Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Scientists discover bacteria that can make gold out of mine waste

I knew that they would try to find a way to eliminate gold prospectors .Quote from here

Quote:

Gold prospectors may one day use Petri dishes to help with their quests. A species of bacterium forms nanoscale gold nuggets to help it to grow in toxic solutions of the precious metal, reports a paper published online today in Nature Chemical BiologyLink 

Anyway there are those in the business, like me,  that have a gold deposit and have worked hard to define it, and we should not abandon the ship just yet. This idea is still yet a few clouds off of being real.  No doubt that there is probably someone somewhere that is going to try and build a company around this new dream, and get funding with no real understanding or proof,and has will lots of advertising. 

Reality is if you own the gold .. then you still own it 



Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Kevin Puil: $4/lb Copper Is on Its Way [TV, TREVF] - The Gold Report

Kevin Puil: $4/lb Copper Is on Its Way - The Gold Report

pit wall of open pit mine in manitoba picture courtesy of mustang minerals


Found this article on the gold report website. It's an interview with Kevin Puil discussing copper prices, companies exploring for the metal and other things. What I find interesting is his opinion that copper could see $4 / lb this year or better.

Here is a quote for the interview:
Quite frankly, I think you could see copper peak above $4 a pound ($4/lb) this year, and $3.75 is reasonable for an average. It's interesting to look back at the five-year average for copper. Even though a lot of analysts are using ~$2.75/lb as their long-term outlook, copper has only broken below $3/lb for that brief amount of time during the financial crisis. The rest of the time, it's been well above $3/lb. I think it's about time they brought the price up to a more realistic level.
Read The Interview Here

Even with the Canadian Penny going out of circulation, the need and demand for copper will be with us for a long time in the foreseeable future. Manitoba Copper producers and explorers with nice deposits are worth following. I am following Mustang Minerals, VMS Ventures, HudBay Minerals and others.

Does reality TV’s gold boom suggest an end to soaring prices? - Business - Macleans.ca

Does reality TV’s gold boom suggest an end to soaring prices? - Business - Macleans.ca

The last time TV was so caught up in a trend it was in the house-flipping genre (Flip This HouseFlip That House), which seemed to hit its peak just before the U.S. housing market crashed. Is there a similar warning sign in the TV gold boom?

Some analysts on Wall Street, at least, seem to think gold’s wild ride may be nearing its end.


Monday, February 04, 2013

Friday, February 01, 2013

Gold has gone down river


I have been looking at some placer mining operations lately. Who hasn't with new TV shows based on placer mining operations popping up on a seemingly regular basis. I wish that I could say that I am taking a close look at placer mining because of the resurgence of interest created by mainstream television, but i can't.

Everything those folks do and have done is a credit to their perseverance, work ethics and integrity. It takes a no holds barred determination to go out on a limb buying equipment to start an operation, and a rock hard commitment to see it through. Let alone, diving in skin freezing water to recover gold.

Most of the time, you'll find guys like me looking at hard rock deposits and chipping out samples or drilling things to find a lode bearing area.  I have for many years focused on locating the source of the gold and hoping that it would eventually lead to making a mine. Some of that work has paid off, but it is a long drawn out waiting game. In any case in Canada right know the time involved between making discoveries of gold or other minerals in a hard rock environment and actually seeing a mine develop is at least 12 years.

So I have been thinking. What if I reversed my focus and used what I know about local gold deposits and started looking down stream or down river from the locations. Would I find placer gold that is more easily won? After all, I have often panned in streams and rivers day by day hoping to trace lode gold upstream.

Free gold is liberated and moved by erosion and usually carried down river to end up in river turns or crevices. I am thinking  that it may be easier to mine the gold that I panned over looking to trace the lode rock, than to actually wait to see a hard rock mine developed. That's a bit of a twist for me.

But I don't think it's far fetched, I know where several lode deposits are and I know where the rivers or streams that run off of the area are. I have traced them upstream and totally ignored the downstream possibilities. Until now.

It could be more rewarding to start a wee mobile placer operation down stream.