The Klondike gold rush in Dawson city is over for more then 100 years, still there are diehards digging for gold along the river beds around the area. I am totally fascinated about who these people are and what they do. When X (I don’t remember the name) asked me to join him the next day to visit a mine I am totally up for it.
To be able to dig for gold you have to stake a claim (660ft x 1320ft), then go into town to pay your 10$ a year for the rent and the ground is all yours. As long as it produces gold, you can do with the ground what ever you want. Thats exactly what they do, welcome to the old method of destroying a valley, gold mining.
X is bringing us to an old renovated mining plant first, but I have never been very interested in history. 
Soon we continue up the hill and drop down into the Gold Creek valley on the other side. We pass some sites in the far distance until we stumble upon a plant near the road. These mining die-hards are not up for busybodies, but 3 month in the bush without a woman...a whole tour is what I get from J. J looks like a miner. An old weathered rough brown face, old pants, a dirty shirt and rubber boots. He has however the sparkling eyes and I like him from the first moment. The plant is owned by 2 brothers from down South and J is working for a fixed salary during the warm summer months. The rest of the crew consists out of Filipinos. 
Having visited a gold mining area in Bolivia, I did not expect the scale of this operation at all. The site has the access of over 50 claims all connected together. The big Cat equipment is digging away the valley to run the ground through a gold mining machine. With more high tech equipment then in the old times, the piles of gravel once washed for gold, are washed again. But also new ground is exposed, and after thawing the permafrost the gravel is shoveled in the rocker on top of the mining machine which takes over the job. All the big rocks are separated after being thoroughly washed. The small pebbles and sand falls through a screen to a lower level.
More water is added and the muddy substance is run over a sluice box. And that is the gold miners trick. A sluice box is a long tray with riffles over its entire length. The riffles great small barriers to the flow of water which created eddies in the water, giving the heavy gold to sink to the carpet on the bottom of the sluice box. Once a week the carpet is cleaned and the money is counted. 
The water needed for this process comes from a big pond created by the miners along side the little stream. The runoff from the mining machine also enters this pond and left behind is piles of gravel. Energy is generated by a big generator which sucks up the expensive Canadian gasoline out loud. Its clear, miners do not care much about the environment.Time to do it the old fashion way, panning. We find two little dust particles of gold, not enough to make me any jeweleries. Have to do it with the old natural look a bit longer.
Dag,
Iris (Dawson city, 10130 miles)
