Mysterious Overburden

[NuggetN8]

Hi everyone, I've been prospecting for just about my entire life and I seemed to always find the most gold on bedrock.. Today I was at the creek trying to suck up whatever was left on the bottom of the creek with my hand dredge because I was sluicing a large area there a few days earlier. After panning out what I picked up with my hand dredge I wasn't sure what I was going to do next because I wasn't finding too much and I was tired of pumping that thing. I sat down and just looked around for a minute trying to locate a spot to dig when I saw a picker just sitting on a rock about a foot or more up from the bedrock in a large deposit of gravel. I took my bottle and sucked it up then filled my pan with material from the same spot. I panned it out and found 0.6 gram. I didn't do any more after that because I want to go back and just sluice the entire gravel bar. Anyone know why everywhere else on the creek I can only find gold on bedrock and in this spot its all on top of the gravel? I guess gold is just where you find it.

 

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[B H Prospector]

I would say it is probably new deposits from recent floods. Something changed in the flow or currents of the stream to change where the gold is dropping out. What you have been working was probably old deposits that have worked itself all the way to bedrock.

Good Luck!

B H Prospector

 

[LP13]

What was the general shape of the gold you found? Compact dense nuggets/pickers or were they broad flaky and thin? There is a place in Northern California near where I grew up on the Indian River just below the Y to Quincy on Hwy 89 called 'Rich Bar'. Big gravel bar with a lot of gold in it. Normally where you wouldn't find great gold deposits.

 

[NuggetN8]

What was the general shape of the gold you found? Compact dense nuggets/pickers or were they broad flaky and thin? There is a place in Northern California near where I grew up on the Indian River just below the Y to Quincy on Hwy 89 called 'Rich Bar'. Big gravel bar with a lot of gold in it. Normally where you wouldn't find great gold deposits.

Mostly chunky stuff but sometimes you get a few flakey looking pieces. It's just in a small creek but the water gets pretty high when we get good rain.

 

[pmgsourdough]

Are there any indications that gravel bar has been worked in the past ?

 

[NuggetN8]

Are there any indications that gravel bar has been worked in the past ?

No I highly doubt it has because that general area is pretty rich compared to any other part of the creek I've been to. And there's a lot of boulders and big rocks packed in under the gravel.

 

[pmgsourdough]

If it's never been worked then it becomes a question of gravity and time . The specific gravity of gold is 19.32 which means that its 19 and a half times heavier than water . So how long will it take for gold to reach it's lowest possible settling point to bedrock? Who knows? We are talking abou tan amount of time that the human mind cannot fathom . Make an educated guess for that is all we can do.

 

[LP13]

A lot depends on the density of your gravels too. SiO2 (quartz sand and rock) has a density of 2.8, magnetite around 5.8, silver and lead 10-11. The rocks in gravel separate by weight too, just like the fines. Look around some time and you will find gravel bars with typically very light material and in another location on the same stream or river, gravel that is predominantly heavy. It's one of the things I do when looking for a good place to prospect. I pick up and feel the 'heft' of the rocks in an area, and if most of them are heavy and dense, I'll dig there. If most of it is light material, I usually don't waste much time there. Point being that if your gold is in and amongst predominantly very dense gravels and sands it may not move to the bottom quickly and so be more likely to be spread around amongst the gravels.

 

[Goldwasher]

Gold is where you find it. You may be on the edgre of a paystreak or some riche than average gravel was moved by the last big flood event in your drainage.

 

[NuggetN8]

Gold is where you find it. You may be on the edgre of a paystreak or some riche than average gravel was moved by the last big flood event in your drainage.

Today I went out to the same spot and sluiced that entire gravel bar and only got 1.1 grams out of the whole thing. I guess those few scoops of gravel I sampled were just where a bunch stopped for some reason. Still decent for a few hours of work. I still need to use my hand dredge to clean it up.. That was just shoveling the overburden there.