For twenty-five years, Jeff Keener has prospected the Alaskan bush, the desert Southwestern United States, the African veldt, and the hills of South America, seeking paystreaks of placer gold. After a stint in the US Coast Guard that took him from the Carribbean to Greenland to Alaska, during which he took part in numerous search and rescue operations, Jeff graduated from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) with a Bachelor of Science degree in geology.  

While attending UAF, Jeff recognized an unfilled niche whithin the mineral industry and began his consulting business, performing exploration programs for small, private companies and family mining operations. For two decades, he operated as a sole proprietor, often performing mineral examinations by himself with whatever locally available tools and equipment he could find. His specialty revolved around investigating sites that were mined for placer gold many years ago, sites that had seen no activity since the turn of the century gold rush era, and ferreting out deposits of precious metals located in modern or ancient stream beds that were missed by earlier prospectors and miners. 

Several years ago, Jeff decided it was time to begin training the next generation of placer explorationists to utilize modern methods of  mineral exploration, but also to learn the old ways of prospecting and mining to gain an understanding of past events and developments. This synergy of past and present is instrumental for modern discovery. He expanded his business to include managing both placer and lode exploration programs to further integrate the genetic relationship between the placer deposits found on the valley floors and their sources in the bounding hills and mountains. He developed an exploration model for very large placer deposits leading to the identificatioon of a  number of potential multimillion ounce gold deposits in Basin and Range gelogical environments. More recently, Jeff and his team prospected out a fabulous placer gold deposit in the southern Brooks Range of Alaska, defining more than 250,000 ounces of coarse gold within a three month period. Currently, he is in high demand, but somehow never too busy to cross a river and investigate the next ridge and valley, looking for prospects metal deposits. 

Jeff Keener has been directly involved with recovery of over 50,000 ounces of placer gold and discovery of over 350,000 new ounces. He is currently working on defining 500,000 ounces near Nome, Alaska.