FOURTH QUARTER, OCTOBER 2012 VOLUME 26, NUMBER 10
By Dave McCracken
Once again, longtime supportive member, Alan Mash, broke another personal gold record this past season while suction dredging on the Rogue River in southern Oregon. Alan was out there working hard nearly every day. He knows as well as anyone how to find the gold deposits along the upper portion of the Rogue.
Here is a video segment I captured out on the river with Alan explaining how he did it:
Alan: “I decided to dredge a bit different this year. Rather than popping all around looking for smaller higher-grade pockets of gold like I have done the past two seasons, I sampled for larger stretches of medium-grade material so I could just work larger areas for an extended period of time. More time dredging, less time looking.
During the course of the season, I found two medium-grade deposits on the river, each that were about 150-feet long by 30-feet wide. There was gold between those two stretches, but I found it was more productive to keep my focus on the areas that were paying better.
I recovered my first four ounces of gold from my first excavation. In places, there was a really hard layer of compacted streambed down on the bottom of the river. The trick was to suck up everything that my suction nozzle would pull apart. When the material was too hard to pull apart with my suction nozzle, I used my blaster nozzle to break more of the material free. I found that the really hard conglomerate layer on bottom was so slow to get through; it did not produce the same results. So to be more productive, I left that behind, and I just mined the top two layers of hard-pack.
It always paid better when I was able to expose bedrock at the bottom of my excavation. It was exhilarating every time I found gold there pounded into the cracks and crevices. I blasted those out and sucked them up. What a rush!”
Here are some of Alan’s self-made video sequences of the underwater action:
Besides being a really good prospector, Alan always goes out of his way to help other prospectors on the river. He helped set foundations in place for James McCarville to find that incredible 4-ounce nugget that we featured in the September newsletter. Others out on the Rogue talk about all the friendly support and encouragement that they get from Alan and other New 49’er members.
I captured the following video segment showing off some of Alan’s gold just before the end of his season. Listen to him talk about others out on the Rogue who have been recovering more gold than him, with one prospector now having two 20-ounce seasons under his belt:
I don’t know about you guys; but I am already preparing my own dredge for next season!
More Support for us at the U.S. Supreme Court!
Many of you will be aware that we have been engaged in litigation with anti-mining activists that have been attacking us through the Karuk Tribe of Californiasince 2003. It all started with their lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), challenging that District Rangers do not have the authority to allow small-scale mining activities under a Notice of Intent (NOI) when the Ranger concludes that the mining activity is not likely to create a substantial surface disturbance.
Several months ago, after years and years of litigation, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Karuk Tribe. USFS declined to appeal that Decision. As the last remaining party in the case, The New 49’ers were the only organization that had standing to file a Petition to the Supreme Court. I talked more about the important ramifications of this case to America’s mining industry in our September newsletter, so I won’t repeat most of that here.
Our Petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the misguided Ninth Circuit Decision was filed on August 29, 2012.
The good news this month is that a supporting brief was just filed with the U.S. Supreme Court by the Northwest Mining Association (NWMA). This organization is a 117-year-old, 2,000 member trade association based in Spokane, Washington. Representing many larger mining interests along with small-scale miners throughout America and Canada, NWMA is recognized as an innovative and proactive leader in addressing the needs of an increasingly global mining industry. Their influence is quite substantial. NWMA’s supporting brief was largely written by Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF), a nonprofit, public interest legal foundation dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and ethical government and free enterprise system. MSLF is one of the most influential property rights legal foundations in America.
NWMA’s brief presents supporting arguments (to our brief) why the Supreme Court must overturn the misguided Decision of the Ninth Circuit, or there will be dire consequences to America’s mining industry, and also nothing to prevent extremist environmental organizations from challenging private enterprise in any area where the federal government has an oversight interest – which is just about everywhere these days.
As far as I know, we are the only organization solely representing small-scale miners that has taken a case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, at least during the past 35 years that I have been involved with mining.. The final result of this case will have very important consequences upon America for the foreseeable future. All of you who support the effort should feel some pride that we are standing up to do the right thing for the future of our country. We should also be gratified that the bigger players, Northwest Mining Association and Mountain States Legal Foundation, have joined in our cause.
Winning this case is so important that I have consented to allow three ounces of my own beautiful gold nuggets to be given away in a prize drawing. I am hoping you guys will join in and help.
Giving Away Dave Mack’s Gold Nuggets!
This is the last newsletter you will receive from us before we give my beautiful gold nuggets away. Therefore, you find me here biting my nails hoping I haven’t made a mistake! Honestly, we need more response than we have been getting on this so far.
Twenty-five prizes in all:
Grand Prize: 1-Ounce of Dave’s Gold Nuggets
Four ¼-Ounce Bags of Dave’s Gold Nuggets
Twenty 1-Pennyweight Bags of Dave’s Gold Nuggets
The drawing will take place at our offices in Happy Camp on Friday afternoon, 9 November 2012. You do not need to be a member of our organization to participate. 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). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.
Legal contributions can be arranged by calling (530) 493-2012, by mailing to The New 49′ers, P.O. Box47, Happy Camp, CA 96039, or you can do it online by clicking here:
“Extreme Prospector” is now Available!
At long last, my new 512-page book “Extreme Prospector” has been printed!
I have devoted a full year of my creative energy into this project. The book includes my very best adventures, all written to include my best-kept secrets, including several adventures during my time in the U.S. Navy SEAL Team. As far as I know, this is the first and only adventure book ever written which brings to light the incredible excitement of discovering high-grade gold deposits – for real.
I started working hard on this book as soon as Discovery Network confirmed that several of my prospecting buddies and I were going to cast in a reality show (coming soon). I view the expanded exposure as an opportunity to raise interest in small-scale prospecting, and to raise awareness that it is big government in concert with widespread financial shenanigans that are suffocating all the life out of the American Dream.
I have been telling you guys for years that I would let you know when I was ready to start making big noise about what is happening in America. “Extreme Prospector” is my shot across the bow of the voracious machine that is eating away the last of America’s freedom and prosperity. This shot is the absolute best I can do from my position in the world. I hope the message will resonate with you guys, and I especially hope you will spread the word on all of the social media networks. More on this below.
I have just signed 500 hard cover Special Editions of the book. As a special promotion, we will be making these Special Editions available at the very same price of the soft cover version ($19.95). We will not be delivering the book until mid-November. But the girls in our office will now begin taking phone orders for the Special Editions until they run out: (530) 493-2062. First come, first served!
“Extreme Prospector,” is also available as an ebook from Amazon for half the conventional book price ($9.95). As an Internet download, most of the images come through in color (about 250 of them) and the hyperlinks work. You can find the ebook right here.
Please Join Me on Facebook and Twitter!
Since this is a New 49’er newsletter, with a very rare exception, I try and keep the news on track with the things that are happening with our organization, and with the larger issues which directly affect us. We also try and keep our Internet Forum on mostly mining-related subjects, though we do allow a little more leeway there.
But with the launch of Extreme Prospector, I have started a blog which broadens the context to ongoing adventures and other important news and issues that we are all facing today. These include discussion and links to informative information about economic realities which none of the Candidates are really talking about.
Just as an example, I just posted a blog you might find interesting about the two (ex) Navy SEALs who were killed defending our consulate in Libya a few weeks ago. Contrary to what is being reported in the news, it turns out these two heroes were not assigned to the consulate security detail at all. They were not even in the consulate when the assault began. They were in Libya on other business. When the attack on the consulate started, they heard all the noise from someplace else. The noise prompted them to sprint over to help defend in what became a two-hour pitched battle against overwhelming odds. Taking weapons from the retreating security detail that was actually assigned to defend the consulate, these two extremely courageous men held the line against the attackers while twenty embassy staffers managed to get out alive!
If you are interested in these types of affairs, along with news about extreme prospecting adventures (not just mine), I invite you to visit my Facebook page at facebook/DaveMackExtreme and follow me on Twitter @DaveMackExtreme. There is a “Free eBook” tab on my Facebook page where you can download Chapter 10 of Extreme Prospector.
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.
The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012
www.goldgold.com
