The GEMHUNTER

Arizona geologist and martial arts instructor, Dan Hausel, was notified by Fred Marks, Editor-in-Chief of Marquis Who’s Who of his inclusion in the forthcoming 68th Edition of Who’s Who in America 2014. Hausel was first selected as a Who’s Who honoree more than 25 years ago and has since appeared in many biographical compendiums celebrating his accomplishments and achievements as a martial arts instructor, scientist, writer, artist, public speaker, astronomer and musician.

The laureate martial arts instructor has also been inducted into 16 Halls of Fame since 1998. These include the World Martial Arts Black Belt Hall-of-Fame, Action Martial Arts Magazine’s Hall of Honors, World Head of Society Hall of Fame, American Karate Association Hall of Fame, Latin America Martial Arts Society Worldwide Hall of Fame, North American Black Belt Hall of Fame, World Karate Union Hall of Fame, National Rock Hound & Lapidary Hall of Fame, Millennium Hall of Fame and others.

He began training in martial arts in the early 1960s. In 1999, he reached the highest level in martial arts when awarded certification as sokeshodai (grandmaster) and kudan (9th degree black belt) at the Juko Kai International hombu (world administrative headquarters). At that time, he was teaching karate, kobudo, jujutsu, samurai arts and self-defense the University of Wyoming while working as a research geologist.

Over three decades he discovered many mineral deposits (precious and base metals, colored gemstones and diamonds) and was awarded economic geology’s highest honor with six other geologists in 2009 – the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s (PDAC) Thayer Lindsley Award for a major international mineral discovery. He authored nearly 1,000 books, papers, maps and abstracts on prospecting, geology and martial arts, mapped more than 1,000 square kilometers of complex geology and traveled around North America presenting more than 400 lectures on geology as a distinguished lecturer. But because of his research contract, he was unable to financially benefit from any of his mineral discoveries or books including one of the largest gold deposits ever to be found in North America (Donlin Creek, Alaska), a previously unrecognized gold district (Rattlesnake Hills district, Wyoming) and significant gemstone deposits. He found dozens of diamond deposits..

In 2004, he received an unprecedented promotion to judan (10th degree black belt) making him one of a very few martial artists in the world to achieve that rank. In 2012, he received a one of a kind award: he was promoted to junidan (12th dan) and is only one of a handful of martial artists in history to be awarded that rank.

Grandmaster Hausel in currently head instructor of the Arizona School of Traditional Karate located on Baseline at the border of Mesa and Gilbert, and the world head of Seiyo No Shorin-Ryu Karate Kobudo Kai. He is a former instructor of martial arts at Arizona State University, the University of New Mexico, the University of Utah and the University of Wyoming and has taught martial arts to many teachers, professors, librarians, scientists, PhDs, engineers and social scientists.

W. Dan Hausel recounted discovery of the Donlin Creek gold deposit in Alaska as a member of a 7-geologist team who were later awarded the Thayer Lindsely Award for an International Mineral Discovery by the Prospector’s and Developer’s Association in Canada in 2009. In 1988, he and six other geologists discovered a Monster Gold Deposit in the Kuskokwim Mountains of Southwestern Alaska described by Northern Miner News as the largest undeveloped gold deposit in the world! Hausel, who was on leave from the Wyoming Geological Survey at the time, was consulting for WestGold, a subsidiary of Anglo-American and DeBeers.

The Northern Miner (v.98, no.52, 2013) reported Donlin Creek to have more than 43 million ounces of contained gold! As a comparison, the Homestake gold mine which operated for 123 years from 1878 to 2001, produced 39.8 million ounces of gold and had one of the longest surviving stocks in history on the NYSE. Donlin Creek has stepped up as the new measuring stick for all gold miners in the world. The mine is currently in the final stages of permitting, envisioned to be the largest gold mine in the world.

Hausel is also a Hall of Fame martial artist and found himself at the top of the martial arts world in 2012.  In December 2012 he was promoted to the highest ranked Shorin-Ryu martial artist. Shorin-Ryu is the traditional Okinawa form of karate developed many centuries ago. In 2004, Hausel was promoted to Judan (10th degree black belt) in Shorin-Ryu karate, a rank only achieved by a very small, select group of martial artists from Okinawa. Rarely has a non-Asian reached this level in karate. In 2012 he received an unprecedented promotion to Junidan (12th degree black belt) that has only been awarded to a handful of martial artists in history.

He also recently published another book with his son Eric entitled "GOLD". Dan is an author of nearly 1,000 books, professional papers, maps, popular articles and abstracts.

Anyone who knows anything about Wyoming’s geology, minerals, rocks and gemstones will be familiar with Dan Hausel. For three decades he searched the hills of Wyoming taking a territory of little interest to a State now considered to have the greatest diversity of gemstones, minerals, and rocks in the US. Using an intricate understanding of geology, Dan mapped nearly 700 square miles of rock exposure and old mines and found dozens of new mineral deposits and some minerals and rocks previously unknown to the Cowboy State. Some of these included diamonds, gold, water sapphire, sapphire, ruby, gem garnets, gem diopside, fire opal, precious opal, many varieties of agate and jasper and other minerals. As a geological consultant, he searched elsewhere in North America for gold, gems and rocks including two of the largest gold deposits in the US and at least one of the largest gemstone deposits in the world.

An author of hundreds of professional papers, articles, geological maps and contributor to more than 90 books, Hausel has also contributed popular articles for ICMJ’s Prospecting and Mining Journal and Lost Treasure and continues to provide prospecting hints on his GemHunter website. Some popular books include Gold: Field Guide For Prospectors and Geologists, Gems, Minerals and Rocks of Wyoming: Guide for Rock Hounds, Prospectors and Collectors, Diamond Deposits: Origin, Exploration and History of Discovery, Gemstones and other Unique Minerals and Rocks of Wyoming: A field guide for Collectors, Geology of Wyoming’s Precious Metal Lode and Placer Deposits and Minerals and Rocks of Wyoming.

A popular speaker for rock hound and geological groups, Dan was a Distinguished Speaker for the University of Wyoming Department of Geology and Geophysics and presented more than 400 talks and field trips throughout the US. For his work, he was presented dozens of regional, national and international awards including the Education Award when inducted into the National Rockhound and Lapidary Hall of Fame and the coveted Thayer Lindsley Award for a Major International Mineral Discovery.

As a graduate student at the University of Utah, Hausel worked on lunar samples for part of his research. Later he was employed by the Wyoming Geological Survey and worked a consultant for several mining companies including VP of US Exploration for DiamonEx Ltd. He lives in Gilbert, Arizona where he continues to explore for his next major mineral discovery.

AUTHOR’S TITLES:

• GOLD Field Guide for Prospectors & Geologists, 2011, Booksurge, 366 p., ISBN 10 1463692625

• Gems, Minerals and Rocks of Wyoming: Guide for Rock Hounds, Prospectors and Collectors, 2009, CreateSpace, 175 p, ISBN 10 1439218560

• Diamond Deposits: Origin, Exploration and History of Discovery, 2002, Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 374 p., ISBN 10-0873352130.

• Gemstones and other Unique Minerals and Rocks of Wyoming: A field guide for Collectors, 2000, Wyoming Geological Survey, 267 p., ISBN 1-884589154

• Geology of Wyoming’s Precious Metal Lode and Placer Deposits, 1989, Wyoming Geological Survey, 249 p., LC89621694.

• Minerals and Rocks of Wyoming (2nd edition), 2005, Wyoming Geological Survey, 129 p., ISBN 1-8844589405.

• Copper, Lead, Zinc, Molybdenum and Associated Metal Deposits of Wyoming, 1997, Wyoming Geological Survey, 220 p., OL19142026M.

• Gold Districts of Wyoming: 1980, Wyoming Geological Survey, 71 p., LC QE181.A26.

• Diamonds and Mantle Source Rocks in the Wyoming Craton: With a Discussion of Other US Occurrences, 93 p., Wyoming Geological Survey, QE181 .H38.

It is rare for a geologist to make a new discovery, and even rarer for a geologist to discover a whole new gold district, particularly when the district is located not very far west of the State's largest city (Casper). But, in 1981, the University of Wyoming Engineering Dept contacted me - they were interested in establishing a federal grant to investigate methods for gold extraction and needed a disseminated gold deposit. So they provided me with a few dollars and off I went. One of the places I had in mind was the Rattlesnake Hills. This region had been investigated in a group of MS and PhD projects, but none recognized the gold potential.

For me, this an obvious choice for gold. It was a greenstone belt similar to greenstone belts elsewhere in the world. Gold was so common in Archean greenstone belts around the world  that the terms greenstone belt and gold belt had been used interchangably by some authors in Canada and Australia. The Rattlesnake Hills had another thing going for it that the other belts did not. It had been intruded by several Tertiary volcanic dikes and pipes which likely provided heat engines to leach gold from the base of the greenstone belt and focus the precious metal into veins, shear zones, stockworks and breccias. So this was my number one project.

When I drove into the Rattlesnake Hills, it took a little time, but I found a pyritized vein system that I could trace for more than a mile on the surface. I took samples of this material. Next I investigated other veins, a stockworks in the basal gneiss and found breccias around some of the Tertiary stocks. The samples I took back to the lab contained gold - I had identified a new gold district missed by everyone else.

It was important to map this district. So over the next several years, I finally got a little more support to map this district thanks to the State Geologist (Gary Glass) and to establish this area to have very high potential for major, hidden gold deposits. Recently it was reported that one company working in this district at one of my favorite targets, a very large breccia along the flanks of Sandy Mountain and Oshihan Hill identified commercial amounts of gold. It took 30 years, but what the heck, gold is gold and this may turn into Wyoming's first hard rock gold mine in decades.

It is likely this district will produce several million ounces of gold. And what did I get? I published several papers on the area and later was harassed by one of the poorest excuses of a State Geologist and human being. Harassed so much I left the Survey for an Australian diamond company. So, Wyoming got the gold and I got the shaft - sounds like a great title for a country and western song. But I must say, I did get some memories, publications and experience - this is worth more than any amount of money to me.

BEAR LODGE MOUNTAINS GOLD RUSH

In the 1980s and 1990s, I investigated the Bear Lodge Mountains in northeastern Wyoming as a probable gold target - this was one of my favorite gold targets in Wyoming. At that time, we all knew this was one of the largest, undeveloped rare earth deposits in the world, but there was little interest in REE at the time. However, computers, guided missles, green energy and technology in general changed and requirements for REE was dramatically increasing until the Chinese (with the assistance of our government) captured the REE market and now control 97% of these strategic metals!

My colleague, Ray Harris (RIP), began working on the Bear Lodge Mountains until his death at the WYoming State Geological Survey. [note: the WPEA investigated what led up to Ray's death, and submitted complaints to Wyoming's governor (as did Ray before he died), yet this was all covered up and to this day, remains covered up]. Ray felt this was an extremely important deposit as did the USGS.

In addition to REE, this region has considerable potential for gold, and much of the gold mineralization has been overlooked, although one company is focusing on one of the deposits that has now been identified. Because of its gold potential and similarities to other deposits in this region, I wrote about this deposit in a couple of different books. Thus, by reading my books, anyone could have been in the middle of this deposit with mining claims (and there is still a lot of potential for gold in this region!). Can you afford to miss the next big play?  Read about the Bear Lodge Mountains gold deposits and hundreds of other gold deposits in our new 2011 book - GOLD: Field Guide for Prospectors and Geologists. Don't miss out on the next big Wyoming Gold Rush! Just think, you could be sitting on a $billion in gold, rather than on the couch.