By SARAH REIJONEN
For the GPAA
He was eight years old when he took a trip to Alaska with his dad.
That vacation pointed 15-year-old Scott Thielman's life in one direction — toward gold.
"I've been interested in heavy machinery ever since I was old enough to have an interest, and when I was about eight years old, we took a trip to Alaska and I got interested in panning, and it just went from there," said Thielman, a sophomore at Simms High School, which is approximately 30 miles west of Great Falls, Mont.
Does he have gold fever?
"Oh yes," said Thielman, who joined the GPAA with his father, Greg, a year ago. The two are members of the Blackfoot River Chapter in Lincoln, Mont. "It's one of my main interests."
Naturally, when Thielman was trying to determine what to write his research paper on for his Independent Studies Science class, gold was the first thing that came to mind.
"When I first enrolled in my independent science class, after getting into prospecting, I wanted to do a project that had to do with gold mining, and I discussed it with my science teacher Mr. Hahn," Thielman said.
Ray Hahn has been a teacher for nearly a decade, but before his life in the classroom, Hahn worked as a geologist for 28 years.
"He'll teach you everything you want to know about rocks and then some," Greg said. "He's a very knowledgeable man."
Hahn knew Thielman was special when he first met the enthusiastic, young prospector as an eighth grader.
"In science, he's an 'A' student," Hahn said. "Actually, I had judged Scott as a middle schooler. In eighth grade he did a project on his sluice box. He worked on his sluice box, trying to improve the ripples on that, so when he entered ninth grade, I said, 'Hey, maybe you ought to do some research in that regard. We chatted for a while and I talked him into looking for blind ore deposits using geochemistry — that's what I did my thesis on at Eastern Washington — and he decided, 'Why not do bio-geochemistry?' "
As a freshman, Thielman caught not only the attention of Hahn, but he also earned the respect of his peers at the annual Montana Region 2 Science and Engineering Fair. Students compete in Montana, with hopes of moving on to the national competition.
"He was fifth overall last year as a freshman, and that's very uncommon. Generally, seniors or very advanced
juniors win this competition," Hahn said.
When Thielman enrolled in Hahn's class, he began his next big project to determine if vegetation surveys could be used to detect blind gold ore deposits in the McDonald Gold Prospect. The McDonald Prospect has eight million recoverable ounces of gold and is the biggest gold reserve in the state, but when the no-cyanide law was passed in Montana, the mining project came to a halt. Now it just sits there, a quiet plot of land waiting for an ambitious teenager to study every acre.
"The timing we don't remember anymore, but basically when we started having the discussions and conversation on where to go, how to go about doing things, the GPAA [Gold Prospectors magazine] came out with an article about eucalyptus trees in Australia [containing gold], and Scott read that and he goes, 'You know, this is really interesting. Can we do that here?' " Hahn said. "
Instead of eucalyptus trees, which don't exist in Montana, Thielman decided to study the gold content in pine trees.
After collecting samples from ponderosa pine trees in Lincoln, Mont., Thielman proved his hypothesis, finding that the amount of gold (measured in parts per million) found in the pine needles increased in mineralized areas. He sent the samples to ALS Geochemistry Lab in Reno, Nev. for analysis.
"Then he wrote a grant to the Dr. Baker Foundation for kids in science and they gave him the money to do the analytical work; that was about $900, and ALS actually knocked that down by nearly 50 percent, which helped Scott out, too," Hahn said.
According to Thielman's research, gold values in needles over the unmineralized area ranged from .0007 ppm to .0009 ppm. In stems, gold values ranged from .0003 ppm to .0008 ppm over the unmineralized area. In the mineralized area, gold ranged from .0008 ppm to .0016 ppm in the needles. In stems gold values ranged from .0004 ppm to .0016 ppm. Thielman took the extra step to calculate the statistics and proved a mathematical difference in the mineralized and unmineralized areas, Hahn said.
Through his research, Thielman has realized that taking vegetation samples is another viable way to locate gold,
specifically a blind ore body, which can be masked by overburden.
"I could say if I was looking for a blind ore deposit, I would definitely do this
before I ever did drilling or large-scale sampling," Thielman said. "You can do this for $50 a sample."
The study proved that bio-vegetation surveys are a useful tool for industry
geologists and miners that are in densely forested areas or an area that has other unique features, Hahn said.
"The tried-and-true method is walking on the ground and mapping the geology. You can't beat that," Hahn said. "But, there may be places where there's glacial till and the glacial tills from somewhere else. How do you know what's underneath you? So, you have to use a technique that allows you to see through the till or topsoil, and in his case, he used trees. It could be grass if you're someone in the valleys. Geophysics, same thing; it allows you to look through the material that you're walking on top of, and it gives you a bull's-eye, or anomaly, that you can then go drill or dig in. So, it's a great technique to look for the true blind ore body."
While his father got him started in gold prospecting, Thielman's zealous search for answers has renewed Dad's curiosity for the yellow metal and its many mysteries.
"I've always had a little bit of interest, but since Scott has gotten really interested in these different ways of prospecting for gold, it's kind of piqued my interest, as well," Greg said.
It has also spurred Hahn back into the goldfields.
"Then, I went with him, too; I like it so much. We'd spend the day up in the hills in Montana," Hahn said. "I don't do it so much anymore, but meeting Scott, I've gotten back into it."
Hahn said the skills Thielman has gained from his research are invaluable.
"You know, research, there is no substitute," Hahn said. "When you think of it, it's math, it's English, it's science and history. He's looking up mining claims, how to identify them, what's open ground. It's geography; it's art. He has to make a presentation board. He goes to competitions, so he gets public speaking. Probably for the investment, it's the best thing we can do for him in school."
Not only will Thielman's knowledge be useful when he gets to college — he already has plans to attend the School of Mines and Engineering at Montana Tech — but it provides hope for the future of geology and mining.
"Boy, he's got a great start. He's got some geochemistry behind him now, some geophysics, learning the business from the ground up. We looked for open ground together so I make him go to the Bureau of Mines and BLM and the old-fashioned way, you know, get the corners and get the old prospect maps out," Hahn said. "Scott's enthusiasm and joy at doing it is unmatched. If we had a school of kids like Scott, doing whatever they want to with the same enthusiasm, wow, it would really elevate their opportunities."
And, having served in the industry for nearly 30 years, Hahn knows the need for exploring and utilizing natural resources.
"The real truth about prospecting is that with seven billion people in the world, we have to have development of our natural resources. We have to have gold, particularly with the computer revolution; all the contacts are gold. We gotta have copper, we gotta have iron, all the natural resources," Hahn said. "So, we need guys like Scott to come up through the system. He has to replace the geologists in the field. The next generation has to come forward and replace those who will retire out one day. And, they're high-paying jobs for Americans."
Thielman is already working on his next project, which involves using a magnetometer to "measure magnetics in the ground and look for pathfinders that are associated with gold," he said.
"There are all kinds of pathfinders, minerals associated with gold," Thielman said.
Aside from mapping magnetics, Thielman will continue in his quest for innovative and interesting ways to find gold.
"Paleoplacer deposits are my favorite type of deposits to prospect for, and lately I've been doing a lot of work up out of Lincoln, Mont.," Thielman said.
In the meantime, he'll be dreaming of the day when he can get back up to Alaska to test out his new methods.
"My dad just joked I need to find a bunch of gold to pay for the plane tickets," Thielman said.
Sarah Reijonen is a freelance writer based in California. She can be reached at sarahreijonen@yahoo.com.
Article as featured in the April-May 2015 edition of the Pick & Shovel Gazette.
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