An estimated quarter of a million dollars' worth of gold that went missing from a B.C. gold miner's claim last year hasn't been recovered, and likely never will be.

Mike Mickey, owner of Glacier Drilling, and rightful owner of the gold, had hoped his stolen nuggets would find their way back to him after they were stolen from his mining site near Atlin. B.C. last fall. But since he reported the theft in November, the investigation has gone nowhere.

"I'm extremely disappointed with the RCMP," Mickey said this week of the stalled investigation.

"They're pretty quick to pull you over when you run a stop sign, but something like this and they're not much help."

Officers at the Atlin detachment say they are still actively investigating the matter and are "optimistic."

No arrests have been made in relation to the case.

Mickey admits that losing his last haul of the season was partly his fault.

He and his crew had worked until about 10:00 the night before, and Mickey decided to leave the gold frozen into the sluice box, where he figured it would be safe overnight.

He was wrong.

When he returned at 5:00 the next morning, the ice had been melted away and the gold was gone.

It was a huge financial hit for Mickey, who estimates he lost about 250 ounces of gold, and one that can't be recovered through insurance.

"They don't have insurance for stupidity. When you leave a few hundred thousand dollars' worth of gold just sitting out there, there's no insurance for that."

His last hope was that the thief would be foolish enough to try to sell the gold to a local precious-metals dealer who would recognize the Spruce Creek gold and alert the police, but that never happened.

Yukon miners are typically tightlipped about their operations and how much gold they produce, with "loose lips sink ships" being the general philosophy.

Nor do they like to talk about being ripped off as Mickey was, but it is not an uncommon occurrence.

Sgt. Dan Gaudet of the Dawson City RCMP detachment said he gets anywhere from one to four reports of stolen gold each mining season.

Investigations into the reports are made difficult, he said, by the remoteness of placer mining operations, lack of witnesses and often substantial time delays between the event and the report. He rates the success of getting the gold back as "very low."

That's not much solace for Mickey, who is left holding on to a fast-fading hope that his gold may yet turn up.