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| Gold from Alaska |
At the time, I was doing pragmatic geological research on diamonds, gold, colored gemstones and greenstone belts at the Wyoming Geological Survey (WGS) at the University of Wyoming. I had the perfect job! Basically, I did whatever I wanted to do and published results and went around to various mining conferences to present these results. When I accumulated enough leave, I would take a few months off to consult on various projects that did not conflict with my research.
While at the WGS in Laramie, I had two super friends who were also outstanding geologists - Dr. Paul Graff and Dr. Gordon Marlatt. I spent considerable time sharing stories, lies, and geology with Paul and Gordon, and many mugs of beer. These two were two of the best geologists I'd met. Anyway, Paul had been hired by WestGold to put together a team to search for the mother lode. In 1988, he and WestGold hired both Gordon and me to work on projects in Alaska. I had the choice of either searching for the mother lode or running the Bima Gold Dredge at Nome. It was a tough choice as I wanted to do both! In the end, I decided to head to the Kuskokwim Mountains to search for the mother lode, since prospecting was my specialty. I knew little to nothing about running a dredge. So, the company sent me to the wilderness, and Gordon to the dredge.
From what I understand, the company initially hired Paul in 1987 to identify targets to search for gold. After working with Bruce Hickok, Robert Rutherford, and Toni Hinderman from a private Alaskan consulting group, Paul along with Mark Bronston and Richard Garnett (who were running the company back in Anchorage) decided to search for the mother lode in the Kuskokwim Mountains near where a number of placer gold deposits were known without any known lode deposits. The concept was to find the source of the placer gold. So, in 1988, Gordon went to Nome to mine gold off-shore, and I went to the Donlin Creek - Snow Gulch area to search for the mother of all gold deposits in Alaska. I could be wrong with a couple of facts since I was not working for the company until 1988 and also the summer of 1989.
The lode-gold at Donlin Creek, kind of near the booming metropolis of Crooked Creek, Alaska. And after all of these years, a mine is almost ready to start producing gold at one of the largest gold deposits discovered in history. The discovery included a group of seven geologists, following a search for sources of placer gold in the Kuskokwim Mountains of Alaska. The exploration concept was to look for some good placer gold deposits, and then explore favorable areas for lode gold. This project began in 1987 along with the mining of placer gold along the coast of Nome using the Bima dredge. The dredge was a giant.
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| Inscribed in stone, the 2009 Canadian PDAC award for gold discovery. |
For me, it was the love of geology, rocks, and old mines that attracted me to Alaska. I had already mapped considerable regions and many many discoveries in Wyoming.
I also published, lectured, led public and mining association field trips, mapped mines, mapped all of the gold and base metal mining districts, lamproite fields and kimberlite districts, mapped greenstone belts in the Wyoming craton, and identified gemstones all over the state. So, I took leave from Wyoming to prospect for gold in Alaska - but unfortunately, the project was dropped after we made the discovery due to problems in Anchorage, and the property fell back into the hands of the Calista Corporation. Even so, we seven geologists were part of the discovery team of this giant gold deposit. Three of us (Paul, Mark and myself) were from Wyoming.
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| A member of nearly 2 dozen Halls-of-Fame in martial arts, as well as two for geology. |
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| W. Dan Hausel was back in Wyoming looking for an extension to the Copper King Gold-Copper deposit in the Silver Crown district, Wyoming. This 2-million ounce gold equivalent deposit was researched by Hausel some years ago while working at the Wyoming Geological Survey. This time he's looking to find more gold on the property. And his results are very encouraging! But it will take some drilling as part of the mineralized porphyry was down-dropped to the east under alluvium. And, yes, he was elected to the International Order of Ragged Ass Miners - one heck of an accomplishment! |
Alumni Receive International Mineral Discovery Award
December 17, 2012, University of Wyoming Alumni News
Alumnus Mark A. Bronston (BS , 1979), alumnus Paul J. Graff (PhD, 1978), and Senior Minerals Geologist for the Wyoming Geological Survey at UW W. Dan Hausel, recount how they were all members of the mineral (gold) exploration team that was awarded the Thayer Lindsley Award for an International Mineral Discovery by the Prospector’s and Developer’s Association of Canada in 2009. They discovered the Donlin Creek gold deposit in central Alaska in the late 1980’s working for WestGold, a subsidiary of Anglo-American and DeBeers.
The Donlin Creek deposit is currently the largest unexploited gold deposit in the world (39 million ounces proved and probable reserves)($71 billion in gold). The mine is currently in the final stages of permitting.
