Raw slab weighs 3.3 gramsListing is for the gold in quartz slab only. The gold flakes pictured are to compliment my story of a unique mining experience I had this past winter diving in the icy cold Yuba river here in the California Sierras. As I prepare again to head north to mine gold this summer, I am blowing out my prices to raise some quick cash for my next mining season. I’m excited about this year’s prospects as we had one of the biggest storm events in 20 years! When I rode out this past winter in the Northern California mountains, one of the storm events caused the boulders to rumble in the river for 4 days straight! When boulders move like that so does a new crop of gold! With snow on the river banks and icy cold water I was the only miner to head into the main Yuba river during the winter! I built a homemade propane heater that floated on one inner tube, while my new Keene Hydro-Air electric air compressor unit floated on another inner tube. I have 50 feet of hose so the units can float in the safety of a river eddy while I ply my trade underwater at around 20 feet deep. I have a 60 pound weight belt on, and what is floating topside is supplying me air to breath on and warm 110 degree water fed into my wetsuit! I have it plumbed into my wetsuit where some goes to my head, some down my back, and my latest addition for the winter diving I had two tiny hoses feed to my hands! The mining technique is called crevicing…all done with hand tools to clean out the cracks and crevices of the bedrock. My second day of crevicing, I swam over to a shallow (6 foot deep) piece of bedrock where I spotted a couple of fishing weights resting in the open. So I waved my hand one time to fan away the thin sand and gravel layer and several flakes of gold appeared immediately! Just laying right on the bedrock! I swung a pick hammer at a nearby crevice and then used a sucker to actually blast at the crack and out popped several more flakes of gold! Hey, now that was fun! I worked some more cracks and found about a penny weight’s worth of gold flakes (see the picture with the quarter) and so I decided to go searching for their “bigger brothers.” I swam over to the edge of the bedrock and peered down into the 20 foot abyss at the center of the river, and spotted a crevice that was a foot by 6 feet long…right smack dab in the gut line of the river! And the bedrock outcrop was protruding out into the center of the river diverting the heavies to go right over that huge crevice! So I backed up and came at it from down and around the corner of the outcrop and found the current just too strong. Bummer! I would have to wait until the river died down to hit this spot. Problem was, there were more storms on the way and then spring runoff was due to start! So it was time to head south and regroup for the coming season. The snow pack is deep in the high country, so I’m going to have to wait longer than normal for the river to come down. One thing I am concerned about is, that the steady rising river and snow melt may be stacking in additional overburden (rocks and gravel) that were very absent when I had a look see during the late winter dive. I saw a lot of exposed juicy bedrock…a crevicer’s dream! Well, I hope you enjoyed a little insight into what we miners go through to bring out the precious yellow metal and make it into jewelry. It’s hard work and at times dangerous. Someday I will share about my misadventures on the first day using my new rigs. I’ll just sum it up by saying I am learning that failures can be the classroom for success! Well, I hope you find my items offered here on at great prices presently! Let me know if I can answer any questions for you. And have a great and blessed summer!
Tim,
Rivergold Designs

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