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]

Part IV

As I was setting up, one of the mine partners came down to see me. He told me that the best gold had come from the area outlined by the main drift’s cut where it met the offshoot tunnel from the main excavation. As he pointed that area out, I could clearly see that the richest area of pay had been contained within the boundaries of a roughly shaped, reversed L. He wanted me to check out sections all over the placer pit to see how well they’d stripped the pay dirt, and he wanted to find out if they’d cut down deeply enough into the softer bedrock. He let me know that I was welcome to keep anything that I found, and that all I had to do was to let them know what, and where I had found it.

I hauled the GPX 5000 out of the bag and quickly assembled it. I was in a bit of a hurry as I was concerned about the wind’s velocity because it was gusting terribly. It even rolled the detector bag across the bedrock towards a small pond sited in a large dig hole, but the bag suddenly lodged itself in a low cut that had recently been pumped dry. The wind gusted once more and even the five-gallon bucket took a header, but it didn’t roll very far, due to its weighty nature. Apart from the mini-hurricane, I had another concern. The heavy equipment that was operating upstream would undoubtedly be throwing off some electrical interference, and I was unsure how well the 5000 would handle all of that.

I fired up the detector, but I couldn’t get any threshold sound in the headphones. I shut it off and double-checked everything and started it again. No threshold tone. I tried all of the connections—they were secure. What could it be? I knew the battery was freshly charged. Nevertheless, I was stumped. That is, until I remembered that my headphones, in addition to a separate volume control, had an on/off switch! I flipped the switch and was rewarded with a nice, mellow hum. Next, with the coil elevated, and held perpendicular to the ground, I slowly moved in a half circle, noting the direction of the greatest electronic interference. And, you’ve probably guessed already. It was coming from the direction of the equipment. All kinds of squeaks, woo-woo’s, yak-yak-yak’s, and warbles were coming from over there.

I found an elevated pile of rubble where I could rest the coil, with the flat, bottom surface directly facing the bizarre electronic symphony. I then pushed the button to do an automatic tune out of electronic interference. I waited for sixty seconds as I listened to an eerie, unearthly composition of alien-like music as the detector worked doggedly to rid its electronic threshold of the unwanted invasion. After the abrupt tones that signal the end of the tuning, the detector was running very quietly. I stood up and slowly arced through the former zone of interference, only to be rewarded with the peaceful solitude of a very mellow, steady threshold sound. Very impressive the GPX 5000 was. In similar circumstances, my old 2100 would have squawked and warbled like a strangling crow on steroids, no matter how I tried to adjust or tune it. The 5000 truly was wowing me.

I knew that interference wasn’t going to be a factor, and that’s a great comfort when you’re trying to hear the ever so soft sound of gold. In fact, that’s one thing that a lot of rookies mess up on. They think that gold should be a nice sharp, crisp signal. Well, if the ground in goldfields was completely neutral, maybe the tone of gold would be. However, since good gold ground is often heavily mineralized, the electronic struggle to separate that gold signal from all of that background noise often leaves a barely audible whisper, or as has often been quoted by other nugget hunters, it’s signature is merely a “bump” in the threshold.

That “bump” simply means that the steady hum of the threshold is slightly disturbed or interrupted in some way. It’s when you repeat your swing over that same contact point, after removing a couple of inches of overburden, that you may have the opportunity to hear a more distinct disturbance in the threshold, or perhaps even a soft, audible target signal. Quite often, that’s how many nuggets are found. It’s not the loud scream or rock solid zippy tone depicted in many of the video finds. That in-your-face tone is often only evident after a considerable amount of soil has been removed. So, go slow, and listen very, very carefully. If the threshold gets interrupted for any reason, remove some soil, and scan the spot again.

Well, to get back to my story, I turned up the volume to compensate for the howling wind and headed out to detect the bedrock. Almost immediately I had a signal. It turned out to be a tiny sliver of bucket, or blade, or track. In fact, I spent from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. doing nothing but digging countless pieces of tiny steel fragments (I stopped counting after about eighty.), but I kept at it. (The tiny pieces of steel were much too small for the iron discrimination to be of any use.)

I walked along a shelf that skirted a deep pool where they’d excavated a large hole in the softer bedrock while chasing a richer concentration of gold. The shelf itself was composed of harder bedrock. I got a nice solid signal, used the pick and magnet to dig and sort, and soon I had an inch square chunk of heavily oxidized cast iron on the tip of the super-magnet. That was the largest piece of metal I’d encountered the entire day. I decided to head back over to where the main drift first entered the side of the pit, in the aforementioned reverse-L section. On my way over I noticed numerous contact zones where differing sheets of bedrock collided, and where faulting was very obvious. I detected along those margins, but all was silent. The wind was still gusting with a vengeance, and every once in a while it would grab the coil and try to fling it and the supporting stem assembly off to either one side or the other. It was nasty, and I was getting tired.

I finally made it to that inverted L area. I could see the cut in the bedrock where the drift had first met the bedrock base. There was a shallow deposit of severely stained clay and small river-run still adhering to the mother rock. I changed my settings to go for deep targets, with slow motion, and used a sharp timing. (Remember, I am learning, and I was experimenting.) I started to grid my way carefully along the slight crown formed by the remnants of the ancient streambed. Now, what’s bizarre about this next event is that everything happened so quickly, and it’s bizarre because it goes against what I took so long to explain about the necessity of listening for the threshold disturbance of faint signals—there’s some irony for you.

Well, almost immediately, I got a very loud growling, in-your-face signal. It reminded me of a perfect replication of the tone thrown off by the piece of cast iron I’d just uncovered across the pit. So, I scraped off a couple of inches of material with the pick, and the signal got so loud it grated harshly on my eardrums. Naturally, I decided it was trash, as the whole pit had turned out to be nothing but a giant repository for slivers of steel and trash. Nonetheless, I dug down deeper to try to uncover the object. Moreover, as I dug, I noticed the absolute corrupt-looking nature of the river run. This stuff was remarkably ancient: it was super oxidized, lots of deep purple, red, and orange stain. The clay was so thoroughly colored, that it was impossible to recognize any normal clay color whatsoever.

I drug the material from the hole with the pick and smoothed it so that I could pass the magnet through it all. Nothing on the magnet. So, I ran it back through the muck again. No iron or steel fragments leapt from the clay. Doggedly, I passed the coil back over the hole. The signal was still in the hole, and it was really screaming now. (Because the signal was coming from ancient material tight on the bedrock, I was starting to doubt my trash theory somewhat.) I carefully went down about another inch and once again, I spread the material out on a section of benign bedrock beside the hole. This time the signal was in the flattened out material, and it was throwing off a very angry, growling tone. I was once again convinced. It had to be iron or steel. I passed the magnet through the spread out material expecting a loud slap onto the magnet. However, no steel or iron jumped to the magnet. Well, I couldn’t believe it would be copper or aluminum at this depth, in this old, original material, but I was stumped by what it could be from the sound it was emitting. So, I passed the magnet through the material once more to be sure I hadn’t missed something ferrous. No magnetic contact whatsoever.

Therefore, I had one course of action left, to use the edge of the coil to pinpoint the signal. (I was using the eleven-inch mono at this point, and it was running very quietly in this awful, mineralized mess.) I narrowed down the target’s location with the edge of the mono (What a ruckus it made then!). I picked up a small handful of the stained mess. I selected stones one at a time and passed them under the coil—maybe it was some kind of turbo-charged hot rock. Nothing. I looked down where I’d passed the edge of the coil while pinpointing and could see a narrow mark in the oxidized clay. There was a small bit of goo in a lump holding at that point. I picked it up, passed it under the coil, and man did that signal enhancer ever work! I got a solid blast that sent a shattering jolt straight to the auditory center of my brain.

The target was clearly in the goo, and the lump hefted heavy in my hand—too heavy for normal clay. I mashed the lump between my fingers (my hands were now something like the color of those of a slaughter-house worker’s). There was a solid lump in the clay mass that resisted. I rolled the object between my thumb and index finger and all of a sudden the sun began to shine—right there between my fingers. It was the unmistakable yellow that sun-worshippers had revered for thousands of years. There in my hand was the perfect, metallic imitation of the sun’s rays—the shine of solid gold. It was a fat, sassy, gorgeous nugget. I still couldn’t believe it. Everything I’d heard said it had to be trash: it was far too loud—it growled too much—it sounded just like the cast iron fragment found earlier. Nevertheless, it was gold, and the realization seeped in. At last, I had found my first gold with the GPX 5000. I had broken in my shiny new detector. I was falling in love—it was a golden, romantic moment I’ll never forget.

Of course, I checked the hole very, very carefully after retrieving the nugget. No remaining signal. However, I switched the speed to very slow and meticulously checked the surrounding ground. A bit off to the left, facing upstream, I got a bump in the threshold. I scraped off a couple of inches of muck, scanned again, and the signal was now a tiny whisper. I scraped some more and now had a tone. I dug down, scraped and flattened the material and now had a solid signal. Out came the magnet--no magnetic contact. I scanned again, used my scoop, and had the signal captured in its confines. I sectioned the material and scanned again and again until I had the target on the coil. It too was covered in that nightmare of pigment and stain. After some rolling about on the fingers, out peeped a juvenile nugget: one not yet out of puberty. It was a little half-gram wonder—very coarse and quite sassy.

The big brother weighed out at just under five grams, and peewee, well you already have his stats.

What’s the interesting thing about this story of discovery? It’s interesting that I had to dig an obscene amount of trash, for hours, before I finally got a true target, but it’s not uncommon. It’s interesting that I was tired, fed up with fighting the wind, and discouraged by all of the countless bits of blade, but not out of the ordinary. What is interesting is that I passed numerous, shallow dig holes where previous VLF hunters had dug, but where they had only probed a few inches beneath the surface. It’s also curious that I was beginning to think that the pit was detected out, and because I was so discouraged, I was clearly ready to take a break and get out of there. But, regardless, what’s really intriguing is that I hadn’t counted on the break I got that day at all. The double-golden break Mother Nature served up—I hadn’t counted on that—not by a long shot.

All the best,

Lanny

P.S. I found two more in the same area the next week: one that was a gram and a half, and one that was a quarter of a gram.

 

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[nuggy]

Hi Lanny, great writing as usual, we are privileged indeed. Good to hear you are having success with the new detector. Getting the dang things to run quiet is a huge advantage to hearing those soft bumps in the threshold. Good also to hear the 5000 is a good machine with some real advantages over older models. Thanks for letting us come along on your adventure.
Wish I was able to get out and about more, but my time is spent working on other things unfortunately. Nuggy

 

[EagleDown]

Hi Ho Lanny,

What an excellent story. I was right there with you the whole time. I wasn't enjoying leaning into the wind all that much though. I guess I'm somewhat of a whoos when it comes to 'tecting in the wind.

I don't know how or when, but I'm going to get one of those 5000s. You've definately sold me on them. Well, actually, I have been thinking about one for a while, but it was more wishful thinking. You've converted that to a determination.

Now, get back out there and get some more stories for us, so that I can live vicariously through them.

I've been posting the photos I took on this last trip. I look forward to reading your comments. Now, if I could just make a story sound as good as you do............

Luvin it,

Eagle

 

[Hefty1]

Great story of patience, patience, patience, even when mother nature is kickin your arse.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Finally got back--enjoy the pictures--all the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

I'll find the rest of the shots of the other small nuggets I pulled out of the bedrock as well.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi Lanny, great writing as usual, we are privileged indeed. Good to hear you are having success with the new detector. Getting the dang things to run quiet is a huge advantage to hearing those soft bumps in the threshold. Good also to hear the 5000 is a good machine with some real advantages over older models. Thanks for letting us come along on your adventure.
Wish I was able to get out and about more, but my time is spent working on other things unfortunately. Nuggy

Thanks a bunch Nuggy--great to hear from you again, and thanks for your compliments on the story.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi Ho Lanny,

What an excellent story. I was right there with you the whole time. I wasn't enjoying leaning into the wind all that much though. I guess I'm somewhat of a whoos when it comes to 'tecting in the wind.

I don't know how or when, but I'm going to get one of those 5000s. You've definately sold me on them. Well, actually, I have been thinking about one for a while, but it was more wishful thinking. You've converted that to a determination.

Now, get back out there and get some more stories for us, so that I can live vicariously through them.

I've been posting the photos I took on this last trip. I look forward to reading your comments. Now, if I could just make a story sound as good as you do............

Luvin it,

Eagle

Eagle--I can only hope that one day I'll be half the story teller that you are. Thanks for all of your kind words. Hope you enjoy the pictures of the nuggets I posted above these last couple of posts for you.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Great story of patience, patience, patience, even when mother nature is kickin your arse.

You're right Hefty--I was gettin' some serious kickin' that day. As you can see from the pictures, the nuggets aren't as big as your California beauties.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[SushiDog]

Hey Lanny.....WOW!....
I have a question for you....IF I am not mistaken, did you own the MineLab 4500 before you purchased the 5000? Be that as it may....my question is about the differences between the 4500 and the 5000....I know one difference: the 4500 costs anywhere between $1,500 and $1,800 less than the 5000.....so my question is....what do you get in the 5000 for between $1,500 and $1,800 dollars more? The 5000 is a beautiful toy, and is priced around $5,500 dollars....AND....if put in a Pro's hand like yours, can pay off itself in no time....if anyone else could chime in on this subject, feel free to do so....SushiDog

 

[nuggy]

Good to see you are back Lanny, and congratulations on the nuggets above, nice looking stuff, thanks gets me keen again.

Sushi and Hefty, I seem to recall you were going to give us another report on your adventures?

Got a day out planned for whenever the weather comes good again, creviceing - detecting. Been making a more portable sluice box, will take a photo and put it in sluicing section later on. Got a little more time again. Nuggy

 

[SushiDog]

Hi Nuggy.....you're right! We do owe you guys some stories from our last adventures....by-the-way....Hefty is at the claim now....he went up this morning with his brother....I couldn't make it up to his claim on this trip....hey! I would be very interested in seeing your concoction for a portable sluice box....to tell everyone here the truth, this is the only forum that I am on, so if you post pics somewhere else....well?.....SushiDog

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hey Lanny.....WOW!....
I have a question for you....IF I am not mistaken, did you own the MineLab 4500 before you purchased the 5000? Be that as it may....my question is about the differences between the 4500 and the 5000....I know one difference: the 4500 costs anywhere between $1,500 and $1,800 less than the 5000.....so my question is....what do you get in the 5000 for between $1,500 and $1,800 dollars more? The 5000 is a beautiful toy, and is priced around $5,500 dollars....AND....if put in a Pro's hand like yours, can pay off itself in no time....if anyone else could chime in on this subject, feel free to do so....SushiDog

Sushi--good to hear from you again. In answer to your question, I never owned the 4500. I'd used the 3000, the 3500, and the 4000, and found gold with them, but I'd stuck with my 2100 as it was and still is a genuine gold-finding wonder of a machine. The 5000 can be ground balanced against the bedrock itself. In other words if the bedrock is red hot, you can balance the machine to the red hot bedrock so that you can balance it out so that you can still hear any conductive signal in that highly mineralized bedrock. Now, that really impresses me.

It's very quiet, (quieter than the 4500 from what my buddies tell me that own them and sell them both), and it has other features the 4500 doesn't. True, there's not a massive difference in the two machines, and the 4500 is a fantastic machine (from what other owners and dealers tell me), but it's got an edge over the 4500.

Is it worth the price difference? Well, I tried a lot of other Minelab models along the way, and found gold with all of them, but this one is so different, and so technologically advanced, and so quiet that to me, there's no question that it's worth the difference. But, if a person is just starting out in the field of detecting, I'd recommend any of the Minelabs along the way, any of the models from the 2100 and up (however, I can't recommend the extreme, as I've never used it).

What matters about the machines is that they are metaphorical rifle shots, extremely accurately manufactured, with every advantage, to target and zero in on the gold.

I love my new machine--I have been exceptionally impressed that it will handle the extreme mineralization of the areas I hunt, and do it very quietly, so that I can distinguish and clearly hear those tiny bumps and whispers that disturb the threshold--the ones I would have missed with the other machines.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[SushiDog]

Thanks for the 411 Lanny....it's good to hear from you again too!....I think that any machine that can be balanced to eradicate hot rocks and mineralization, and doing so in such a way as you have described, is well worth the money....and....to spend the extra money for it as well....a review coming from you Lanny is extremely important because it is dependable, accurate and you are a master at what you do best.....finding gold!!! Have you used your 5000 under water yet? I can imagine that will be a totally new experience....I am sure it is water proof up to the box.....correct?......SushiDog

 

[Lanny in AB]

Good to see you are back Lanny, and congratulations on the nuggets above, nice looking stuff, thanks gets me keen again.

Nuggy--good to see you back! I hope you get a chance to get out there to find some more gold soon. Be sure to post some picture of your next adventure please.

Sushi and Hefty--I'd like to see what you've been up to as well.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Thanks for the 411 Lanny....it's good to hear from you again too!....I think that any machine that can be balanced to eradicate hot rocks and mineralization, and doing so in such a way as you have described, is well worth the money....and....to spend the extra money for it as well....a review coming from you Lanny is extremely important because it is dependable, accurate and you are a master at what you do best.....finding gold!!! Have you used your 5000 under water yet? I can imagine that will be a totally new experience....I am sure it is water proof up to the box.....correct?......SushiDog

Sushi--no underwater detecting with it yet, but I have a couple of waterproof coils to try it out with.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Goodyguy]

Hey Lanny,

Your nugget reminds me of Australia

 

[nuggy]

Hi Sushi, well the photo and story are done in the sluicing thread, not on another forum - go to top of this page - above title - click on gold prospecting - then click on sluicing - if you just can't get to it, ask Lanny to put in a link, he's good like that.

 

[SushiDog]

Okay....thanks Nuggy.....I'm sure I will find it.....and I am LQQKing forward seeing it as well!.....SushiDog

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hey Lanny,

Your nugget reminds me of Australia

GoodGuy--thanks for the picture and the comparison--there does appear to be a resemblance. I'd have never made the connection without your picture, but there certainly is one.

Thanks again, and all the best,

Lanny