• Panning for Gold
    A deft turn of the wrist and almost magically the gold and gravel separate. Panning is still an important method of checking the yield of the material being processed.
  • Off Road Vehicle!
    At the end of the road, there are still 30 miles to travel to the mine site! Lots of power is needed to move a seasons worth of supplies over a frozen trail.
  • Winter Road
    The easiest way to the mine site! It doesn't look that easy does it?
  • Summer Camp!
    More comfortable than most, this camp has many of the comforts of home and provides a place to rest from long days of work
  • Private Airport!
    One of the first projects of constructing a far off-road mining camp is the airstrip. The winter road becomes impassable and the way in or out of camp for perishable supplies or in case of emergency is an airplane.
  • “Panning” for Gold
    The “pan” becomes a sluice box and bulldozer and loader take the place of the pick and shovel.
  • Hydro Power!
    Powerful jets of water break up clumps of gravel and suspend them for a ride down the sluice box.
  • Hydro Power!
    While the gravel and water travel through the sluice box, gold that is present settles to the bottom. The rate of flow is carefully selected to allow the gold to remain in the box while the other material is carried off the end.
  • The Product
    If you acquire the right piece of land, plan right, dig in the right place at the right depth and have the know-how to keep all the machinery working all season, then the color of gold shows to reward your efforts

Begining in 1979 as Green Mining and Exploration, Northwest Mining has operated placer gold mines in 8 different locations in Central Alaska.

Unlike the picks and shovels of prospectors of old, Northwest Mining utilizes many pieces of heavy equipment. The placer mines are often very remote and getting equipment to the site can require traveling during winter and using frozen streams as roads.

Often, first on the camp construction agenda is an airstrip since once the winter road melts, the only expedient way to the mining site may be by air.