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]

The Siberian bucket line dredges are good at digging and washing riverl alluvials. But two of the five also have gold-rich stiff red paleoplacer clay of Neogene age to content with - laterite clay. As a test I left a chunk in my apartment and it turned quickly into a solid brick!

The buckets of the bucket line dredges scoop up the clay with no problem. However, the huge on-board trommels cannot dissaggregate the clay fully. Some go down the sluices as goo-ey gold robbers, picking up gold as they go, and report to the fine (undersize) sluice tailings.

The bigger clay balls report to the rear stacker conveyor and hey they balls are rich in gold! Here is a local stealing a clay ball:


And here are 300 local 'informal' miners doing the same:


The clay balls are washed by hand in green bowls - this is bowling, a bit different from panning!


And here are the locals running away when the security guards arrived:


So, if you are looking at dredge tailings for gold, particularly nuggets, the place to look may be the bits of the dredge tailings that are mounded up (banana-shaped ribs on the back of the crocodile of tails) yet have revegetated faster than normal. That's due to clay balls being chucked out of the rear end of the dredge. No all clay balls have gold, but when they do then 300 people make a living!

Steppe