Gold Rush in Colorado

[clay]

I've made an interactive 3D map of the Hoffman mining lease in Fairplay Colorado. There are two versions of the map A very LARGE one that runs about 30 Mb download and a much smaller one that's about 3.5 Mb.

LARGE 3D Map

small 3D Map

The Hoffman lease is called the Katuska pit.
It's about 8 acres of private property.
It has been permitted as a sand and gravel operation by the State of Colorado since 1991

While you are viewing the map click on the "mine" area outlined in red. A window will pop up with links to information about the geology of the placers from the Land Matters Library and a link to the sand and gravel permit report from the State of Colorado.

Use your mouse to move around the map. Scroll to move in and out or get dizzy by typing an "r" to make the map spin.

[adam]

Cool stuff Clay !   I wish they would come to Arizona ...Hassayampa maybe ??   

[middleforkminer2]

16 hours ago, clay said:

The Hoffman lease is called the Katuska pit.
It's about 8 acres of private property.
It has been permitted as a sand and gravel operation by the State of Colorado since 1991
 

 A lot of gold operations are permitted as "sand and gravel" operations....fewer bureaucratic hurdles.

[clay]

That's true mfork. Private property placers are easier to permit as sand and gravel ops and you can sell the overburden after it's processed. Some of those ops make enough from the aggregate mining that the gold operation is paid for.

Here in Arizona we've got the sand and gravel op of Hanson bros on the San Domingo just south of Wickenburg.

In New Mexico the sand and gravel operation at White Oak is huge. They use a large dragline dredge there.

The difference in the Katuska pit operation in Colorado is they are limited, by their permit, to the previously mined ground. They can only reprocess the tailings from the bucket dredge that worked that area.

[clay]

13 hours ago, adam said:

Cool stuff Clay !   I wish they would come to Arizona ...Hassayampa maybe ??   

The Hassayampa is a possibility adam. The land below the sink is mostly private and it's only 16 foot to bedrock at the Little San Domingo. I'm guessing you would have to borrow one of the property owners garden hoses to run the trommel though?

[Alwaysdirty]

That is awesome! I used to drive by that all the time going up to Breckenridge, there was a HUGE trommel in operation when I was up there. That dig is like a hundred feet above the actual river from what  I remember. Just below Fairplay is all the dredge tailing piles for what seems like miles. I loved it up there!

 

On 1/28/2017 at 11:00 AM, clay said:

The difference in the Katuska pit operation in Colorado is they are limited, by their permit, to the previously mined ground. They can only reprocess the tailings from the bucket dredge that worked that area.

I also heard the Hoffmans already screwed up that operation by mining some virgin ground that was written in the lease they cannot touch. Now the owners of the claim are being fined heavily because of the Hoffmans.

[middleforkminer2]

19 minutes ago, Alwaysdirty said:

 

I also heard the Hoffmans already screwed up that operation by mining some virgin ground that was written in the lease they cannot touch. Now the owners of the claim are being fined heavily because of the Hoffmans.

   I'd have to question the sanity of anybody who'd allow the Hoffmans to mine their claim....the Discovery channel must be paying some good wages.

 

[Andyy]

From what I understand, Gold Rush was Hoffman's pitch in the first place.   I believe that was discussed on one of the episodes ... not that I ever watch :p

 

 

Edited February 16, 2017 by Andyy

[nugget108]

You are correct Andy. He is the one who came up with the idea for the show. Can't remember where I watched it, but it was like a little biography of the shows history.