage. They tried to replicate a Sam Koppenberg washplant. I had to modify it to make it closer to Sam's design. Sam was to me and still is today the best miner I know.
Through the years I and others built wheeled washplants modifying them as needed.
Before leaving Kantishna I saw the old tailing piles from the Carington washplant. They were built to operate on bedrock and be loaded by a dragline moving up stream much like a dredge only without the bucketline.
I decided that would be best for my type of mining and went on my own.
With this type of operation I can mine by myself loading the washplant with an excavator and the washplant proccessing the material and the tailings going out the conveyor back into the cut.
The water pump is recirculating water from the cut back to the washplant. The tailings are stacked by the radial stacker leaving a drain on one side to keep the bedrock dry
Eldorado
Washplants
Eldorado
About two miles up Gold creek a tributary creek named Eldorado creek joins Gold creek. There is a granite dike that kept miners from getting up the creek with equipment. I was able to make a road through the falls and then had the entire creek to mine with no other machine mining being done on Eldorado. That is unusual to be able to be the first to machine mine a creek these days. I mined the entire 2.5 miles of valley floor.
Rip Rap
Washplants
Eldorado
Years after making a road through the granite dike on Eldorado I was able to get a contract with the Alaska Railroad to deliver Rip Rap. I got my blasting license and purchased the equipment and materials it took to make large Rip rap and deliver it to a site near the tracks. Two of my daughters helped me the first two seasons. They were awesome!
I went on for another two seasons but then the Railroad opened there own pit in Curry and are keeping my Rip Rap for emergencies between Curry and Gold creek.
I have good rip rap available for sale.