How Much Gold Does The River Move??

[MadMarshall]

I am of the notion that alot of my gold is not coming from the river,,Or is it..I know the river in flood stages and some other circumstances but for the majority of my gold I question it path...I have once seen a small pile/line of gold working it way in the river just below the edge of the waterline..It was kinda rolling over itself down the obvious course presented to it..But it was slow moving and settled relitively quickly..Anyway the more I prospect the more I find myself discarding common thoughts on gold.. I think alot of gold is coming down.. from where I am still trying to figure out.But it changes everything I have read in books..I know some of my gold could be coming from older floods but it still doesn't sit well with me..And another thing doesn't it stand to reason that gold should be better higher up??Or at the very bottom of the river the middle just beining OK in goldSo why would I look for places where the water slows ect ect ect when the river is not really putting my gold their??Any thoughts or advice will always be of use...

Does runoff and seepage move more gold consitantly then the river?

 

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[NuggetN8]

I think that the river moves quite a bit of it but I think a lot of it comes off of the sides as well. Just random sources along the sides of the river. When we get heavy downpours sometimes small landslides/erosion help move it down into the river. Just my theory. I think that the river moves mostly smaller gold though. Not the really big nuggets.

 

[Jeff95531]

The most plentiful gold I have found is in the top six inches. I have dug deep, moved rocks, sniped and got nothing on more than a few occasions. The flakes I found were in areas the river should have washed the gold away from the surface (mouth). But the river was way calm this winter/spring. Levels were low more often than not...no dredging since 2010. I dunno about you, but I'm going to do what is producing. Whether it makes sense or not.

 

[Aurabbit79er]

Every season the river I mine has more gold in places that were mined a year or 2 before. During very large storms my river can reach 20' or more over flood stage and travel at up to 70mph. I know the river boulders well and have tracked there movement over the years. These are car and room size rocks weighing several tons. In less than 6 years the river has moved them a mile and more down stream. This river has a history of rearranging it's own course in it's narrow and steep valley. Gold moves in high fast water. It follows a narrow course close to the river bottom and stops and concentrates just as flood water begins to slow. The larger pieces stop first according to the dynamics of the objects they encounter. In my river the depth has a range of about 2' to 4' about 6" wide and it follows the river course, and often I find the new river course exposes older deposit zones now easier to dig on the banks. I test by digging across the course looking for big boulders. When I find a promising zone I try to follow it up or down stream. I hope that helps. I just wish I could get out there and be mining more often.