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]

hi lanny. yes my name is dave. I use my wife's user name on the computer so if nsa comes looking for leenie it aint me. but I tell her I will wait for her till she gets out of jail. thank you for your reply. I am a metal detector guy and have small produce business in the summer. so my travel'n days are limited. I watch and read anything about the pacific northwest. I enjoy first hand stories and your's are excellent I love the pictures that you post. I doubt I ever get to chase the raw gold but I still have a chance at coins and rings. there are takers and givers in this world. I would much rather spend my time on earth with the givers. you are a very fine example of a giver. god bless you dave aka leenie

Thanks for your compliments Dave, as a writer of gold tales and a collector of pictures while I'm out chasing the gold, I appreciate the feedback.

I still hunt for coins with my little 705, and I'll probably always coin shoot as well. I especially like it when I find old coppers or old silver. Moreover, shooting for coins is a great way to learn what a detector is capable of. A lot of that knowledge of how to locate and then pinpoint and recover targets (coins or other highly conductive target, and even trash) will transfer to nugget hunting skills as well. For example, listening for faint signals and disturbances in the threshold will directly transfer, as will the skill of going slow when you're in an area where multiple targets start to show up (like when gold hunting and you discover a nugget patch). It would be overly simplistic to say that all of the skill are the same, as they're not, but the fundamentals will transfer just fine.

Also, by staying in practice while detecting for coins when I'm at home, it lets me take some time to teach the nephews how to metal detect. So far, two of my nephews have gone chasing the gold with me. So, who knows? Maybe some of the others will catch the fever too.

All the best to you Dave, and if you ever get the chance to shoot nuggets, I hope you're successful,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/g...-north-american-placer-freakin-fantastic.html

 

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[63bkpkr]

Well Gents,
Some mighty wonderful pictures and inputs that you've put down here and those mountain pictures make me yearn for "my canyon"! But my time in Texas will be spent with little prospecting to be had especially for the first year here. Thank you for your pictures and stories...............63bkpkr

 

[Lanny in AB]

Well Gents,
Some mighty wonderful pictures and inputs that you've put down here and those mountain pictures make me yearn for "my canyon"! But my time in Texas will be spent with little prospecting to be had especially for the first year here. Thank you for your pictures and stories...............63bkpkr

Herb,

It's so great to hear that you made it safely to Texas. Indeed, I would imagine they don't have anything like your Cali canyon in Texas for sure.

Stay in touch and we'll try to keep posting pictures and stories so you can get your "fix" whenever you need one.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

Herb
Maybe you ought to come and visit us in AZ. There's a guy coming up to play in greaterville area in March. Don't know if you drove there, but you went through some good areas if you did. I'm planning on going down there this coming weekend. My buddy just filed his claim so I'm going to help prospect some and also help clean the bedrock out of the yellow stuff. Plus I'm hoping to possibly claim up there as well. Gold willing. Here's a pic of the mountain before we went into the hills.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Herb
Maybe you ought to come and visit us in AZ. There's a guy coming up to play in greaterville area in March. Don't know if you drove there, but you went through some good areas if you did. I'm planning on going down there this coming weekend. My buddy just filed his claim so I'm going to help prospect some and also help clean the bedrock out of the yellow stuff. Plus I'm hoping to possibly claim up there as well. Gold willing. Here's a pic of the mountain before we went into the hills.

I sure hope you're able to clear out all of that pesky yellow gold from that bedrock. That would be doing Nature a nice favor.

Good luck, all the best, and thanks for posting the picture,

Lanny

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

I sure hope you're able to clear out all of that pesky yellow gold from that bedrock. That would be doing Nature a nice favor. Good luck, all the best, and thanks for posting the picture, Lanny

Thanks Lanny. I'm great flu to have the opportunity to work other areas and if it can help a fellow prospector/miner out. Even better.

 

[farnorcal]

highbank the top, dredge the bottom!!!

this is where i find most of my gold!!! I dig down to the bed rock between the old timers dredge piles, most of the time its decomposed bed rock!!! fill up my buckets and run the material through my high banker. then i take my 2 inch hydroforce nozzle and finish cleaning the hole out. its a lot of work but it pays off well. ( highbank the top layer then dryland dredge the bed rock) the old timers missed a lot of gold. there large dredge buckets bounced over the top of the bedrock missing all that lodged gold!!!

 

[63bkpkr]

Howdy Garret,
We came out of CA by way of Barstow and spent the first night in Kingman. The next day we followed hwy 40 through Flagstaff and cut across AZ to enter New Mexico by way of Houck AZ and we stayed on 40 till we left NM and dropped down the pan handle of Texas. So we were way high of where you are/were/will be.

Thank you for the invite however my nose will be to the grindstone for many months of intense work but maybe next year. I need to really apply myself if this position is going to pan out as "a Golden Opportunity" the way I feel it could. I will be on the sidelines watching everyone else living their adventures, at least for awhile.

Good success to you and all....................63bkpkr/Herb

 

[Lanny in AB]

this is where i find most of my gold!!! I dig down to the bed rock between the old timers dredge piles, most of the time its decomposed bed rock!!! fill up my buckets and run the material through my high banker. then i take my 2 inch hydroforce nozzle and finish cleaning the hole out. its a lot of work but it pays off well. ( highbank the top layer then dryland dredge the bed rock) the old timers missed a lot of gold. there large dredge buckets bounced over the top of the bedrock missing all that lodged gold!!!

That is a solid gold tip, and it explains a lot. For those that know a solid tip when it pops up, this one is great!

Many thanks for dropping in, and thanks for sharing that powerful tip on bedrock and gold.

I too have seen bedrock that was iron hard that gave excavators and dozers the devil, but my oh my the beautiful gold that was left behind even in these modern times. . . .

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

This past summer my wife and I were out looking for nuggets that needed adopting.

We were working along the side of a steep bedrock wall that then bottomed out on perpendicular bedrock in the river proper. I took a gold-sucker (gold suction gun) and started working the bedrock just below the surface of the water, but I worked it above where it T'd into the bedrock bottom proper. As I was forcing the water back out of the gun in a crevice, I noticed clay colored water streaming out of several other places below where I was working.

That's an indication that the crevice continued down a lot more than I'd first thought it did. So I got out a bar and started scraping the crevice and all kinds of loose material came out of the crack. I kept working it down until I'd dropped about several inches into the crevice. I could no longer get any material out with the bar (all of the material went into a pan). I panned it out and there were nice flakes of gold in the pan.



I used the gun again and I could still see clay in solution streaming out below the crevice. I got the narrowest scraping tool I had and worked the crevice again, putting the takings in the pan. This time there were only a couple of pieces of gold, but they were chunky, not flat.

I really went to work with the gun then and worked the crevice as hard as I could and the tip sunk a bit more.

When the gun was full and would take no more material, I popped the end off and dumped the contents in my pan. When I'd panned the lighter material off, there was only a small amount of crumbled black slate left in the pan. As I worked it down and swirled off the lighter material, cubes of oxidized pyrite started to appear; moreover, chunks of magnetite were also in the mix. (These are all good signs in the area I'm currently working, signs that I've pulled out the
super-heavies from the crevice.) I shook the material down again, panned off the lighter stuff that rose, then tailed the concentrates once again.

Right quick, a sassy nugget poked its nose up! It was a little beauty, just under a gram, but it had been in that crevice a long, long time. One end was heavily rust stained from being wedged against that pyrite for who knows how long.

So, if you're ever shooting water into a crevice under the water, and you see clay streaming out of other cracks below (or to the sides, or above) the crevice you're working, keep at it until you've reached the bottom! Furthermore, if you're allowed to take the bedrock apart, keep working it apart until you find the source of the cracks the clay is streaming from. At some time that crack may have been open and it may have let in a little bonanza.

I've taken nuggets out of cracks that were way smaller than the width of the gold in them. So, that pops the question, how did they get in there?

Well, there's theories on that, and one of the theories is that when big boulders were pounding down the stream bed, the raw power opened the cracks wide enough to let the gold drop, then as the boulders moved on, the crack snapped shut again. Whatever the reason is for gold bigger than the openings of cracks being where it is, it's irrelevant.

Just be sure to check out those cracks where the clay-colored water is streaming from.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Changing colors, etc., show the way to gold.

For anyone that's beginning, or for those of you that are going to work a new area, research your area's gold history to find which colors, heavy rocks, etc. were associated with the gold. In many old reports or write-ups I've seen, there will be talk of colors and indicator rocks that ran with the gold. This is a secret to finding the gold that far too many gold chasers overlook or completely ignore. Those Old-timers didn't have the technology we do, but they had eyes, and they could use their sense of touch to heft little stones to see if they were far heavier than normal rocks. (Sometimes a sense of smell comes in handy too.)

Always pay attention to what those low-tech Old-timers said to watch, heft or sometimes even smell for as good signs when chasing the gold.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[EagleDown]

Changing colors, etc., show the way to gold.

For anyone that's beginning, or for those of you that are going to work a new area, research your area's gold history to find which colors, heavy rocks, etc. were associated with the gold. In many old reports or write-ups I've seen, there will be talk of colors and indicator rocks that ran with the gold. This is a secret to finding the gold that far too many gold chasers overlook or completely ignore. Those Old-timers didn't have the technology we do, but they had eyes, and they could use their sense of touch to heft little stones to see if they were far heavier than normal rocks. (Sometimes a sense of smell comes in handy too.)

Always pay attention to what those low-tech Old-timers said to watch, heft or sometimes even smell for as good signs when chasing the gold.

All the best,

Lanny

Excellent advice Lanny, for the experienced "sniper" as well as the novice. I have cleaned many crevasses such as you have described in the post before this one. And, one of the signs that I keep my eyes open for is what is generically known as "greenstone". Since greenstone generally occurrs in conjunction with a "contact zone", (that is to say; two geological formations that contact each other), One side of the contact might be slate, while the other side might be greenstone. And fairly often, the area between the opposing formations will be gold bearing quartz. So, if and when this 'contact zone' gets taken out by erosion or earthquakes for examples, then gets deposited in gulches and rivers, some of the gold can still be attached to, or in the quartz. But, as both quartz and greenstone are fairly dense and brittle materials, when struck by a rock or boulder, both may shatter into pieces small enough to escape the full force of the energy that is causing their movement. When that happens, the smaller pieces often stay right where it happened, along with whatever gold it might have been carrying. So, it has been my experience while dredging, if I hit an area where there's an accumulation of broken up greenstone, I will check it out carefully, keeping my eyes open for broken up quartz. I have found quite a bit of gold bearing quartz over the years, just by keeping my eyes open for greenstone, in and out of the water.

Also, I have dredged many crevasses, large and small and generally, I've found that there are usually 3 types of materials you will find in them; Black manganese (a very soft mineral), Red clay, (usually a product of erosion) and "Blue clay" (and I've never been sure of where it comes from), But, the 'old timers' (and myself) called it "Robber Clay", as it has a propensity for sticking to gold before rolling out of the sluicebox, taking the gold with it. Years ago, I quit trying to find gold in Blue clay. Sometimes, there will be Red clay on top of the Blue clay that is holding gold, but I found that once I got through the Red clay, that was the end of the gold. Even though there might be 2 inches of Blue clay before the bottom of the crevass, there was never any gold in, or under the Blue clay. Pretty strange I think. (lol) Also, Red clay can also become "Robber Clay", when it is ground up so fine that its consistancy is pretty much the same as Blue clay.

I hope I haven't confused anyone with my rambling.

 

[EagleDown]

This morning, I went into the petition link to see how well it was progressing. My friends, I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed. Though we have garnered over 100 signatures, by now, I feel we should have well over 1,000 from the state of CA alone.

I know there are many that feel it won't do any good, but I can absolutely guarantee that if we don't at least try, hey, it really WON'T do any good. Let's face it; the state and the environmentalists have already taken our rights to dredge for gold, so what makes anyone think that the next phase of their agenda is NOT to put an end to metal detecting on "public lands"?? In other words, one prohibition will never be enough as far as they are concerned. If we don't win back our dredging rights, it will only encourage and make them feel strong enough to strike out at any activities that they don't agree with. So, what's next? Perhaps no tomato plants in your back-yard? Or how about when you take your little ones to a public park and you see signs saying; No walking or playing on grass. Children MUST be kept on a leash at all times!! Oh, hokay, perhaps I'm going a little too far with my thoughts. (But then again, maybe not). Basically, what I'm trying to put across here is; It doesn't matter whether you're a dredger, a metal detectorist, or just like to go out into the land and take photographs of birds and flowers, you are ALL IN DANGER OF LOSING THOSE RIGHTS!! So, it's up to you, you can sit on your duff and wait for someone else to try to protect your rights, or, you take a few minutes to painlessly fill out this petition and do a small part to have your voice be heard. What ever your reason is, you don't have to say. The reasons on the site are optional. You can still sign the petition and keep your thoughts to yourself. (Unlike me). (lol)

http://www.change.org/petitions/cali...share_petition

While I was in the petition link, I found the following post. The person who posted this expresses himself quite well. Hopefully he'll forgive me for passing it on to you.

The original ban (SB670 ) was not a ban, but ONLY a two year moratorium. An EIR was done which was illegal as dredging was and is an ongoing project before 1970 and is exempt from review under CEQA. The EIR then found dredging was NOT deleterious to fish. But the environmental groups did not like the outcome of the EIR and went back to the legislature for a continued ban. The Democratic majority voted against us miners 100% within party lines. NOT ONE OF YOU had the guts or Integrity to seek the truth and look at the science. Democrats voted to kill an Industry, kill jobs, put miners on welfare, destroy business and hurt rural economies. Dredging is the safest and most environmentally friendly way to mine. In over 50 years the California Department of Fish and Game (wildlife ) permitted and regulated dredging. In over 50 years there was NO documented harm. NOW the irresponsible State government in California just gave the Sierra fund a 5 MILLION DOLLAR GRANT of OUR TAX DOLLARS to partner with NID and dredge lake Combie to move sediment and recover MERCURY (and any gold encountered). That's right, TAX PAYER MONEY to dredge while we are banned from dredging and REMOVING mercury from the rivers for FREE. Need I add that gold dredges remove as much as 98 % of the mercury recovered. ( From a State water resources control board study) AND the unit being used at lake combie is estimated to remove only about 90 % of the mercury encounterd. The Democrats in Sacramento make me sick. You people were elected to do a job. It's time you look at the science and facts, time to understand there is no harm nor has there been for over 50 years. It's time you do your job. Election time is coming.​

 

[Maxlfty]

I have encountered your rubber clay. And have not found any color in it either. In fact once I reach the robber clay I stop digging. Stuff is horrible, doesn't classify without tons of extra shaky shaky. Then it just rolls in clods down the sluice box.
Is this false bed rock? Hi haven't found it anywhere else but in the bottom of cracks.

 

[adamallen2013]

anyone know of any gold or gold stories in central ny. i hear they are finding placier gold out by the fingerlakes region but i wonder if there is gold in oneida rome area because glaciers covered this area also and where would i look??

 

[Cariboo5]

Thought I would share this example of bedrock. The lighter layer just down on the bench they are working on is the pay layer. Notice in the fore ground the bed rock angling down from the left to right, the top six inches on this is the pay zone...

 

[Lanny in AB]

Thought I would share this example of bedrock. The lighter layer just down on the bench they are working on is the pay layer. Notice in the fore ground the bed rock angling down from the left to right, the top six inches on this is the pay zone...

View attachment 947216

Nice shot of a large placer operation. Is it your outfit doing the work?

Thanks for the explanation on the bedrock--nicely done.

Photos like this make me want to get out and chase the gold, but the weather is in no way cooperating right now.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Cariboo5]

No this is not my outfit and yes it is a large operation and getting larger. I'm just lucky enough to know some of the right people. Getting to see first hand what material the gold is associated with here has greatly increased not only my knowledge but the fun factor when I'm out on my claims...

Lanny you started a great post and if this example will help others it's just a win...win...

 

[Lanny in AB]

No this is not my outfit and yes it is a large operation and getting larger. I'm just lucky enough to know some of the right people. Getting to see first hand what material the gold is associated with here has greatly increased not only my knowledge but the fun factor when I'm out on my claims...

Lanny you stared a great post and if this example will help others it's just a win...win...

It's great to meet a fellow prospector that's chasing the gold in beautiful British Columbia.

Thanks for your kind comments, and thanks for dropping in.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

What to do when deciding to check bedrock for gold.

I’ve written about this topic before, more than once, but I keep getting asked about it, so I’ll try to review a few basic principles.

If you want to check bedrock for gold, it has to be the right kind of bedrock. There are exceptions as I’ve discovered while using a metal detector, but we’ll stick with the general guidelines, unless I decide to tackle unusual bedrock in a follow-up post.

What do I mean by the right kind of bedrock? Well, if you look at the concrete on your driveway, or the concrete of your basement floor, you’ll see that it’s generally nice and smooth. There’s really not much of a chance that if a big gush of water carrying flakes or nuggets of gold flushed over your driveway or basement floor that the gold would have any place to get trapped.

That’s the key to gold and bedrock: the bedrock has to have some traps in it to catch the gold. For instance, if the concrete in your driveway had a large crack in it (let’s say at least an inch wide) that spanned the width of your driveway, and a big wash of water carrying gold was flushed across it, the gold would drop into the crack. As long as the water was flowing with sufficient force to propel the gold, it would only stop where it had a chance to drop, so it would likely be a waste of time to check the smooth concrete for gold. The time would be best spent investigating the contents of the crack.

When it comes to natural bedrock, the same thinking applies. If the bedrock is smooth, there’s not much chance of finding gold (there are exceptions to this, but they have to do with unique situations and geological processes). However, if the bedrock is heavily fractured, those fractures will work as natural gold traps. If the fractures run across the stream (perpendicular to the bank), they will work the best as gold grabbers. If the cracks and crevices run parallel to the bank, they will catch some gold, but they will not be anything near as efficient at stopping the gold as the ones that run across the stream. Having said that, please don’t think that parallel crevices aren’t worth investigating, because they are. I’ve got some nice nuggets out of them before, but the odds are against the parallel crevices, and they are dramatically for the perpendicular cracks and crevices. Moreover, if you go to all the trouble of clearing overburden all the way down to bedrock, investigate every crack and crevice!

In addition, if you are lucky enough to be working on dry bedrock that you’ve cleared, use a large sledgehammer to hit the bedrock so you can hopefully find a hidden crevice. You’ll know the crevices are there because as the hammer strikes the rock, little puffs of powdered clay (looks kind of like fine smoke) will float up into the air from hidden crevices (the principle works under the water as well). I’ve been given this tip by several Sourdoughs over the years, and it really works as a way to help identify where a crack is in the bedrock. Will every crevice or crack located this way have gold? Absolutely not, but it’s a great way to give you a new spot to check that most other people have never tried.

I wrote the following notes up in another post as well, but I’ll re-post it here: If you can imagine huge boulders (car-size to house-size) pounding down a streambed, with gold flowing along with them, when a big boulder bangs on the bedrock, it could very easily cause a fracture in the bedrock to open up for a moment. The gold could then drop, and as the boulder continues its journey and moves off the crack, the lessened weight and pressure on the opening could very possibly allow it to “snap” shut. This is one way of explaining how I’ve found nuggets, chunks of magnetite, and other stones in cracks that were much, much larger than the opening. There are probably other explanations as well, but regardless, somehow nuggets that are far larger than the crack’s opening get themselves trapped in the crevices!

All the best,

Lanny