Im new to prospecting so need some advice.

[NC Will]

I'm new to prospecting so need some advice.

Hello everyone, my name is Will and I started gold/gem prospecting during the summer of last year so needless to say I'm an amateur. I live in the Piedmont of North Carolina - nestled between the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Carolina Slate Belt. I've done quite a bit of research over the past few months and I understand the concept of how gold settles in a creek and the methods used to obtain it.

We have a creek on our land which is about 300 yards or more long and is very, very old.. (lots of erosion and oxidized rocks, particularly quartz) Some of the sides of the banks are nearly 10 feet tall which shows how long the creek has been eating away at the earth. I've done some panning in the creek and let me tell you, the black sand is abundant... But no gold as of yet.

I'm going to post a few pictures of things I found interesting in the creek and hopefully some of you could help me understand them a little better and hopefully help me find the gold (or gems) if there are any there. Another thing to note is that I'm located near the largest emerald deposit in NC and I think even the United States. Anyways, enough of the background info, here are the pics.

Here's the first one. There is a lot of these structures in the creek and from the research I've done I believe this is false bedrock, either decomposed or oxidized over the years? There is a gray colored gravel pack sitting on top of it in the bank which is full of quartz.



Here is the gravel pack on top of it.


Here is something that I'm very interested in but don't really know how to go about prospecting it. I "think" this is a decomposed quartz vein that has oxidized and eroded for a very long time. There's a nice gravel pack sitting on top of it as well.


Close up.


A closer look.


Here is a picture of some grayish/blue/green clay that I've dug up near the vein. You can see there is a lot of mica in it.


This is where the clay came from.


Close up of the quartz.


Broader view.

How would one go about prospecting this quartz?

And lastly, MY setup.



That's it for now. Hope this is not too much to take in at one time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated though.

Will

 

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[goldenIrishman]

Welcome to the asylum Will! I know Doc From Gold Hog started off prospecting for Gems so you might want to go to his site and look at his videos. Lots of good information in them for both gold and Gems. I used to live in Asheville for a bit and it's a nice area. only thing I didn't care for was the unpredictable weather. Don"t like the weather? Give it 5 minutes and it will change!!!

 

[mike(swWash)]

Off topic a bit, but I like the last picture.......
I always knew the Bazooka was good, but it's even sucking up the world like a mini black hole

 

[Lanny in AB]

If you already know how to pan very well, then ignore this next bit of advice: watch some great Youtube videos on panning and be as expert at it as you can. That's one of the testing methods that will tell you what you need to know as you continue to sample your creek.

Have you looked at your black sands under magnification yet to be sure you're not into micron gold? Is there a history of gold in your area, because if there is, keep following the three rules of prospecting: 1. Test, 2. Test, 3. Test

As for your pictures, if there's gravel packed on top of decomposing bedrock or on false bedrock, those are good places to test as are any crevices you might find. Follow standard testing procedure and find places where the water is forced to slow as this equals low: slow=low as in low pressure velocity of water that will allow gold to drop. Keep researching the history of gold recovery in your area. If it's all fine gold, you'll need to adapt your testing and recovery techniques to fit. If it's coarse gold, ditto.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Jeff95531]

Welcome Will. I'll tell ya one thing, those pics left me drooling and I live in CA. So all I can offer you is get a Bazooka (AKA BGT) and a Garrett Super Sluice pan, add a pick, a shovel, a bucket and get to work. Sample Sample Sample AND don't forget to map where you got them. Gold is truly where you find it and to me...it ALL looks good! Good luck and keep us posted!

oh wait, your good on sluices

 

[Ragnor]

Put your first/best effort into collecting and panning moss and grass roots from inside bends and gravel bars. That will be first best indicator for the presence of gold in your stream. Look into sarucas and gem screening techniques. basically shaking your gravel bar materials through a set of graduated screens to check for the presence of gems then pan the fines that make it through the bottom screen.
That is my adopted rapid asessment technique for new areas. I have located fine gold in two streams now that have no record of gold presence at all. Granted Mt St Helens ash carried variable cocentrations of fine gold in them when they fell across the state. So nothing here is conclusive untill you find enough to be worth while. But the technique is solid.

 

[Jimmydolittle]

The first discovery of gold in America was in North Carolina!

 

[motohed]

I would also break up some of the quartz and pound it into a powder and pan it , you may come up with a vein of gold in it . Don't forget to wear safety glasses or goggles though . I'm sure that there got to be some color in there some where . Good hunting .

 

[y Rod]

Have prospected many areas in N.C. for years, glad to help answer questions about prospecting techniques
or the area you live in....
If you reply please private message....