I found a gold deposit. Now what?????

[bigalk]

hey all,

some Ive been a lurker here for a few years, reading, reading, reading. Ive had a keen interest in "gold as money" since the recession hit in 2008 and that lead me to a keen interest in finding myself some yellow stuff.

I spent 2 years researching and building my own equipment, and this summer i took to the fields to begin my hunt in earnest.

So - the good bit - i found gold!!!!! WOOP. Yes i definitely found gold, and the best bit is it is in a totally non-prospected (for gold) area with no mining rights on the land. I have read through the information on the prospecting licenses granted in the area (since records began - Im in Europe) and while several high profile companies have had prospecting licenses over the years (for industrial and precious metals) they were mainly looking for industrial metals and none of them have ever reported finding any gold.

I spent about 10 days this summer prospecting some key areas i had identified in my target area and on my 4th day out i got a few colors. I went back to that same spot on two other occasions, and ended up with a total of 12 colours for a total of about 10 hours work. Im rich....well maybe not

SO my questions are as follows:
1) can anyone provide me with a link to a good / professional prospecting method to properly cover an area with a pan, rock hammer, hand tools etc?
2) can anyone give me a definitive best way of performing a qualitative analysis of ore material (iodine seems easiest to me for testing purposes but very interested to hear about other possible methods)
3) Its only half an hour drive from me. Do you recommend that i try and analyse ore in the field or bring it home for later? (I was thinking that if i had a way to do a quick field test it would save me bringing home buckets full of ore.)
4) Does anyone know of an easy and reliable quantitative assay i can do at home, without breaking the bank. (and relatively safe - im not good with chemicals - i prefer hammers and tools)


looking forward to all comments. love this forum.

Big Al

P.S. The day i went out after i had found a few colors was great. I got to say "Theres gold in them thar hills" for real! I was happy

 

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[kingskid1611]

I hope it's gold. Can you post some pics? I would think a gold kit that you can pick up on ebay or other places would help you out but I am not an expert.

 

[Argentium]

If I understand you correctly , you have detected some tiny gold flake (colors ) with a gold pan . Then it looks to me like you are
shifting your focus to testing ore - this suggests hard rock mining to me , which may involve a rather larger and costlier operation
than placer mining with either pan or dredge . I suggest that you pose your question in the forum here entitled Gold Prospecting !
just scroll down the index of forums - these folks are all about various methods of recovery - although the legalities in Europe may
only be known to a few - Good luck !

 

[Jason in Enid]

12 colors? Walk away. There is a reason nobody is mining it...it's a money losing site.

 

[bigalk]

@kingskid1611 - its definitely gold (have had it tested by my local jewelry store). My camera isnt good enough to post a 'clear' closeup but ill attach one from my phone in a minute. the colors are tiny but it still looks nice

@Argentium yes i have found some colours with my home built sluice and hand (bucket) dredge. What i want to do now is try and find where it came from. I have a decent handle on identifying ores that might hold gold, and i hope to learn how to do a quick field test with some crushed ore to see if there is gold (visible or micron) present. I will create a new post on the forum you mentioned, or maybe a Mod here can move the thread which most forums prefer to double posting. Any advice on this as i dont want to break etiquette?

@Jason in Enid I appreciate you took the time to reply, but surely, some of the biggest gold deposits in the world have been found by people like me, who found a few colors first. I think you may have misread my post. I found gold in an area that gold has never been found in before. Although previous mining companies have had rights to look for gold, i read their reports and none have reported finding any, in fact it was secondary to their hunt for industrial metals - if they found it they would not walk away but they were not putting any 'primary' effort into finding it. There was never a chance it would be mined, as nobody has discovered anything before. I went out and found some. Now i want to learn how i can properly exploit that discovery by 'prospecting' the surrounding areas to see if there is a deposit worth mining. Is that not what the term 'prospecting' refers to?

 

[bigalk]

 

[NHBandit]

Your determination is to be commended and it's why we all continue to look for "treasure". However.. you can find tiny amounts of gold in Home Depot bags of play sand. That dosn't mean it would be profitable to go and buy every bag of sand in the store. All the best.

 

[bigalk]

Hi @NHBandit. thanks for the reply my friend. Please help me here as i do not seem to be phrasing my question correctly. I have found gold where nobody else has. Right now i dont know it what i brought home is the entire 'deposit' or if it is the first sign of 1000 tons of gold, or (most likely) somewhere in between. based on the fact that i found some - I want to prospect the area to see if there is indeed a mine worthy deposit. Am i doing something wrong here? There seems to be negativity towards what i am doing / asking so please, if you can help, point out what is wrong with what i am asking / what is wrong with what i plan on doing? I thought the discovery of a previously unknown gold deposit (no matter how big or small) would be cause for celebration rather than negativity

 

[Argentium]

There certainly is no call for negativity ! Some people looking at the tiny colors you show there , may believe from their experience
you are not showing enough color to get excited about . I have a small amount of experience with placer prospecting - primarily
panning for gold in Montana , and Colorado . I would be looking for much richer test pan colors , before my thinking would shift
to crushing ore (hard rock mining ) As far as etiquette I think you're fine posing questions here , but you'll have a more
experienced viewer if you put some of your questions to the Gold Prospecting Forum . Cheers , and Good Luck !!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Not sure the laws in Europe. But hereabouts step one would be to secure the land or the owner's permission to mine/exploit that land.

No sense doing a lot of work until you are certain you can keep the results.

 

[Anduril]

Honestly, with that much research, work and effort, 12 colors doesn't seem nearly enough return to justify the venture.
Unless of course, this is just for the fun - then GO FOR IT.

Otherwise, it really is a little unreasonable to think in this day and age that anyone will find new substantial lode deposits where NONE have ever been found in the area before. It just doesn't happen. Now, you might stumble upon a nice chunk of placer gold! That does happen (only not to me, apparently).

You might be better off to visit the US West Coast or Alaska rather than spend a bunch of money chasing the next "Mother Lode in Europe".
At least you would get a vacation out of it in the process. And definitely walk away with more than just a few specs of flour gold in your pans.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Hi @NHBandit. thanks for the reply my friend. Please help me here as i do not seem to be phrasing my question correctly. I have found gold where nobody else has. Right now i dont know it what i brought home is the entire 'deposit' or if it is the first sign of 1000 tons of gold, or (most likely) somewhere in between. based on the fact that i found some - I want to prospect the area to see if there is indeed a mine worthy deposit. Am i doing something wrong here? There seems to be negativity towards what i am doing / asking so please, if you can help, point out what is wrong with what i am asking / what is wrong with what i plan on doing? I thought the discovery of a previously unknown gold deposit (no matter how big or small) would be cause for celebration rather than negativity

There is nothing wrong with how you phrased the post, nor is there any problem with the post at all. I think anyone who enjoys hunting for gold is glad for that you have found color where nobody expects its. Many of us are just "realists" about our hunts. If we are only finding a few colors, we keep hunting different areas.

Just because nobody is actively mining this area, doesn't mean it hasnt been prospected in the past. People all over the world have been hunting every river, stream, creek, hill and mountain for gold. If there isn't enough to actually work, they just keep moving.

OK, so you have found color, whats the next step? Gold moves down hill and down stream. Start looking for where this came from. If it came from a lode, you can find it. Keep track of how many colors you are getting per bucket. As you get closer, your number wil increase. When you pass the lode, the gold will stop or will become much fewer. Go back and begin looking for exposed bedrock, faults, veins, etc.

Heres some bad news.... it could come from a LOOOONG way away. It could be glacial moraine gold, pushed for hundreds on miles from it's source.

Good luck in your search, I hope you find the next mother-lode!

 

[RGINN]

Pretty cool, bigalk. Not being negative at all, but I can walk to the creek here in town a half block north of my house and pan out that much color right now. Lot of work, and no money in it. It is no big thing to find gold where nobody has found it before, because gold is where you find it. The best way to make some money out of that, file a claim, play it up, maybe get some promising assays, a little press wouldn't hurt, then sell that claim. Another way would to be buy the land, file a claim, and charge people to come in and pan and keep all they find. In the meantime, pan on up the creek to see if you can figure out where those flakes came from. Best of luck to you!

 

[skeeter86]

First tell no one what you found . Second grab all you can before anyone finds out what your up to .#rd hide it away so you have it for later just in case its on someones claim.

 

[stefen]

When you work a creek or river, you will develop a profile where the finds are thin or heavy.
When you find a heavy area showing a lot of color and the material is course (rough edges and not worn from traveling a long distance) then follow that profile.
Work both sides of the waterway panning the adjacent hillsides.
This could lead you to the mother lode.
What you are finding is fine dust and if viewed under a microscope, it most likely is smooth and well rounded.
That signifies its source is a long distance away.

 

[bigalk]

@stefen - thanks for the advice! that is new information for me. now were getting somewhere

 

[bigalk]

@RGINN - thank you too for your advice. im working on making the claim mine at the minute with an official application. I should have mentioned that there are good reasons to work this particular place - there is a mine being built along the same geological features about 100k from here (as the crow flies). Has all the same features / potentials, so im hopeful that this will turn up trumps! Thanks also for the advice on how to monetize this, would love to buy the land, now all i got to do is find a few huge nuggets

 

[RGINN]

Sounds good bigalk, and I wish you the best of luck! When you find those big nuggets, post some pics.

 

[spummerr]

I'd call Todd Hoffman, he can make money for you, even when there's no gold in the samples!

 

[NHBandit]

I'd call Todd Hoffman, he can make money for you, even when there's no gold in the samples!

Tard Hoffman couldn't find a gold watch if it was on his wrist...