Sumpter, Oregon Gold Mining Adventure-
August 28th-30th, 2006
Recently, I traveled to areas near Sumpter, Oregon to work as a
Geological Consultant for American Gold Resources Corp
to study and report on a series of sampling operations in the large
placer Gold deposits that AGR is preparing for possible commercial production.  Company president Jay Ling and I met up at the Boise
airport and we then drove to Baker City, a few hours away, to meet
up with my good friend and company VP Ed Baldwin, and equipment
operators Ed Hardt and Guy Michael- 
The Granite Mountains above the Deer Creek Gold Placers-
Before we headed up to the operation, Ed Baldwin drove me to the historic "City of Sumpter" bucket-line Gold dredge, so I could get these pictures and we could pay our respects to this testament of man's will and ingenuity.  Located on the famous
Powder River, it operated
from 1913 to 1954, and produced millions in Gold-

This is the main AGR sampling operation on Deer Creek, on the 28th of August, 2006. 
Two excavators and
a mobile Trommel are
being used-

Operator Guy Michael would dig out the gravel, which was 25 feet deep-

And then operator Ed Hardt would load the gravel into the Trommel-

Ed and Guy
working in unison-

The Trommel- 
I think I'm in love!

Here's a look inside the
rotating Trommel.  The water spray jets and heavy riffles inside separate the blue clay
from the gravel and
boulders, to release the
precious placer Gold-

Another view-

The Trommel uses
re-circulated water and has
2 sluice boxes and
3 settling ponds-

The primary sluice box-
Time to clean a sampling run-

The results!

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