About Us

When it comes to Vigilante Mining Equipment, LLC, and its signature gold mining product, the VME-24 Gold Trommel Wash Plant, necessity was once again the mother of invention. Faced with the need to process more yardage with limited manpower, the team behind Vigilante spent several years perfecting their designs before launching the company in July 2008 in Helena, Montana.

Vigilante Mining Equipment’s founders, Tracy and Chuck, have more than thirty years of combined gold mining experience, as well as mechanical experience in the fabrication, welding and electrical areas. Raised on a ranch in southeastern Montana, Tracy spent years drilling water and oil wells before entering the gold mining field as a hobbyist gold prospector in the early 1980s. As his interest grew, he began making more contacts and testing out the full range of gold mining equipment available on the market before starting his own full-time gold mining operation with a 50-yard per hour plant. Chuck, an Oklahoma native, heard stories about gold mining in Montana on a visit in the early 1990s. Around 1997, he became an active gold prospecting hobbyist and began researching and reading up on geology and gold mining practices which led him to relocate to Montana.

When Tracy and Chuck met, they were both frustrated with the lack of a true production type gold trommel wash plant that could allow a one- or two-man small production team to make a living gold mining. The equipment was either so large and unwieldy that a full crew was needed to run it, or so small and slow that there was no way to process enough ground to make a living. Chuck built a small gold trommel in 2002, and began sampling on Tracy’s gold mining claims. Chuck kept his finds in exchange for providing Tracy with detailed results so that he could go into the prime gold mining areas with his larger plant. While this process was better than some, they recognized that there was a huge gap in the gold mining equipment field, and so began plans for a mid-sized gold trommel wash plant that would be a piece of true gold mining equipment, easy for one or two people to set up and break down, ideal for exploring and sampling. Over the next three to four years, they developed their plans, using what time and resources they had to perfect their designs, and in 2008, they produced their first gold trommel wash plant.

These guys are genuine gold miners, and their fascination for and experience with the gold mining process and gold mining equipment has combined to create a range of equipment with quality and efficiency as its core components. Their goal is to keep their overhead low and their equipment reliable in order to pass that value and savings along to their customers. Tracy and Chuck aren’t looking to make it rich, but to make a little money and provide a great product because they want the same thing for themselves. They don’t cut corners because they don’t want to be in the parts business constantly fixing inferior equipment. They want it to work right the first time, and for their customers to recognize that quality and refer them to friends and to keep coming back to buy bigger pieces. That’s why Vigilante Mining Equipment tests all of their machinery for a minimum of ten hours in the field before sending it out to a customer.

Vigilante Mining Equipment, LLC, is now making a name for itself around the world, with units in the field in Alaska (gold), Montana (gold) and Sudan, Africa (gold and diamonds) and several more in production.

Now that you know more about Vigilante Mining Equipment, LLC, visit our blog and tell us your story! We’d love to know more about who you are and how you caught the gold mining bug.