Where to start, old gold mine

[calicojaxx]

Hi
I'm totally newbie to treasure hunting so i thought to ask here
I live close to gold bearing zone and like hiking so i decided to join the pleasure and the adventure and do some detecting and panning while outside.
I did my share of search and preparation and found nice ancient open air gold mine but honestly i don't know where to start, it is quite sloppy there and there is no way i check it all so i'm wondering where to start without discouraging family (which also participate) with the risk taking precipice climbing and fighting with the vegetation.
Here is the image of mine,

weekend we tried to search a bit but found not even rusty nail

green - route we walked
blue - creek
yellow - mined area
What would you experts recommend? is it better to start in the areas up the hill carved into the rock or do some panning in the stream on the bottom of the valley, or yet check all rock outcrops around?

 

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[Johnnybravo300]

Looks like it was a placer mine along the creek? See if you get any colors from the creek. Not sure what the details are on where you were at or what you're looking for there. I'd probably start in the creek and work your way up. Might have to have someone carry the machete haha.

 

[meMiner]

I have never been in a mining area where there was no junk. Are you using a detector?

 

[calicojaxx]

My idea was to get to the upper part of the worked area which is in straight line from the road bend but i gave up due to strong wind and a tad dangerous slope. I did the creek with the detector in random places in the past but no luck than thought to try panning. Yes, me too i'm wonder where is a junk, i suspect whole area down the stream is (just where photo ends), load of mountain was worked and removed and had to go somewhere. This is ancient roman mine and rivers around are known to have some gold but i like off beaten tracks and decided to try there

 

[Lanny in AB]

My idea was to get to the upper part of the worked area which is in straight line from the road bend but i gave up due to strong wind and a tad dangerous slope. I did the creek with the detector in random places in the past but no luck than thought to try panning. Yes, me too i'm wonder where is a junk, i suspect whole area down the stream is (just where photo ends), load of mountain was worked and removed and had to go somewhere. This is ancient roman mine and rivers around are known to have some gold but i like off beaten tracks and decided to try there

So, an old Roman mine . . . Was it placer (nuggets and flakes of gold) or was it hard-rock (solid rock that is ore-bearing)?

If the old Romans mined it extensively, and if they used slaves, it could be a very low-grade deposit which would have been viable perhaps with free labor.

If the deposit was placer or hard-rock, go out beyond where the mine was worked (on the borders or the margins) and try detecting there.

How experienced are you at detecting? Have you done a lot of coin hunting/relic hunting? Are you brand-new to metal detecting?

Finding nuggets takes a lot of patience, a lot of learning, and a lot of dedication and continual motivation through persistence to find the gold. So, you'll need to know your machine exceptionally well, you'll need to practice, practice, practice with your detector digging as many different types of targets with it until you know its every nuance.

I'm not familiar with the Tesoro Intuition (can't find it on the Internet): is it a gold detecting machine built for prospecting? Or, do you have another dedicated gold nugget hunting machine?

Whatever you use, you'll need one that will handle ground mineralization as where there's gold, there's likely other minerals in concentration.

So, get out on the margins/borders of where the old Romans worked and look for stray pieces of gold after you've panned in the creek to see if there's any indicator gold left.

All the best in your hunt for the yellow metal,

Lanny

 

[delnorter]

Could you post a section of a topographic map of the same area?

Mike

 

[meMiner]

Follow up question. Are you sure this was a gold mine? The cool thing about detecting this area is likely anything that beeps on the detector is worthwhile to dig. I would give my left one to be able to metal detect in a remote Roman location. Good luck with your adventure.

 

[calicojaxx]

Oh yes, they are known and even marked on the map as such, quite few of them around, most open air but also few underground too dangerous to explore.
Thanks for all suggestions, all i need now is a sunny weekend
Bests
J

 

[Lanny in AB]

Oh yes, they are known and even marked on the map as such, quite few of them around, most open air but also few underground too dangerous to explore.
Thanks for all suggestions, all i need now is a sunny weekend
Bests
J

Good luck with your adventure, and stop by sometime to let us know how the hunt is going, whether you find gold or artifacts . . .

All the best,

Lanny

 

[alaskaseeker]

Sounds like an interesting adventure, good luck to you.......

 

[ToastedWheatie]

If it's a known location, and marked on maps, maybe all the junk has been cleaned out by many people with detectors of the last 40 years.