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]

Hey--I'm glad everyone is found and OK--that's great news Sushi and BKPKR.

Off to pick up some more mining toys. Nothin' better than that, unless it's finding the gold with the new mining toys!

All the best to all,

Lanny

 

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[Lanny in AB]

These are some pictures to get you thinking. What's going on here? What is the large red stain on the piece of flat bedrock? What's up with the wall (alluvial) deposits? (I shot these pictures last week when I went out to see if I could get in to the mine.

Anyone with any comments--post away. I've got some answers and some questions.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[SushiDog]

Great photo's Lanny! They are absolutely gorgeous!!!....hmmmm?.....with respect to the third photo down....that rock really stands out, and LQQKs out of place, and a very interesting spot....I know iron deposits will make a rock LQQK like that, but I am sure there are other reasons for it's color....
With respect to the fifth photo....well....in my very amateurish opinion....that rock formation was the result of some very early volcanic activity....meaning....those white striations were molten once upon a time.....
That brings me to the sixth photo, and perhaps, will reinforce what I said about photo five....I guess when one first LQQKs at that rock area, what comes to mind is an ancient river bed, or a tertiary layer....but I say no, and I will tell you why....no doubt this area has had an active volcano in the past....I know nothing of this area besides seeing that beautiful mountain range!....however, if I had to put some money on a guess, I will say that what we are LQQKing at is a layer of earth during a volcanic eruption....
With respect to the seventh photo, and last one shown, that rock has been eroded by water once upon a time, and it seems like it has been degraded to a crumbling state.....
Gosh! I am not knowledgeable about geology, but those are my first impressions....IF photo six is evidence of a volcanic eruption many eons ago, then my friend, you will more than likely find some gold there.....all of the photo's are very interesting and intriguing, but as I have said previously, I am not knowledgeable about geology...
I believe Eagle would be the guy to ask since he is very knowledgeable about geology from reading some of the stuff he has commented on in the past...
All I know is that I wish I was there with you to enjoy such an area, and to see all of those mountain goats? like that out in nature is a real treat indeed!!!
Lanny....I hope you have some answers because I sure would like to learn about what I am seeing in those photo's....you really have my interest, and I LQQK forward to knowing what all that stuff is about....thanks for posting them!!!....SushiDog

 

[EagleDown]

Halito Lanny,

Well, as usual, I didn't recieve any notifications of posts in your thread. I've been pretty busy for the past week so just now got around to checking it out. With the price of fuel going up almost daily, my online (gas saving) business it starting to pick up. I have an order to ship out in the morning, so when I return from the P.O., I'll try to make it back here.

In any case, it's getting rather late for me, so I'll attempt to find the time in the morning to comment on your very interesting pictures.

See you then!!

Eagle

 

[EagleDown]

Well, it's well beyond morning, but I'm finally here. But now that I'm here, I need to figure out what to say.

As you know, it's not really easy to look at a picture of rocks and/or gravel and give a concise analysis of what it is or contains. But, I'm willing to give it a try. Just don't shoot the messenger.

For the first picture; I've separated sheets of slate that were laying horizontal and found rusted materials that appeared to be exactly like that. I figured that the slate layers had separated many years earlier and granular iron pyrites, or possibly magnetite had filtered in and oxidized causing a conglomerate of rust and fine gravel. There have been a couple of times I've found fine gold in with the rust, but most of the time, only just what the picture shows.

The next picture, (after the herd,) appears to be slate in the same area. If I found it, (having no metal detector,) I would be using a single-jack and a flat bar to break out all of the pieces so that I could get the materials out of the cracks and pan them. It's quite possible there would be some nice sassy pieces of gold in there. Of course I'm assuming that this is at times covered by flowing water. At least that's what the streaks and patches of gravel adhering to it suggests.

This next one is really interesting, as it appears to have been deposited during 2, or perhaps 3 different periods. And, it could be eluvium rather than alluvial. (Like I said, a picture is harder to deduce than looking at the real thing.) But, it appears that the lower part was deposited and sometime later, a layer of mineral rich, (possibly mostly magnetite,) was deposited, then another slide or flood deposited more materials. I would probably want to work the dark horizontal streak across the center of the picture. Heavy materials travel together. Of course I could be totally off here, as the picture appears to be of a vertical embankment, but, could very well be the bottom of a seasonal creek bed. Unfortunately, if that's the case, I'd have to give an entirely different assessment. But, in either case, I'd first concentrate on the dark streak.

As for the final photo, without seeing the surrounding area, who knows? If gold is found in the immediate vicinity, there "should" be gold mixed in there.

 

[EagleDown]

Addendum:

As a reference to the difficulty of defining a picture of an area that you're not familiar with, in the picture following the goats(?), a little over half way down and near the left, if you said there was visible gold in the photo, I would pick the short (mostly) vertical streak a little below the horizontal, mineralized area.

Eagle

 

[nuggy]

Hi all, the last two photos appear to be landslide or moraine - alluvial deposits, not far from in situ, various rocks in a mineralized clay matrix. can't tell though if they are horizontal or vertical, which way is up?
My only advise would be - drive carefully - there's goats on the road Happy Easter. Nuggy

 

[EagleDown]

Hi all, the last two photos appear to be landslide or moraine - alluvial deposits, not far from in situ, various rocks in a mineralized clay matrix. can't tell though if they are horizontal or vertical, which way is up?
My only advise would be - drive carefully - there's goats on the road Happy Easter. Nuggy

Definitely a man of few words.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Eagle, Sushi, and Nuggy--some great comments, some briefer than others (Nuggy) .

I'm off on a little road-trip to pick up some more mining equipment--more fun--more toys for playing in the water.

I'll get back to you later, and good job so far on trying to figure out the formations, and great new information for me on some of them to boot (that's what I'm lookin' for--that's why I love this forum).

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Five inch Keene, twin 6.5's, twin air, lots of extras, three stage sluice, proven sassy gold grabber.

Always gotta have more toys.

This little outfit is going to be a ton of fun to run and will fit right in with the other toys; all the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi all, the last two photos appear to be landslide or moraine - alluvial deposits, not far from in situ, various rocks in a mineralized clay matrix. can't tell though if they are horizontal or vertical, which way is up?
My only advise would be - drive carefully - there's goats on the road Happy Easter. Nuggy

Nuggy--horizontal, top is up. Nice input on likely composition and deposition--thanks.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Great photo's Lanny! They are absolutely gorgeous!!!....hmmmm?.....with respect to the third photo down....that rock really stands out, and LQQKs out of place, and a very interesting spot....I know iron deposits will make a rock LQQK like that, but I am sure there are other reasons for it's color....

Hey there Sushi--great to hear from you! Iron from oxidized magnetite most likely--very long contact--ancient and largely concreted.
With respect to the fifth photo....well....in my very amateurish opinion....that rock formation was the result of some very early volcanic activity....meaning....those white striations were molten once upon a time.....

It will be interesting to find out--the rock with the cracks is slate I believe--all the other things that went on--I'd love to know.
That brings me to the sixth photo, and perhaps, will reinforce what I said about photo five....I guess when one first LQQKs at that rock area, what comes to mind is an ancient river bed, or a tertiary layer....but I say no, and I will tell you why....no doubt this area has had an active volcano in the past....I know nothing of this area besides seeing that beautiful mountain range!....however, if I had to put some money on a guess, I will say that what we are LQQKing at is a layer of earth during a volcanic eruption....

All that stuff is really jumbled together, and I'd love to know exactly what most-likely happened.
With respect to the seventh photo, and last one shown, that rock has been eroded by water once upon a time, and it seems like it has been degraded to a crumbling state.....

Some of those stones have definitely been tumbled to a certain extent--that's why I'm hopeful there may be some gold running with them.
Gosh! I am not knowledgeable about geology,(I'm no geologist at all; therefore, I need to learn tons more--it seems like more and more every year in fact. but those are my first impressions....IF photo six is evidence of a volcanic eruption many eons ago, then my friend, you will more than likely find some gold there.....all of the photo's are very interesting and intriguing, but as I have said previously, I am not knowledgeable about geology... Let's start a club--you and I will be charter members.
I believe Eagle would be the guy to ask since he is very knowledgeable about geology from reading some of the stuff he has commented on in the past...
All I know is that I wish I was there with you to enjoy such an area, and to see all of those mountain goats? like that out in nature is a real treat indeed!!!Female Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep--no rams running with this crew, ergo no big horns--it makes the females harder to ID (when looking at a group shot) because of that.
Lanny....I hope you have some answers because I sure would like to learn about what I am seeing in those photo's....you really have my interest, and I LQQK forward to knowing what all that stuff is about....thanks for posting them!!!....SushiDog

It looks to me like a tumble of angular and some water-worn rocks, running with clay and mineralization. Some massive event to move it all like that for sure--exactly what forces, I'm not certain. The deposit was exposed by a road cut, and it's been eroding, but not at a high rate as it's very tightly compacted and the clay is running with a bit of a concreting matrix as well.

That dark horizontal band is what really caught my attention as that should indicate a strand of heavies to stain the material that way, and heavies usually translate (if not to gold) to the denser materials that usually run with the gold.

All the best, and thanks for your input,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Thanks for joining the discussion Eagle--you've got some fine, insightful comments.

Well, it's well beyond morning, but I'm finally here. But now that I'm here, I need to figure out what to say.

As you know, it's not really easy to look at a picture of rocks and/or gravel and give a concise analysis of what it is or contains. But, I'm willing to give it a try. Just don't shoot the messenger. You're right--it's not easy, and there's always more that you'd like to know, and it's always tough trying to figure the orientation of everything out. The pics are shot as the formation occurs, face on, top of pic is top up, bands of mineralization running horizontal.

For the first picture; I've separated sheets of slate that were laying horizontal and found rusted materials that appeared to be exactly like that. I figured that the slate layers had separated many years earlier and granular iron pyrites, or possibly magnetite had filtered in and oxidized causing a conglomerate of rust and fine gravel. That's exactly what it is, and if you pan it, you'll get magnetite, some small, fractured pyrite, and often fine gold, and if you're lucky, sometimes smaller flake gold. There have been a couple of times I've found fine gold in with the rust, but most of the time, only just what the picture shows.

The next picture, (after the herd,) appears to be slate in the same area. If I found it, (having no metal detector,) I would be using a single-jack and a flat bar to break out all of the pieces so that I could get the materials out of the cracks and pan them. It's quite possible there would be some nice sassy pieces of gold in there. Of course I'm assuming that this is at times covered by flowing water. At least that's what the streaks and patches of gravel adhering to it suggests. Anciently it was--this is in a high channel, and your strategy to check the cracks and crevices is a very sound one, and pieces like this do indeed give up sassy gold from time to time.

This next one is really interesting, as it appears to have been deposited during 2, or perhaps 3 different periods. And, it could be eluvium rather than alluvial. (Like I said, a picture is harder to deduce than looking at the real thing.) But, it appears that the lower part was deposited and sometime later, a layer of mineral rich, (possibly mostly magnetite,) was deposited, then another slide or flood deposited more materials. I would probably want to work the dark horizontal streak across the center of the picture. Hey--same thoughts here, and your next comment is bang on when you're chasing the gold. Heavy materials travel together. Of course I could be totally off here, as the picture appears to be of a vertical embankment Definitely on the money with that comment Eagle--vertical section of embankment it is., but, could very well be the bottom of a seasonal creek bed. Unfortunately, if that's the case, I'd have to give an entirely different assessment. But, in either case, I'd first concentrate on the dark streak. And I will when I get back up there.

As for the final photo, without seeing the surrounding area, who knows? If gold is found in the immediate vicinity, there "should" be gold mixed in there.

Thanks for your input and analysis--you've got a keen eye, based on years of very obvious field experience--thanks for the input and the consolidating effects of your comments on my thoughts,

Lanny

 

[SushiDog]

Wow Lanny! What a toy!!! You deserve to have this new toy, and I believe you will do well with it this season....I only wish I could operate it for you! I don't know beans about a dredge, but I learn fast (smile)
With respect to my ignorance about geology, I agree with the others who have postulated a guess....I agree with all of the other posts, and mine....well....they were certainly out in left field! Where they belong! Ha! Nevertheless, it is a really interesting find Lanny, and I guess when you start digging around a bit, you will be able to share with us what you turned up....I learned a lot from everyone's post, and have the 411 locked into my coconut.....thanks for the education!!!....All the best....SushiDog

 

[nuggy]

That looks like a great machine Lanny, it should have plenty of suck-ability down to great depth. Watch out for your hands, wrists etc, as you probably know, it could deliver the mother of all hickeys. I hope it has one of those nozzles with a ring out an inch or two in front to take some of the force out of impacting against nozzle tip.
With gold going on it's present upward trend it won't take too long to pay for itself. Hope you have great success with it. Nuggy

 

[SushiDog]

FYI....In today's Sacramento Bee newspaper (Easter Sunday), in the "Our Region" section, written by Carlos Alcala, an article about the dredging issued has finally gotten some press, albeit, the author did a very brief summary of the issue. Personally, I wasn't too happy with what was reported. There is a separate forum within TreasureNet for this issue if you are interested in what is really going on....Hefty and 63 are the guys who attend the meetings, and are extremely knowledgeable of what's going on...SushiDog

 

[Lanny in AB]

Wow Lanny! What a toy!!! You deserve to have this new toy, and I believe you will do well with it this season....I only wish I could operate it for you! I don't know beans about a dredge, but I learn fast (smile)
With respect to my ignorance about geology, I agree with the others who have postulated a guess....I agree with all of the other posts, and mine....well....they were certainly out in left field! Where they belong! Ha! Nevertheless, it is a really interesting find Lanny, and I guess when you start digging around a bit, you will be able to share with us what you turned up....I learned a lot from everyone's post, and have the 411 locked into my coconut.....thanks for the education!!!....All the best....SushiDog

Hi there Sushi--I hope they get dredging reinstated for you so you can try it out sometime--it's quite the ride.

If you think you're confused about geology--join the club! It's something I really need to learn, and I'm sorely lacking in most geological knowledge. I've only specialized in a very narrow region of the science, and I'm sure that causes me to miss out on all kinds of things. I got some great ideas from the responses to the post, and a hearty thanks for your input.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

That looks like a great machine Lanny, it should have plenty of suck-ability down to great depth. Watch out for your hands, wrists etc, as you probably know, it could deliver the mother of all hickeys. I hope it has one of those nozzles with a ring out an inch or two in front to take some of the force out of impacting against nozzle tip.
With gold going on it's present upward trend it won't take too long to pay for itself. Hope you have great success with it. Nuggy

Nuggy--apparently it has so much more suck than the four-inch it's not funny, and it will process a lot more material as well. As for hickeys, I'll take mine the old-fashioned way any day--if a female dredge shows up I'll let the machine have at her. And, yes, it does have that ring--I made sure of that--it's no fun trying to pry flat rocks off the end of that thing, nor is it any fun trying to pull rounded, pointed ones out of the nozzle end either.

Thanks for the good wishes Nuggy. Did you get any dredging done during your season?

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

FYI....In today's Sacramento Bee newspaper (Easter Sunday), in the "Our Region" section, written by Carlos Alcala, an article about the dredging issued has finally gotten some press, albeit, the author did a very brief summary of the issue. Personally, I wasn't too happy with what was reported. There is a separate forum within TreasureNet for this issue if you are interested in what is really going on....Hefty and 63 are the guys who attend the meetings, and are extremely knowledgeable of what's going on...SushiDog

Sushi--thanks for the heads up--I'll check it out.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[SushiDog]

Always great to be part of your forum Lanny....I am really fascinated with the photo that shows some sort of layer that appears to be a few inches in depth, and is distinctly dark in color....since I was not there, can you please tell us the orientation of what we are seeing?.....here is what I mean.....how wide is this layer? or....how long is this layer? See what I mean? In other words.....using the face of a clock.....when we are LQQKing at this layer.....are we LQQKing at it from the left at 9 o'clock over to the right at 3 o'clock? Or, are we LQQKing at it from 12 o'clock on down to the 6 o'clock position? Better still.....let's say that the layer appears to be only 3 feet wide, then that will tell me that you would have to dig into the mountain in order to follow it wherever it goes.....sort of like a vein of gold....conversely.....if you are LQQKing at this layer that seems to be say.....50 feet in length, then that will tell me that I am running with the layer, and it is only a matter of figuring out (through digging) how wide it is....I know all this may sound so convoluted, and wish I could have conveyed it in a better way.....hold on....I just thought of another and better analogy.....take a football field.....are we LQQKing at the football field from goal post to goal post for 100 yards? Or, are we LQQKing at it from the side at 50 yards wide?....I guess I better stop while I am ahead? (smile).....hope you can make sense of this.....SushiDog