The Quest for Maine Gold

[OreCart]

It is official; my rock samples are now ore samples!

My father in law, with the aid of a loupe, found a gold inclusion in one of the ore samples I had taken to New Hampshire yesterday. We did some testing on it, and it is NOT Iron Pyrite

He kept some of the other ore, and is going to pan it to see if the gold flakes are iron pyrite, or real gold.

 

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[OreCart]

Sadly, on another front, Dartmouth-Hitchcock said there is nothing they can do for my cancer, so this gold prospecting stuff is a good diversion from a harsh reality of my life.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Sadly, on another front, Dartmouth-Hitchcock said there is nothing they can do for my cancer, so this gold prospecting stuff is a good diversion from a harsh reality of my life.

Oh gosh, rough news. Thanks for sharing though, a good reminder for all of us to embrace every day as you must be doing now.

 

[Gold4Mike]

Sadly, on another front, Dartmouth-Hitchcock said there is nothing they can do for my cancer, so this gold prospecting stuff is a good diversion from a harsh reality of my life.

Sorry to hear that Orecart. That has got to be tough news for you to get.

 

[OreCart]

Sorry to hear that Orecart. That has got to be tough news for you to get.

Well it is the stuff of legends I guess. The irony of me finding real gold in a 9 acre are orebody never discovered in Maine, and there is only one person that knows where I is, and I will most likely take that with me to the grave.

Crazy ole OreCart, wondering around the back 40 (or in this case 7000 acres) and no one exactly figuring out where I was, but having the ore samples to back up what I say.

 

[triple d]

My prayers are with you buddy. So sad to hear that news.

 

[OreCart]

My prayers are with you buddy. So sad to hear that news.

Hey thanks, I have another Dr appointment next week, so there is always hope. I know my final destination anyway, and while I MIGHT have 1 ounce of gold per ton of ore here, up there I will be walking on streets paved with gold, so it is all good. I got a hefty amount of life insurance, and my wife is pretty so she should be able to find another husband easily enough!

On the ore front, I have not heard back from my Father-in-Law on what the ore samples I gave him, panned out as.

 

[OreCart]

On a secondary sampling spot, located to the west and on the other side of the hummock where I discovered the first bit of gold, I THINK I might have found more gold. It was an inclusion in some quartz, not very big, but passed all the gold tests of malleability. However I am new at this so I am unsure. It was not really shiny...gold in color, but not shiny gold in color, just a dull gold in color. It would seem to me that would be copper and not gold?

 

[triple d]

If its gold in color. Its either gold or Pyrite or mica. See if you can find the same type rock you used for samples. In the stream. They may be decomposing faster. And easier to crush. I also read you have the bed rock that has been pushed up on a angle. If so i believe this is how the califorina gold was formed. Maine was mostly ocean i believe. And other pieces of land from other areas of the world. Pushed into Maine making it bigger. This action made the gold.

 

[OreCart]

If its gold in color. Its either gold or Pyrite or mica. See if you can find the same type rock you used for samples. In the stream. They may be decomposing faster. And easier to crush. I also read you have the bed rock that has been pushed up on a angle. If so i believe this is how the califorina gold was formed. Maine was mostly ocean i believe. And other pieces of land from other areas of the world. Pushed into Maine making it bigger. This action made the gold.

I do not think it is pyrite because the inclusion is not flaky or brittle. I can stick a pen into it, then with a loupe see the indentation that was made. It is just the color that throws me off, it is not shiny, but it is not wet either. I have seen pictures on here of nuggets in peoples pans, and it looks like that. But this is a very small inclusion; maybe the size of a shotgun shell ball. And the sample size was probably a big coffee can amount, so not a lot of gold for the amount or rock I had sampled.

 

[triple d]

Your sample are very similar to the ones i crush. They don"t have as much Pyrite. But a lot of quartz. The top two of your samples if were left in water I think they would become very crumbly.Usually my understand is most of the gold. Comes from the rock that runs along side . The Quartz veins. If I had more rocks to crush. I thought about doing some thing to a wood splitter. Most of the lode gold around here. Was caused by faults. And this type of heating of the rock and water. When it was pushed to the surface.So most of this action was small in scale. Making only small veins of gold. Most of the bigger gold comes from areas of bigger volcanic activy. My take. Anyway your on the right trail.

 

[OreCart]

Your sample are very similar to the ones i crush. They don"t have as much Pyrite. But a lot of quartz. The top two of your samples if were left in water I think they would become very crumbly.Usually my understand is most of the gold. Comes from the rock that runs along side . The Quartz veins. If I had more rocks to crush. I thought about doing some thing to a wood splitter. Most of the lode gold around here. Was caused by faults. And this type of heating of the rock and water. When it was pushed to the surface.So most of this action was small in scale. Making only small veins of gold. Most of the bigger gold comes from areas of bigger volcanic activy. My take. Anyway your on the right trail.

Once the frost gets out of the ground, I can check my gravel pit. My Father-in-law is convinced gold is there, but I am not sure. It will be a few months before I can check, so I have been concentrating on lode gold.

I do have a few areas where there is bedrock, so I thought I would look for gold along that first.

I work with a lot of soil scientist here because I am a farmer, and because I get government grants, I have to have my gravel pass federal inspection. I asked her about gravel being in that pit, and she scoffed, so I am not so hopeful. She was a soil engineer in Alaska before coming here, so I would think she would know more about gravel and gold than anyone. (Of course I would still like to prove her wrong!)

It is good gravel, just too good. It is more for surface then base material for roads because it is very fine gravel, 2 inch minus, with very little dirt. It sounds like washed rock when you dump a bucketful into a truck, so she makes me mix overburden with it in order to get it to pack for the roadways. As for layers, there is the overburden of course, then several feet of gravel, then a layer of clay that is about a foot thick. Then under that is the best gravel you have ever seen. Nice sharp rock, no dirt, and rocks no bigger than two inches. That goes down to bedrock which can be a foot down, or all the way to 32 feet down (according to test bores). Unfortunately the water table is not very deep though, maybe 10 feet down in most places. Total acreage is around 8 acres, but fortunately is grandfathered on environmental laws because we have been digging out of this pit before 1970.

I had nothing to do yesterday as it was just too cold, so I was looking up a way to process gravel if it does hold some promise of gold. Again I am doubtful, but a Keene 151s Drywash system looked to be about what I need. I would probably add a trommel to prescreen out the rock and make the system all hydraulic so I can mount it on my Wallenstein and direct load it with the backhoe. Keene claims production of up to two tons per hour which is about what my little backhoe could do. That would be fine for what I would want to do, I am just not sure how often the cleanout has to take place on that Keene 151S. If it was every few yards, that would kind of be a pain to do as I would have to stop digging every hour. Maybe that is just what is required in digging for gold? (I have no idea)

The Wallenstein would work well, except that it does not dig very deep. It is perfect size for the Keene Drywasher, but the Hitachi would be too big. It also does not go deep enough. I need 32 foot digging depth, and all it can dig is 18 feet below the tracks. There is a Hitachi 1100 down in MA that has a 34 foot digging depth, and the guy only wants $61,000 for it, but it would take another $61,000 to truck it up here and put it back together! I got two houses up for sale now, and if they sold I might consider it, but I am sure my wife has plans for the money, and it is not in buying a Hitachi 1100 excavator! (LOL)

 

[Johnnybravo300]

The blower setup would be overkill unless you've got a crew working. The handcrank would be more than enough and quiet and wont blow out your riffles. Not really worth investing in equipment for a few small specks tho, wont ever pay for it, if you even have any gold there.
People too often spend wads of cash for nothing so be careful there. This is where testing is the most important before anything else. Theres no mistaking gold in a gold pan and the most important step so start there. Know your approx values before you go further and you'll be better off no matter how it turns out.

 

[OreCart]

Yeah, not having money is definitely the cure for Gold Fever! :-)

I have discovered lode gold 1700 feet away, but that does not mean there is gold in the gravel pit for sure.

My plan for that gravel pit has always been: dig out the gravel and make a pond for my sheep. Granted an 8 acre pond is a bit excessive, but gravel does not really grow grass well, so I minds well dig it out, make money off it, and have a nice pond in its wake.

At only $2 a cubic yard for gravel, it would be nice to see make sure any gold is out of it before trucking it off. You guys know this stuff better than I do, so it would be interesting to see what the best set-up would be to ensure the gold was out of the gravel.

I am in no super hurry to truck it off though. I would not have to go straight from bank, through a grizzly and sluice, then straight into a dump truck. I could process first, then haul off the tailings at another time.

 

[smokeythecat]

You can get a "rock crusher" for under $100 on Ebay and elsewhere. I bought one and they work. Then pan the light stuff out of it. I'll send you information on the guy who can test the sample cheap.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Build the pond then use it to supply a wash plant? Shoot for an oz a day!

 

[OreCart]

Build the pond then use it to supply a wash plant? Shoot for an oz a day!

Yeah that would work. Nothing as peaceful as watching sheep graze as you are running an excavator (about the most boring task in the world). LOL

I was digging around on YouTube and a guy had a video on starting a gold mine, and while he was in British Columbia, it was interesting in that their layers were a lot like mine here. BC had blue clay which I admit I do not have, but mine does have a foot of clay in it.

It kind of goes like this...Overburden a few feet deep (loam), then about 10 feet of gravel. Than that foot layer of clay (yellow), then gravel to bedrock at 32 feet.


I have been trying to figure out how the environmentalists would stop me, but I do not think they can. I am grandfathered for digging out gravel, and as long as I sell the waste rock for gravel, there should not be anything wrong with gleaning any gold out of it. Then of course, converting land for agricultural purposes is hardly condemnable. Even environmentalist's have to eat.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Private property, an excavator and a working gravel pit, should be good there. Lots of options!

It was always funny when I was doing excavation and someone asked us if we could do something for them.
We'd chuckle to ourselves and say, "We can do anything, we have an excavator."
We knocked out trees, nudge out trucks stuck in the mud, even concrete trucks, or help lift massive logs for log houses and many other things.
Its funny how when theres an ex around everyone needs ya "for just a minute".

 

[OreCart]

Private property, an excavator and a working gravel pit, should be good there. Lots of options!

It was always funny when I was doing excavation and someone asked us if we could do something for them.
We'd chuckle to ourselves and say, "We can do anything, we have an excavator."
We knocked out trees, nudge out trucks stuck in the mud, even concrete trucks, or help lift massive logs for log houses and many other things.
Its funny how when theres an ex around everyone needs ya "for just a minute".

That is true...except for one situation...WHEN YOU THROW A TRACK!

It took me 5 hours to get this track back on. I am a church-going-man, but I might have said some bad words that day!

 

[OreCart]

I had a dead animal I had to toss to the coyotes yesterday, so I strapped on my snowshoes so the coyotes would not have lunch so close to the barns.

I figured as long as I was out and about I might as well keep going and check out a nearby stream. It was a two mile hike, but about the only thing I got out of it was exercise. Most years that stream stays unfrozen, but this has been a really cold winter without a lot of snow, so it had frozen solid, and was covered with what little snow we do have. The outcropping of rock around it was even drifted in with snow, so there was nothing to check out.

It just goes to show that not every prospecting trip is productive.