help with where to dig!!!

[prospectordamon]

I'll be attaching photo's. background on this location is it is a confirmed gold bearing area, there used to be a stamp mill in the general area of this creek. This is located in alabama so people in the south tips would be greatly appreciated given we have the red clay that most areas do not.

I'm a bit confused, I see bedrock EVERYWHERE, even pieces and large boulders on the trail driving down to the creek, the area is very sub-mountainous (300-400ft hills), the creek runs between 2 very large hills and the creek is of course at the bottom of the hills. I know gold is here but I'm having trouble on where to look.

I get down to the creek and see signs of other prospectors, saw a flat-head screwdriver with the flat end worn down from crevice digging. When I look across the bank there is a lot of bedrock, but upon closer inspection, i can bust it up fairly easily ( it has formed a schist on top of the bedrock). I need to know if I can bust the schist up to see if there is any gold, or should I be out in the middle of the creek digging down to bedrock, or digging around boulders? I need some tips on where to start, I have found gold before but never actually been down to a real good gold baring area and dug. I gotta order me a crevice sucker.

Should I bust through all the schist on the bedrock along the bank and get down to the bedrock and pick the cracks? Please help with any advice!!!

this next pic is some sort of tailings maybe? its wayyyy too steep to be a trail of any sort its about 200 foot almost straight up
with lots of busted up bed-rock and quartz

 

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[strickman]

the screwdriver was left from some one sniping the bed rock cracks . I would check there. the gold will find its way deep in the cracks . break it open and clean out the cracks, very methodically .even check some above the water line ,in a flood gold will be deposited there as well. sniping can be very rewarding , one good crack will make a good day !

 

[GrayCloud]

Just from the photo, it looks more like a wash.

 

[prospectordamon]

when im picking the cracks do i need to bust through the schist straight to the bedrock or keep the schist and smash it down and pan it? I'm going back this afternoon, just panned 2 pans of some gravel I got from beneath a bedrock overhand above the creek and found 4 specs of flour gold, not bad for a total crap shoot on picking a spot to shovel a 1/4 bucket into! more tips keep them coming! should i wade out into the middle of the creek and go for bedrock or focous on the bank where the creek used to be hundreds of years ago (bedrock surrounds the creek)

 

[Goodyguy]

The short answer on where to dig is: Dig under boulders, around exposed old tree roots, through the hard pack and down to bed rock.
Also dig down into where the wash (that's the bare gravel running down the hill where water washes down) levels off and fill your buckets with material to be sluiced. If you do not have a sluice then get one,(or make one) otherwise you may spend all day panning for a few flakes.

It's a crap shoot...Gold is where you find it.

You have to do it all.....use some crevice tools, hand pick, a prybar, and a suction device. I use a gasoline powered vac. Yes I would break through the hard pack and pan it and then pan any material close to the bedrock and snipe the cracks in the bedrock. You must sample everywhere looking for a pay streak. Dig under boulders and fill buckets with material. The more buckets the better. It takes a lot of scrapeing and digging.

Set up a sluice in the creek to run your material. The more material you run through your sluice the more gold you will end up with. Break up all the red clay with your fingers and classify your material down to 1/4" or so before sluicing. http://www.goldgold.com/stories/classificationofmaterial.htm

Carefully inspect all classifying tailing's before discarding. Use a metal detector if you have one that will pick up small gold. Also be on the lookout for gold imbedded in quartz. Many of the Alabama gold mines recovered gold from quartz running through schist. Although most gold-bearing ores and gravels in Alabama are more numerous in the belts of semi-crystalline slates than in the fully crystalline schists.

If you are happy with the amount of recovered gold keep working that area til it peters out then move on. Keep doing that until you are too old to do it anymore.


Go for the gold-
GG~

 

[prospectordamon]

yay

well im back! thanks for the tips! next time im definitely gonna hit that wash out area where it flattens as stated, GREAT idea! i ended up running into a guy that was walking out of the woods (this is wayyyyy back down a county road), long story short he ended up scaring me to where i almost had to change my britches but he was walking out of the woods with a classifyer and gold pan! So we got to talking and he pointed me out to a spot that had gold in it. I found about 10-15 pieces of flake gold. So exciting! he told me he comes down every weekend on saturdays and sundays! so he knows the area. He said there was one other guy that comes down there and we are the only 3 he knows of. The other guy uses a 4" dredge and he said he has witnessed him pull nuggets from behind bedrock in the middle of the creek! im gonna wear this area out! right now im searching online for a prospecting backpack to make lugging equipment easier and also gotta buy me a hand dredge since the real deal is not affordable at this time.

He told me if he could do it during the week and bring is rather large sluice with him everytime he could easily get about an ounce of flour gold every 4-5 days! It's just such a long exhausting walk from the road to the creek. I have finally found me an excellent gold bearing area. So exciting. Anymore tips from you avid prospectors? thanks for all the help so far!

since the guy is dredging nuggets and good flakes from the middle do you have any tips for me since i dont have a dredge?

 

[Goodyguy]

Re: yay

well im back! thanks for the tips! next time im definitely gonna hit that wash out area where it flattens as stated, GREAT idea! i ended up running into a guy that was walking out of the woods (this is wayyyyy back down a county road), long story short he ended up scaring me to where i almost had to change my britches but he was walking out of the woods with a classifyer and gold pan! So we got to talking and he pointed me out to a spot that had gold in it. I found about 10-15 pieces of flake gold. So exciting! he told me he comes down every weekend on saturdays and sundays! so he knows the area. He said there was one other guy that comes down there and we are the only 3 he knows of. The other guy uses a 4" dredge and he said he has witnessed him pull nuggets from behind bedrock in the middle of the creek! im gonna wear this area out! right now im searching online for a prospecting backpack to make lugging equipment easier and also gotta buy me a hand dredge since the real deal is not affordable at this time.

He told me if he could do it during the week and bring is rather large sluice with him everytime he could easily get about an ounce of flour gold every 4-5 days! It's just such a long exhausting walk from the road to the creek. I have finally found me an excellent gold bearing area. So exciting. Anymore tips from you avid prospectors? thanks for all the help so far!

since the guy is dredging nuggets and good flakes from the middle do you have any tips for me since i dont have a dredge?

If the pay streak is in the middle of the creek and the water is over waist/chest deep then you probably need a dredge. If the water is only 3' deep use a snorkel and a hand suction dredge. How deep the water is and how long you can hold your breath is a critical factor along with how much overburden there is covering the pay streak.

Otherwise you will need to find a pay streak that you can access. Finding a pay streak requires a lot of digging and test panning.

Have fun and Go for the Gold!
GG~

 

[kilnmaint]

I am in Alabama also. I have hand dredges and a 3" dredge with air that two of us could move pretty easily if you are interested. E -Mail me and we can discuss it.

Mike

 

[GrayCloud]

Dang GoodyGuy, sounds like those old boys are gonna have some fun, while we sit in the offices looking out the windows and wishing.

 

[prospectordamon]

Dang GoodyGuy, sounds like those old boys are gonna have some fun, while we sit in the offices looking out the windows and wishing.

old? i would hardly call 22 old my friend, plenty of prospecting left in me! im pretty far ahead of the game for my age however, but doing many types of prospecting since i was 14 makes me feel like im 40!!! I'll be spending the entire day tomorrow at the creek. The first hour I will be hiking/searching for the spot that the guy, that came walking from the trail across the creek, prospects in. Hopefully i will find his honey hole. Then as i make my way upstream I will be reading the creek the entire time in hopes of hand dredging some good stuff!!! Wish me luck, thanks for all the tips/pointers!

 

[GrayCloud]

Dang Young Whippersnappers.

Wish you the best on your prospecting project there Prospectordamon. Take time to enjoy the hunt also...Now that's from an Old Boy.

 

[prospectordamon]

just got back on a lil lunch break, didnt find much, i guess i need to work back towards the concentration of flour gold i found, i was in the middle of the creek hand dredging behind boulders and didnt find nothing, the flour gold was in roots at the edge of the bank. any idea where the small nuggets and flakes would be lots of work for the little specs of flour gold, back is killing me. i hand dredged in the areas behind boulders where "eddys" were made and also behind "dikes" in the creek. but where is the flakes/nuggets??!!

 

[Goodyguy]

That's what prospecting is all about my friend
Nothing easy about it. Same for everybody.

Nuggets are hard to find, but closer to the source is where the bigger ones will be found because the further they travel from the lode the more worn down they get. Plus since they are so heavy they don't move far very fast.

Sometimes ask yourself ....."If I were a gold nugget, Where would I be"
And then look there and see if you were right.

The main thing is never give up!
GG~

 

[russau]

maybe if he said,"ole boys" would have been better!

 

[bcbjim]

damon, i live in alabama. im in winston county. where are you located.

jim

 

[Goodyguy]

ProspectorDamon,

In case you haven't discovered this thread already, I have learned a lot about where nuggets hide from it and I thought I knew everything.

It was started in 2003 and still going strong! Best kept secret on T-net for prospectors
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,453.0/topicseen.html
I suggest reading it all, you will be glad you did.

Go for the Gold,
GG~

 

[prospectordamon]

thanks!! i read it, took a while but i did, VERY VERY informative, ill be going down there tomorrow and whipping out the White's MXT on that bedrock and see what happens!

 

[Goodyguy]

That's Great!
Hope you find a big ol' nugget

Don't forget your pan though, that MXT will also find flakes and fines.


GG~

 

[Lanny in AB]

Prospectordamon,

You've already stumbled on (been scared half-to-death in doing so) one of the best resources you can ever get when searching for gold in the bedrock--a local that's willing to share some secrets with you!

That's the best, as that way, you don't have to learn everything yourself. It always saves a ton of time if you can get someone to give you some "insider" knowledge on a specific area.

If you've found a screwdriver that's been blunted by lots of digging in the bedrock, that could be a sure sign that you need to pry, scratch and dig (Strickman's already enlightened you on this). What you'll want to find is a crevice (hidden under the cap-rock, or one that's already visible, but one that needs to be widened or cleared of smaller rocks that are jamming the surface opening) that runs deeper into the bedrock. You may get some smaller stuff from the surface cracks, but generally the stuff that lights a fire under you will require you to widen the crack (hammer and chisel time) and keep chasing the smaller rounded stones, clay, etc. until the crevice either pinches out, or heaven forbid, widens out and presents you with a pocket filled with little river stones and clay. If you hit a little pocket, you may just be over the legal limit for fun by the time you clean it out!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Hefty1]

Ahhhhhh Lanny
Now you went and did it. When did they put a legal limit on havin fun


Hefty