New to prospecting, questions about my creek and the soil therein.

[Red_Beard]

Hi everybody,
I've recently purchased a home close to Dillwyn, Va and knew when I moved here that there were old mines and some still functioning. Behind my property there is a header creek to the larger watershed for the county and in every place I've dug a test there has been a blue/gray clay layer 8 inches down that is loaded with small and large Quartz of every color imaginable. I panned out a top layer of the clay and found a decent amount of black sand. I dug one spot out a little deeper and found degraded bedrock( maybe a layer of fragipan) almost a pasty dry shale/slate like rock substance about 2ft below the surface. It digs easily and gets rock hard at the bottom about 2 more feet down. I own about 600 ft of this creek and was wondering if I should start at the spring and work my way down or where I should dig? Also the strange degraded rock(fragipan), should I go down the bottom of it and try to find gold on top of the solid sheets at the bottom? There are also spots of a bright green substance around some of the Quartz (I assume is copper?) and just another piece of information, the bluish clay is almost like playdough. Does this sound like a place to search for gold/silver or am I only letting hopes get the best of me?

 

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[joncutt87]

Blue clay, black sand, and quartz all sound promising to me; but I'm a rookie. If it were me, I would pan each layer.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Nice country to move to Red_Beard! Welcome to TNet.

There are quite a few gold mines around that area of the country. They tend to trend alongside the amphibolite/gneiss/schist belt there. There is a cluster of former gold producers just to the northeast of Dillwyn.

Spend some real time studying the geology and mining history of your area. It will pay off.

More than likely the blue clay you are seeing is the decomposed slate found in that area. It's possible that the rock below is slate or schist. The quartz is a good sign for that area. Most of the larger gold in that area is found in scattered decomposed quartz pockets that are generally vertical in the ground. Look for exposed bedrock and study it's composition.

I would suggest you sample pan small amounts of the different materials you find. By small amounts I mean less than a pound. Move around and when you do find gold study the material it's found with with a 10 power loupe, that will give you a better idea of which material might produce for you. Keep sampling, prospecting is all about finding a deposit - not digging the deepest hole you can hoping for results.

Black sand in itself is not an indicator of gold. Study closely what the black sand and other heavy material is composed of. Not all black sand is created equal. Get familiar with the minerals in the area and you will start to notice significant differences in some areas. Concentrate on the small before going large. Your back and your sense of hope will thank you.

I have seen some of the most beautiful gold found in your region. Large nuggets (2 oz plus) are sometimes found there. There may be no gold on your land but if there is you will find signs of it in the bottom of your sample pans. Don't dig until you find gold. Don't dig when you find a small piece of gold. Narrow your search from a large area to a small area based on what you discover in those sample pans. Keep sampling until you know where the best gold is. If you follow this method you will know when you do finally begin mining that you are in the best area for good results.

Heavy Pans

 

[Mgumby16]

There are a lot of good gold producing streams near dillwyn. Tongue quarter has some very good gold as well as parts of the slate river. You should look into the central virginia gold prospectors club as they have many claims in the area.

In my own experience with Virginia blue clay it can be hit or miss. In one creek in currently working clay generally means really good gold I believe mainly due to the fact that the old timers could not process clay so they skipped those areas. However in contrary creek near lake Anna when I've hit blue clay there I've generally come up with nothing.

If you want I could look at the geologic maps and mine maps for your stream and area. Pm me if you want to do that. Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[Red_Beard]

Thanks a lot, that clears up some of what I was wondering, I don't plan on digging a bunch of 15 ft deep holes with no reason. I have seen small amounts of what I assume is decomposed Quartz at one particular location so I'll definitely start there. I'll update the thread if I see anything interesting since its a day off

 

[H-2 CHARLIE]

Sounds like you need a high banker to search your spots .

 

[BurntBear]

Welcome aboard!

The ground sounds promising! Keep testing!

 

[Prospector70]

Watch for Civil war stuff when you are out and about. My in laws used to live a couple of miles from Bull Run. Talk about a spooky place at night...

Hey its only 600 feet of crick right? hell you could have the whole thing dug out by end of next summer

 

[goldenIrishman]

Welcome to T-Net Red Beard! If ya want to learn about mining and prospecting, you've come to the right place.

Hey its only 600 feet of crick right? hell you could have the whole thing dug out by end of next summer

Only if he sets up a caffeine I.V. in each arm and borrows Jack Hoffmans excavator! Come to think of it, he may get better use out of it than Jack does.

 

[goldog]

Hi everybody,
I've recently purchased a home close to Dillwyn, Va ... I dug one spot out a little deeper and found degraded bedrock( maybe a layer of fragipan) almost a pasty dry shale/slate like rock substance about 2ft below the surface.

That's got to be the word of the day-fragipan

Welcome to the forum Red Beard, Good luck in your search. I hope there is gold on your land or at least nearby.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Red_Beard go to the Mining Library and type "Gold in Virgina" in the search box.

Download the 13 Mb book. It's got multiple plates, maps and charts. It's the one to have for researching Virginia gold deposits.

 

[Red_Beard]

Thanks everybody, didn't find anything yesterday picture worthy except I did run into a mushy run with a lot of Quartz, and I do mean it was everywhere. The clay was almost thinned out by it and easier to work with since it wasn't so compacted. Still finding ziploc bags of black sand so on the optimistic side, I'm thinking im headed in the right direction.

Side note at the spring header there seems to a be huge black rock formation with Quartz stuck in it all over the place, it almost looks like asphalt, and the clay is right above it. The clay is still blue but has a significant metallic sheen to it now, any thoughts? I never sampled this spot because of time and weather yesterday evening, but I thought someone may have ran into this before. Thanks again and I'll update once this crummy weather moves out.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Side note at the spring header there seems to a be huge black rock formation with Quartz stuck in it all over the place, it almost looks like asphalt, and the clay is right above it. The clay is still blue but has a significant metallic sheen to it now, any thoughts? I never sampled this spot because of time and weather yesterday evening, but I thought someone may have ran into this before. Thanks again and I'll update once this crummy weather moves out.

Sounds like you found the mafic gneiss - if so it's probably not Quartz, it would be Feldspar. Feldspar often appears to be Quartz to the inexperienced.

Feldspar rarely has any silicon which is the principle component of Quartz (along with oxygen). Feldspar is a combination of alumina and silica usually with an alkali component. The rock group is known as the tectosilicate minerals. Feldspar is more abundant than Quartz.

Although it might appear as if Quartz (silicon) and Feldspar (silica) might be closely related this is not the case at all. Similar names but very different chemistry make these two common rock types almost opposites. Remember how I suggested you look for Quartz as a possible indicator for gold? Feldspar is a contrary indicator. Feldspar means - rock without ore.

Not all is lost though. Feldspar can act to segregate the Quartz and gold in an area. With the presence of a tectosilicate gold and Quartz are more likely to crystallize into discernible veins if they are present. This is one way in which nuggets are made. This chemical antagonism is what helps the Quartz form the vugs and veins in which gold can find a good environment to crystallize out of solution.

The upshot of all this tech rock speak is you have a much better chance of finding nuggets in your area where you find both Quartz and Feldspar together. Look for an area that has both Quartz veins and Feldspar rocks next to one another. This will be the contact zone where mineralization can occur. That is your most likely spot to find the gold you are prospecting for.

The metallic sheen in the clay is quite possibly Biotite - a form of mica. When Biotite becomes fragmented throughout the clay it can become "sparkly" or "metallic" in appearance.

Hope that helps Red_Beard.

Heavy Pans

 

[BurntBear]

Sage advice Clay! This is so true. I was sluicing a creek in N.C. and it had a mixture of Feldspars and Quartz. There was a lot of Feldspar!
No fine gold. All good size flake and nuggets.

 

[Red_Beard]

Clay that's great information, after some googling it seems a lot more clear there some feldspar and Quartz both. Thanks again, I'll post a picture of the clay if I have any laying around

 

[Sam Burgin]

Clays are an interesting indicator of gold if you have a few specific things present.

Quartz in clay means the quartz was in the rock before it weathered out to clay. If you have green stains with clay, you likely have copper present.

Those two indicators, quartz and copper means you need to look closer. If you have mineralization, black sands, that means you likely have metals being precipitated within the host rock, now clay.

Clay can provide lots of gold, but usually in the vicinity of quartz. If the quartz is weathered out as well, you will find a white grainy clay within the blue/green clay: that bears special attention.

My suggestion would be to determine if the quartz within the clay has mineralization, and if so, dig through the clay and study the quartz stringer the intruded into the slate initially.

Get a handful of the quartz, crush it, and fine pan it to see if you have any metal present.

Blacksands, metal, and gold do not typically penetrate clay layers, so if you find same within the clay, it came with the quartz inclusion.

Sam