December 29, 2009 - I've just posted a new video - Compact Snow with Slippery Sections - in the time-lapse video gallery. This 18 minute film documents a drive up highway 37 from Terrace to the Yukon in December 2008 - with the temperatures hitting -45 at the end!
November 9, 2009 - I've seen a family of swans swimming in front of the Lakelse Lake webcams quite a few times in the last week or so - keep watching and you might see a few more!
October 7, 2009 - Shake It! is a new video made from webcam stills
documenting the "last dig of 2009". Enjoy!
September 23, 2009 - Welcome to Ms. Cobban's Grade 11 Earth Science class from Watson Lake Secondary School who visited the mine this week. We hope you had a great time learning about the rich history and mining on McDame Creek!
July 21, 2009 - We've just finished production of our latest video - Del's Shaker Plant. Del's been running McDame Creek gravels through his shaker plant for 30 years in search of gold - check out the video to see how a placer gold shaker plant works!
June 24, 2009 - We've posted a couple of new short videos online - be sure to watch PortaCam TimeLapse and Ningunsaw!, both recent additions to the Timelapse section.
June 12, 2009 - Be sure to read Spring Cleaning - our latest weblog entry... You'll learn just a little about what it takes to prepare Holloway Bar for another mining season after a long, cold winter.
May 15, 2009 - Sitemap added to make it easier to find things!
February 25, 2009 - Come with us on a visit to Cassiar Gold: Mining on Snow Creek where Scott and Al visted a couple of placer mining brothers using a different gold recovery system - a placer mining jig!
January 26, 2009 - You might have missed this past article in the "History" section - check out "In the Trenches" for an audio tour with pictures of the old diggings on Holloway Bar.
September 23, 2007 - Emma, the Holloway Bar Pump Queenwas overhauled over the summer and now has a new powerplant with three times the pumping power to feed The Wizard. Read all about Scott's fabrication adventure on the Pictures and Stories page...
August 15, 2007 - The latest web story is about "The Wizard" - Holloway Bar's gold machine. Gold isn't just laying around the property - you have to move and process tons of gravel. We use "The Wizard", a gold plant designed and built by entirely by Scott to get our gold and make your panning kits. Come for this insider's tour of the gold plant now online in the Pictures and Stories: Finding the Motherlode page...
Holloway Bar Placer Mine - Placer Gold Mining on McDame Creek in Northern British Columbia
Where are we?
Holloway Bar is located on McDame Creek in Northern BC's beautiful Cassiar Mountains. McDame Creek is where one of BC's largest solid gold nuggets (73 ounces!) was found in 1877 - just downstream from our Holloway Bar project.
What is a Placer Mine?
There are two main ways to find gold. One is to tunnel into rock for gold ore, which is then removed from the rock using a variety of methods. We use the "traditional" method of placer mining, using water - lots of water - to wash the gravel and other material away from the gold, which is caught on its journey through the gold plant.
Waste water and material is captured in a series of tailings ponds where the water filters back into the ground. Unlike some mining ventures, this is a very environmentally friendly operation.
If you have Google Earth installed, you can download this .KMZ file (Google Earth Placement File) to take you directly to the Holloway Bar Placer Mine.
June 12/09: Spring CleaningThere's a ton of work involved and repairs required before we can move into camp and go mining each year. See what Scott and Christina found after one of the toughest Northern winters in years...
It takes a lot more than just pouring the dirt through a sluicebox to go mining. Scott's been busy again this spring getting everything ready...
Webcam View:
click image for more cams
February 8, 2010
Modern-day explorers hiking in the backwoods north of Terrace often come across abandoned mine shafts like this one at the old Maroon Mountain mine near Kalum Lake. A network of trails were pounded out by the old timers back in the 1920's and 1930's during the early days of mineral exploration in the area and served as the "roads of the day" for both walkers and pack horses. This present day trail starts near the Nisga'a highway and winds its way up ancient creeks and through thick forests before bringing hikers to large open alpine areas high near the mountain tops. Mining shafts were bored into mostly solid rock by hand or with whatever tools and equipment could be dragged up the trails. Much of the material extracted from the shafts was processed nearby to minimize the amount of material that had to be packed out, and remnants of the old mills are often found nearby. Photo courtesy of Bob Wall.
