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Discovery Channel “Gold Rush” TV show filmed Ready Bullion creek at 40 below Zero.

 

I now have a water license!  This covers all the permits to start mining!  I am looking for offers for this desirable property!

 

Todd and Jack Hoffman and others have been interested in this property for quite a while.  Because of the uniqueness of this property and now, how easy it is to get to Dawson, I have been asking for some cash up front for a lease, or a cash sale.  Todd persuaded me to go to Ready Bullion in February of 2011.  I didn’t think we could see much, but I agreed to go show them the property.  I have only been to Dawson in the summer and as late as October, I have never seen it so cold before!

The Ready Bullion property is very special property-virtually inaccessible form the early 1900s until the 1960s. The upper Bonanza Dam was built in 1907 downstream a few miles, until it washed out in 1960. The dam had been fairly effective at keeping the property inaccessible and un-mined.  There was only a cat trail that lead over the hills from the other side of the divide.  Dawson it’s self, could only be reached in the summer, by river boat until 1957.

Mining property had little value through the mid 1900s because the United States had held gold at $35 per ounce for many years, even though this property is in Canada, the US freeze on the gold price had its effect on worldwide gold prices.  The confluence of Ready Bullion and Upper Bonanza has been held by private ownership since 1973.  The enterprising gentleman we got the claims from, snow shoed 11 kilometers up Bonanza Creek in March of 1973, to stake these claims!

This property is made up of 24 claims, upstream from where the original 1896 discovery was made. 12 to 14 of the claims have not been mined by heavy machinery as far as I know and probably still need to be mined. We bought it in 1992 from the man that had staked the claims in 1973 and had made his entire living from about 4 claims for all those years.

I mined 1 claim on Ready Bullion Gulch in 1993 and 1994. We took out a good amount of gold and it was profitable. Much of the gold was chunky, angular and with quite a few nuggets.  My father leased out the ground on Ready Bullion, and the waist and shoulder claims on Upper Bonanza (the lower part of our property). We and the lessee did well. Bonanza has been considered a dead stream so miners have been allowed to discharge a bit of mud into the creek.

The Ready bullion property is probably the best place to start mining, but my son and I have more claims closer to Dawson.  We own a total of 47 claims, 3 of which are discovery claims-twice the size of standard claims.  I tell people it is 50 claims to simplify the explanation.

The Pesapie claim is very close to the Dawson City limits. It is on old dredge tailings and probably doesn’t have a lot of gold values. It is possible you could find something with a metal detector. Its main value would be to have a gold panning business, park a motor home or camp there. The backside is next to quiet gravel street. Electricity is connected to the properties on both sides.

The GM claims are on a hill on the south side of the Klondike River overlooking Dawson City and the Yukon River. My father’s partners mined just across the Klondike River from these claims in 1990 with great success. One claim I believe it was GM 37536 was mined in about 1999 successfully. Many of these claims are quite deep, but where we tested it was not frozen. I don’t know if these could be mined economically. There was an underground mine on the opposite side of Bonanza Creek in the 1980s.

In 2012 I drilled and tested the GM claims and found 5-10 colors per pan at about 10 feet deep.  In the summer of 2013 I plan to dig deeper and do some bulk testing.  I plan to continue with more drilling too!

I received my water license recently, so the GM claims are ready for further testing and mining!

This information is done to the best of my recollections and any buyer will need to make his own determination of value. Nothing here should be considered a representation. Subject to change without notice. June 19, 2011