A question about clay

[calisdad]

I'm sampling a new creek bed with lots of bedrock showing. I cleaned out one pocket and it showed a little gold so I moved to another spot near the center hoping to clear the rock and get down to bedrock. Well I hit clay, not sure how much but bedrock can't be more than a foot away. Not having water I have to classify and carry back to my Jeep to process at home.

So my question is would you take the top inch or so of clay or discard it so you could get to bedrock sooner and perhaps take the bottom inch or 2 of clay? or no clay?

thanks-
C-dad

 

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[PYRATE]

Don't discard it - put it in a spare bucket to run in your down time or break it up completely and run it now

Clay grabs gold: it will rob your sluice or pan if you run it w/o breaking it up completely, but it will also collect gold in the stream and thus I've found that the top inch usually is the most valuable.

For the record, where I live, clay is everywhere and usually is decayed rock - often clay is the "bedrock" in streams, so I won't dig more than an inch into it. It may be different where you are and I've read that there are areas where the clay is the pay streak.

Many ways to break it up including agitation, water under pressure, kneading it w/ your hands or using a classifier, mesh bag or collander

 

[strickman]

some clays hold more than others ,sometimes just the top of the clay. But sometimes the clay will have small gravels thru it .when you see that you might have something. also look for blue lead (as in leed) the old timers called it leed because it would leed to the gold. A blueish ,gray /black color than can be surprisingly rich .

 

[calisdad]

Thanks guys. I need to give it a closer look for sure. I did find a dark gray 'sand' in my pan but I didn't test it for hardness. Blue lead is soft, no? Going back for more tomorrow.

 

[kuger]

Great advice above!Yes,clay can act as false bedrock!The streak I am presently working is on a clay layer,and there appears to be another streak under it!The richest clay I have ever got into had graphitic schist and dyed my hands black!The gold was black as well................and there was lots of it!Clay can be difficult to break down.You can put it in a bucket with dish soap,and it will break it down,you can also dry it out and crush it with a mortor and pestle

 

[strickman]

yup , the good stuff will stain your hands. I have hit the red clay ,witch will be blood red - very good layer. And the blue lead , and graphitic schist will stain black - very good layer .

 

[jackragusa]

I have spent four days sampling our three claims ( just panning ) and have hit clay pockets with various color streaks. Some pockets held good gold and others in the same area, none. I am still trying to find a decent patern to actually FOLLOW the gold with no real luck. Though all the clay have held good deposits of black sand, the gold seems to be hit and miss. Where I found good gold, it was rather coarse and wirely looking and very shiny, so I know there is a deposit close but still no real luck. I did notice the gold is just on the top inch or so of the clay. The color of the clay dosnt have any bearing on there being gold there or not though. I am in Wa. state close to top of the peaks of the range I am working. The creek is very small and usually dries up in late summer. There is very little bedrock showing and mostly the digging is in creek oriented gravel and dirt. I have not found bedrock in the creek yet. So it's down deep. But again, Lots of clay deposits..... I will try again in a week or so to work my detector outside the banks to hopefully find the source. But he who mentioned about discarding his clay. NO!, it's a ***** to work it out to slurry but go through it all. You might be supprised to find some yellow. Just dont run clay through a sluice. In my experience, clay passes through a sluice and grabs any gold along the way going through it. Just break it down and pan it out....