Giant GOLD DREDGES make a comeback, Mongolian Dredge Fleet disproves drills Options

[Steppegold]

Hi Folks - I'm a newbie here, usually on Alaska Gold Forum but lived in Mongolia since 1995. Then there was just one working dredge in Mongolia, and only a few dry mines. I've been documenting the placer gold rush since, now with 135 placer mining companies working 200 placer mines, and the Mongolian Dredge Fleet now has SIX large bucket line gold dredges and about 20 smaller bucket line dredges. I'm posting to share knowhow and ideas. And I am hoping someone will volunteer pics of the Snowstorm Dredge (especially its riffles) for me to include in the Tech Manual I've nearly completed for publication.

First I'll try and post some pics of the gold dredges to see if you folks are interested. If you want to visit them it can be arranged!

We'll see how it goes - I would like to discuss PLACER DRILLING later on, as there is a systemic error that means understimation of gold reserves beneath wet floodplains. This error seems to be ignored in the USA and Canada, but please realise that the 6 giant Gold Dredges in Mongolia exist ONLY because the systemic error was corrected by the soviets just before the command economy collapsed.

Enjoy the pics and realise that - if I'm right - then large gold dredges would be profitable in USA and Canada on placers formerly written off as subeconomic grades.

cheers - Steppe

[Steppegold]

Gold_Tutor - sorry I've been late in replying.

We all trust the churn drill (=placer drill, cable tool drill, motorised banka drill).
So did I.
But not now.
The world's largest repeat drilling by churn drill and bucket drill is in a 50km stretch of the Tuul floodplain here in Mongolia, a formerly 'Top Secret' report by Soviet placer geologists. The answer is stunning. The churn drills lost so much gold compared with the bucket drills. Wow!

Churn drills are OKish on dry terraces and for shallow holes, as shown by the Yukon drilling tests using radiotracer gold.

Churn drills on floodplains or deep enough to be in wet ground UNDERestimate the gold content by 30-60%. That is amazing.

And the Soviet churn drills are as good as or better than your North American churn drills as the diameter is 325mm giving a much bigger sample and far less noise from sidewall effects.

I am preparing an article for publication on this and will report back when its ready.

cheers

Steppe