13.78 Troy Ounce Gold Nugget Found!

[M.D. Holloway]

BIG GOLD NUGGET FOUND IN UNDERGROUND MINING WORK - A 13.78 TROY OUNCE GOLD NUGGET FOUND IN MARY’S EAST TUNNEL


FEBRUARY 23 , 2007- Fairbanks , Alaska – USA - Vancouver, BC – Canada
SILVERADO - OTCBB: SLGLF / Frankfurt : SLGL / Berlin : SLGL


A 13.78 troy ounce gold nugget has been found in the Mary’s East underground workings during sampling and grade control work. Gold nuggets of this size range are rare, and accordingly priced. Our Nolan properties are famed for producing some of the largest gold nuggets ever found in Alaska. In addition to the big nugget, many other gold nuggets, shown in the photograph below are being found, all of them are of jewelry quality.


As the tunnels are being advanced into the Mary’s East placer deposit, samples are systematically taken and analyzed by standard gravity methods to provide an estimate of the gold content of gravel being stockpiled during each shift of work. Two shifts of mining advance the tunnels seven days per week during the winter season. Placer gold deposits at Silverado’s Nolan Properties have a significant “nugget factor”, defined as the uneven distribution of larger sizes of gold particles and their influence on the overall valuation of the deposit. Therefore, we incorporate scanning the tunnel walls at the interface of gravel to bedrock with a metal detector, using strict security procedures. This provides a good indication of gold nugget distribution, and helps guide the tunnel development between drill holes. Management is pleased to report to our shareholders that areas of very rich gold bearing gravel have been delineated, and are being stockpiled for sluicing during the summer of 2007. 24.26 ounces of gold nuggets were recovered from two cubic feet of gravels in a recent test of an underground area that prior drilling had shown to be rich in gold.


The display of nuggets below, produced to date from the Mary’s East Deposit have been accumulated from grade control scanning and sampling since January 13th of 2007. The 13.78 Troy Ounce nugget shown above as well as finer pieces not shown in this report are included in the total sample.


Crews will continue to stockpile gold bearing gravel from the Mary’s East tunnels into early spring. We have stock piled 4,600 loose cubic yards of gravel from Mary’s East plus an additional 9,000 loose cubic yards of gravel from the Swede Channel. Processing the stockpiles for gold removal is expected to begin after the stockpiles are sufficiently thawed ( mid June 2007 ). Thawing is critical, to ensure that all of the gold, from large nuggets down to the tiniest gold dust particles can be liberated from the frozen gravel chunks, then concentrated by gravity separation in our modern sluicing plant.

[Aerkuld]

...which was nice.

[notfarnow]

Thars GOOOOLD in them hills!

[Joeaksa]

Guy I went to HS with is working some gold mines in the Homer area. Last time he came for a visit he showed me some 10 oz nuggets.

Really nice to see and play with but more money than I could afford.

[Rick Lee]

So who gets to keep that nugget?

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A 1 Troy oz Nugget is worth about 8 to 10 times the Bullion price. It is 5 times harder to find a 1 oz nugget than a 1 carat diamond. The bigger the Nugget the higer the ratio, because of the rarity factor.

Over 30 years ago now I was talkin to a coupla guys out Salinas who had a claim up on the North Fork of the Yuba below Downieville. They were running a 6 inch Dredge and had a surplus Navy Winch to drag Boulders the size of a VW bug outa the river. They said that 2 years before they had found an 18 oz Nugget, but las year they had gone down 30 feet into the river and come up with a miners pick and pan.

Gold Dredging is really alot of fun, and if your getting Gold you can't wait to get up in the mornining to hit the river and get back top it. If I lived up in Northern CA thats what I would be doing all summer. Or in AZ I'd be running a Dry Washer.

Using a Metal Detector is such a no brainer, can U imagine the scream that thing let off when they were near that 13 ozer.... Also the modern Slucing Plant, yep same thing as the old sluicing plant except its new. The Yukon was always noted for its big nugggets.

Ohh BTW the Chico area of CA during the CA Gold Rush was noted for big nuggets as well.... they found a coupla of 150 lbers that POUNDS not ozs. there during the 1850s.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Rick Lee
So who gets to keep that nugget?

Whoever has the money to pry it out of the owners hand!

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What those Boyz are doing up in Alaska is called Drift Mining they are tunneling into the side of the mountain that was at one time a river or stream bed. They are recovering water borne Gold that has broken off from vein deposits and wash down stream its called Placer Mining. The farther down stream you are from the orginal Gold source the finer and more pure the Gold you are recovering. The river action (rocks) breaks up the big pieces into smaller with more purity pieces. One of the most prized Placer nuggets you can find is one that still retains its Crystalized form.

[M.D. Holloway]

Few years ago I spent some time at the Nevada mines - they strip a gold/silver combo called dory. They told we that no one in the US is doing any exploration for gold - all the mines are at least 50 years old. In many cases they go back to older mines and strip them down to nothing.

The nickel mines I visit in Canada make enough on the gold and silver they recover to run the mine. The nickel is the bread winner.

[Rick Lee]

Anyone hear about the Dream Mine in Utah? Insane.

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Its all dependent on the price of Gold, when Gold prices are down the mines close and when up they reopen.

Most of the Northern CA Drift Mines closed during WW2 and have never reopened. Some have been worked on a small scale...The Allegeny District 14 to 1 mine is an example, it also has been noted to pull some large pieces of Gold out over the years.

During the CA Gold Rush the easy to get Gold in the Rivers and Streams was depleted within 2 years. After that they started diverting and daming the rivers to get at the River Bed. Soon that supply was exhausted. They then went on to Hydralicing, which was sending a stream of water under pressure at the side of the mountain and washing the gravel through their sluice boxes. There are large tracts of the Sierra Nevada that have been scared by that process. By 1870 the Farmers below got tired of dealing with all the gravel and mud that was produced by this mining technique, so laws were passed which resulted in the ceasation of that method of mining. The miners then turned to a High Grading technique called Drift Mining which meant tunneling into the side of the mountain and following the ancient river channels. This as I stated continued until the begining of WW2. After that it just wasn't profitable to continue on a commercial basis.

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The top picture is looking East or up river
The middle is the Dredge
The bottom is looking West or down river

The rocks were heavy and the Gold was fine.