Who is lucky enough to dredge full time. What do you think your overheads would be like say need 5 oz a year to pay for claim fees wear and tear on hoses etc etc. Then 5 to 10 oz for gas food travel to site accommodation if needed etc etc So rufely need like 10 to 15 oz a year in cost then rest is wages. How have people planned or set up there operations
I dredge for 3 months a year. Doing between 120 and 200 hours on motors. I run a 5in proline. Fuel costs are about $5-$8 and hour. I need about 2 oz to cover all permit and PLI costs. I live on site for those 3 months and so far have only needed a few repairs. Bank $500 a year for those and you should be good if your not to rough on your gear. If you can’t average a gram an hour your not going to be able to Do it full time and make money.
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I often thought about going full time, my job props up my dredging for sure, not saying it cant b done but youd want to have real low over heads , always seems to b spanners thrown in like breakdowns or river conditions and injury, but I keep going back cause the potential is there and I have goldfever lol, I will spend 2 months solid plus weeends on my claim , and yes I run a 5 inch to and anything under a gram an hour and your going backwards
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