July 25, 2010 - Our newest video is now online! Come along with Scott as he struggles to build the Holloway Bar Placer Mine inA Gold Miner's Dream: The Holloway Bar Story. If you've ever wondered what it takes to be a gold miner, this 54 minute documentary will answer all of your questions...
July 12, 2010 - The streaming camera is now online most days when we're mining. The camera is positioned right above the ore pit for a bird's eye view and you can now listed to an archived audio track.
June 18, 2010 - Welcome to Mr. Lucas and his Grade 11 students from Dease Lake who learned about placer mining on their recent visit!
May 11, 2010 - The Mine Cameras are back for the season. Check them out on the Webcam or Minecam pages...
April 6, 2010 - The Lakelse Lake ice went out a couple of weeks ago - and the Holloway Bar webcams were there to capture it. Check out the latest video - Lakelse Ice Breakup 2010 - to see how it happened.
February 25, 2010 - Have you ever wondered how you might look for mineral riches beneath a moving glacier? Come along with us as we go "behind the scenes" of a diamond drilling project through the Foremore Glacier in Northern BC...
December 29, 2009 - We'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!
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 to learn about the history and mining on McDame Creek!
July 21, 2009 - Del's been running McDame Creek gravels through his shaker plant for 30 years in search of gold - check out the Del's Shaker Plant 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.
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!
September 23, 2007 - Read all about Scott's fabrication adventure buildingEmma, the Holloway Bar Pump Queenwhich was overhauled over the summer and now has a new powerplant...
August 15, 2007 - Be sure to read about "The Wizard" - Holloway Bar's gold machine.
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 14/10: First Mine Visit of 2010I just returned home from the first trip to the mine. Projects include servicing the equipment, a network expansion, webcams, and a load of firewood...
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...
Webcam View:
click image for more cams
July 26, 2010
It's extremely important to make sure that all of the waste water from the placer mining process is gathered and directed to a safe location. Water is probably the most important piece to the mining puzzle. A large pump carries water from McDame Creek into the gold plant where it is used to both break up the raw materials and carry it over the various "gold catching" elements of the gold plant. On its journey over the shaker deck and through the sluicebox, it turns to a brown muddy colour as it picks up the fine particulate matter (ie dirt and clay) and carries it away. Once it leaves the plant, it's directed into the first tailings pond where the water starts to drain through the gravel on the floor of the pond. Every active mining location on Holloway Bar has a network of several connected tailings ponds. Once the pond nearest the plant starts to fill up, as it will with several days of mining, the overflow starts to run through the pipes that connect the ponds together. These pipes are buried under the road network that provides access through the pond areas and can be driven over. Once the water has drained away, all that is left is a thick layer of mud rich in nourishment where the local plants will thrive in future times!
