Life After Retirement

GEOLOGIST DISCOVERS WORLD-CLASS GEMSTONE DEPOSITS

W. Dan Hausel, arguably the most productive employee in the history of the Wyoming State Geological Survey (GS). He found some of the largest colored gemstones on earth, found a previously unknown gold district (Rattlesnake Hills) along with dozens and dozens of gold deposits including some palladium, platinum, and silver. He found opal, peridot, ruby, sapphire, iolite, and several dozen diamond deposits while starting gold and gemstone rushes in Wyoming that brought in money and jobs. All one needs to do to find out about his accomplishments is to simply Google his name. For his work, he was rewarded with dozens of local, national and international awards acknowledging his contributions to the geological sciences. He was so successful in his work, that at least one entire Canadian company was created just to follow up on some of his exploration concepts for diamond deposits around the world.

When he wasn’t doing geology, he was sketching incredibly complex artwork, some that appeared in magazines and on book covers, he also taught martial arts at the University of Wyoming after reaching the highest possible level in martial arts and building one of the more popular martial arts programs at any university in the United States. Few government employees cared more about their work. But after nearly 30 years with the GS, Dan had enough bureaucracy for one lifetime and resigned in January of this year. According to Dan, the environment in the State became unhealthy, so he followed several of his colleagues over the past 2 years. 'Of the pre-2005 staff, nearly 50% resigned, retired or prematurely died. There were so many allegations by the GS employees that the WPEA filed a 3-inch thick document of complaints and two of the 5 advisory board members who were appointed by the governor even resigned in protest'.

There are things I miss at the GS - the prospectors, the companies and the university environment. When I wasn’t practicing geology, I was teaching martial arts and the Martial Arts program at UW became one of the best in the country. Dan was so prominent in both martial arts and geology that he was inducted into two separate Halls of Fame for his contributions to geology (the National Rock Hound & Lapidary Hall of Fame) and martial arts (the North American Black Belt Hall of Fame) in the same month in 2001. Through the years, he was inducted into 14 Halls of Fame, was presented regional, national and international awards for his work in geology and martial arts, and his accomplishments were listed in dozens of Who’s Who publications. The Wyoming Geological Association in Casper recognized his contributions and presented him with their highest honor - the 2004 Distinguished Service Award. He was also presented the American Association of Petroleum Geologists President’s Award and International Biographical Centre’s Archimede’s Award of Geological Sciences. But the agency which he had dedicated nearly 30 years of his life shunned him.

Hausel was hired by the late Dr. Daniel Miller Jr. (former State Geologist and Director) in 1977 to map diamond deposits for the WSGS south of Laramie. "I remember mapping along the border near Tie Siding in November of that year. The wind was so intense that I was able to measure my body lean into the wind before I fell by using a geologist’s compass. At times, I was able to lean all the way to 35 degrees into the wind before toppling over. But in the following summer, things got really exciting when I started finding previously unknown diamond deposits”. The project was so successful, that the WSGS was able to attract several international companies to explore for diamonds. Dan’s work so impressed Dr. Miller, that he was twice rewarded with double salary raises, something almost unheard of in government.

Later, Gary B. Glass, State Geologist, promoted Dan to Deputy Director in 1981. "My work was very popular with prospectors and industry. I often received more than a thousand inquiries each month along with requests to speak at various functions and conferences around North America". According to WSGS records, Dan presented more than 400 lectures, led many popular field trips and was an invited speaker and keynote speaker at many geological conferences. "Many of these talks and field trips were on my own time, after hours and on weekends. I spent several summers living in a tent at South Pass so I could save money and complete my field work, and didn’t receive any per diem."

There were many memorable moments in past years. I started a gold rush in 1981. I was completing a preliminary field study in the Seminoe Mountains north of Sinclair, where I collected more than a dozen samples of quartz with visible gold. This was significant – when you see even a tiny spec of gold with a naked eye it means that the sample will assay at least 1 ounce per ton something that is considered high grade ore. I kept the best samples to educate people on gold prospecting as I often provided Prospecting seminars for the public. some of the less impressive samples were assayed and yielded 1.0 to 2.9 ounces per ton gold! When this was published in the Casper Star Tribune, within a short time, all of the motels in Rawlins were filled by geologists and prospectors to follow up on this discovery.

"In the following year, I had been studying the Rattlesnake Hills southwest of Casper. I began to wonder why no one had looked there for gold. It had all of the classical features of a major gold district". So, in 1982, Dan went to the field and discovered a new gold district that had been missed by all others in the past. He identified gold at a number of locations and started another rush. A group of companies found additional gold anomalies including one estimated to contain more than a million ounces. "This one discovery attracted several companies including Bald Mountain Mining, American Copper and Nickel, Newmont Gold, and Canyon Resources. Bald Mountain Mining from Newcastle, still retains interests in the district after all of these years".

From 1983 to 1987, Dan managed a group of projects and hired dozens of UW students to search for diamonds. With minimal budget from grants through the University of Wyoming Mining and Mineral Resource Research Institute, they found evidence for hundreds of hidden diamond deposits in Wyoming. "Wyoming is underlain by a major diamond province that could one day lead to a multi-billion dollar industry. We identified more than 50 diamond deposits south of Laramie, one near Chugwater, a couple near Lonetree southwest of Green River, and diamonds were also found in the Medicine Bow Mountains, the Sierra Madre Mountains, the Wind River Mountains, the Gros Ventre Mountains, the Green River Basin, the Laramie Mountains, and the Powder River Basin".

"Distinct tracer minerals that are found with diamonds were also found in all of these areas as well as in the Bighorn Basin, the Bighorn Mountains, and in the Hartville area. I can almost guarantee that there will be a major diamond and gold industry in Wyoming in the future. Here is a multi-billion dollar industry awaiting discovery. Compare Wyoming to Alberta and to the Northwest Territories in Canada. Wyoming invested very little in research of diamonds but we were still able to map the two largest diamond districts in the US and the largest field of lamproites in North America – both common host rocks for diamonds. All of this was done on total budget dedicated to this project of only $150,000 over a period of nearly 30 years, while during the last two years– I had no budget. Alberta invested $70 million over a period of only 10 years, and the Canadian Northwest Territories invested nearly $2 billion. Canada now ranks as one of the top producers of gem-quality diamonds in the world and even out-produces South Africa! Wyoming does not produce diamonds. Even so, the geology of Canada and Wyoming are similar – the major difference is the lack of investment in research in Wyoming".

Dan started a project at South Pass. From 1985 to 1989, Hausel mapped eight quadrangles (400 square miles), 3 dozen historical gold mines and discovered dozens of significant gold anomalies. Because of his work, several companies are currently spending millions in dollars searching for gold at South Pass, and hundreds of mining claims were staked in the past few years. But where is the mother lode? Dan says he knows!

"I began to grasp an important concept in gold deposition at South Pass. One major problem with gold exploration at South Pass is the complexity of the geology. But, I finally figured out how to find the significant gold deposits. The Carissa is one of the better deposits. Unfortunately, the state withdrew this property when gold prices were low and incorporated it into the South Pass City historic site. This was done without a geological appraisal or study – it doesn’t make sense to withdraw something without knowing all facts. Exploration by Anaconda Minerals and Consolidated McKinney Resources prior to 1990 showed that this deposit has significant gold resources beneath the historic mine workings for possibly a thousand feet along trend. At the surface, the deposit forms a large ore shoot that I mapped that is about 1000 by 1,000 feet! This deposit potentially hosts hundreds of millions to most likely billions of dollars in gold that will never be touched".

During his career, he mapped several hundred square miles of some of the more complex geological terrain in Wyoming and was twice nominated for the Dibble Mapping Award. He loved the details of geological mapping and his maps became a work of art – so much so that one of his colleagues suggested he should try sketching. Due to this suggestion, he discovered a hidden talent unknown to himself. Pieces of his artwork are now found on book covers, art galleries and at the University of Wyoming’s Geology Museum art.

Following geological clues, he found other treasures in Wyoming. In the early 1990s, he found a 2.5 inch long ruby near Jeffrey City, the largest ever found in Wyoming and one of the larger reported in North America. He discovered palladium with gold-nickel-cobalt-platinum and silver near Encampment. He made a gemstone discovery that led to several others - one of which could be the largest gem deposit ever found on earth. Resource estimates suggest that one deposit found by Hausel could host more than 2 trillion carats of gemstones! Multiply that by $50 to $150/carat (the average value of the gemstone) to get an idea of the potential value of this discovery! It makes Wyoming’s Oil, Gas and Coal industries look pale in comparison. This is a potential world-class gemstone deposit.

In 1995, Dan found gem-quality sapphire, ruby, kyanite and iolite at Palmer Canyon west of Wheatland. Along with the discovery, he recovered the largest iolite gem found on earth up to that point, a massive 1,750 carat gem (the size of a baseball)! Then in 1997, he discovered gem-quality peridot in the Leucite Hills near Rock Springs, as well as evidence for diamonds in that region. He was featured on the cover of ICMJ’s Prospecting and Mining Journal and in Outside Magazine. In 2003, he investigated an opal deposit near Riverton that had previously been mentioned in US Geological Survey reports decades ago, but found it to be one of the largest in North America and was able to find evidence for common, fire and precious opal. This led to an old fashioned claim staking rush involving people from all over the country and attracted newspaper reporters and TV crews. Then in 2004, he identified one of the richest iolite gem deposits in the world south of Palmer Canyon and recovered a giant iolite gem of 24,150 carats (football size) that is on display in the WSGS building, but left massive gems in outcrop that are estimated to weigh more than 5 million to as much as 20 million carats! Following this, he started working on another gem deposit that could possibly be the largest ever found.

He also worked with the FBI, US Postal Inspector, Secretary of State, former Attorney Generals, and US Attorney to foil mining scams in and around Wyoming. These typically involved investors from Wyoming who were being scammed by unscrupulous operators or groups trying to sell fictitious properties in Wyoming. "In one case I was contacted by the Secret Service and a New Jersey Bank about a company that had reported a gold reserve of 289 million ounces west of Casper that was valued at over $1 billion. Just last year, I was able to stop investments in a non-existent platinum deposit in Wyoming that investors in Germany were ready to transfer $100 million if I would have said there was a possibility. But I knew the property well, as it has been the site of other scams in the past".

But in 2006, he had enough. "Things got so bad that we became leery of any new employee. Most had few qualifications. The GS even had to hire outside consultants to educate some of these people as well as the managers. Some could not speak English without serious effort. This is crazy as there were many qualified people interested in these jobs".

"But as soon as rumors began to circulate about my imminent departure, I was offered some very nice consulting contracts. Two billionaires from the South were interested in building an entire company around my ideas, an international gold company wanted my experience in very old rocks and gold deposits to send me off to Asia, Canada, South America and even South Pass, the Seminoe Mountains and the Rattlesnake Hills, and I received several other offers".

Dan elected to continue his legacy in geology, martial arts, art, writing and public speaking. He recently moved to Gilbert, Arizona, but continues working in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and elsewhere. He started a consulting firm – W. Dan Hausel Geological Consulting LLC, with an office in Laramie. He accepted a position as the Exploration Manager for an Australian diamond company – DiamonEx Ltd, which takes up much of this time for consulting. The company is currently building a diamond mine in Botswana. He also sits on the board of directors as an advisor for Ice Resources of Calgary (a private international gem company with interests in Wyoming and Canada) and accepted a consulting contract with Teras Gold Company of Calgary which has interests in Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. He is also in the process of forming a gold and gemstone company.

He loves geology, but his heart is in martial arts grandmaster. After teaching at the University of Wyoming for 30 years, he is now teaching martial arts at 4 gyms in Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa and Ahwatukee in the Phoenix area in between geology jobs.

He also loves to write and recently published a group of four articles in the Outcrop, a publication by the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists [http://www.rmag.org/outcrop/index.asp], he submitted a group of 2 invited papers to the Industrial Minerals Forum in Colorado, and submitted 2 invited papers to the 2007 Wyoming Geological Association Field Conference Guidebook, accepted a contract to write for a prospecting and treasure hunting magazine, is working on the completion of his 13th and 14th books (one on gemstones, the other on martial arts), is working on plans to build a traditional martial arts school of his dreams, and hopes to be able to find more time for artwork.

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