Gold rush

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Discussion

youngsyr

14,742 posts

191 months

Wednesday 11th January 2017
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P-Jay said:
How many times can you watch someone runing across a gravel road shouting "shut it down!".
Funny you mention that, as I'm pretty sure the last two occasions that has been dubbed in over the picture during the edit and was not even said by the crew at that time.

Last night's episode showed Hunter running up to the wash plant with his back to the viewer when the "Shut it down!" was played. Pretty sure it was actually Dave's voice - funny considering Dave had already left the claim.


ikarl

3,730 posts

198 months

Wednesday 11th January 2017
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P-Jay said:
I asked the same thing a few weeks ago. It's worth $1.5m, apprently, but has been sat rusting for 30 years because no one uses them anymore - I would imagine for good reason. It fails on the most basic of rules for calculating value - "it's only worth what someone will pay for it". Either there was some crazy old nutter who sat on it for 30 years saying he wouldn't part with it for less than seven figures until the planets alighened in such a way that someone wanted to buy it for that or, it's true value was $0 - because whilst it might be worth $10k in scrap, it would have cost more to get it someone to be scraped.
the reason it sat for 30 years is surely the cost/value of gold? it's more worthwhile to mine it with a dredge now because the value of gold has increased so much.

plus, the idea of using the dozers to clear ahead of it and the other equipment (more reliable?) they have available now means it can run for more hours and get through more ground than ever before

youngsyr

14,742 posts

191 months

Wednesday 11th January 2017
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ikarl said:
P-Jay said:
I asked the same thing a few weeks ago. It's worth $1.5m, apprently, but has been sat rusting for 30 years because no one uses them anymore - I would imagine for good reason. It fails on the most basic of rules for calculating value - "it's only worth what someone will pay for it". Either there was some crazy old nutter who sat on it for 30 years saying he wouldn't part with it for less than seven figures until the planets alighened in such a way that someone wanted to buy it for that or, it's true value was $0 - because whilst it might be worth $10k in scrap, it would have cost more to get it someone to be scraped.
the reason it sat for 30 years is surely the cost/value of gold? it's more worthwhile to mine it with a dredge now because the value of gold has increased so much.

plus, the idea of using the dozers to clear ahead of it and the other equipment (more reliable?) they have available now means it can run for more hours and get through more ground than ever before
Hmmm, not sure about the gold price being the driver for the dredges only now being profitable - they peaked 5 years ago at $1,600 per Oz and are now at just under $1,200, a level they've been above for the past 7 years.

Seems unlikely to me that it would take 7 years to work out they are once again viable, especially when they would have been much more viable 5 years ago.



Borroxs

20,911 posts

246 months

Wednesday 11th January 2017
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If anything, as is being demonstrated, a dredge is much more cost efficient way of extracting gold, its far cheaper to run, so would have been a better answer when gold prices were low than other methods..... I'm sure there's a point at which it becomes unviable, but its far lower than todays gold values.

I'm guessing dredges went out of favour as many of the easy to reach gold bearing deposits had been exhausted.

I just don't see how a dredge that's been siting for years, in a market place where no one is using dredges, is worth a million or more. Straight supply and demand. If tony paid more than a few tens of thousands then he's a mug. I don think he's a mug though, I think the numbers are a bit made up.

P-Jay

10,551 posts

190 months

Wednesday 11th January 2017
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youngsyr said:
ikarl said:
P-Jay said:
I asked the same thing a few weeks ago. It's worth $1.5m, apprently, but has been sat rusting for 30 years because no one uses them anymore - I would imagine for good reason. It fails on the most basic of rules for calculating value - "it's only worth what someone will pay for it". Either there was some crazy old nutter who sat on it for 30 years saying he wouldn't part with it for less than seven figures until the planets alighened in such a way that someone wanted to buy it for that or, it's true value was $0 - because whilst it might be worth $10k in scrap, it would have cost more to get it someone to be scraped.
the reason it sat for 30 years is surely the cost/value of gold? it's more worthwhile to mine it with a dredge now because the value of gold has increased so much.

plus, the idea of using the dozers to clear ahead of it and the other equipment (more reliable?) they have available now means it can run for more hours and get through more ground than ever before
Hmmm, not sure about the gold price being the driver for the dredges only now being profitable - they peaked 5 years ago at $1,600 per Oz and are now at just under $1,200, a level they've been above for the past 7 years.

Seems unlikely to me that it would take 7 years to work out they are once again viable, especially when they would have been much more viable 5 years ago.

Agreed,

I think more than that, the UPS of Dredge is their low operating cost as they use less fuel than the method the other crews use, but Oil prices and now lower than they have been for 2 years.




If anything, when Gold prices were low and fuel prices high they would have made mining profitable when other methods weren't and should have been in demand, but during all that period no body used them.

ikarl

3,730 posts

198 months

Friday 13th January 2017
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youngsyr said:
ikarl said:
P-Jay said:
I asked the same thing a few weeks ago. It's worth $1.5m, apprently, but has been sat rusting for 30 years because no one uses them anymore - I would imagine for good reason. It fails on the most basic of rules for calculating value - "it's only worth what someone will pay for it". Either there was some crazy old nutter who sat on it for 30 years saying he wouldn't part with it for less than seven figures until the planets alighened in such a way that someone wanted to buy it for that or, it's true value was $0 - because whilst it might be worth $10k in scrap, it would have cost more to get it someone to be scraped.
the reason it sat for 30 years is surely the cost/value of gold? it's more worthwhile to mine it with a dredge now because the value of gold has increased so much.

plus, the idea of using the dozers to clear ahead of it and the other equipment (more reliable?) they have available now means it can run for more hours and get through more ground than ever before
Hmmm, not sure about the gold price being the driver for the dredges only now being profitable - they peaked 5 years ago at $1,600 per Oz and are now at just under $1,200, a level they've been above for the past 7 years.

Seems unlikely to me that it would take 7 years to work out they are once again viable, especially when they would have been much more viable 5 years ago.

That's not really what I said though, I didn't say it was the only driver, I said it's more worthwhile to mine now because the value of gold has increased. I agree that it is down somewhat since "a" peak 5 years ago but it doesn't change the fact that it is worthwhile due to the value of gold - totally agree with other points re cost of fuel too though

Thing to remember though is the peak 5 years ago is not "the" peak value of gold. Looking longer term (100 year gold tracker) gold was over $2,000 per Oz in 1980 before a significant drop... this may have held the perceived value of the dredge artificially high (is $1.5m high cost for an old dredge? another discussion obv) by the owner who was waiting for the cost of gold to go above $2,000/oz

An interesting question would be to the dredge owner... who much did the dredge cost in 1980, and then how much were they looking for for it between 2010-2013, compared to how much Tony bought it for


Edited by ikarl on Friday 13th January 13:01

Silent1

19,761 posts

234 months

Friday 13th January 2017
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youngsyr said:


ignore the technology angle, but it's quite a fit..hehe

Kaj91

4,705 posts

120 months

Saturday 14th January 2017
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Freddy Dodge returns to save the day http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/gold-rush/videos...

Zad

12,695 posts

235 months

Saturday 14th January 2017
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I would guess that without the new dredge plotline, the production company wouldn't be interested in just watching the existing dredge grinding away bringing in $200k week in, week out. At best, a brand new one would cover 2 or 3 weeks of tv. So Tony has to do something with plenty of chance for drama, yet costing slightly less than the film company pay him, with the advantage that at the end of it he will have another working dredge. Any metal casting company in Canada could take a pattern from those dredge buckets and make another chain, especially if it involved TV publicity. It isn't rocket science.

I do wonder if Parker got told that there was a good looking girl after him who was a hell of a gold digger...

I miss the old days, before it got super industrialised with strip mining, massive trucks, conveyors and all the rest, but I guess there just isn't a living wage to be made sieving out find gold flecks from a few hundred tons of dirt that has to be excavated from 30ft below permafrost.

Dammit I want to make a dredge!

youngsyr

14,742 posts

191 months

Wednesday 18th January 2017
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Kaj91 said:
Freddy Dodge returns to save the day http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/gold-rush/videos...
Can we agree to withhold from posting spoilers about episodes that haven't aired yet please? smile

I go so far as to skip through the end of each show's spoilers for the next episode as I'd rather not know in advance what is going to happen.

As for this week's episode, WTF is Hoffman playing at - they've failed to get gold in 400,000 yards of dirt, yet his plan is just to continue doing exactly the same thing until the end of the season? confused Genuinely baffling, unless it's all a set up for a dramatic comeback in Colorado.

Also can't understand why Tony couldn't just use a GPS navigation system to get through the Yukon river - surely every ship that goes that way doesn't just eyeball the river to see where the sandbars are?


Borroxs

20,911 posts

246 months

Wednesday 18th January 2017
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Just about the same old crap is happening in every episode this year, so I don't think there's any such thing as a spoiler.

It's become very dull.

p1doc

3,111 posts

183 months

Wednesday 18th January 2017
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can only presume todd drags dave back to Colorado with promise of gold backfires and last episode-smack lol
tony seems bit lost this series all plans re new dredge backfiring surprised Minnie has not said no yet
parker does not seem to realise how lucky he is to have rick on his side,wonder if rick will go out alone
if I hear 1 more sut it down lol
martin

P-Jay

10,551 posts

190 months

Friday 20th January 2017
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Someone just asked Parker on twitter if he felt sorry for Todd.

"Why would I feel bad? Todd left a good claim in the Klondike so he could be closer to home and the golden arches".

Zad

12,695 posts

235 months

Friday 20th January 2017
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Todd reminds me of the archetypal mug punter in the original gold rush. Plant a few small nuggets on an otherwise empty marked claim, take punter there and casually just pick them up, punter falls over himself in a rush to mine 100 acres of rocky gravel. He really should have learned by now (well, by the time they headed to south America) especially with the experienced miners he had working for him. I'm fairly sure praying for the answer is no match for knowing your job in this instance.

Despite his age, Parker knows his mining stuff, even if he isn't the world's best negotiator. It is the sort of education you get from being around miners and people into mining since you were born. With the background of his grandpa passing away, or maybe he has just got tired of the false jeopardy this year, but we seem to be seeing a more realistic and pragmatic attitude from him.

ikarl

3,730 posts

198 months

Friday 20th January 2017
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P-Jay said:
Someone just asked Parker on twitter if he felt sorry for Todd.

"Why would I feel bad? Todd left a good claim in the Klondike so he could be closer to home and the golden arches".
Brilliance from the boy hehe

youngsyr

14,742 posts

191 months

Wednesday 25th January 2017
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I don't really get the idea of Parker's super long conveyor belt - from what I understand, it moves dirt out of the cut to the edge of the cut and so saves you using a rock truck, but you have to move the dirt to it in the first place and then pay to run it? confused

Is it really worth investing $300k in? confused

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 25th January 2017
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youngsyr said:
I don't really get the idea of Parker's super long conveyor belt - from what I understand, it moves dirt out of the cut to the edge of the cut and so saves you using a rock truck, but you have to move the dirt to it in the first place and then pay to run it? confused

Is it really worth investing $300k in? confused
I thought it was for getting rid of the overburden? I guess the cost saving in having 1 operator in 1 digger vs 2 in a digger and a rocktruck and the diesel will = huge savings over time

Jazzy Jag

3,412 posts

90 months

Wednesday 25th January 2017
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youngsyr said:
I don't really get the idea of Parker's super long conveyor belt - from what I understand, it moves dirt out of the cut to the edge of the cut and so saves you using a rock truck, but you have to move the dirt to it in the first place and then pay to run it? confused

Is it really worth investing $300k in? confused
I thought that, too.

and once the dirt has piled up on the top side, you have to move it away.

R8Steve

4,150 posts

174 months

Wednesday 25th January 2017
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youngsyr said:
I don't really get the idea of Parker's super long conveyor belt - from what I understand, it moves dirt out of the cut to the edge of the cut and so saves you using a rock truck, but you have to move the dirt to it in the first place and then pay to run it? confused

Is it really worth investing $300k in? confused
I thought it was paydirt and if so wondered why he didn't just run the conveyor directly into the washplant instead of dumping it by the side only for a truck to then lift it up and in.

The other confusing part for me was why Tony didn't consider or even think of using the working part from the buckets of the good dredge in the old one until they could get it fixed. The new dredge isn't going to be working in the next two weeks so i thought he'd have borrowed and adapted whatever was on it.

Sway

26,070 posts

193 months

Wednesday 25th January 2017
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Jazzy Jag said:
youngsyr said:
I don't really get the idea of Parker's super long conveyor belt - from what I understand, it moves dirt out of the cut to the edge of the cut and so saves you using a rock truck, but you have to move the dirt to it in the first place and then pay to run it? confused

Is it really worth investing $300k in? confused
I thought that, too.

and once the dirt has piled up on the top side, you have to move it away.
It's for overburden, and keeps up (in theory) with the digger, whereas due to the route you need two rock trucks otherwise.

So a saving on two rock trucks' worth of diesel, two guys deployed elsewhere, etc.

Once up there it'll be left until they're ready to fill in the cut, and it'll just be shoved back in to fill in the hole.

Found it odd there were no grizzly bars though.