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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[prospectordamon]

quick question, when people refer to "hard-packed" material, are they refering to years and years of schist build-up on bedrock by chance?? I'm trying to learn all the different rocks and what they mean, how long they could possibly been there, color, etc, to further my knowledge on crevice sniping. thanks!

 

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[Lanny in AB]

quick question, when people refer to "hard-packed" material, are they refering to years and years of schist build-up on bedrock by chance?? I'm trying to learn all the different rocks and what they mean, how long they could possibly been there, color, etc, to further my knowledge on crevice sniping. thanks!

In a general way, as I understand it, hard-pack is bedded stream material that's been undisturbed for many, many years. It's usually got a good quantity of clay running with it (it=river run of various sizes) and it's been hammered so long by the stream materials above it, that it's packed down and becomes impermeable to the gold and other heavy materials above it; so much so that it can become a false bedrock if it's not tight on the bedrock.

In other words, sometimes hard-pack is tight on bedrock (it's awful stuff to go through, and it's sure fun to see that sassy gold sitting on the hard-pack), and sometimes it's in a layer above the bedrock a ways (this all depends on the depth of the stream materials--bigger rivers, with deeper channels have a better chance of having a layer of hard-pack above (sometimes many feet) and over another layer of river run that may be bedded tight on the bedrock.

Hope this clarifies it somewhat for you. As well, some hard-pack need to be busted up before you run it (pressure washer was suggested by someone; if there's lots of gold in it, some people put it in a tub and smash it up as much as they can and let it soak underwater until it's loose enough to wash; some people use a cement mixer with some nice, adequately sizable river rocks to help speed the smashing process along. Sometimes, the hard-pack is hiding the gold underneath (no gold run in the hard-pack run, not when it was originally made, and no gold carried by the stream after the gold run tight on bedrock--glaciers did all kinds of crazy things to gold deposition in streams), and sometimes there's no gold at all under the hard-pack. Gambling and gold mining have more than a few things in common!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

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


Hefty

Hefty--didn't you get the memo on the legal limit for gold prospecting fun? I'll see if I can find a copy and forward it to you.

All the best,

Lanny