Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

[Lanny in AB]

Do you love to chase the gold? Please join me--lots of gold hunting tips, stories of finds (successful and not), and prospecting poetry.

Nugget in the bedrock tip:

I had a visit with a mining buddy this past weekend, and he told me of an epic battle to get a nugget out of the bedrock, and of what he learned from the experience. I thought some of you might like to learn from his mistake.

While out detecting one day, he came across a large sheet of bare bedrock. The bedrock was exposed because the area had been blasted off with a water cannon (a monitor), by the old-timers! It was not fractured bedrock, in fact it was totally smooth.

He was not optimistic at all of the prospects of a nugget. But, for some reason (we've all been there) he decided to swing his detector over that bedrock. After a long time, just as he was about to give up on his crazy hunch, he got a signal, right out of that smooth bedrock.

There was no crevice, no sign of a crevice, nada! So, he had to go all the way back to camp to get a small sledge and a chisel. The signal in the rock intrigued him, but he still wasn't overly optimistic. For those of you that have chased signals in a similar situation, sometimes there's a patch of hot mineralization in the bedrock that sounds off, but this spot, according to him, was sharp and clear right in the middle of the signal, not just a general increase of the threshold like you get when you pass over a hot spot in the bedrock.

Anyway, he made it back to the spot and started to chisel his way into the bedrock. If any of you have tried this, it's an awful job, and you usually wind up with cut knuckles--at the least! Regardless, he kept fighting his way down, busting out chunks of bedrock. He kept checking the hole, and the signal remained very strong.

This only puzzled him all the more as he could clearly see that it was solid bedrock with no sign of any crevice. He finally quit at the end of the day, at a depth of about a foot, but still, nothing in the hole.

An experienced nugget shooting friend dropped by the next morning to see him, and asked him how the hunt was going. My buddy related his tale of the mysterious hole in the bedrock, and told the friend to go over and check it out, and see if he could solve the riddle.

Later in the day, the other nugget hunter returned. In his hand was a fine, fat, sassy nugget. It weighed in at about an ounce and a quarter! After my friend returned his eyeballs to their sockets and zapped his heart to start it again, he asked where the nugget had come from.

Imagine his surprise when he heard it came from the mystery hole!! He asked how deep the other guy had gone into the bedrock to get it. "Well, no deeper" was his reply.

So, here's the rest of the story as to what happened. When the successful nugget hunter got to the bedrock, he scanned the surface got the same strong signal as my buddy. He widened out the hole and scanned again. Still a solid tone. He widened the hole some more so he could get his coil in, and here's the key and the lesson in this story, he got a strong signal off the side of the hole, about six inches down, but set back another inch into the side of the bedrock!!

My unlucky friend, the true discoverer of the gorgeous nugget's resting place had gone deep past the signal while digging his hole!!

Now, of course, a good pinpointer would easily solve this problem. The problem was, my buddy didn't have one, so why would he widen the hole, right? Well, the other guy was the one with more experience, and that's why he did. It was a lot more work, but what a payoff!

So, my buddy's butt is still black and blue from where he kicked himself for the next week or so for having lost such an incredible prize.

Some nugget hunting lessons are harder than others to learn. . . .

All the best,

Lanny


P.S. When in gold country--check the bedrock, regardless of whether it looks likely or not! Mother Nature likes to play games sometimes.

 

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[Lanny in AB]

That is a HUGE pile of Gold that guy is sitting on.

Ha, ha! I can only wish. That's an old hardrock mine dump (lots of iron staining) he's resting on, and it's right near the very peak of the mountain. Those oldtimers weren't afraid to track the metals one bit. They truly went where the outcrops were--no matter how difficult it was to get to where they were.

Happily I made my trek on the quad, up and back!

All the best,

Lanny

 

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[kiwi jw]

G'day Lanny, You are a legend mate. We have a crap day here in Queenstown, Central Otago, New Zealand. So instead of being out there doing it I am catching up on your continued fantasic posts on this thread. Always a pleasure to read what ever you put up.
Cental Otago is made up of schist so I am relating exactly to what you are saying & it is exactly the same for me to be doing what you are talking of. It could so easily be me saying exactly what you are.
The joey coil (mono in my case) is the best coil for the exposed bedrock that the oldtimers blastered off all the overburden to bring those still hidden cracks & crevices (hopefully containing gold but also the junk you talk of) in to the vision of that wee coil. Great depth for a wee coil but more importantly great sensitivty to tiny gold. Very light & the elliptical shape great for poking & prodding in to small tight places. Like between rocks & bushes, crevices & dragging on edge backwards through narrow 1" wide crack & crevices. It has been my favourite coil in these situations for a long time.
I am on my third skid plate for it. I am a ground scrubber as you cant get any closer to the gold than scrubbing the ground trying. Certainly pays off. I have gone back over the same old haunts with a 12" x 7" nugget finder mono getting that little bit more depth than the joey & still got gold. I am now doing the same thing with the Minelab 11" commander mono & it has opened up a whole new world over the same old ground. Blows me away the gold I am still getting of the same old ground. Just going that bit deeper again but still fantastic sensitivity & great deth on small gold. All sub gram pieces but all gold none the less & it all adds up.
I havnt taken the 11" off for a month now & still pulling gold of ground thrashed not only by me but hords of others as well. Ok, the bigger bits are long gone but it is the smaller bits that are harder to find & require a stronger persistance & discipline to slow right down & really focus & concentrate hard on those very faint whispers in the threshold. Digging everything that warbles the threshold.
I am still using my GP 3000 & just cracked over 100 grams since being down here for 5 months. Depending on work & gold finds I am hoping to stay on down here now. Just finished building a house for a friend.

This is the view from where we are living at the moment

We are just coming out of winter so the ground will be more digger friendly.

Not wanting to highjack your wonderfull thread here but here are a few pics of recent finds.

Last sunday

Each pic is different days finds mostly from the same area

This is a group shot of gold from 3 different locations & isnt including any of the above finds.

The stuff on the right is very quartzy specimen gold & I am trying to locate the source. No luck as yet but good fun trying as I am still getting some great pieces in the search

Here are some more recent finds in the continued search for the source

Close up of the bigger bit

close up of the bottom ones

The search goes on.

Good luck out there

All the very best

JW

 

[dave wiseman]

Hey Kiwi old mate,nice species there....Dave.

 

[Lanny in AB]

G'day Lanny, You are a legend mate. We have a crap day here in Queenstown, Central Otago, New Zealand. So instead of being out there doing it I am catching up on your continued fantasic posts on this thread. Always a pleasure to read what ever you put up.
Cental Otago is made up of schist so I am relating exactly to what you are saying & it is exactly the same for me to be doing what you are talking of. It could so easily be me saying exactly what you are.
The joey coil (mono in my case) is the best coil for the exposed bedrock that the oldtimers blastered off all the overburden to bring those still hidden cracks & crevices (hopefully containing gold but also the junk you talk of) in to the vision of that wee coil. Great depth for a wee coil but more importantly great sensitivty to tiny gold. Very light & the elliptical shape great for poking & prodding in to small tight places. Like between rocks & bushes, crevices & dragging on edge backwards through narrow 1" wide crack & crevices. It has been my favourite coil in these situations for a long time.
I am on my third skid plate for it. I am a ground scrubber as you cant get any closer to the gold than scrubbing the ground trying. Certainly pays off. I have gone back over the same old haunts with a 12" x 7" nugget finder mono getting that little bit more depth than the joey & still got gold. I am now doing the same thing with the Minelab 11" commander mono & it has opened up a whole new world over the same old ground. Blows me away the gold I am still getting of the same old ground. Just going that bit deeper again but still fantastic sensitivity & great deth on small gold. All sub gram pieces but all gold none the less & it all adds up.
I havnt taken the 11" off for a month now & still pulling gold of ground thrashed not only by me but hords of others as well. Ok, the bigger bits are long gone but it is the smaller bits that are harder to find & require a stronger persistance & discipline to slow right down & really focus & concentrate hard on those very faint whispers in the threshold. Digging everything that warbles the threshold.
I am still using my GP 3000 & just cracked over 100 grams since being down here for 5 months. Depending on work & gold finds I am hoping to stay on down here now. Just finished building a house for a friend.

We are just coming out of winter so the ground will be more digger friendly.

Not wanting to highjack your wonderfull thread here but here are a few pics of recent finds.

The search goes on.

Good luck out there

All the very best

JW

Hey there--it's so great to hear from you again. Beautiful location you're in right now.

I know all too well how wonderful it is to finally see the winter leave so that you can get out there to chase the gold again.

You can't hijack my thread as you're always most welcome to post here.

Wonderful shots of the gold, and thanks for the info. on the coils and how you're using them--you've given me some ideas.

JW--your gold is absolutely beautiful and very diverse in character. I don't imagine many people realize the immense investment of time and effort that goes into tracking down that much gold--you've really been working very hard, and gladly for you, it's paid off. I admire your tenacity, and I hear you about wearing out those coil covers. As far as I'm concerned--that's what they're for--so that you can get that coil as close to the surface as you can to get every mm of extra advantage possible when chasing the gold. I love all of the pictures of gold that you posted, and I'll always welcome others here. Nicely done on capturing some very sassy gold indeed!

On a side note--I bought myself the little Goldstalker mono coil (6-inch round). That little coil is hotter than a pistol. I love my Joey, and I adore the Goldstalker--it's amazing.

All the best, and I hope to hear from you again as your season unfolds,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Not gold--but mining related. I stumbled across while out fishing on the weekend. It's an old coal mine that was uncovered as it was eroded from the riverbank by spring flooding. It's in a remote area only accessible by a very long walk.

The oldtimers in this area made leather slings that were secured over the thin metal bushings around the axles. I've never seen this before. As well, the rails were made of 2X4's. Mining was active in the area in the late 1800's and early 1900's. A friend of mine that owns the land told me that his grandfather had told him there was a mine on the property, but the grandfather never had the chance to show my friend where the mine was.

I've sent him pictures of the find, and I'll try to get back to take more shots of the site--my memory card was full! It's a long, hard walk to get back in there. The fishing was great though, most-likely because of the difficult walk. (The rainbows are in the 4-6 pound range--fat and sassy indeed! The very different colored fish is a Walleye, and he's a mighty fat big-boy too.)

All the best,

Lanny

P.S. I did find a nice deposit of garnet and black sand that warrants further investigation. There is fine gold in the area and whenever there's a solid concentration of garnet and black sand, it's a hot spot. I often visually prospect for gold while I'm fishing, and it's lead me to some dandy spots over the years. Here's a tip I've offered before--fish and gold like to hang out in a lot of the same places in rivers--they both like to drop out of the current for a rest in low-pressure areas. Check those places carefully if you're in a gold-bearing stream.

(The gold-looking stuff is sulphur leaching from the coal seam. The white stuff is alkali salts--not snow.)

 

[MrLee]

Great stories and amazing photos! Lanny, why are garnets associated with gold? I've noticed my concentrates from the East Fork, San Gabriel river always have lots of garnets in them. Thanks.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Great stories and amazing photos! Lanny, why are garnets associated with gold? I've noticed my concentrates from the East Fork, San Gabriel river always have lots of garnets in them. Thanks.

Garnets, being a semi-precious gem stone, are heavy. So, they hang out with the heavier materials like black sand. Moreover, when the stream velocity is slowed by an object that creates a low-pressure zone, or by a widening of the stream, etc. that creates a low-pressure zone, the heavies drop out of suspension in the stream and they are deposited and left behind as the stream moves along.

When I was beach mining in Alaska, I used to look for areas on the beach where you could see heavy concentrations of ruby sand (heavy concentrations of small garnets) and those turned out to be great places to prospect. In fact, I used polarized sunglasses to scan the beach for deposits, as the polarized lenses (for whatever reason) made the garnets really stand out from the background sand--but I'm wandering off onto something else.

The bottom line is that where the heavies drop out of the stream (garnets, black sand) the gold will drop in the same spot or very close to the same spot as well. Having said that, with micron gold, which the stream I was on this week has, when the garnets and the black sand drop--the gold drops with it.

If you're in an area of coarse gold, the gold may drop to one side or the other (or slightly up or downstream) of the garnets. But, whenever I'm panning in an area known for garnets and gold, and I start to see them in the pan, I know there will either be gold in that pan as well, or I'm very, very close to it.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[63bkpkr]

Howdy Lanny,
A thanks goes out to you and Kiwi for sharing the gold, the areas and some words on the subject of prospecting though you chaps are finding the gold. Then the pictures of the fish, oh My! Panther Martin lure? I've been out on three short trips this summer with no gold to show, just a good time and the exercise is always good though lugging out 94 pounds worth of gear was shall we say interesting.
I've been told the GPX 5000 is heavy, just how heavy in pounds or grams is the critter with a coil on and one or two in the pack? And the batteries are $500 each so how much search time does one usually get from one battery?? Just asking out of curiosity...........63bkpkr

 

[Lanny in AB]

Howdy Lanny,
A thanks goes out to you and Kiwi for sharing the gold, the areas and some words on the subject of prospecting though you chaps are finding the gold. Then the pictures of the fish, oh My! Panther Martin lure? I've been out on three short trips this summer with no gold to show, just a good time and the exercise is always good though lugging out 94 pounds worth of gear was shall we say interesting.
I've been told the GPX 5000 is heavy, just how heavy in pounds or grams is the critter with a coil on and one or two in the pack? And the batteries are $500 each so how much search time does one usually get from one battery?? Just asking out of curiosity...........63bkpkr

Herb,

It's so great to hear from you again. By the way, all of those fish were well over two feet in length and very fat. They're all tanking up for the winter which isn't that far around the corner--and the fish know it. You can't get any little fish to bit right now--they've all flown the coop. . . .

Good ID on the Panther Martins--definitely great fish-catching lures. The Walleye was a complete surprise--don't ask me what he was doing where he was or why he decided to strike, but he sure hit it with a massive hammer blow.

Well, it's good that you had some great hikes, but 94 pounds? Are you on steroids or something?

The 5000 weighs close to five and a half pounds, and the expected battery life with the stock lithium ion is around 12 hours. I have Doc's gold screamer pack with two small camera batteries, and they'll run 6-8 hours each no problem and they save a lot of weight (no heavy curly coil to pack in either). I use the external speaker, so I don't have to pack headphones if I don't want to, and if I want to use headphones, I can just carry very light-weight earbuds which will do the job when you're trying to save weight.

Shipping weight on the detector is around 18 pounds (that's with two coils usually--midsize and small), and there's not a lot of box weight or extra when they ship it--it's pretty streamlined, so with the coils and all, it must be pretty close to that shipping weight to pack it in I would imagine (less the chargers and adaptors). For more coils, just weigh them and tally it all.

Check out Doc's (Doc's detecting in Las Vegas) for prices on his battery packs which side-mount on your machine and help streamline everything as well as save weight. I know that 500 bucks per battery for the Minelab batteries is steep, but they have some electronics built in with that battery as well I believe.

All the best, Herb, and it's always fantastic to hear from you,

Lanny

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi Lanny,
Steroids, LOL! I do not need drugs as I just get high on life itself. Its like looking at your pictures I just get happy all over looking at some of them. Two-Foot Long Fish!! Pictures like that with a touch of explanation send me right to the top of the High list. Life itself is a joy and if one is not happy where they are then do something positive to put yourself where you are happy. Yes, it can take a lot of work but it is so worth it to "Really Be Alive"!! The 94 pound pack on an easy trail was a struggle for me so this fall and spring will be spent exercising to regain the strength I need to go the places I want to and to do the things I want to. For instance: I want to return to the box canyon with the 200' waterfall with the eight pools filled with 18" to 24" long native rainbow trout, I want to go back into some seriously rugged country and take one more week to locate that 30' x 12' stretch of ancient riverbed perched on the side of a cliff and roll a boulder or two over to see if there is anything underneath it other than very old dirt and in general I want to go explore some more side canyons as there are so many surprises waiting in them.

So the GPX 5000 with two coils and a battery is going to weigh somewhere around 16 pounds. That would mean I would have to leave out the climbing harness, 100' of 1/2" static line for cliff rapelling, the caribiners, tie off strap anchors and a few other oddments plus spend about $6000. And of course this would limit where I'm going to go as I can't go over the cliff without the climbing gear. I will have to think about this! I wonder why I always have to do the crazy stuff!!

I see it is headed for 4 PM Calif time and I should get some dinner made. Here are three pictures taken recently: Me with 94 pounds of gear (yes, the looks of the gear is unsightly but it all made it out to the Bronco), best natural food with safeguards, A picture from my tent looking down river early one morning.

Enjoy Herb

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi Lanny,
Steroids, LOL! I do not need drugs as I just get high on life itself. Its like looking at your pictures I just get happy all over looking at some of them. Two-Foot Long Fish!! Pictures like that with a touch of explanation send me right to the top of the High list. Life itself is a joy and if one is not happy where they are then do something positive to put yourself where you are happy. Yes, it can take a lot of work but it is so worth it to "Really Be Alive"!! The 94 pound pack on an easy trail was a struggle for me so this fall and spring will be spent exercising to regain the strength I need to go the places I want to and to do the things I want to. For instance: I want to return to the box canyon with the 200' waterfall with the eight pools filled with 18" to 24" long native rainbow trout, I want to go back into some seriously rugged country and take one more week to locate that 30' x 12' stretch of ancient riverbed perched on the side of a cliff and roll a boulder or two over to see if there is anything underneath it other than very old dirt and in general I want to go explore some more side canyons as there are so many surprises waiting in them.

So the GPX 5000 with two coils and a battery is going to weigh somewhere around 16 pounds. That would mean I would have to leave out the climbing harness, 100' of 1/2" static line for cliff rapelling, the caribiners, tie off strap anchors and a few other oddments plus spend about $6000. And of course this would limit where I'm going to go as I can't go over the cliff without the climbing gear. I will have to think about this! I wonder why I always have to do the crazy stuff!!

I see it is headed for 4 PM Calif time and I should get some dinner made. Here are three pictures taken recently: Me with 94 pounds of gear (yes, the looks of the gear is unsightly but it all made it out to the Bronco), best natural food with safeguards, A picture from my tent looking down river early one morning.

Enjoy Herb

I'm going to agree whole-heartedly that it's truly worth it to be alive, and to be living in such beauty when I'm out prospecting and when you're out prospecting.

I admire that you packed in a 94 pounder--that's some heavy pack.

I think you do the crazy stuff for that very reason--the willingness to take healthy risks in order to be in such gorgeous country and to get a chance to find some gold.

I enjoyed reading through your list of items you'd have to leave behind it you took in a 5000--very interesting load of truck you haul in with you.

Truly enjoyed your great pictures, and it's always great to hear from someone that shares the passion--all the best,

Lanny

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi there Dave Wiseman, Thank you for your comments & very good to hear from you. What are you up to these days. Are you getting out & into the hard rock gold??

Lanny, Thank you for your kind words. I forgot to mention those beautiful photos of yours. Stunning locations & very similar country to parts of Otago here in New Zealand.
Yes the 6" coiltek gold stalker mono is a deadly little coil. Good at finding bigger gold too.

9 Grams

Keep up the good work & all the very best out there searching for the elusive yellow my friend.

JW

 

[Lanny in AB]

JW--holy jumpin' dynamite!

That is one meaty, sassy chunk of gold! What a gorgeous piece!!

And, you certainly had to dig through some nasty rock to retrieve it as well. Super find--nicely done indeed.

I hope to get back out to chase some more gold this weekend if things work out. You certainly live in a beautiful area yourself.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

I made a couple of winter trips to Arizona to detect for gold. I met some incredible people while I was visiting my friends. My mining buddy that I've spent years chasing the gold with likes to winter in the mild climate of Arizona. He had a fine friend he introduced me to and we all went out in the desert to hunt some gold. To say my friends were successful is to seriously underplay their results. I'll let the pictures tell the story. I posted some of these on another thread, but I thought I'd like to keep them here so my pictures stay in one place.

If you've been there, that's Rich Hill over my shoulder.

By the way--quite a bunch of these quartz and gold beauties take up all the space across the palm of your hand!

I'll have to write this story up one of these days--it's incredible how and where they found this gold, and they took me to the site with them, and then they found some more, even bigger pieces!!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Lots of old mines in the area.

Lots of things that poke, bite, or stab!

Well, it took two posts, but here's the other two shots.

I have some more pictures from these outings--somewhere. . . .

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

I found a bunch of old drill corings from a hard-rock mine (at an old camp they had) this summer--they're all over in the brush, but this pile showed up the best in a photograph.

This was pretty cool--the miners at the camp had harnessed a spring of water and had a valve to route the water to the various buildings so they had running water without having to ever pump it!

You can still see the little oak culvert wrapped in steel wire that connected to the valve.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[kiwi jw]

Bit Of Kiwi Bed Rock Gold

Hi Lanny & all, Great pics & adventures there Lanny. Thank you so much for the effort & time you put in to capturing them & putting them up for our benefit. Thank you also for the invite to post on your wonderful thread here. Most of my detecting is done on the bed rock that the old timers exposed with there workings. So not out of place here. Last weekend being no different.
Headed to some old sluiced workings & stumbled on to a bit of a patch. I had left on the minelab commander 11" mono that I havnt taken off for well over a month. It is giving me more depth on old workings that I have have combed over with my smaller mono's. joey 5 x 10, 6" coiltek, 8" commander & 12x7 NF. The depth & sensitivity of the 11" on the small gold has gobsmacked me.
These paticular workings I hadnt detected before. They were pretty over grown with briar rose & thyme bushes & I wasnt too sure how deep to bed rock schist. There were patches of exposed bed rock from the old time miners washing off the overburden & stacks of rocks that didnt appear to be very high sitting on bed rock.
I went over the workings with the 11" first for that extra bit of depth. There were quite a few places that I couldnt get the coil in to due to the bushes but was going to wack on the joey for these areas later.
Total gold for the 11" was 12 pieces for 6.9 grams. Biggest was 1.25 grams & the smallest was .06

I then put on the 10 x 5 joey mono to get in between the bushes & rocks where the 11" couldnt reach & snagged 11 more pieces for 3.95 grams Biggest 1.42 grams & smallest .05.

Then put on the 12 x 7 NF mono & went over the workings for the third time. This time only getting 4 pieces for .62 grams

All up 27 pieces for the GP 3000 for a total of 11.5 grams. I was pretty happy with that. Been my best haul for a while.

Good luck out there.

JW

 

[Lanny in AB]

JW,

Great finds! I'll have to give my 11-inch Commander more of a go for sure. You're certainly discovering what's working and you're giving all of your coils a good workout--to great effect! Nicely done and sweet photos of some sassy NZ gold. Thanks for posting shots of your hard-earned golden wages.

All the best,

Lanny

Here's a shot of some gold I dug--some sassy Western Canadian gold from north-central British Columbia. Those are big, old-school silver dollars the gold is posed on.

 

[hotrod]

nice

 

[63bkpkr]

A little 'splorin' with Hefty and Herb

Nice Lanny! Both the background as well as the foreground. Just got back in from two days of dust and 'splorin' with Hefty1. We did a lot of detector waving, removed lots of various metals from the field but did not find any gold. The time 'out there' was well worth it even when I would forget to close the tailgate window before driving down a dusty road. We saw some marvelous country from good vantage points and came across several sections of placer deposits, scanned the root balls of many downed pine trees, checked out several ravine creeks and covered quite a bit of country. A good time for sure!

Our overnight camp on a thick pile of wood chips, softer and warmer than sleeping on the bare mountainside


View across a deep wide canyon at the ridgeline we were detecting the previous day. The ridge I'm talking about starts to the right of the picture and comes across to the left and then drops down quickly. The down quickly part is where we were detecting quartz outcroppings.

This picture shows a huge chunk of country that is quite rugged if not dangerous in spots, I'm sure you get into coutry like this all the time. Oh, way off in the distance is Tahoe and Reno.

Hefty detecting quartz outcropping on the ridgeline

GMT taking a little time-out while coil rests on a quartz target. Recall that we are on a Rideline that drops precipitously to either side or this is not the edge of a cliff you are looking at, it is the Ridgeline. One must be very careful in this type of country!

At times I think Hefty may have wondered just why he had chosen to come out 'splorin' with me. When he first saw the huge panorama view of "My" canyon area the first words out of his mouth were "you are Crazy"! I laughed. He's a good guy to be out with!

Enjoy.........63bkpkr

As a last note. At our last detecting spot today I happened across some Bear Scat that was Really Large in diameter and if the diameter is any indicator of the previous owners overall body size then it was a wise choice we made of leaving post haste.