Testing hydraulic banks

[falsesignal]

I was wondering if anyone had any insight on testing hydraulic banks? maybe at the bottom of the banks? or use a latter or rope to test halfway up banks? some of the hydraulic banks I found seem to be virgin cemented gravels? maybe metal detect. I always wanted to try but end up just moving on to easier ground .

 

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[bug]

Probably just fine gold in those gravels. Unless you can move a lot of gravel it doesnt pay to mess with. Bedrock could be a different story.

 

[falsesignal]

and gravel is like a cement wall, you could hit it with a sledge hammer and barley knock a pebble loose. I'll have to search for bedrock in the area. bedrock is not to exposed, it must be deep. thanks for the reply

 

[NeoTokyo]

Anything could be in there, just gotta sample it.

 

[falsesignal]

Neo youre right, only way to to see whats there, is to start sampling. there are a couple of washouts coming down the bank, I'll start there.

 

[falsesignal]

Neo youre right, only way to to see whats there, is to start sampling. there are a couple of washouts coming down the bank, I'll start there.

 

[Goldwasher]

try to research, if you have a name of the mine or the actual channel name. The washouts would be a good start. The nearest watercourse below or cutting throught the deposit would be better. THe gold in tertiary channel isn't always only on the bottom. There are "Paylayers"

 

[kuger]

Be extra careful around the bottoms of those!!!!They seem cemented and are until exposed to air,they the air slack,which means rocks fall out....even a small rock from a few feet on the head can be fatal

 

[TerryC]

Pvillehunter makes an excellent point. The bedrock may be 50 feet below but do you really want to go that deep? I have found (through reading 1963 bulletin for Calaveras Co, CA) that virtually all the placer mines in the county are found to be on one of the tertiary channels in the county and MOST are paystreaks at less than bedrock level. RESEARCH! TTC

 

[falsesignal]

thanks for the replys guys. I'll let you know how its goes.

 

[bug]

Usually in the ancient river flows east of Sacramento the upper gravels were not very rich. For example at Gold Run the top gravel layer ran 5 cents per yard, compared with the bottom layer that containing several dollars per yard.

 

[bedrock bubba]

The bottom layer on the bedrock is usually the best. Problem is, it is usually cemented, so you may need some kind of rock crusher to break it up. What you are trying to do is TOO DANGEROUS! Another thing, stay out of drift mines that are in the face of the cliff. I had a friend who was killed by a cave in years ago!

I always look for a tailrace at the lower end of the pit, where the wash from the sluices ended. That could be a gully or carved into bedrock like a shute, or piles of rubble. There may be ponds where the wash went into, that can have nice gold. Wherever there are bedrock exposures are where you should be.

 

[trinityau]

If you could give us your full name, we could watch for a storyline. Not LOL. Doing research on mining deaths the last twenty or so years shows drowning to be first, walls of rock covering someone as a close second. In my prospecting over the last forty or so years I have never found anything worth messing with on those towering walls of gravel. If there was any pay left then they would not be there. I use to think oh my god I going to hit the bonanza, never has happened. In my part of the country if you look good enough you will see sign where the old timers or chinese drifted on the bedrock under these massive walls and took out what was there.

I ran an operation on the Big East Fork of Canyon Creek in Trinity County for a few years. We had a massive trommel operation and I was up against a two hundred and forty foot wall of gravel. Prettiest stuff to look at and dream about what might be there. We cleaned the toeslope out of the way along the base of the wall. We found entances where someone had gone in on the bedrock. There was almost three acres of bedrock that had been cleaned by hand. They left pillars of gravel about every twelve feet. These pillars were about three to four feet across and about ten feet tall. The pillars were the only thing holding the gravel overhead in place, all two hundred and forty feet. This was one big cavern. I was relieved when I got out of there.

Later that summer I ran some cuts across the face and broke it down a bit. Several weeks later I was in position to clear a small area out that had been over fourteen of the pillars. Very delicalely I could move that excavator around and clean up near the still standing pillars. Once we were satisfied that we had near virgin material we started to take it out and run it. After all the work leading up to this point I managed to run about eighty yards. Out of that eighty yards a bit over a hundred ounces was found with a few multi ouncers in the lot. I only found just over four ounces of fines, rice size and smaller. The rest was a beatiful jewelry grade nuggets. The other problem was because we were using the trommel a lot of our pretty gold was not so pretty no more. After all was done and we added up time and materials even with a hundred ounce clean-up day it just was not enough. More of the same is still there under two hundred and forty feet of gravel. The lower eight feet of gravel is all that payed. I ran several hundred yards of the different levels and layers to see hardly any gold. Everything was on the bedrock. That ground is now all covered up.

Even with equipment,what you are after is a very challenging effort that more than likely could end up with a dangerous outcome. I would stick to remnant channels that are just a few feet deep and clean them to bedrock. I have done this while detecting and have come out very well. Those old timers were pretty damn savvy, not much got past them. TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS

 

[kuger]

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