Placer Claim Mined Out?

[desertgolddigger]

I belong to a local club that owns a claim. This club has had this claim for many years, and acquired it after the old timers had mined it previously, and others after they commercial outfits closed up.
I walked quite a bit of the 160 acre claim, and noted that just about every wash had been worked. Most of the surface nuggets has also been detected by those with gold detectors. In other words, this place has been picked over and over and over.
But I m a stubborn type of person, and I figured, just watching how people ram their puffer and blower drywashers, that some gold was just being blown through them. maybe not much, but some small stuff that never got a chance to settle behind the riffles.
I know many of you would never go to the effort of digging for three to four hours through the tailings in these washes. Again, I'm a bit stubborn, and anyway, I just wanted to have some fun locally, instead of driving 300 miles roundtrip to something that gives a little more for less effort.
I've spent the last three weeks, digging a few times a week along about 30 yards of wash, and have recovered just about a gram of gold. That might not seem like much, but I have only dug up 5 grams, not counting this one gram in almost 20 years out here drywashing in the desert of southern California.
As you would know, things always seem to go wrong. My gas powered blower motor decided it was time for the repair shop, and haven't heard from the shop in two weeks. So I purchased a WORX WG521 corded electric leaf blower to use with my Royal Large drywasher. I'm using a portable generator to provide the power. And it actually is working better than with my old gas powered blower. I have to run the blower on the lowest speed, or I just blow everything through the riffles. Results are very good, as I am getting gold specks so small that I will have to use the Blue bowl in order to recover them.
I'm not only getting a little gold, I'm having some fun, and I am getting a good workout. I've lost 10 pounds since I started. So things are going well.
I'm still digging test holes around the old time hard rock mines in the hope I will find where the gold has drifted downhill below these mines. So far just a couple specks here and there. I figure I just have to move laterally one way or the other before I get something better Of course, I' don't really know if the old timers stripped the hillsides. Even if they have, they apparently aren't as thorough as I am. I hope that I may be lucky and find a larger piece of gold that the old timers, previous placer miners, and detectorists have missed.
Hope everyone is having as much fun as I have been having.

 

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[Assembler]

Well unless I missed a post , If you haven't hit bedrock of false bedrock (clay layer) you haven't mined the claim out ! Maybe it's to the point that it isn't worth digging for what you are getting! But there is always something there that has some value !

It is possible that the false bedrock is made of other materials besides clay. Picks and chisels can help with a false bedrock.
Even a metal detector can help spot that there is iron sands below the false bedrock at times.

Each area is going to be different.

 

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[Assembler]

Bot you don’t get it, you contribute nothing to our conversations and piss everyone off in the process. She asked you to stop yet you keep going with that same message.

Just conversation about the point that russau made about false bedrock.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Just thought I'd report in on my venture back to placer mining at the club claim.

I've been at it for almost a month, usually just once or twice a week. I'm also back to repairing the access roads to repair the damage the massive flooding caused. For the roads, they're still passable, but 2 wheel vehicles wouldn't make it, though the patches I've put in the bad spots will change that eventually.

I did about a ton of material per outing. Everything that I process gets classified by a 1/4 inch screen. There's no point in using the larger 1/2 inch screen. Larger than 1/4 inch gold just doesn't exist in this wash anymore.

But I did get lucky a week ago, coming up with a .26 gram nugget, and a specimen with dozens of specks of gold imbedded. So far, since back at placer mining, 1.2 grams. I'm hoping for two grams by year end. I guess I'm averaging about 1/10th gram per outing, which keeps me coming back.

I'm also feeling more fit, as the activity definitely, requires heavy work.

Now I need to get back to processing hard rock material I've gathered on days I'm not placer mining to supplement my total. Takes a lot of the gold dust to make a gram.

 

[BoulderTroll]

But I did get lucky a week ago, coming up with a .26 gram nugget, and a specimen with dozens of specks of gold imbedded.

Nice finds! Glad you're getting rewarded for the efforts you're putting in.

 

[desertgolddigger]

I'd set a goal that before the end of December, I'd reach the two gram mark digging up placer gold at the club claim.

I reached that goal today, just passing the two gram mark.

What's a little odd is that for the most part, very little fine gold has been recovered, but I'm not getting large stuff either, except for that one nice nugget previously mentioned. I've been managing a couple mini nuggets, smaller than 1/8 inch, and two to four about half that size, with a smattering of 1/30 mesh gold. Total has been just over 1/10th gram per outing.

I have to move about 1500 pounds of of dirt and rock, but doing that has gotten me a lot stronger, and I'm feeling better than just a month ago. On top of the placer mining, I'm back at paving the access roads with the rock, and skinning rough areas on the roads with the drywasher tailings.

I have four more outings before year end, so maybe I can dig another 1/2 gram. What all this work amounts to is I've gotten almost a third of what took me 2 1/2 years of long hours collecting hard rock gold, in a month of placer mining. I'll continue with the hard rock, but only to supplement what I find placer mining.

I did come across some rock ore someone tossed by the side of the wash I've been digging in. Under magnification, These half dozen brownish, pocked pieces of rock showed very fine gold. Apparently the person tossing these didn't check with a loupe. I guess that if the metal detector doesn't sound off, it's a reject, and tossed. There were some very mineralized pieces of quartz, with streaks of it running through them. I just need to crack them with my sledge hammer, and check those streaks. Kind of nice having all these interesting looking rocks placed in a big pile for me to play with.

 

[russau]

CONGRATULATION'S DGD on your quest 'goal to find gold !