Searching for gold on google earth/maps

[gold hound]

When u guys are scouting an area to prospect and looking at google earth or other maps of the terrain... What catches your eye the most? Obviously u want to be in gold bearing area, but I'm talking more of the geological formations or fault lines etc.. I've been looking at the obvious. Gulches,canyons, ledges/ benches by gold bearing gultches etc.. I guess my problem is, I don't really want to go where every other prospector has been. I'm wanting to trying to think out side of the Box and explore remote and hard to access locations. But,on the other hand I don't want to exert all the effort to come back empty handed. They say no risks, no rewards... I've learned a lot on this websight, and I'm not afraid to ask for help.
I feel that in order to be successful, u need to be around successful people. Then comes the education u receive by being around those people. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks

 

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[goldog]

Son of a *****, I think we are related Gold Hound! Sorry I couldn't help myself

Being in Kansas City there are special considerations I would think. (I'll assume you are looking near Missouri or Kansas.) I'm not familiar with glacial gold deposits but you should be. What I would look for in So Cal would be an entirely different set of signs.

I'm sure you've heard of http://highplainsprospectors. This blog page taught me more than I'll ever need to know on the subject. That's in Kansas but both States have similar geology, I think. Clicked on those maps to see more.

"Since gold in Missouri was deposited by glaciation in roughly the northern 1/3 of the state, most success will be found in these areas. Charriton River has placer gold that can be panned. Other rivers worthy of investigation include the North Fabius, Mussel Fork, Grand, Thompson, and Platte River. It is likely that all of these rivers as well as tributaries could have small amounts of gold present, as well as the Missouri River. Gold is likely to be extremely fine, so careful panning will be required."

Here's an area where we overlap. I look for out of place boulders in order to ID old river channels here in California. According to what I just learned you should be looking for out of place glacial material. Boulders that said “Yeeehaawww!” as they rode in ice from South Dakota, possibly pushing the gold along as it went. When you go out to known gold/glacial moraine areas go back and look on your map (you do have a map) to see what it looks like. Fill in the logical gaps between known areas and try to confirm from observation. I've marked a couple spots on your new map. I have no idea if they are any good. Use gullies, bridge crossings, and road-cuts to see below grade where you can.Pay attention to where current streams cut through where the ice retreated. See how far downstream there is quartz or glacial material.

Good luck!

 

[KiddoTheMiner]

Ive found that when a creek is in a valley there tend to be more
River channels feeding into it

If you don't know if there are gravels in your banks that means there used to be a river there
And now gold from it is in your active stream

So look for creeks in a low elevation from
The surrounding area

 

[gold hound]

Wasn't really talking about my local area... Was referring to researching areas that have good gold. When I prospect here, it's more of an excuse for me to play in a creek. Anything over an 8 hour drive is when I want to be sure I've dotted all my i's and crossed all my t's when it comes to research. Glacial gold is in my opinion is either hit or miss. Usually a miss... When I'm in gold rich areas I always have several locations (gpaa claims etc..) to prospect as back up plans if no color found in search of the motherload.

 

[Honkey3k]

I regularly search gmaps for hours on end looking for spots to hike to in Northern California. One thing you need to watch out for is elevation changes. What may appear as scalable terrain may actually be a cliff 100ft tall. Here is an example of exactly that. Screen Shot 2014-08-29 at 11.58.48.png ? Droplr

Anyways, I think its a great tool that has paid off for me in spades.

 

[goldog]

Wasn't really talking about my local area... Was referring to researching areas that have good gold.

Well nevermind.

 

[CApicker]

I found a great mapping web site for California folks that allows you to superimpose a map from as far back as 1885-1915 over a current map... you can see where the rivers used to flow years ago and this will refine where to look now. Take a look at this screen shot and see the old and new rivers together... Pretty cool stuff. I used and and walked right to a spot and got good Gold teh first pan! I love digital prospecting! Good luck with it.
the site is called CalTopo.

 

[KiddoTheMiner]

Well nevermind.

by never mind I think you talking about nirvana's album wrong "nevermind"

 

[benny]

surveying.org works for me. Satellite view, topo view, etc.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Google maps/earth is fairly good to get a general idea of terrain but that's about it. Most of the images on Google are at least three years old and a lot of changes can happen in that time.

Here in Arizona I use the Arizona geological services site to look up mines in any area of the state. There are several search options to choose from too. I've been downloading the data for every gold mine in Mohave County for about a week and a half now and I'm only somewhere around 2/3s of the way done. I've gotten over 4 GIGS worth of data so far and it ranges from assays to geological maps to maps of claims and their workings.

I've noticed that placer mining in that area is not real big, but I've found data for well over 200 lode mines in that county alone. If there's lode gold, you know that there's got to be placer deposits down hill from them. My plan is to digest all that data to locate what should be good placer areas then check with the county recorders office to see what areas are not claimed yet.

Even with all this research and experiance mining in other areas, each area has its own quirks and nothing will ever beat "Boots on the ground".

 

[Clay Diggins]

If there's lode gold, you know that there's got to be placer deposits down hill from them.

Glad to see you doing the research Jeff, sure saves a lot of time wandering around hoping for gold.

That AZGS collection just keeps growing, it's been a great resource for us. They will even scan documents in their collection on request. If you bring a flash drive to their office they will load up the info right there so you don't have to wait for them to post it online. Nice folks doing a great job, rare today to see such dedication and they deserve a big public Thank You!

You might want to reconsider your statement above. There are many types of lode gold deposits that don't produce placers. Read those mine production reports and if they mention sulfides you might find your time better spent around another gold deposit. A lot of gold is so chemically locked up that it will never produce a single grain of placer material.

The majority of free gold deposits only produce micro gold that can not be recovered profitably by small scale placer mining methods. The Carlin Trend in Nevada is a good example. It's a world class gold deposit and the source of most of the gold mined in the United States but the gold is so small it's invisible and doesn't produce placer deposits worth mining.

That's the beauty of those mine reports your are downloading, they can warn you off from deposits that don't have any free gold. Read them closely as the AZGS has a lot of promotional material in that collection so you have to take most of the commercial reports with a grain (or a yard) of salt.

Keep researching and do it with a fine tooth comb and you can find a potentially good placer deposit worth working. They are out there. You are on the right path!

Heavy Pans

 

[goldenIrishman]

I agree 150% Clay. A well informed miner has a much better chance of being successful in his/her efforts than someone wandering the desert like a chicken with its head cut off. I don't want to waste time like that hence the research. Besides seeing where gold has been found in the past this has turned into quite an education into other aspects of mining that I've never really been around. I also see your point on the free gold. I've been wrong on things in the past and I'm sure it won't be the last time.

While I haven't started going through all of the data, from the pictures I've grabbed so far I had figured that there was a lot of sulphides in many of these locations. The shots of mills with leach heaps were a pretty good giveaway. Needless to say, I've got no wish to get into that kind of processing at this time. Down the road.. who knows?

I do have a couple of questions for ya Clay that I'll send you in an e-mail instead of posting here on an open forum. That way this thread can progress as intended without me claim jumping it.

 

[Got_4by4]

Your manner of speaking sounds like you are trying to find a "new" way to find gold.

There are alot of nice people trying to give you good advice. I just don't see you wanting to put in the "effort" to learn geology and science and whatever it "takes" to learn. It sounds more like you are picking our minds. Not wanting to go where gold has been found before? That is how you learn! Many of us have toiled for years. Spent more time and money than we will ever recover. All with the "hope" that we might find the mother lode!

You have many years of "risk" before you have a small chance of reward! so put in some effort, and don't be a leach! Just my opinion! I's sorry if I have offended anyone else.

 

[gold hound]

Wow!!! Now I'm a leach!!! Nice... Remind me to send friends request to him! Not wanting to go where everybody has been is reference to the list of claims I have access to, as far as no risk, no reward... I've been down that road several times!! The sole purpose of this thread was to gain experience/knowledge of good things to look for while researching google earth maps of Arizona and New Mexico while I'm in Kansas!!! Most of u guys have been extremely helpful, and I appreciate it. Everybody here's been in my position at some point of there mining and prospecting adventures. All my research is done on a iPad cause I've crashed all the computers I've owned within a week. An ipad doesn't have very good resolution on maps. Guess i'll just need to PM guys to avoid the bs

 

[Hard Prospector]

Your manner of speaking sounds like you are trying to find a "new" way to find gold.



There are alot of nice people trying to give you good advice. I just don't see you wanting to put in the "effort" to learn geology and science and whatever it "takes" to learn. It sounds more like you are picking our minds. Not wanting to go where gold has been found before? That is how you learn! Many of us have toiled for years. Spent more time and money than we will ever recover. All with the "hope" that we might find the mother lode!

You have many years of "risk" before you have a small chance of reward! so put in some effort, and don't be a leach! Just my opinion! I's sorry if I have offended anyone else.

Nothing wrong with asking advice from others, the guy is just doing general research. Asking the location of a miner's personal diggs now that would be a leach.

 

[Bonaro]

I guess my problem is, I don't really want to go where every other prospector has been. I'm wanting to trying to think out side of the Box and explore remote and hard to access locations.

First off...there is no place you can go where no prospector has ever been. The pioneer miners were very good at what they did because it meant life or death in many cases. They didnt miss anything. The chance of finding a previously undiscovered deposit is next to nil. Most of us are weekend warriors or armchair miners at best. That being said, there is much merit in getting off the beaten path. The easy gold is gone but there is still some leftovers remaining in the harder to reach location.

The best way to find gold is to look in areas where it has already been found. Then explore the harder to access spots where the tourists don't go

 

[azblackbird]

First off...there is no place you can go where no prospector has ever been.

Put down the kool-aid there dude… contrary to what your masters have told you, there's still many thousands of acres (at least here in AZ there is) of gold bearing land out there that has never seen a pick or a shovel. That I know for a fact!

 

[azblackbird]

I'm talking more of the geological formations or fault lines etc.. I've been looking at the obvious. Gulches,canyons, ledges/ benches by gold bearing gultches etc.. I guess my problem is, I don't really want to go where every other prospector has been.

You're on the right track. I use Google Earth extensively and overlay it with topos, geological maps, land status maps, and past mineral history. Like you, I'm not a tourist and thus avoid all the tourist traps that so many newbie prospectors fall into. There's way too many undiscovered gold bearing areas that the old timers just never had the chance to prospect, and those areas are waiting for somebody to come along and pull out the gold.

Just an FYI… if you plan on hitting those out-of-the-way and off the beaten path areas, may I suggest you save yourself a lot of headaches and hiking and get yourself one of these. I've got 2 of these bikes, and they've allowed me to go places that only a very small percentage of the overall gold prospecting population can go.

 

[Hard Prospector]

You're on the right track. I use Google Earth extensively and overlay it with topos, geological maps, land status maps, and past mineral history. Like you, I'm not a tourist and thus avoid all the tourist traps that so many newbie prospectors fall into. There's way too many undiscovered gold bearing areas that the old timers just never had the chance to prospect, and those areas are waiting for somebody to come along and pull out the gold.

Just an FYI… if you plan on hitting those out-of-the-way and off the beaten path areas, may I suggest you save yourself a lot of headaches and hiking and get yourself one of these. I've got 2 of these bikes, and they've allowed me to go places that only a very small percentage of the overall gold prospecting population can go.

View attachment 1046406

What do you call that 2 wheel monster and where can can I buy one?

 

[azblackbird]

What do you call that 2 wheel monster and where can can I buy one?

Rokon (pronounced Rock-on)