Gold Bearing Crevice Dirt

[H&F909ORO]

Hi All,

So, today I was up at mineral bar doing some crevicing and noticed something very interesting. Past the bridges going down stream on the left hand side of the river there is a lot of bed rock. The first few hundred feet has this dirt that has small pebbles and is a desert dirt color. I have found some tiny prices in that before, but I decided to move further down. I was seeing a whole different type of dirt. It was a grayish color almost like sand. There was sand in a lot of places as well. I started to dig this one crevice out and it was a big whole that went sliding into the bedrock and it contained brown clay. I have seen this type before and have noticed gold does not like to go with it. I took a lot of this clay like dirt out and panned it to find 4 nice tiny flakes. Since it had good results I went for more. I only scraped the top when I got the flakes. Now I was getting pure Clayish material out, only to find the next two panfulls to contain nothing. Why is that? I though gold traveled with this kind of dirt. Anyway I found a spot that had a rusty color to it. It turned out to be my best crevice. It contained tons of small fine gold flakes in it and I worked it for about an hour. It have good results. So, in conclusion on the couple hundred yard stretch of bedrock I found light brown clay, gray dirt, sand, brown dirt, and a rusty type dirt. They were all in sections. Why is the dirt different in a short distance? I don't get it. Any suggestions on what this might mean? I wish I got pictures, but forgot to take some.

[golden sluice]

Hey there, H&F.
I think you found natural stratification occurring, or possibly other varibles such as flash flooding. Bedrock is going to riffle filter out heavies. I say exploit the bedrock and crevice hunt for even more gold at the bottem of your cleaned out bedrock pockets with a chisel. Git the gold!

[Lanny in AB]

Lots of times, the clay will act like a barrier and the gold sticks to the surface.

If the clay has lots of small rocks mixed in it, that's another story. Always test that.

The rusted material with the gold was most-likely magnetite or hematite oxidizing, or there may have been oxidized pyrite with it as well. It's probably been oxidizing down in that crevice for a while. I always get very interested when I find heavily oxidized material in a crevice.


All the best,

Lanny

[golden sluice]

Lanny is rignt in that the clay top will collect gold, the rest acts as a dense clay barrier, no gold will sink through that thick clay. The heavies below the clay are from an older geologic time. This is the soil you really want to test. I have run into a clay barrier at chilli bar that had nice flour under the clay. I have also run Into a clay barrier on the yuba that had no gold under the clay at all.i hate panning clay, its a real pain. Experiment. If you need to pan clay, use dish detergent and finger grind that clay into slip. Suds will release the pebbles. Inspect the pebbles in the clay...they just might be a nice peice of gold.

[Hoser John]

Soap subs will also float away the small gold. GOOGLE floatation cell as same same idea. Throw in a bucket and scrub with a shovel handle and mix like mortar to break down that nasty clay. Can be batch treated with sod buster or clay be gone also at home. Some cracks got it--some don't and on that you can bet fer sure-John

[H&F909ORO]

Explains why I found 4 small flakes at the beginning of the whole. Thanks for the responses!

[mxer47]

I copied this from catfish. Idk if it works but it is a recipe for homemade clay-b-gone.
I learned how to make my own "Clay-B-Gone" solution from scratch instead of buying it off the internet. All you need to dissolve red clay is a free ion of floride and a free ion of hydrogen. A squirt of floride toothpaste and a splash of hydrogen peroxide in a gallon jug of water works just fine. Turns clay balls into soup. Add some more water to your pan and pour out the clay. All that's left is water and sand.

[goldenmojo]

Hi All,

So, today I was up at mineral bar doing some crevicing and noticed something very interesting. Past the bridges going down stream on the left hand side of the river there is a lot of bed rock. The first few hundred feet has this dirt that has small pebbles and is a desert dirt color. I have found some tiny prices in that before, but I decided to move further down. I was seeing a whole different type of dirt. It was a grayish color almost like sand. There was sand in a lot of places as well. I started to dig this one crevice out and it was a big whole that went sliding into the bedrock and it contained brown clay. I have seen this type before and have noticed gold does not like to go with it. I took a lot of this clay like dirt out and panned it to find 4 nice tiny flakes. Since it had good results I went for more. I only scraped the top when I got the flakes. Now I was getting pure Clayish material out, only to find the next two panfulls to contain nothing. Why is that? I though gold traveled with this kind of dirt. Anyway I found a spot that had a rusty color to it. It turned out to be my best crevice. It contained tons of small fine gold flakes in it and I worked it for about an hour. It have good results. So, in conclusion on the couple hundred yard stretch of bedrock I found light brown clay, gray dirt, sand, brown dirt, and a rusty type dirt. They were all in sections. Why is the dirt different in a short distance? I don't get it. Any suggestions on what this might mean? I wish I got pictures, but forgot to take some.

H&F You are asking questions and that is good. The gold is laid out along that section and any section that you find it in as it reacts to the different water levels and amount of material in the water. As you gain more knowledge of how the flow stratifies it in conjunction with water volume and the amount of slump it carries you will find that it will be right where you predict it will be and it will not be right where you predict it will be. You will however over time adopt the attitude that every panfull of dirt you get is a sample pan, even when working a paystreak. Great Gold to You and always keep questioning.

GM

[AzViper]

Down where I mine we have lots of hard clay balls that retain gold. We use a paint mixer attached to a drill and a 15 gallon barrel with the top cut off. We start out with about 5 gallons of clay balls and heavy amount of water and pulverize the clay balls. Once we are done mixing we screen everything and down to 1/2" and run it through the sluice. Obviously you have to have a generator at your disposal out in the field but it works fantastic. Once my trommel is operational then this process will go bye bye...

[MadMarshall]

Geology of the North Fork American
just some info.

[H&F909ORO]

Down where I mine we have lots of hard clay balls that retain gold. We use a paint mixer attached to a drill and a 15 gallon barrel with the top cut off. We start out with about 5 gallons of clay balls and heavy amount of water and pulverize the clay balls. Once we are done mixing we screen everything and down to 1/2" and run it through the sluice. Obviously you have to have a generator at your disposal out in the field but it works fantastic. Once my trommel is operational then this process will go bye bye... <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=961735"/> <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=961737"/>

gee, no wonder why you need a trommel

[Aufisher]

Bear River bedrock crevice pickers on 1 foot of clay

[H&F909ORO]

Well great job! I still dream to find my first picker. It's out there, but I have yet to get it.

[H&F909ORO]

Gre

[H&F909ORO]

Whoops double post.