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]

63--I really wouldn't know who to recommend--sorry. Your best bet is to actually visit the claim and to do your own sampling--don't rely on sampling reports or hearsay--do the testing yourself to see if the gold is really there. If you can find it on your own, you'll always be able to find it. Sometimes there's great gold on a claim, but it takes big equipment to get at it. So, determine your limits, and then follow the three rules of prospecting: test, test, test.

All the best,

Lanny

 

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[Lanny in AB]

Hefty--nice catch of gold you got out of that little honey hole. Congratulations on teasing some out of the bedrock. That bedrock on your claim should be holding to a lot more of that sassy gold. Keep me updated on how it goes as the water level drops. Plus, I hope you and your mining buddies can find some nuggets with those metal detectors of yours.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Hefty1]

Thanks Lanny Welcome back.
Yea cant wait to get back to that one.
It was the GB SE that gave me a positive signal over that hole. Maybe it was that ear stud
Will keep you updated.

Hefty

 

[2bits]

I re-read this topic frequently! Thanks Lanny...
2 bits

 

[Lanny in AB]

2 bits--Thanks for dropping in, and thanks for enjoying the thread. Lots of fine people helping out on this thread.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Hefty1]

Well Lanny
Finally got back to that hole, water was gone as the river has dropped about 5ft.
Got to the bottom and not a dam thing down there

Hefty

 

[Hefty1]

Hey Lanny
What do ya think of this old river bed
In the pics, it is this high off the current river.

Hefty

 

[Sturgeon Stomper]

Nice read Hefty! I realy do think thats my stud from years ago just saying

Lets go back in and dig some more of that stuff up.

 

[Hefty1]

Im already there

 

[EagleDown]

Good morning Hefty! I hope I'm not intruding here, but I must say that, from my personal experiences, that area has mucho potential, especially the second picture.

After studying the pictures, though it's hard to tell from (any) pictures, in the first one, the top "gopher hole" was too high and more recent than the lower one. Both of them were basically prospecting holes dug by a less experienced miner. I figure that by the fact that the top one appears to be in upper portion of the alluvial and we all know that as a general rule, gold will be on or very close to bedrock. Consequently, probably dug by a "newby". Unfortunately, though the lower prospect hole appears to be on bedrock, from what I seem to see, the bedrock is flat and probably smooth.

Now, the second picture is really intriguing......Just to the right of top center, there's a large stand of live oak(?) and to the right of, (and touching) is a large, upright boulder, or perhaps a standing part of bed rock. That area appears to be mostly rough bedrock. I'd check it carefully and determine if that area is also ancient alluvial. If so, (while looking at the photo,) I'd check the base of that boulder/bedrock on the front and around the right side. Yeah, put Sushidog to work.

And then again, I might be interpreting the pictures wrong.

In any case, I'd sure love to be there with you to check it out. Good luck, and keep us informed.

Eagle

P.S. The earlier photo of the hole with the ear stud looks like the rotten part and the cracks going off to the sides (in the lower part of the pict,) could use some serious labor.

 

[Hefty1]

Never intruding Eagle.
I will be sweepin that whole area of that bedrock as it is the front side of the inside bend of the river just in front of the L-wall on the claim.

Thanks for the info.

Hefty

 

[Hefty1]

Oh yea that old river bed is along the trail hundreds of feet up off the current river.
Kinda like cement there and will have to take screened buckets full back to the truck and work it at
Home to check it out.

Hefty

 

[Hefty1]

Had to do a little work around camp this past weekend. Some pics.
Put a new tarp on the tent.
Brother cooling off, water was GREAT!!!
Me at camp, just got out of the water, it was HOT!!!
Looking down stream on claim.
The bath tub and swiming hole.

Hefty

 

[63bkpkr]

Hefty,
That water looks mighty inviting and Yes it has really gone down, looks almost calm! Nothing like an old river bed up a hill to cause the brain to spin a bit!! I'm hanging in with the storage shed work and will post on Craig's list tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how well these things sell.

63bkpkr

 

[JACKOJohn Stanwix]

Looks like the other links to some of my dredge gold have expired, so, hope this works as this is nice coarse gold.

All the best,

Lanny

VERY NICE..Wow

 

[Lanny in AB]

Well--there's been a bit of traffic on here while I've been gone. Give me a whack of days to catch up, and I'll try to get you up to speed on a few things and hopefully post a picture or two as well.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

I've been gone again (just got back, then left again--taking advantage of the gorgeous weather we're having), but now I'm around for a bit. Found some more gold: detected some more nuggets; panned some nuggets and flake gold; dredged some chunky, sassy gold; met a couple of legends in this region of the prospecting world; saw a bear, a moose, and a huge bull elk, all this weekend; came across a mystery wreck deep in the mountains; got to see stars I've never seen before because the night sky was perfectly clear and unpolluted by light or any man-made substance; had to throw rocks at a bear and shout and yell to keep him from coming in to camp; found an outcropping with beautiful peacock pyrite; detected a small-caliber pistol ball from the mid-1800's; saw mountain valleys and peaks I've never seen before; breathed untold gallons of pure, undefiled mountain air--it was quite the time.

More later, when I get sufficient time. Thanks to all that have dropped in and updated their posts. T-Net most certainly is an excellent site.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Hefty1]

Hey Lanny
Sounds like you have been busy, glad to hear from ya and all is good.
Cant wait to hear your adventurous tales.

Hefty

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hefty--glad to see you again. Did you ever get into a nice little honey-hole in the bedrock? I'd love to hear some more of your gold-chasin' tales as well.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

I was out detecting last weekend with my Minelab 5000. The air was wonderfully scented with the essence of pine, cedar, and fir. The sun was bright and hot, and there was no wind. It was a glorious day to be outdoors in the Rocky Mountains. Gratefully, most of the mosquitoes had died off from the previous month, and there was no sign of the bear that had paraded through camp earlier in the week.

My machine was set to fine gold, and I was detecting a patch of bedrock that lots of guys have heavily hammered over the years.

I was using my little elliptical Joey coil. Believe me, that is one sensitive little coil! I scanned some bedrock that rose from the ground at about a forty-five degree angle close to a huge pile of hand-stacked boulders. But, the bedrock just wasn’t generating any tone. Almost ready to move on, I crested the top of the outcrop, and there was a very subtle change in the threshold. Due to that faint warning, I slowed down and passed the coil over the uppermost edge again. The signal persisted--there was clearly something in the bedrock changing the 5000’s threshold.

Now, if you’ve detected in the gold fields before, you’re aware that there are quite a few things that can change your threshold. There’s ground mineralization, tree roots, forest fire charcoal, and hot rocks. In addition, a ubiquitous variety of conductive metal fragments always litter the bedrock in the gold fields. Moreover, for whatever reason, the crest of an outcropping of bedrock, as you pass the coil over the crest and then head down-slope, or as you proceed from the down-slope direction and then crest back up over the top, there will often be a very brief signal change as you make your way through that “cresting curve”.

However, this particular signal I was investigating sounded very small at its center. So, it was much less likely to be a cresting tone. Consequently, I grabbed my pick and removed some dirt that was sitting in a pocket just below the top. I could now scrub the mother rock while slowly working my way to the crest.

The signal was slightly stronger now, but not very pronounced. As well, because it was a very hot day, I was using my amplified external speaker—I had it attached to the shoulder strap of my battery harness, right below my left ear, making it much easier to hear quiet tones.

I carefully chipped off some smaller pieces of bedrock from the crest and scanned it again. The signal had almost disappeared. This led me to believe that whatever it was had been moved by my actions, and as I scanned the bedrock while heading down-slope to the area I’d cleaned the dirt from, the signal’s source had indeed dropped lower.

Well, I’ve chased signals in sheets of bedrock before, and oftentimes, if it’s a nugget, it drops as swiftly as the blade on a newly greased guillotine! So, I stuck the pick into the top of the bedrock and gently pried the sheets apart. I scanned for the signal again, but it was gone. I couldn’t find it anywhere. As a result, I realized that whatever it was, it had indeed dropped.

Because of this, I decided to employ a strategy that I’ve used before with difficult targets in bedrock. I tore the whole piece apart until I hit a perpendicular ledge at the base of the slabs. These ledges stop anything that has worked its way down. On that narrow shelf, there was a small pile of sandy clay, little river stones and some heavily oxidized pyrite. This was a good sign. No one had cleaned this bedrock—ever.

I took a stainless steel tablespoon that I keep in my pack for sniping, and in conjunction with a couple of thin, flat instruments I use for scraping, I collected every bit of material, and then placed it in a plastic gold pan. I took the gold pan to a little seep hidden nearby in a mossy gulch adjacent to an old Chinese wall. Luckily there was enough water there to pan, for the river was a good two blocks distant.

Due to the fact that there was only a small amount of material in the pan, I quickly had the dirt cut down to concentrates. As I fanned the material, I noticed red, oxidized bits of pyrite, black sand, bits of ironstone, and tiny river stones. As I fanned the cons some more, a sassy little nugget peeked out from under the super-heavies! It was no monster, just a sub-gram nugget, but it was evidently what had given that softest little tone. Just to be sure, I went back and scanned the bedrock again, but this time it was perfectly quiet.

So, if you’re ever unsure about a faint target, try this method the next time you’re out. If you’re near water, it works great. If not, put the material in a zip-lock bag so that you can pan it out later.

All the best,

Lanny