My summer hide away

[Richard Flanders]

Here's where I'll spend my summer this year. 250mi SE of Fairbanks, just inside the Canadian border and SE of Chicken if you look at a map. Still near freezing here at night but warm enough during the day that at least you don't need a down parka to stay warm. Nowhere to fish, unfortunately.

[Garry L Gordon]

The weather sounds great...and the scenery gorgeous. Starting to get humid here in the Mid-West, but it did not rain today. We've already had nearly a summer's worth of rain in the past several weeks...and it's not even summer yet(!)

Thanks for posting. I really enjoy seeing and reading about your part of the country.

[John Dallas]

Are you coming to Mich this summer?

[charlie cleveland]

you gona work in this area richard...you may find some more old interesting artifacts and scrap iron down there...looks like bear country to me...charlie

[Richard Flanders]

I'll be here, with two short breaks, until at least mid August or maybe Sept 1, so won't be coming to Michigan John. Yes Charlie, I'm working here. I'm logging drill core; we'll have at least 10,000 meters to log over the summer.

Summer ends here in a month!

[Gary Carmichael Sr]

Richard, A great place to work, No Starbucks around the corner there! You gotta love your job, Gary

[Dean Romig]

Nice digs Richard.

We should all be so lucky!

Work there must seem like play sometimes.




.

[Richard Flanders]

Unfortunately, about the only thing to love about this particular job at present is the pay. It can be excruciatingly difficult to work for inexperienced fledglings young enough to be my grandchildren and who have not yet figured out why we have ears that are electronically linked to a miraculous 3# mass of cholesterol between them. I think I need not say more.... back to the core tables.....

[Stephen Hodges]

I'll be here, with two short breaks, until at least mid August or maybe Sept 1, so won't be coming to Michigan John. Yes Charlie, I'm working here. I'm logging drill core; we'll have at least 10,000 meters to log over the summer.

Summer ends here in a month!

Richard, to the uniformed, what is logging drill core??

[Richard Flanders]

We have two of these drill rigs that extract a 2" cylinder/core of rock, sometimes for thousands of feet. Another senior geo and myself lay out and look at the core and figure out the lithologies, alteration and mineralization - Cu, Mo, Au here. We document this info in the computer in an excel like log sheet then get young geo techs - ours are all from the Colo school of mines in Golden - to scan the core with a spectrometer, a magnetic susceptibility instrument and an XRF gun then cut the core in half lengthwise for sampling - an awful job to put it mildly. We end up sending tons of rock in supersacks to a lab for processing and analysis.

[Stephen Hodges]

Thanks Richard for the in depth explanation. Again, this may sound like a stupid question, but what is the "end game" for these cores? Are you looking for a specific mineral that you would mine for if enough is present there? This is all very interesting. Steve

[Richard Flanders]

Copper and molybdenum mostly, with the hope that there will also be some gold. If it turns out that there is enough of a resource here to warrant a mine, it could easily take 10-20 yrs of additional exploration(mostly drilling), planning, permitting and engineering and at least $US2-3 billion expenditure before the first bar is poured. It's on state land and Alaska is very friendly towards resource development, but the "antis" have been gaining ground for decades and will stop short of nothing to prevent a mine, regardless of where it is, and despite the fact that it's guys like me that go out and find the 'stuff' that everything they own that can't be grown is made of. Unfortunate fact of life.

[Garry L Gordon]

Fascinating stuff!...except for the part about the anti-(everything) folks.

[edgarspencer]

It would be nice if our metals manufacturers could rely on a domestic source of molybdenum (moly) instead of being held hostage.

[Steve Cambria]

WOW....to hell with the CU, AU and MO.....those would sure make some dazzling kitchen countertops!!! :corn::corn:

[Richard Flanders]

They sure would! These breccias are some stunning rock. I've been harping all along that this place is worth more as an industrial rock mine than a copper mine. There is some gorgeous granite with large pink feldspars that is absolutely to die for... never mind that it's down at 2000ft....

[Richard Flanders]

For any recreational SxS users in the crowd. We have several of these here. This is what our drilling roads do to them. This rig has been on site only 4 days. We've already killed two of them, one seriously on it's second day here. One of them was on the way to a site a few days ago and had a stick come up through the front somehow and impale the seat cushion just inches from one of our geo's "manhood credentials". He could have taken it right in the femoral and bled our right there. No thanks. By the time we finish this project we'll have an ATV graveyard here. I'll take an old Jeep or my Bronco anytime, thank you.

[PhillipPerry]

Hi Richard, it looks awesome! I've just arrived to Tenerife and left my luggages at home, now it's time for a little hiking. Here's the place that I will spend my summer. I love Tenerife's nature, it's always so peaceful. I discovered this place 5 years ago when I was looking for restaurants for sale in Tenerife (https://tranio.com/commercial/spain/canary_islands/tenerife/retail-property/restaurant/) and ever since I'm spending my summer vacations in here. You should come and visit me! :)

[Franky White]

Hi Richard, it looks awesome! I've just arrived in Alicante and left my luggages at home, now it's time for a little hiking. Here's the place that I will spend my summer. I love its nature, it's always so peaceful. I discovered this place 5 years ago when I was looking for some (https://virtoproperty.com/info/best-places-to-buy-a-property-in-spain) property for sale in Alicante and ever since I'm spending my summer vacations in here. You should come and visit me! :)

Who would have thought then that today in 2020 this offer would sound fantastic :cool: Today I have read an interesting article from a covid-19 vaccine developer that we will get back to our normal life no sooner than in 2021 only.