Volume 1, number 1, January 1999 1998 Mining Activity on Ester Dome During 1998 the streams draining the south side of Ester Dome continued to produce placer gold as they have since Clarence Berry first discovered it so long ago. At least four individuals and companies conducted placer mining activity, including Kevin Bergman near the headwaters of Ester Creek, Roger Moore on the Seattle Bench of Ready Bullion Creek, Jerry Hassel (also on Ready Bullion Creek) and Yellow Eagle Mining (farther down Ester Creek) across the highway from the fire station. In addition, Frank Therrel wowed the tourists last summer by panning gold in and around his recently excavated house founda-tion. I think it’s wonderful to live in a town where you can find gold in your back yard. Without a doubt the continuing slump in the price of gold (from about $350 an ounce down to around $250) has had an adverse effect on the bottom line of everyone involved. Hopefully next year will see a substantial increase in the price of gold and everybody’s profits. For the most part lode gold exploration on Ester Dome was fairly quiet in comparison to years past. Silverado Mines, Inc. did not conduct any exploration. Rather, they leased a substantial amount of their ground to Placer Dome Exploration, Inc. Placer Dome conducted an exploration trenching and drilling program on both the north and south sides of Ester Dome. Although the program was a technical success it did not achieve the lofty goals set forth by Placer Dome management. Placer Dome did not continue the lease and gave the ground back to Silverado last fall. The only other mining activity that I’m aware of is the purchase of the Ryan Lode Mine by Kinross, owners of the Fort Knox Mine, from Lateko. Kinross is conducting due diligence work and has stated its intentions of reopening the mine. Roughly, the rumor is that Kinross will mine the remaining high-grade ore and transport it to Fort Knox for processing to supplement its lower grades. | ||
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