School is back in... Time to work!!!!!

goldenIrishman said:
I like the runoff idea too with one exception... The overflow from the pond is on the other side of the road!!! :( I will be detecting all around that foundation as soon as I get a chance. Right now other things have to take priority if ya know what I mean.

So far I've finished up two of the samples we brought back. The first one shouldn't really be called a sample as it was only 1/2 a bucket from the floor of one of the washes that run across the claim. Still... There was gold in it. The first real sample was not all that impressive. There was some gold in it but not much. Still I did find a nice little picker in the pan so that area will need to be checked a little closer.

I've still got three other samples to run but I'm still looking for that classifier picker. Considering I'm classifying to 1/4" that would be a nice picker.

These samples were taken using the "Mossberg" method. Scattered all over the claim area. I'm already planning a logical approach to future sampling using a grid method. These samples we got last weekend were just to find a place to work while we do the "real" testing.

I can already see that different areas of the claim are going to call for different methods.
Click to expand...

If you have an area with water that runs off and not into the pond you may want build a Hydraulic Ram Pump and put it in place. Free water pumping.
 

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The pond that's on the claim looked to be filled only by the monsoon rains. I'd imagine that they do a good job of topping it off because the overflow/spillway has carved a respectable channel. knowing how those rains work I think that just about anything in their way when the water does start flowing is going to be destroyed in a short heartbeat.

The water rights are yet to be determined. Clay thinks they may be grandfathered in but I need to double check before even thinking of using any water from the pond. If I can use it, then most likely I'd only be using it for the recirc system and would pull the truck over there and fill up the drums with a pump. It will sure make things easier than having to drive over to Kentucky Camp or Sonoita to get water. More time processing materials than hauling water is always a plus.
 

Oh I agree! It will make my life a lot easier!

The testing continues. I've run all but one of the samples so far and every single one of them has had some gold. A real plan on detailed testing is starting to form in my mind now as well. So far the sample from the floor of the wash has had the highest % of gold. I'm thinking of doing a "Crack and Vac Attack" while I get the rest of the testing done to locate the bulk of the gold on the claim.
 

That's in the works Dan. Before I went out and spent a ton of cash on equipment I wanted to do the testing and explore different possibilities on how best to work the area. Cleaning out the wash is something we can do while we decide on what is going to work best and cause the least amount of damage to the area. AZ can back me up when I say it's a beautiful area and it needs to be worked in such a way that others can still enjoy it afterwards. To do that, it's going to require careful planning and dedication to recovery efforts. Cleaning out the washes is going to be very low impact on the area and if done right can help to provide pools of water for the wildlife to have access to in the future.
 

ROFLMAO!! GOTCHA!!!!!

Last night I called my long time friend and mining partner Dave R. out in San Diego. I was very serious sounding at the start of the conversation.....

Me: Hey Dave. I just called to let you know that I'm not going to be prospecting anymore.

Dave: WHAT!!?? What happened that you're going to give it up man? I know you love doing this so it had to be something serious!!!

Me: Well... It's like this... I'm not going to be prospecting because I'm going to be too busy to be running around the desert looking for gold.

Dave: What did you do? Go out and get a job for some company or something?

Me: No. I'm just going to be really busy on a new project and just won't have time to be keeping up the hunt for some time to come.

Dave: Ok... What kind of project could keep you from doing what you love to do? It's got to be something really important man.

Me: Well it is. I'm not going to be prospecting because I'm going to be too busy mining the claim that Robi and I just staked out........

Dave: (Dead silence for a few moments while it sinks in) Whaaaat????? You silly sob! You had me going there!

Keep in mind here folks that Dave is one of my oldest friends as well as the guy that got me into prospecting and mining in the first place. We go back to grade school and have moved a lot of dirt together over the years. That doesn't mean that I'm not above pulling a joke like that on him. :laughing7: :laughing7: :laughing7::laughing7:
 

Nice one!
 

Well the results from the first round of testing are in and to put it bluntly... THERE'S GOLD IN DEM DAR HILLS!!!!! EVERY sample had some gold in it. The hands down winner was the smallest sample (I almost feel bad about calling a sample) of a 1/2 bucket from the bottom of the main wash through the claim. Worst sample only had a single small piece of gold. but it still had something. My Usual sample size is 20 gallons of materials.

I'll be going out this coming weekend and doing some more testing on the north and east sides of the claim and in some of the smaller washes. We'll also be walking the main wash from top to bottom to decide on the best way to attack it. I'd like to get as much cleaned out of there as I can before the monsoon season starts up and that's going to take some planning.
 

What a difference 3 driving miles make

As I've been processing the samples from the new claim I've really been noticing some of the differences in the composition of the materials when compared to the stuff we were getting in the Kentucky Camp area which is only a mile or so away. (It's 3.1 miles by the roads in the area)

Magnetic "sands" are MUCH courser and are a lot lower in the percentage of content per bucket. Granted we haven't dug very deep yet so that might change as we get down further.

A lot less clay (dirt type... NOT Mr. Diggins) Again, that could be from lack of depth. Time will tell.

A lot more Quartz. Of course we have not one but two quartz lattices running into/through the claim. That was one reason we picked this area.

LOTS more decomposed granite. Tailings should make for some good "road bed material" if not used to back fill our holes.

The gold is courser over all so far and very crystalline looking. Nice "Buttery Yellow" in color. STILL looking for that "Classifier Picker" though.

A lot fewer of those sharp little shards of rock the stick us in the hands as we classify materials.

All in all I think we did pretty good in choosing this area to stake. It's going to be a lot of work to get the gold out of it in some places but from the looks of the samples so far there should be plenty of it.
 

Great to hear the news on the claim GoldenI...hey, I like that nickname for you: Goldeneye!
 

Golden Eye? Wasn't that the title of a bad James Bond movie? Only good thing about the Bond movies was the ladies. Never saw one of those movies that didn't have some "lookers" in it. Of course if I had someone making toys for me like he did I'd just have to kick back and have the gold jump into my vials.
 

I'll get Q to work on a "gold summoning" device right away! It'll be disguised as a six pack of beer ;-)
 

Jeff, sorry bud I fell asleep last night but will call you when get back from P/T today on my shoulder. When I came home from taking a buddy of mine out drywashering last night I had a bat inside the house of which was a pain in the ass to get the little sh*t to fly out an open door.

Here is a photo of the gold found yesterday with the drywasher and a detailed photo of exactly where the gold came from. No it did not come from one of those open pit mines.

Gold.png DWing.gif​
 

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No problem Keith. I figured something had come up. I keep trying to tell everyone here I'm psycho... Errr I mean psychic. (Or is that "C"... both of the above?)

Working up a PDF to send you and hope to have it done by the time ya call.
 

A quick trip and a quick check pays off

Well we managed to get back out to the claim for a little bit this weekend. Robis' work has been in an uproar because of a buyout so we were lucky to be able to get out there at all.

We didn't even get out the door until about 9:30am on Saturday morning even though I had loaded most of the gear up the night before. Neither of us could get our motors started because of a late night on Friday. We stopped to fuel up the truck, hit the bank (no Keith, no money clips will be found at our claim) and finally got to the claim about 12:30. We would have been there sooner if it hadn't been for that flat tire just west of Kentucky Camp.

First thing we did was to grab a sample from an existing cut that was in the next section over from our claim. It had been worked quite a bit and was just off our claim and the claim below us. It was some hard digging and took some time to fill 2 buckets up classifying the materials to 1/4 inch. By the time I got them hauled back to the truck, it was time to get the camp set up for the night. Once camp was up and ready to go, we had just enough time to hit the wash that goes through our claim and start doing some "Crackin". We started on the south end of the wash where it leaves our claim and started working our way upstream. As we cleared out rocks, we lined them up across the bed of the wash to form a small dam that will just slow the water enough for any gold to drop out. Our plan is to make a few of these little dams in strategic locations to act as gold traps when the monsoon rains hit. Now I don't know if they're hold up to a real gully washer but they should be able to handle a moderate flow. We're not trying to stop the water, just slow it down a bit and give the gold a chance and a place to drop out of the flow.

We managed to get 2 buckets filled and hauled back to camp before dark even though I ended up cooking our dinner by lamp/flashlight. Someone forgot to pack the Cribbage board and we didn't feel like building a fire so we racked out about 7pm.

Up with the sunrise and coffee finished up quickly so we could do a little packing of gear before we hit the wash. Robi wanted to be heading home around noon in case there were some things she needed to take care of for work. We then headed back down to the spot on the wash that we had started working on the night before and continued working our way upstream. We cleared out a LOT of rocks as we went and tossed them to the side so we can use them for the next trap. We filled up 4 more buckets and by that time we had to get loaded up to head back. Considering how far I had to haul buckets FULL of materials and the short time we were actually out there in working conditions I don't feel that bad about only bringing back 40 gallons of materials.

So we headed back to the homestead, stopping in town to pick up the Munchkin from her other Grandmothers house and made it back by 3:30. We got the truck unloaded, equipment stowed and the sluice set up by sunset. I had cleaned out the re-circ system earlier in the week so all I had to do was re-fill the water and put the mats in place.

After dinner I couldn't help myself and went out to the processing area and set up one of my 500 watt work lights and ran about a dozen canteen cups worth of the materials from the wash. I just had to know if there was anything in that stuff. We had cleaned out the cracks as best we could but they really REALLY need a vacuum taken to them to finish them off. Much of the stuff we hauled back is what I'd consider as overburden, but since there was a lot of gravel in it as we dug I had a feeling that there would be some gold in it anyway. After running a dozen canteen cups worth of materials through the sluice I shut off the pump. I let the water drain for a few minutes then I pulled the first mat out and rinsed it into my favorite pan. A couple of minutes panning down the cons and I was to black sands. Run the magnet over them to get the iron out and then I did a quick search. I found five nice little "pin head" sized chunks and I'm sure there's some fines in there as well. Not too bad for less than half a buckets worth of materials. Can't wait till we have a chance to run a vacuum over that area and do a detailed cleaning of those same cracks!!!!!
 

Jeff,

Sorry but I had no way of getting over to your area or contacting you. My cell service ends about 8 miles south of I-10. We were parked just down from Kentucky Camp and headed north for a 3/4s of a mile walk. My wives car is still under warranty so its off to the shop after meeting with my surgeon in the morning. On our way in we were greeted by about two dozen runners. It looked as though they started their run at the Greaterville road and 83 and ran that entire loop over to Gardner Cayon and 83. Then came across a bunch of bird hunters and their dogs, plus a couple of guys sitting behind 15x60 Zeiss Binos looking at the hill side we were headed towards. Dear season ended Dec. 31st and I believe archery Javelina should be all of Jan.
 

Just love reading along with your adventures on the new claim. Thanks for taking the time to share it all with us!
 

Well with what I found in the sluice this afternoon I think Robi might become a "crack addict". ;) I had just finished running the last of the materials from the wash and after letting the water run for a few minutes to clear the last of the junk out I shut her down. As usual I examined the upper mat looking for pickers when lo and behold I found a nice nugget sitting about two inches from the point that I put the materials into the system! I'd quesstimate it at about 4.5 to 5 grains and it didn't even require tweezers to get it off the mat.

Robi is almost ready to start cracking full time out there!
 

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