We imagine Yukon Youmine to be the first crowd-funded gold mining experiment in modern history. Our first step will be to document the property, make some videos, and hit paydirt. We’ll be up there in 2015, with basic tools (metal detector, pans, shovels, buckets… maybe a small sluice). We’ll also be conducting interviews with miners in the Carmacks/Dawson area.
If possible, we’d like to invite a few special guests to join us at the claim in late August – panners, metal-detectorists, nugget-snipers, dowsers, maybe even a psychic – to get a feel for the land and tell us where they think the gold is hiding (we’ll give them 10 yards of their choice as a reward).
We’ll edit all the video and put it up on YouTube and other sites; we’re looking to gain traffic and generate some buzz. Sometimes in early 2016, we’ll run a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter or IndieGogo to fundraise a proper gold mining campaign.
Why Crowdfunding?
We figure the claim is worth at least $250,000 if we wanted to sell it. Which may seem like a lot of money. Except when you factor in that some friends of ours are having million dollar seasons in the same area with just a small team. So we aren’t interested in giving it up.
However, to really dig deep and get the gold, we’re going to need to buy or rent big equipment. Big equipment costs money.
We think we need $100,000 to rent supplies and equipment and have a profitable season.
We’d like to crowdfund these costs by pre-selling you a yard of dirt: you’ll pay a fee (maybe $100?) to help fund the adventure. We’ll process your yard of dirt, record the finds and send you all the gold (or cash equivalent). This isn’t an investment – it’s more like a lottery. A lot of yards of dirt will probably come up dry. But we expect a few to have some yellow. A quarter once of gold would be worth about $250. An ounce of gold would be over $1000. Some really lucky son of a bitch might find a 10-ounce nugget. We’ll record the big wins, keep careful records, and video the whole experience.
Mine Your Own Damn Gold
If that doesn’t sound fun, we welcome you to come up and mine your own yard of dirt. You can pick out your dirt, we’ll help you dig it out and run it through the machines. Probably the same fee ($100?) but you can come up and camp and watch us process your yard of dirt. You’ll get a beautiful and exciting gold mining vacation, and possibly go home with some gold.
Other Options
For professional prospectors, who are ready to invest at a higher level – we take a flat 15% off of gold finds on our claim, if you finance your own dig.
You can rent your own equipment, choose your own area, and start digging.
Contact us for scheduling.