One man and his dog set gold mining standards north of Fairbanks

An Alaska miner who takes extraordinary care of the land he leases 250 miles north of Fairbanks has won a national award from the Bureau of Land Management. "Diamond" Jim Olmstead has received the agency's 2005 National Sustainable Mineral Development Award in the small operator category. Olmstead has been mining gold on Gold Creek, off the Dalton Highway, since 1996, where his one-person summer operation has progressed from a suction dredge to a small Case 450 tractor with a trommel and associated water pumps.

"The award recognizes his conscientious and timely reclamation that has maintained a stable channel and flood plain on the creek," the BLM's Alaska office said in a release Sept. 20. "Disturbances are limited to about one acre a year. Staff at BLM's Fairbanks District Office are particularly impressed with the way Olmstead replicates the original stream channel, matching existing grade and channel widths to adjacent undisturbed areas as his operations move along. Olmstead also stockpiles organic and vegetative material from the site for re-spreading later, speeding up the revegetation of the disturbed areas."

Olmstead could not be reached for comment because in the fall he goes to mine in Arizona, where he lives without a telephone, according to the North Pole owner of Olmstead's Alaska mining claims, Richard Wright. "He is quite the character, he's got a lot of personality," said Linda Musitano from BLM's Fairbanks office, who has visited Olmstead to ensure he is in compliance with regulations. "He stays in a little building with his dog. He looks like a backwoods miner."

When BLM suggested to Olmstead that he could go to Washington, D.C. to receive his award, he replied that he hadn't been east of the Mississippi since the 1960s and had no interest in going again, Musitano told Mining News.

Award recognizes rebuilding

"This award was deserved because it shows that when a miner rebuilds stream channels in a manner which provides for proper channel widths and flood plain areas, the recovery and downstream impacts are minimized," BLM wrote.

"In this case it is apparent that the miner is very familiar with the characteristics of the Gold Creek channel and flood plain in the area that he is working in.

This is evident when he replicated the channel/flood plain areas in his final reclamation.

The operator also shows the value of properly sizing mining equipment to the area that is being mined.

He could mine with smaller equipment, but smaller equipment would limit the size of some of the larger rock which he could handle.

Larger equipment would require upgraded access and cause additional on-site disturbance, which would very likely prove to be unproductive."

"I think the size of his operation makes his reclamation more successful," Musitano said of Olmstead. "He knows what his limit is. A lot of miners up here get in over their heads and go bankrupt." In the past 18 months several people from the East Coast and southeastern United States have bought mining claims in Alaska as a pastime for their retirement. One man comes from New York City, spends a week or two each year mining, and hires someone else to clean up for him and do the reclamation work. "People are coming up with more money than we're used to seeing," Musitano said.