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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[Jim Hemmingway]

Jim, thanks for the tips and for the encouragement, as well as for the offer to proofread, very generous.
You're welcome Lanny, just letting you know there is help available over this way should that be useful to you.

Incidentally, I enjoyed your descriptive "iffy bounce" signal characterization in the above presentation!!!

Thanks a lot for taking the time and effort over the years to share both your adventures and your gold prospecting knowledge. It is very much appreciated................Jim.

 

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[russau]

YES YES YES a BIG THANYOU for your efforts and help!

 

[Lanny in AB]

Gold Around The Big Boulder

Last summer my son and I were detecting nuggets in a placer cut/pit.

My son found some real beauties (multi-gram) on the first trip around the bedrock, and he slowed way down the second time around.

I was doing the same thing, slowing down a lot the second time checking that bedrock. It's a strategy that really pays off as lots of smaller gold is found when going low and slow while scrubbing the ground with the coil.

My son was getting nice flakes as he scoured the bedrock patch he was working. So, scrubbing the coil and going slow had paid off nicely.

He started to work a big boulder on the west end of the cut. He carefully checked the exposed bedrock in front of the boulder, but there was no gold. He then decided he'd get to work with the pick and shovel and move some overburden from behind the boulder where it met the face of the cut.

While scanning the newly uncovered layer of dirt, that's when his fun began.

He spent the next hour removing a layer of dirt, recovering flake gold, and then starting the technique all over again. After that hour was up he had some really nice gold in his bottle.

He was using a VLF detector (Gold Bug Pro) with the small coil, learning as he went along that small coils don't punch very deep on small gold, and that by scraping off layers of dirt in a prime gold location, it creates a new shot at the gold with every fresh level.

A great day, and there's no better time than time spent with family (and getting gold is just a nice plus).

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Drill Pipe Casing

Five summers ago, I set off upstream, away from the placer workings, to detect a surface channel from a river diversion done long ago. The channel held a shallow deposit of fine gold in that went down about six feet, but every so often it held a gram to half-gram nugget as well.

I found lots of metal junk, but no gold that day. However, I did find a strange pipe sticking out of the ground. So, getting back to camp, I asked the miners what the pipe was. Turns out it was a drill casing, one left there from a testing program. Now, drill casings are usually pulled after the testing’s done, but that one was stuck fast in the bedrock, so they couldn’t pull it. (The bedrock was about sixty feet below the surface gravels.)

Well, the recent excavations finally caught up to the abandoned casing last year, with four feet of it left sticking from the bedrock. The top fifty-plus feet got sheared off in pieces as the channel material was stripped.

So, last summer we had a long section of virgin bedrock to work with our detectors (my son, my wife, and I), with that stub of drill casing about dead center in the cut. It was the middle of a run of drill holes (from several decades past) that proved good gold on that section of bedrock.

That fine fall day, we dropped in and started detecting. My son found a nugget right away, and then I found a couple, and we both hit several nice runs of nuggets, some multi-gram, many sub-gram.

The bedrock humped up where the casing was stuck in some super-hard bedrock, and we took a lot of nuggets from all sides of the pipe on that rise. We also found a lots of flake gold in little bedrock gutters.

It sure was a lot of detecting fun, a great day out with family, plus I finally saw where and why that casing got jammed many years ago.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[russau]

What a great day you had with your family !

 

[Lanny in AB]

Yes, it was a great day. Family time is some of the best times.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Minelab X-Terra Gold

Well, the snow has left the foot of the mountains, so I'll be off soon to get after the nuggets.

That means the progress I've made on the book, (a whack of pages done) will be shelved until the late fall as getting the gold is way up there on the priority list, and our season to chase it up here in the north is quite short.

I was reminded today of a spot that had been placer mined in the late 1970's, which was hand-mined, drift-mined and hydraulic mined in the 1800's, then worked again in the 1930's, like a lot of old placer ground was.

They'd worked off a lot of overburden over many years, but they'd left a large wide pillar of conglomerate, stream run, and clay on quite a hump of ground. That conglomerate doesn't like to move, and it was sitting on top of the clay and small lenses and layers of stream-run, so undermining it wasn't an option.

A couple of old boys, about ten years ago, had found some nuggets in that pillar, and then the rush was on. A guy with a Cat knocked it over for them, and everybody camped in that area really went to town.

I'd seen that pillar a couple of years prior to the rush, but we were working on the other side of the river, so I didn't check it out. By the time I got back over there, the camping miners had worked all material down to the surrounding ground level.

At that time I had a Minelab X-Terra 705 with a DD coil with me. I scrubbed the surface of the worked ground real slow and soon had a bunch of nice flakes. I even hit some nice smaller nuggets. (Nothing over two grams.)

So, I thought I'd tear off four inches of clay and river stone and detect again, but I got skunked. I figured I'd been working the very bottom of a run of pay that the camping miners had almost completely cleared off.

Regardless, I had a nice catch of flakes and some little nuggets, and that was the first time I'd got serious about using the 705 to look for flake gold; the nuggets were a byproduct of that fine-gold search.

So the 705 did the job, and I used it after that for areas where the 5000 had found nuggets before to look for smaller stuff, and I did get a bit of gold, but I used it more often to go coin shooting, which it did OK. Then I gave it to my son so he could learn to coin-shoot, and he found lots of coins, and then some small nuggets and flake gold with it.

There's a lot better machines for finding gold than the 705 now, but it did the job on the day I needed it.

All the best,

Lanny

(Off soon to chase some Rocky Mountain gold.)

 

[Chilli]

Minelab X-Terra Gold

Well, the snow has left the foot of the mountains, so I'll be off soon to get after the nuggets.

That means the progress I've made on the book, (a whack of pages done) will be shelved until the late fall as getting the gold is way up there on the priority list, and our season to chase it up here in the north is quite short.

I was reminded today of a spot that had been placer mined in the late 1970's, which was hand-mined, drift-mined and hydraulic mined in the 1800's, then worked again in the 1930's, like a lot of old placer ground was.

They'd worked off a lot of overburden over many years, but they'd left a large wide pillar of conglomerate, stream run, and clay on quite a hump of ground. That conglomerate doesn't like to move, and it was sitting on top of the clay and small lenses and layers of stream-run, so undermining it wasn't an option.

A couple of old boys, about ten years ago, had found some nuggets in that pillar, and then the rush was on. A guy with a Cat knocked it over for them, and everybody camped in that area really went to town.

I'd seen that pillar a couple of years prior to the rush, but we were working on the other side of the river, so I didn't check it out. By the time I got back over there, the camping miners had worked all material down to the surrounding ground level.

At that time I had a Minelab X-Terra 705 with a DD coil with me. I scrubbed the surface of the worked ground real slow and soon had a bunch of nice flakes. I even hit some nice smaller nuggets. (Nothing over two grams.)

So, I thought I'd tear off four inches of clay and river stone and detect again, but I got skunked. I figured I'd been working the very bottom of a run of pay that the camping miners had almost completely cleared off.

Regardless, I had a nice catch of flakes and some little nuggets, and that was the first time I'd got serious about using the 705 to look for flake gold; the nuggets were a byproduct of that fine-gold search.

So the 705 did the job, and I used it after that for areas where the 5000 had found nuggets before to look for smaller stuff, and I did get a bit of gold, but I used it more often to go coin shooting, which it did OK. Then I gave it to my son so he could learn to coin-shoot, and he found lots of coins, and then some small nuggets and flake gold with it.

There's a lot better machines for finding gold than the 705 now, but it did the job on the day I needed it.

All the best,

Lanny

(Off soon to chase some Rocky Mountain gold.)

705 is a good underrated detector on gold. I found a fair bit of specimen gold with one. I just sold my 24k which is much better but on gold but kept the 705 as I know it well and still like hunting relics now n then. My main gold machine now is going to be the E1500. 705 stays put.

 

[Lanny in AB]

705 is a good underrated detector on gold. I found a fair bit of specimen gold with one. I just sold my 24k which is much better but on gold but kept the 705 as I know it well and still like hunting relics now n then. My main gold machine now is going to be the E1500. 705 stays put.

My son still has the one I gave him, and he really likes it. I've heard that machine (705) actually had extras packed inside it, more than needed for its price point. I found nice gold with it, but have other machines I use now that I like better, but I found a lot of coins with it too, solid machine for sure.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Chilli]

My son still has the one I gave him, and he really likes it. I've heard that machine (705) actually had extras packed inside it, more than needed for its price point. I found nice gold with it, but have other machines I use now that I like better, but I found a lot of coins with it too, solid machine for sure.

All the best,

Lanny

Yes Lanny. It is a sweet little unit. I love how with a touch here then another you can check an ID in 3 modes and use in your memory the best call when they agree 1,2 or 1,2,3. Iv had others and admit the 705 not always goes as deep but when you know it its a very honest caller. It was in a class of its own here when it, the 70 then the 705 came out. Very versatile.
Edit, add...I still reckon its the best gold amongst junk caller iv used when I worked over rich old reef working places picking through the quartz refuse dumps and piles.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Yes Lanny. It is a sweet little unit. I love how with a touch here then another you can check an ID in 3 modes and use in your memory the best call when they agree 1,2 or 1,2,3. Iv had others and admit the 705 not always goes as deep but when you know it its a very honest caller. It was in a class of its own here when it, the 70 then the 705 came out. Very versatile.
Edit, add...I still reckon its the best gold amongst junk caller iv used when I worked over rich old reef working places picking through the quartz refuse dumps and piles.

Thanks for all of the details in your reply, and for the new information as well. When it comes to ideas about how to find gold with a detector (interesting info. you've provided about using the 705 while detecting old workings), I'm all ears as using detectors has been my main recovery method for gold over the last 25 years or so.

All the best, and thanks again,

Lanny

 

[Chilli]

Thanks for all of the details in your reply, and for the new information as well. When it comes to ideas about how to find gold with a detector (interesting info. you've provided about using the 705 while detecting old workings), I'm all ears as using detectors has been my main recovery method for gold over the last 25 years or so.

All the best, and thanks again,

Lanny

Hi. I came across an old photo of some gold I got with the original Xterra the 70. I used it to pick through the rubbish filled, iron, reef heaps.
I remember being really surprised how well it worked on them.

 

[Buggle]

I know nothing about panning or metal detectors, and at 81 I may never get a chance to do what you are doing, but I have enjoyed reading about it. Thanks loads and good luck prospecting. This is Oct. 27, 2024...but date shows Sep 25 ?

 

[Buggle]

I don't know how to use this forum yet, and I've already won a trophy? ...Wow ! That's nice! Thank you, and thanks to Lanny for my introduction to hunting gold with a metal detector. Looks like a fun, potentially rewarding hobby !

 

[russau]

Buggle WELCOME to the site for your 1st posts ! Glad to see you here ! ENJOY!

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi. I came across an old photo of some gold I got with the original Xterra the 70. I used it to pick through the rubbish filled, iron, reef heaps.
I remember being really surprised how well it worked on them.
View attachment 2169776

These sure are great pictures of a sweet golden haul, nicely done!
Thanks for posting, and thanks for dropping in to leave some eye-candy.

I've been doing some roaming around the south-western desert area of Nevada, may get back into California and Arizona as well. So many abandoned mines in Nevada, just can't quite believe it, lots of gold producers too, and I've been lucky enough to find some nice nuggets in the past with my detectors. (Planning on finding some more, here's to luck.)

All the best, and thanks for posting,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Buggle, I've been off the forums for a while, been very busy with life, but it's great to see you posting. Glad to know you're enjoying the thread, there's lots of good tips and tricks that have been shared on this thread over the years, and I do mean lots.

So, keep your interest fired up by cruising through the posts to get a taste of what goodies can be found when a metal detector gets a chance to have someone swing it over some good gold ground.

I've been doing research lately on desert gold as that's an area I have limited experience in hunting, but one that has a lot of potential now that I'm retired and have more freedom to travel.

Nevada is a state that fascinates me as it's mineralized right from the bottom of the state to the top, and as there's always been problems with water shortages in the desert for mining Nevad gold, there's still chunks of gold to be found in dry placers, which is what I'm focusing on.

I've seen huge areas along washes that have been dry-washed, many of those locations bordered by trumpet plants, and I've been lucky enough to find some nuggets that have floated down the side of washes over the countless desert eons.

So, keep reading, and keep asking questions as they come up, it's the best way to learn some of the secrets of bedrock and gold.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Terry Soloman]

Saved up for your book Lanny - Let me know!