Gold hunting prospecting tips.

[Lanny in AB]

Tips and little stories for anyone that wants to learn a bit more about chasing the gold. Whether you're a rookie or a Sourdough (a Pro), you might find something to read. My main thread, http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html on the metal detecting for gold page has been up for many years, and it has some tips too along with many, many stories of me out chasing the gold, but it takes a long time to wade through all of the almost 80 pages now.

So, I thought I'd start a thread over here dedicated to more of the tips and techniques on how to find gold, and I may transfer some tips from my older thread over to here as well.

Essential gold fact.
(This fact is one that's often ignored, if not undervalued or forgotten in the rush to find the gold.)

Gold fact: Gold is heavy.

Rookie prospector fact: Most rookies forget this.

Prospecting reality: many "seasoned" prospectors forget this.

Prospecting mantra: never forget that gold is heavy.


(Yes, lead is heavy too, but gold is nearly twice as heavy as lead (19320 kg/cu.m VS 11340 kg/cu.m).



For example, if you want to look for gold in a stream, don't start digging in a sandbar. Don't start digging in clay or mud. While it's true that gold will stick to clay, usually if you dig a bunch of clay, you'll get a lot of clay in your pan. . . .

Look at the stream and see where the bigger stuff is collecting.



If you're in an area where there's flour gold (glaciated gold that's been hammered and ground to a powder consistency), look for gravel bars where the rocks are fist-sized and larger. Why? Specific gravity rules specify that if the stream was traveling with enough velocity to carry rocks fist-sized and larger, flour gold was also traveling with them (if there's gold in the stream). Remember? Gold is heavy, so it takes force from water velocity to move it during a flood or during high water. (This also applies to bench deposits and old channels.)

If you're in an area where there's flake and picker gold (or maybe even nuggets), look for a place in the stream where rocks the size of couch cushions or big round watermelons or trashcans were moving during high water. Then, get a vantage point where you can look downstream to see if there's any pattern to their disposition. (I'm referring where the stream is fairly shallow to bedrock or hardpan as the bigger rocks won't disappear as they sink themselves with the stratifying action of the stream. Big, wide, slow moving streams that are deep to bedrock sometimes won't follow the same rules.) Look downstream and if you can see the big rocks lined out (running in a consecutive line downstream from each other) in a linear pattern, each following the others downstream, I'd get in those rocks and start digging. Why? Gold is heavy. Just think about the energy involved in the stream velocity that moved those rocks: pickers and flakes and maybe nuggets were running with that big stuff. Dig, dig, dig. Test, test, test.



Flashback time: When I was working with a large placer operation and they'd hit large boulders (the size of your couch at least, not the cushions), and we were working ground where nuggets were common, everyone would get excited about the possibilities. (I say possibilities because sometimes Mother Nature plays tricks and only drops the big boulders because she shifted the gold run off somewhere else.) So, when those big boulders were moved out of the way, everyone would get down in the pit after the machines were shut down for the day to start panning. (I'd often be panning the material as we went down as well to keep the feedback going to the excavator operator to let him know what size of gold, or how much gold was showing in the pan at the various levels, or in the varying layers of materials as they changed from level to level.)

On one unforgettable day, the gold run was so heavy after the big rocks were moved that we walked along the face of the wall where it met the bedrock (from about two feet above and down to the bedrock that is), and we were able to see the nuggets packed in the gravel and then flick them out of the wall into a pan!

Now I know that some of you are going to think that I was smoking cheap crack, and that there's no way anything like that could ever be possible, but I was there and it happened anyway. Moreover, once you've seen pay with that much gold in it, and once you've experienced a sight like that, you can never forget it either. There was so much gold in the pay layer that because the boss was gone to town for supplies, the sluice crew messed up and fed the sluice at the wrong rate (they fed it as if they were running normal material). The boss arrived back in camp just as the run ended and the crew was just shutting down the wash-plant. To his horror when the water stopped flowing, there were nuggets all the way from the header boxes right to the end of the last riffle in both sluices, and this was a big wash-plant!

So, as you undoubtedly remember (by now in this post) that gold is heavy, what do you think was happening while the nuggets were being deposited all the way to the last riffle in the sluices?

That's right, the nuggets were going over the end of the sluice and heading down into the settling ponds too. What a fiasco! I'll not bore you with the colorful adjectives the boss launched at the sluice crew.



But, what an unimaginable sight regardless. Nuggets from the header boxes all the way to the last riffle!! I had my video camera with me and wanted so badly to shoot video of the sluices; moreover, I had my regular camera with me and wanted to shoot some stills as well, but the investor wouldn't let me do it. He was quite an uptight fellow, to say the least.

Some other miners were working their way down the mountain along our road on their way to cross the river with their equipment, so they could get started on running dirt at their claim. They stopped by to see how things were going. Their jaws hit the ground, hard. They'd never seen the like, and I certainly never have since. Pounds and pounds of beautiful nuggets, with pounds and pounds of galena in all different sizes left to be separated from the gold. (What a pain that was as you can't remove galena with magnets, so it's hard to speed up the cleanup process.)



So, when you're looking for gold, think heavy. Try to think heavy thoughts because gold certainly thinks that way. Moreover, if you're working a stream where it's shallow to bedrock, always, always check the bedrock very carefully. Why? As gold is heavy, and as the stream materials are constantly agitated by the water, the gold will continue to drop through the liquified, moving materials of the stream to eventually come to rest. Why does it stop? It hits something that won't move or give way, and in the case of bedrock, it meets all of the immovable object criteria.

While dredging, I've had to pry enough nuggets from cracks and crevices to know how well fractured or rough bedrock works when it comes to stopping gold.



(Note: I shot this picture with an underwater camera (the glacial melt water is crystal clear and bone-chilling cold). It's a nugget that's sitting on the bedrock, and the water is moving along at a really good clip. I'd just finished moving and then carefully sucking all of the surrounding material away from the nugget on the bedrock with the dredge nozzle kept far enough away to only move the lighter material. The natural velocity of the water was not a factor when it came to the specific gravity of that chunk of gold: that nugget would not move after it was uncovered! It sat right there. If you look around, you'll see other gold resting in the stream run as well.)

Fun fact: while dredging, I've disturbed gold on the bedrock, but because gold is so heavy, the velocity of the stream drags (and I do mean drags) it along the bedrock until it reaches a crevice, and the gold disappears right quick I can tell you! If it's a good sized nugget, once you uncover it, that sassy chunk of gold will sit there in the water right tight on the bedrock waiting for you to make a move. That's how well gold can resist the velocity of the water. That's why some writers say that gold is "lazy". It's so sluggish because due to its specific gravity that it takes the shortest route between two points. So, if you're in an area with coarse gold, always remember this weighty fact as you're plotting where to test your stream materials. In your head, draw some imaginary lines (straight lines) from point A to point B.





Go to bed tonight reviewing the fact that gold is heavy: almost twenty times as heavy as the water that's transporting it, and almost ten times heavier than the other materials the stream's water is moving along with the gold. Knowing this may just have you rethinking things the next time you're out working a stream where it's shallow to bedrock (or other stream deposits as well).

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

By the way, it's far too cold here right now to chase the gold. So, since I'm snowbound, I'll kick out a few posts from time to time, and at other times I may get a chance to post a few more as well.

 

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[Lanny in AB]

Bedrock Tips:

How many of you have had the chance to work virgin bedrock?

By virgin, I mean that the bedrock has been exposed by modern mining. In other words, the bedrock has not seen the light of day since the gold was originally deposited on it or in it eons ago. Moreover, a chance like this is a rather rare opportunity because it requires prior connections with the miners in order to have access to this bedrock. After all, it's very expensive to remove the stubborn overburden to expose the mother rock. Furthermore, some miners are very sensitive about allowing anyone access to their virgin bedrock for any reason at all, if ever. It's a bit of a loaded request, even if you already have a personal relationship with the miners.

So, if there's no prior relationship, the chances are slim to none for access, and even if you do have a relationship, the answer could still be no. You have to be ready for any eventuality.

However, if and when you do get the opportunity to work such bedrock, there's a few things that will help your chances in finding any residual gold left behind from the mining activity.

First and foremost, ask questions.

Find out where the heaviest run of gold was in the pit. For example, find out it the deposit was heavier in a dip in the bedrock, on the start of a rise, on a shelf, at the bottom of a long drop, etc., and find out if there were certain colors in the dirt that indicated better pay: oranges, reds, grays, purples, blacks, etc.

With the answers to a few questions like these, you can improve your odds of checking the most-likely places in a large excavation. For instance, you'll find areas that were barren by asking like questions (areas of loose wash, etc.), and you'll locate areas that were hot spots by doing the same.

When it comes to detecting, you'll need to pay careful attention to the answers to your questions plus you'll need to pay close attention to what the detector is telling you about the temperature of the rock you're hunting. For example, if race into the pit and start swinging like a madman to cover as much ground as possible in the shortest time, you'll be doing a disservice to yourself. Why? Virgin bedrock demands respect, and it demands a slow approach while listening to the ground minerals and scrubbing the surface to obtain every cm of advantage while listening carefully to the tiniest alterations in the threshold. As well, by paying close attention to the mineralization, you will learn which coils will be most beneficial, including which size of coil to utilize. (A variety of sizes may be necessary to do a proper job, and in extreme ground, the wrong coil type will be an extreme waste of time.)

As to the bedrock itself, you may wish to employ a tiny detector like the Falcon to find streaks and runs of fine gold that will elude your bigger detector's coils. It's surprising how much fine gold can be left on bedrock or caught in cracks. I had my eyes opened wide several summers ago to just how much gold gets left behind and just how much fun it is to use a tiny detector to chase pockets of fine gold!

As for non-electronic sniping, it's very important to study the rock carefully. Often when working virgin bedrock, clay is a common occurrence. And, that clay is a great hider and or robber of gold. Moreover, look at what's riding within the clay. Are there little stones of various sorts? Is it just slick clay (no inclusions)?As well, be meticulous about examining the surface of the bedrock. Sometimes what looks like perfectly level bedrock with a solid surface may have cracks and crevices perfectly camouflaged by the minerals that are running within the clay, minerals that match perfectly in color the host bedrock. Use a variety of tools to scrape and scratch at the surface. I've been stunned while sniping non-electronically more than once by uncovering small cracks and crevices in this manner, ones that held a surprising amount of good gold.

As well, if the bedrock is dry, get a good sledge hammer and hit the bedrock to see if any puffs of dust arise like little fountains of fine particles. This signals a crack or crevice. One of the wonders of bedrock is that a crack or crevice may be snapped shut tightly, but widen below its mouth significantly. I remember the first time I found one of these: it had a pocket of small nuggets in it, and the nuggets were far too big to have found their way into the crevice opening. There are lots of theories as to how this happens, but the important thing to remember is that it does happen. I've also found larger nuggets this way as well when sniping without electronic backup.

What tools help with this process? For inexpensive alternatives, a blade screwdriver bent at a 90 degree angle; a wire brush; a stiff bristle brush; an awl; a pocket knife; a small metal gardening shovel; a variety of household spoons (teaspoon size to tablespoon--be sure to have sturdy ones that won't bend easily); a small sledge and a couple of cold chisels for widening cracks and crevices; if water is present, a suction gun of some kind; etc.

With virgin bedrock, you will have the chance of a lifetime to find gold in a place that no one else has ever looked, so take the time to do a thorough job, and the reward can be great. On a connected note, I've come behind others that have worked such places in a hurry and found some beautiful nuggets (larger than anything they found) because they tore across the bedrock in a mad rush to cover the entire area. The sad truth is that if they'd have slowed down and paid that virgin bedrock the respect it deserved, they would have found the bigger gold instead of me.

All the best,

Lanny

 

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[Lanny in AB]

I ran into a guy from the Yukon two years ago that was running a big placer operation up there. He told me that they always pushed off the piles of hand stacked rocks and checked out the bedrock underneath. Not only were there nuggets the oldtimers had missed, there were sometimes virgin strips of ground that he said were incredibly rich, as in the rush to mine the bedrock, the oldtimers had stacked their rocks on pieces of ground and then got too busy, or who knows why, and never got back to the virgin dirt they'd buried in the first place.

I know of a nugget shooter that found an incredibly rich patch under such a pile of rocks. He took out hundreds of small nuggets, and some nice fat ones too, and the strip was only about three feet at its widest point!

This makes me think of tales Oldtimers up north told me about how mining companies were in a hurry to get to the bedrock, and to quickly get the gold--kind of like skimming thick cream off of milk, and that some of those companies were very sloppy in their recovery. As well, there were always other rushes going on that lured them away to "better" diggin's.

There are countless piles of hand-stacked rocks where I'm working, and I'm going to closely investigate some of them for sure this summer. In fact, for years nugget shooter have been winching the boulders off the bedrock, and they've recovered a lot of nice nuggets. We have a cat too, so maybe it would be worth it to haul it to the mine site if we find some good bedrock.

There's one thing I'd like to highlight here: the oldtimers DEFINITELY did not get all the gold. I've seen too many rookie prospectors give up in proven gold country when they see all the stacks of rocks, and all the old workings because they figure the oldtimers were perfect in their recovery techniques--they weren't! Plus, some of them were lazy, some were disillusioned, some were just sloppy, some were homesick, some were physically sick, some were starving, some were panicked by possible attacks, none of them had the technology we have today. Because of those and other circumstances, I think that paints a bit of the picture as to why they absolutely did not get it all.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Invisible Gold in Plain Sight

I know I've commented in the past on the tenacity of stubborn gold: gold that is wedged far down in crevices; gold that is concreted in a matrix that perfectly matches the color of the mother rock--the matrix perfectly cemented and blended so as to negate the possibility of differentiating the former cracks from the nurturing bedrock; also, gold that is carefully cached in Mother Nature's natural concrete, a brawny blend of smaller rocks and sand that looks much like the concrete of boring, common sidewalks.

However, not long ago, I had the opportunity to chase nuggets with my detector in a most challenging formation. I had been granted the privilege of detecting the down-slope of what can best be described as the exit ramp for an excavator: the ramp emerging from a steep, gorge-like placer pit. To detect in the pit itself would have been madness, as the face was an active weeping wall of numerous springs, strangled fountains endlessly forcing a living ooze of cobbles, clay, and boulders into the watery pit below. To say there was a water problem at this excavation would be gross understatement. It most likely was a hindrance to the old-timers down as well.

But, as a matter of record, the entire placer deposit comprised the remains of at least seven ancient stream-beds, ones that crisscrossed at a hectic and confused conjunction, one formed where the lower ends of two stalwart canyons met. Atop those black canyons, their mute rims existed as stubborn proof to their resistance of dim ice ages long past; they remained as stout geological survivors of that ever-restless glacial grinding.

Because of these rims, ancient glacial-melt rivers were ultimately funneled through their timeless gates, and the gold they carried was given temporary sanctuary in deep beds of rock and bolder clay. Long before we ever arrived, the Argonauts of the 1800's had sunk many shafts down to various layers and levels of pay, drifting along until the gold ran out, or before it was mysteriously stripped away by some intersecting channel; or, until water, financial downturn, backbreaking labor, or unknown disaster had closed the workings for good.

Moreover, the primary reason for the aforementioned pit's location was due to the discovery of a roomed-out section of drift-mined bedrock on the claim. No one rooms-out, by hand, a piece of bedrock some thirty feet below the surface of the boulder clay unless the gold there is mighty good! On a different note, the large boulders the excavator pulled out some forty feet below that shelf of bedrock also proved why the hand-miners had not sunk their shaft there, as the seepage of that low sump would have inundated any attempts as well.

But, I must get back to my detecting story. So, I found myself detecting only the top of the escape ramp. The bedrock, as is the norm for this location, was red-hot electronically. I used a double-D coil, sensitive to nuggets a gram and larger, and was still getting chatter. But, between the pops and snaps, I heard definite cresting sounds in the threshold--those welcome golden hums that serve up secrets too long buried and lost.

I scraped off the gumbo of overburden and was faced with black and purplish bedrock, all laced with quartz stringers. Not a crack or a fissure in sight. I scrubbed the coil along the mother rock and was rewarded with a series of sharper tones amidst the background chatter.

Looking at the coil's path, the sounds it traced trended diagonally across, and then down the slope of the rock. I slowly perceived that the detector was likely following invisible crevices, ones whose borders rolled off into the yawning placer pit. Knowing that the detector wouldn't lie, I got out my wide-bladed, thin crevicing chisel and carefully chipped the actual bedrock-sides of the crevice into the material of the crevice itself; for in this case, the crevice material was not solidly concreted. It was more of a crumbly composition; however, it mimicked exactly the color of the bedrock, perfectly hiding the fissures and thus any material they contained.

So, using a right-angled gouging tool, I drug the material upslope of one of the diagonal cracks into a plastic scoop. Next, I passed the scoop under the coil and got a nice crisp tone. I shook the scoop, settled the heavies, and at the same time gingerly sluffed the lighter material out the end of the scoop.

There were five rugged nuggets in the scoop. None were over a gram and a half. Additionally, I located two other crevices using the detector, garnering more of those small, yet sassy nuggets.

By the way, I like to put my nuggets in a pliable plastic bottle, and nothing lights me up like the happy rumble of nuggets wrestling each other in that bottle. You know, I really don't know why, but I just love the sound of gold dancing on gold.

Oh yes, it's at this point in the tale where you can brand me dumb, again, for I've made the same mistake before! It seems I always get preoccupied with the nuggets, and I forget about the bedding the nuggets are nestled in (I guess I'm a slow learner, or maybe just incorrigible--perhaps both . . . ) Anyway, my partner, bless his soul, did not forget. He gathered all of that surplus crevice material together into a pan and took the works to the creek just to be sure.

I almost had an apoplectic seizure when I saw how much chunky gold there was in that pan!

And to think, every bit of that gold, nuggets and all, would still be there today if the detector hadn't seen what my eyes couldn't see in plain sight, and if my partner hadn't been smart enough to check the material the nuggets were bedded in.

Lanny in AB

 

[Jeff95531]

IMHO, it's the gold that "rattles" our brains into questionable directions. Like "Why won't my sluice capture all that -20 gold? Cuz it's pyrite Dummy. Oh yeah."

If you're thinking correctly, you're probably not on the gold just yet. Maybe you should consider a soundproof box for those nuggets Lanny.

 

[BurntBear]

Loving this thread!

 

[Lanny in AB]

IMHO, it's the gold that "rattles" our brains into questionable directions. Like "Why won't my sluice capture all that -20 gold? Cuz it's pyrite Dummy. Oh yeah."

If you're thinking correctly, you're probably not on the gold just yet. Maybe you should consider a soundproof box for those nuggets Lanny.

Jeff,

Thanks for dropping in, and thanks for your comments.

As for the sound-proof box, I'm glad I know you're joking as that would rob me of one of my favorite things! I love the sound of nuggets rumbling over nuggets.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Loving this thread!

Thanks!

I sincerely appreciate the feedback.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

I thought I'd post some great ideas a friend of mine, one that's now prospecting on the Big Bonanza Claim in the sky, wrote on my main thread a while back. Great advice.

Eagle left these thoughts: I finally got around to reading ALL of the posts in this thread and figured I could add a little more knowledge to it. Specifically to the whys and wherefores of the old timers stacking rocks the way they were wont to do.

I got this information from a son of a 49er and for clarification, as unbelievable as it may sound, the streams, rivers and mountains of the Western U.S. and Canada were much much richer in gold than they are now. 3 to 5 pound nuggets were not all that uncommon. At one time, I had a 8X10" glossy photo, (taken in the 1920s,) of one "Fritz" Clark (a personal friend, now deceased,) standing in the portal of the Colorado Mine in Mariposa CA., holding a 58 pound chunk of gold. This picture also appeared in the Mariposa Gazette at that time. But, as you sometimes do, I digress.

So, back to my main objective.

It seems that prior to the ratification of the 1872 mining laws, due to the richness of the areas, claims could be "split" into smaller parcels and sold or leased piecemeal. Some miners were known to take a fair amount of gold from a claim that was no more than 5 ft. square. Actually, not much more than a shaft going straight down to bedrock.

Anyway, one of the ways of preventing squabbles over who was encroaching on who's claim was to stop as much as 3 feet from an adjoining claim and stack your rocks on that 3 foot section. Now obviously, I'm talking about full claims here, not the little "parcels". So, if your neighbor was as polite to you, there would be a strip about 6 feet wide, running the length of the claims, that have never been worked. So, anytime a modern prospector spots a line of stacked rocks, it would be prudent for said prospector to either metal detect or remove and dig under where the boulders were.

Pretty much the same goes for those rocks stacked up in gulches and washes. They weren't stacked so much out of courtesy, as for convenience. It could be argued that for every ounce of gold you might find under a linear foot of those stacked rocks, the 49ers were finding 25+ ounces in a foot of the creek proper.

If any of you are ever passing through Mariposa, stop at the mining museum on the North end of town. They have letters posted throughout the exibits of a running correspondence of a 49er to back home. One of the letters refers to the amounts of gold he and his brother found in one shovel full (each) of materials.

It seems that he and his brother had a contest every evening to see who cooked and washed dishes.

What they would do was, each would dig and pan a shovel full of materials from their claim. So, the first brother dug and panned his materials which contained about $89.00 worth of gold. Then the second brother (the author of the letters,) dug and panned his, even though he was sure he would be doing the chores. Imagine his elation when his gold was weighed and he had about $117.00 worth of gold. Now we're looking at $206.00 worth of gold, at $20.00 per oz. It doesn't take a physics professor to figure out that the diggings were incredibly rich by todays standards.

Hokay, a lot of writing just to tell you that the rock "walls" had a purpose and could have a whole bunch of gold under them.

Oh my, so many memories to download.

Happy Hunting

Eagle

 

[meMiner]

I have found this thread to be more entertaining and practical/useful than any prospecting book or magazine that I have read. Lanny - your wealth of experience is outstanding. The input from others adds great quality to the conversation.

A couple of my own quick comments regarding some things discussed.

Many of the Chinese were very effective miners, but remember that was a long time ago and there have probably been a few major floods since. Even if they completely cleaned out a spot on a creek, the same underlying bedrock formations still exist (that trapped the original gold) and have probably been replenished over the years from deposits upstream. Especially gold from marginal areas that were not "worthwhile" plus the discards from other placer mining operations - who did not capture all the gold and washed quite a bit of it directly into the creek. The gold will move down and concentrate again in the same spots as before.

Some hydraulic operations only used a bedrock sluice to capture the gold - indications are that they only captured 30% and were still profitable. Some cut the bedrock and some just used the natural grade. Their "sluicing" was typically a one shot deal - as they did not have the ability to store the tailings to run again. The residual was washed away. Others used their monitors to move the pay gravels across bedrock and into their sluice(s). One can imagine how much gold never made it that far and is still in little hidey-holes all over the hillside. I am currently reading an old government publication about one creek in Northern BC and the big complaint by the miners was the creek was not fast/steep enough to wash away all of the boulders from hydraulicing that they dumped into it. As they exposed the high banks of gravel with the monitors, they sluiced the exposed pay and used the creek as their cobble/tailings dump. I also read that other operations in the area knew they were only capturing 70% of the gold on the first run and had to run it a year later when the newly exposed clay had oxidized. Lots of reasons there is still some gold left behind for us today.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I dry wash on a Colorado hillside that was hydrauliked back in the 1880-90's and further in 1934-35. They stopped the first time because they ran out of water pressure as they moved up hill. The second time they were stopped due to lack of water rights. So there is still gold there in virgin deposits. Today no water can be used for mining due to federal laws protecting water rights/usage but a dry washer can be used!

I also look at the piles of boulders and rocks in the gullies and wonder about the gold trapped among them. I've tried digging sample holes and it's near impossible with hand tools so I stick to the virgin material up on the hill.

 

[Lanny in AB]

I have found this thread to be more entertaining and practical/useful than any prospecting book or magazine that I have read. Lanny - your wealth of experience is outstanding. The input from others adds great quality to the conversation.

A couple of my own quick comments regarding some things discussed.

Many of the Chinese were very effective miners, but remember that was a long time ago and there have probably been a few major floods since. Even if they completely cleaned out a spot on a creek, the same underlying bedrock formations still exist (that trapped the original gold) and have probably been replenished over the years from deposits upstream. Especially gold from marginal areas that were not "worthwhile" plus the discards from other placer mining operations - who did not capture all the gold and washed quite a bit of it directly into the creek. The gold will move down and concentrate again in the same spots as before.

Some hydraulic operations only used a bedrock sluice to capture the gold - indications are that they only captured 30% and were still profitable. Some cut the bedrock and some just used the natural grade. Their "sluicing" was typically a one shot deal - as they did not have the ability to store the tailings to run again. The residual was washed away. Others used their monitors to move the pay gravels across bedrock and into their sluice(s). One can imagine how much gold never made it that far and is still in little hidey-holes all over the hillside. I am currently reading an old government publication about one creek in Northern BC and the big complaint by the miners was the creek was not fast/steep enough to wash away all of the boulders from hydraulicing that they dumped into it. As they exposed the high banks of gravel with the monitors, they sluiced the exposed pay and used the creek as their cobble/tailings dump. I also read that other operations in the area knew they were only capturing 70% of the gold on the first run and had to run it a year later when the newly exposed clay had oxidized. Lots of reasons there is still some gold left behind for us today.

I sincerely appreciate your comments, and I truly appreciate the advice others so unselfishly share as well.

I've learned a lot from others, and I hope to pass it along to those that are starting out.

Some of those old hydraulic operations can be a bonanza for a nugget shooter, or a sniper, as a lot of gold got trapped and left behind.

Thanks for dropping in, and all the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

I dry wash on a Colorado hillside that was hydrauliked back in the 1880-90's and further in 1934-35. They stopped the first time because they ran out of water pressure as they moved up hill. The second time they were stopped due to lack of water rights. So there is still gold there in virgin deposits. Today no water can be used for mining due to federal laws protecting water rights/usage but a dry washer can be used!

I also look at the piles of boulders and rocks in the gullies and wonder about the gold trapped among them. I've tried digging sample holes and it's near impossible with hand tools so I stick to the virgin material up on the hill.

Kevin,

Thanks for dropping in to add to the thread.

The water problem was common to certain areas where they hydraulic mined, and I know a story of an old hydraulic claim that was recently stripped to open a pit, and they hit the old sluice left by the hydraulic mining company! There had been a land slide that buried the sluice a long time ago, and the gold back then was at the fixed price, so it wasn't worth their time to bother to dig it out.

Well, when the modern miners checked the old sluice, there sure was a lot of gold at today's prices! And, they were sure happy to have hit it.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Underburden]

Lanny, I like your intro " Thanks for dropping in".
That's what the bedrock crevice said to the nugget....thanks for dropping in
Bob

 

[Lanny in AB]

Lanny, I like your intro " Thanks for dropping in".
That's what the bedrock crevice said to the nugget....thanks for dropping in
Bob

Nice pun! I got a good chuckle out of it.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Hitndahed]

WHAT !!!,,,

it's over ??,, on page 11 even?
This is one of those threads that you wish would be a hundred pages in length.

Lanny,,, I can't think of anything but THANK YOU for all the information you have provided in this thread,,,
Same to Kevin,,Jeff,,Bejay,, and the others who made a contribution to this thread.

Every one of these tips, facts and visuals will used,,then refined to accommodate for the places I prospect.

Man,,, It took me 2 hours of serious non-stop reading to get through it but to me,, it was worth every second.

Thanks again and Lanny,, when you finish the book,, please do let me know.

Hit

 

[Lanny in AB]

WHAT !!!,,,

it's over ??,, on page 11 even?
This is one of those threads that you wish would be a hundred pages in length.

Lanny,,, I can't think of anything but THANK YOU for all the information you have provided in this thread,,,
Same to Kevin,,Jeff,,Bejay,, and the others who made a contribution to this thread.

Every one of these tips, facts and visuals will used,,then refined to accommodate for the places I prospect.

Man,,, It took me 2 hours of serious non-stop reading to get through it but to me,, it was worth every second.

Thanks again and Lanny,, when you finish the book,, please do let me know.

Hit

Wow! What a nice compliment. And, just so you know, that's a wonderful reward for the hours spent writing the bits and pieces I get the chance to post.

Many thanks and all the best as you chase the gold,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hitndahed,

I'll have to see if I can't round up a few more bits and pieces of information for you when I get a little time.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hitndahed,

I'll have to see if I can't round up a few more bits and pieces of information for you when I get a little time.

All the best,

Lanny

Here's an oldie, but goodie.

When you're sniping underwater (or dredging, or digging your hole to China in a stream-bed, modern or ancient), and all of a sudden you start to see chunks of ironstone or magnetite the size of golfballs, or you start to see big nails, spikes, chunks of cast iron, etc., you're in a serious drop zone.

Most of the time I've noticed these on inside bends, but in straight canyons, these drop-zone deposits will be found behind ledges, large boulders, behind hidden, underwater obstructions, etc.

However, these items, even though they are heavy, may be to one side or the other of the gold, and sometimes, they're even above the gold and you've got to go down a bit more to hit the gold, just as you'd have to check carefully to the left or the right of the aforementioned line of heavies to locate the best gold.

The good news is that the water dropped the large variety of heavies I've mentioned, and because of that, it generated a great chance that the gold dropped too. The mystery you might be faced with is to have to look a bit harder to actually find the paying line of gold (to the right, to the left, just a bit deeper . . .).

Don't get me wrong, I've found iron bars before with nuggets stuck to the oxidization encrusting the bars! I've also dredged spots where golfball sized magnetite sat in the middle of the visible gold too, but other times, it takes a bit more looking to hit the sweet spot. (And of course, sometimes there's only heavies and no gold, depending on what the river was carrying when the heavies dropped.)

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Hitndahed]

Here's an oldie, but goodie.

When you're sniping underwater (or dredging, or digging your hole to China in a stream-bed, modern or ancient), and all of a sudden you start to see chunks of ironstone or magnetite the size of golfballs, or you start to see big nails, spikes, chunks of cast iron, etc., you're in a serious drop zone.

Most of the time I've noticed these on inside bends, but in straight canyons, these drop-zone deposits will be found behind ledges, large boulders, behind hidden, underwater obstructions, etc.

However, these items, even though they are heavy, may be to one side or the other of the gold, and sometimes, they're even above the gold and you've got to go down a bit more to hit the gold, just as you'd have to check carefully to the left or the right of the aforementioned line of heavies to locate the best gold.

The good news is that the water dropped the large variety of heavies I've mentioned, and because of that, it generated a great chance that the gold dropped too. The mystery you might be faced with is to have to look a bit harder to actually find the paying line of gold (to the right, to the left, just a bit deeper . . .).

Don't get me wrong, I've found iron bars before with nuggets stuck to the oxidization encrusting the bars! I've also dredged spots where golfball sized magnetite sat in the middle of the visible gold too, but other times, it takes a bit more looking to hit the sweet spot. (And of course, sometimes there's only heavies and no gold, depending on what the river was carrying when the heavies dropped.)

All the best,

Lanny

=====================================================================
THANKS AGAIN !!

One question,,, when you say "ironstone" are you referring to the small grained variety? Like a very fine grained granite.
Here in Pa we have a lot of that where I look. No gold nuggets but "flour".
Diabase,,, also,,, I am probably wrong but I do use those terms descriptively to identify the "bedrock" where I look.

Small very steep valley,, large "ironstone/diabase" boulders in the stream. The stream also is small, when I say large,,, I mean SUV size or larger.
Curious as to the definitions you use for those two terms.

Thank you again,, I enjoy this probably as much as yourself

Hit

 

[Lanny in AB]

=====================================================================
THANKS AGAIN !!

One question,,, when you say "ironstone" are you referring to the small grained variety? Like a very fine grained granite.
Here in Pa we have a lot of that where I look. No gold nuggets but "flour".
Diabase,,, also,,, I am probably wrong but I do use those terms descriptively to identify the "bedrock" where I look.

Small very steep valley,, large "ironstone/diabase" boulders in the stream. The stream also is small, when I say large,,, I mean SUV size or larger.
Curious as to the definitions you use for those two terms.

Thank you again,, I enjoy this probably as much as yourself

Hit

Ironstone/magnetite: jumps to a magnet (native iron).

If you're in an area of flour gold, of course you know to look in the top few inches of gravels, where there are stones fist-sized and larger.

Your glacial-ground gold will drop out with the rock sizes previously mentioned.

If you have a lot of garnet in your area that runs with the black sands, use polarized sunglass lenses and scan the bars for areas of heavy concentrations. If all you have are large boulders, look for "tails" of heavies running out behind (downstream) from your boulders.

If you have a detector that will do it, detect for pockets of black-sand concentrates. Your flour gold should be there as well.

All the best,

Lanny