ryan simon

CBS photo - click to watch the 60 Minutes segment

Pioneering Yukon mineral and mushroom prospector Shawn Ryan hosted Bob Simon of 60 Minutes recently. The media love Mr. Ryan. He made the cover of New York Times in 2012, and now he's been immortalized on the most successful TV newsmagazine in history.

"The norm is to fail," Ryan told Simon on prospecting. "If you play one black jack game, the probability is you're going to lose. If you play twenty, if I'm lucky, two or three are going to be a winner, and that will pay for the moose pasture I walked over and didn't find anything."

On his success in having already found north of seven million ounces of gold, Ryan was modest. "Listen, all I feel like is a squirrel, that just found the big acorn patch, and I have a bunch of acorns at the base of the tree, so you don't really change."

"There's still this illusive source of the Klondike, the mother lode, and nobody's ever found that yet. I tell you what keeps me up at night, I fear to stop a mile short of the next ore deposit."

Head on over to the 60 Minutes site to watch the full segment and exclusive extras.

Elsewhere in Dawson City, a friend of this blog has done a very creative mining and media deal. Peter Tallman, President and CEO of Klondike Gold Corp. (KG.TSXV), has entered into a lease agreement with one of the stars of Discovery Channel's #1 rated TV show, GOLD RUSH, to operate Klondike's McKinnon Creek Property.  Both Tallman and KG will appear in the first episode of Season 5 airing tonight at 8PM in Canada, and periodically throughout the season.

Read: Klondike Gold Announces Lease Agreement with Todd Hoffman’s Jerusalem Mining