Alluvial gold—how to find the source?

[StoryWriter85]

Hi all! My name’s Ryan and I’m new to this forum. I’m a beginner who knows little about prospecting, and am here to learn. I’m writing a novel set in 1870 about gold prospectors, and want to describe the process accurately—from tracing and digging methods to geology. I’ll probably ask many questions.

My first one is this: when panning yields alluvial deposits, what are typical ways to trace them to their source? For example, I know one way is to search hill slopes alongside the stream for eluvial gold…but how is this done? One source I found says to pan the dirt on the slope, while another says to dig holes. Could somebody explain why a person would dig rather than pan the dirt, or vice versa?

If the gold isn’t sourced at these slopes, how does one find it? Keep panning up river?

 

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[russau]

You have to dig your way up and along these slopes to hopefully find the source and the same goes for in the streams . That's what is called prospecting and you must do this to find the gold. Back and forth along the hillside then move up the hill to eventually / hopefully find the point of the source your looking for. Until that time your a prospector and once you map out and find the source then you start being a miner and the digging starts. It sounds like your going to have a nice book to read ! Please keep us informed of when it'll be in print and where to get it ! I love reading these books. GOOD LUCK with your story !!! OH and congratulations to your first post and a big welcome to you!

 

[DizzyDigger]

Welcome to the site...

My first one is this: when panning yields alluvial deposits, what are typical ways to trace them to their source?

As Russau suggested, you've got to begin working your way up the river/hillside. As you get closer to the source, the gold in your pan should be larger, and more course. If you get to a point where you find no gold, or very little compared to what you found lower in the river, then you've gone too far, or past where the source is feeding the stream.

 

[bc5391]

To take what Rusasu said 1 step further, using your gold pan, starting at the bottom, dig test holes, 20 feet apart, counting the flakes as you go.When you no longer get any flakes, go back to the last hold that did have color and narrow the search to holes 5 feet apart.

 

[StoryWriter85]

You have to dig your way up and along these slopes to hopefully find the source and the same goes for in the streams . That's what is called prospecting and you must do this to find the gold. Back and forth along the hillside then move up the hill to eventually / hopefully find the point of the source your looking for. Until that time your a prospector and once you map out and find the source then you start being a miner and the digging starts. It sounds like your going to have a nice book to read ! Please keep us informed of when it'll be in print and where to get it ! I love reading these books. GOOD LUCK with your story !!! OH and congratulations to your first post and a big welcome to you!

Thank you for this! So you want to dig, rather than pan the dirt? How deep should the holes be?

Also, what exactly do you look for in the dirt…little flakes? Nuggets? Are the deposits normally still attached to quartz?

I’ll let the forum know once the book is complete (as long as there’s no rules against book promotion)!

 

[StoryWriter85]

Welcome to the site...



As Russau suggested, you've got to begin working your way up the river/hillside. As you get closer to the source, the gold in your pan should be larger, and more course. If you get to a point where you find no gold, or very little compared to what you found lower in the river, then you've gone too far, or past where the source is feeding the stream.

Thank you! Once you’ve found the hillside, do you dig holes or pan the dirt? Is it both?

Also, what kind of deposits would you typically find going uphill to the source? Tiny flakes? Nuggets? Quartz with gold in it?

 

[StoryWriter85]

To take what Rusasu said 1 step further, using your gold pan, starting at the bottom, dig test holes, 20 feet apart, counting the flakes as you go.When you no longer get any flakes, go back to the last hold that did have color and narrow the search to holes 5 feet apart.

Thank you! How deep should the test holes be? Do you pan the dirt that you dug up?

Also, what would the deposits typically look like? Flakes? Nuggets? Pieces of quartz with gold in it?

 

[russau]

If the hillside is steep you'll need to dig deeper because of the erosion of the step hill side you look for any size gold /gems or whatever ! Quartz is a good sign ! the more Quartz you see the better ! Breaking the larger Quartz pieces hopefully might show promise ! Gold at the foot of the hill or in the stream is a indicator to look up the hill side for more promising traces .

 

[et1955]

You have asked a very complicated question; you center on 1870 but you forget those who came before. They were the real pioneers of mining. I own a claim on the N.F. Salmon River near Sawyers Bar in California called Flapjack Bar which was established in 1850. So, I ask you this, you must be more specific on where the miners you are writing about mined. The miners in 1850 and earlier are so different than those in 1870, so many gold rushes have happened, and all areas are different, some similar like placer deposits and easy to mine since the river has done most of the work for those of mine that way. As for finding the source that is where it gets complicated, is the source from a lode deposit that the river has cut threw or is it an ancient placer deposit, but it could be an ancient glacial deposit. One indicator for load deposit is the gold is very course when close to the source but when dealing with ancient river benches the gold will be rounded, flat and small. The river has done that to the course nuggets and flakes over time flowing through the river. Just a suggestion change your term for alluvial mining to placer mining, that is what we old timers call it and I knew some real old timers and that is what they called it. It's a miner's term versus geologist term. LOL

 

[Fredy Williams]

In rivers the rougher the gold the closer you are to the deposits. The smoother the gold the farther away.
Welcome, and good luck.

 

[N-Lionberger]

Look up pocket hunting, it’s the same technique. You basically dig test pits up a creek until the gold stops and you create a Series of test pits in a grid pattern to try to triangulate a source.I have never tried but have met folk’s proficient in it that do quite well for themselves.

 

[StoryWriter85]

You have asked a very complicated question; you center on 1870 but you forget those who came before. They were the real pioneers of mining. I own a claim on the N.F. Salmon River near Sawyers Bar in California called Flapjack Bar which was established in 1850. So, I ask you this, you must be more specific on where the miners you are writing about mined. The miners in 1850 and earlier are so different than those in 1870, so many gold rushes have happened, and all areas are different, some similar like placer deposits and easy to mine since the river has done most of the work for those of mine that way. As for finding the source that is where it gets complicated, is the source from a lode deposit that the river has cut threw or is it an ancient placer deposit, but it could be an ancient glacial deposit. One indicator for load deposit is the gold is very course when close to the source but when dealing with ancient river benches the gold will be rounded, flat and small. The river has done that to the course nuggets and flakes over time flowing through the river. Just a suggestion change your term for alluvial mining to placer mining, that is what we old timers call it and I knew some real old timers and that is what they called it. It's a miner's term versus geologist term. LOL

Thank you for the tip on “placer” versus “alluvial”! I didn’t know that, I’ll definitely factor it in my story.

My characters are prospecting in the South Dakota plains. Other than the Black Hills, I believe there wasn’t much mining done in this area historically, so it is definitely a work of fiction. The mining will be done in creeks, ravines, and hill slopes, where they will find placer and lode gold.

It is a small group of prospectors with limited tools and no fancy equipment.

 

[russau]

Most all mining came down to the gold pan to finish it up . That's the last step usually for getting the gold unless you needed Mercury for the flour gold that is to small to pick out of the nuggets. The old timer's hit the creeks with a Jack knife to pick out the bigger gold as they traveled across our land looking for a better life. That's where the saying of , he's a "jack knife miner", They were the first one's to start the digging for the easy nugget's !

 

[Assembler]

Look at the different rock types to spot any flakes of values. This is not as productive as panning yet could result you more in the long run as far as spotting the source.

 

[bc5391]

Thank you! How deep should the test holes be? Do you pan the dirt that you dug up?

Also, what would the deposits typically look like? Flakes? Nuggets? Pieces of quartz with gold in it?

Just as Russau said. There are places here whee the old timers dug pits 3 feet deep and 6 feet wide. So it will depend on your area.
Looking for pacer deposits which I just described when they found a streak, they then dug to bedrock and followed it. Look up Jeff Williams on utube.
For hard rock, the process is the same, holes are usually shallower, you are looking for the vein,dig, drill, crush and pan.

Of course now a days they have this electronic thing called a metal detector that helps quite a bit., saves some of that back breaking work when you get up in the years.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

The gold you are referring to that would be located on the slopes below an ore deposit is sometimes now referred to as “residual placer”. Gold from the source that has not been deposited/concentrated by gravity via. flowing water.

However, I would check out Google Books and read some literature written back during that period.

Folks now get all wrapped up in terminology that most prospectors back then would have no knowledge of since most of them might not have been able to read or write very well, Remember that during the early gold rush days, most miners were farmers or laborers cutting their teeth on mining.

On the west coast, the river placer mining came first because it was the most profitable. The load deposits were mostly discovered and mined later after things had been settled a bit.

 

[bc5391]

Here are a couple of examples of what the old timers die, the Adit is in the creek , feet goes in about 30 feet and turns, then goes another 20 feet, I found 3 similar in the area. The shaft , is on a bench, with about 4 test pits if I remember correctly, the pits were 3x6 feet, the shaft (no I did not enter) is about 15 feet deep.
Neither of these were hard rock, but dug into the soil.Even found one that was partially filled.
THE Last is and old sluice from the 1970's, at least 12 feet long., it will give you an idea why they were there.

 

[pete61]

Chris from Vo-Gus prospecting just released a vid 2 days ago concerning this topic.


Copied from the description.

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[StoryWriter85]

Here are a couple of examples of what the old timers die, the Adit is in the creek , feet goes in about 30 feet and turns, then goes another 20 feet, I found 3 similar in the area. The shaft , is on a bench, with about 4 test pits if I remember correctly, the pits were 3x6 feet, the shaft (no I did not enter) is about 15 feet deep.
Neither of these were hard rock, but dug into the soil.Even found one that was partially filled.
THE Last is and old sluice from the 1970's, at least 12 feet long., it will give you an idea why they were there.

Thank you for this! This helps.

 

[StoryWriter85]

Chris from Vo-Gus prospecting just released a vid 2 days ago concerning this topic.


Copied from the description.

Thank you! I’ll check this out.