where there is flood gold...

[akflyer]

Do you think there will be good gold on the bedrock? I have been working a bench that is 30-40' away from the current stream bed. It is about 3' high and full of boulders to basket ball sized rocks and river gravel / sand. I have taken samples all over the area and it seems the very edge of the bench from about 6-8" down is the best material. I have punched down about 3' but don't find much from the 6-8" layer down to the bottom of the 3' hole. I am not sure how far down bed rock is, but would it stand to reason that in areas that there is decent flood gold there should be good gold on the bedrock if I can get to it?

 

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[Goldwasher]

Yea, but if you can't get to it then it isn't worth it. Work the layer that has gold. See if you can find that layer on other bars and benches.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

I'm curious about what you mean by "flood gold". If you're talking about flour gold (very flat and tiny), then there's no benefit to going deeper. Flour gets deposited in pay streaks. Along with going deeper, you would need to find the streaks at that deeper level. That means moving a lot of material. The Snake River, near my home, is loaded with flour, and is recognized as some of the toughest gold to recover. In the Snake, there's no benefit to depth. The easiest gold is right near the surface...usually no more than 12" down, and that 12" of material has a lot of flour in it.
But, if you have coarser gold in your stream, it tends to go down, and isn't as likely to be in streaks, so going deeper makes sense.
jim

 

[akflyer]

Jim,

Flood gold is that which is moved down the river during flooding. Not the stuff sitting on bedrock that has been there for eons buried under feet of material.

I have been finding the "pay streaks" of the floor gold and have gotten pretty dialed in on where to find it easily. The question I guess will always haunt me till I look for myself and find out what is on bedrock and how far down it is. Only one way to find out and that's to start sucking out a hole.

 

[arizau]

In past posts you have kind of indicated that you are pretty much sticking to sites that are accessible by plane or close to a road. That said; have you thought about near by and up stream feeder creeks and seasonal drainages? They are often steeper, sure to be shallower and may have bedrock exposed or close to the surface and.....may be the source of your "flood gold", maybe even from cutting through an ancient elevated stream/bench deposit. Gold doesn't often travel far even with flooding.

Good luck.

 

[akflyer]

In past posts you have kind of indicated that you are pretty much sticking to sites that are accessible by plane or close to a road. That said; have you thought about near by and up stream feeder creeks and seasonal drainages? They are often steeper, sure to be shallower and may have bedrock exposed or close to the surface and.....may be the source of your "flood gold", maybe even from cutting through an ancient elevated stream/bench deposit. Gold doesn't often travel far even with flooding.

Good luck.

Airplane, boat, wheeler etc. I have been doing some prospecting up side creeks etc as well. I was just thinking out loud to get thoughts on the odds of having a "pay layer" of flour gold pretty much on the surface translating into getting down to bed rock and having more chunky stuff there. Only way to find out is to get out there and see how far down I have to go and see for myself.