Please tell me, old wise and aged codgers. How they found gold by looking at plants?

[Ragnor]

And I say that with all due respect. I am an aspiring codger myself.

On the subject of secondary enrichment. I have read the thin little paperback pamphlet and other things online since and I understand most of the practice and theory of finding collapsed gold veins (pocket gold). However there is a part that has very few details given. There is mention of how in places with lots of brush and dirt when no visible float was present(There is a story of 9? dutchmen in california I believe). Old veins could be located by observing changes in undergrowth. Though it never really says what those changes are. One old man told me to look for discolored plants and I understand that to some extent.
But, can anyone maybe be more specific? In a pumice field covered by thin top soil of ash and duff, thick with ferns (the kind people eat) and sallal and some mountain huckleberry. what kind of changes would I actually be looking for?
Does anyone know that old information who is willing to share it?

I understand sampling patterns, I just don't know exactly what to look for in the changes in the underbrush.

 

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[Jason in Enid]

Not being nearly that old myself, from the stories I have heard there are certain plants which thrive in mineral rich soils, so they would look those specific plants. Also, areas with bedrock under a thin soil layer, look for lines of plants. Plants grow where the roots and hold and get water. A vein contact seam would likely be a place that held more moisture and gave roots a hold.

A corollary to this is found in fossil hunting. The fossil bones are often porous and hold more moisture than the surrounding rock and are often found with plant roots through them (and destroying them). I know it work sin the hell-creek formation, and it probably true through many others as well.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Sometimes it's not what's there but what's NOT there. There is a fairly well know placer deposit in San Diego County that in many places has been pushed up to the tops of the hills. Lots of cobbles that are packed really tightly. In this case it's the lack of plant growth that points the way to the gold. From the air you can actually see the path that the old river took by the lack of any large trees or bushes.

 

[fowledup]

Well here in the canyons and on the mountain sides in Northern California you look for willow patches or ferns as they may indicate a water source. Which may end up being a spring or hopefully an exposed quartz vein breaching the surface. In the rivers often the quickest way to test pan an area is to breakup and pan the moss or small rootballs as they will hold onto and encapuslate gold.

 

[johnedoe]

Order this book from Action Mining.... http://www.actionmining.com/Catalog.pdf
It will tell you all about geochemical prospecting.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

I do recall that certain plants do show mineral concentrations; some gave indications of gold. Mostly this was not in the areas I have lived, so I don't use that information. Horsetail and eucalyptus come to mind.

 

[Rob in KS]

I do recall that certain plants do show mineral concentrations; some gave indications of gold. Mostly this was not in the areas I have lived, so I don't use that information. Horsetail and eucalyptus come to mind.

I think that study was done in Australia. There was a thread here about it. Maybe a couple of years ago.

 

[Jeff95531]

YouTube has a bunch on the subject...watch with a skeptic eye.

 

[Ragnor]

I do recall that certain plants do show mineral concentrations; some gave indications of gold. Mostly this was not in the areas I have lived, so I don't use that information. Horsetail and eucalyptus come to mind.

As I recall horse tail runs .64 grams per cubic ton. I was never sure if the horse tail preciptitates the gold or just mobilizes it. The elderberry drops enough cyanide to mobilize gold according to somthing else I read. I also read that a particular plant native to the amazon precipitates gold from it's root zone. I just never knew what to look for in sub alpine cascades type zones. The old man told me the tree's are gold over the ore body and that is plane to see, especially with polarized glasses. However the subtler changes in underbrush. That's the part that I don't know yet.

 

[davin]

interesting subject and would like to learn more.

 

[DDancer]

To my knowledge here in the US there is not much of a correlation between gold and plants. At least not much lore in the area. Australia has a strong lore on the subject as thier plant species have fairly aggressive mineral needs and water is a big plus Victoria Australia comes to mind as an area that has very distinct plant/gold relations that I have seen first hand. A tree called Ironwood is known to be one such strong indicator. It is found in areas of high mineralization and driving bush prospectors look for the tree and often there are workings among them. When I first detected around Dunnoly I eventually hired a trainer and he pointed out this tree and several other indicators for good prospects in the area's we visited.
In the last couple of years there have been studies in Oz on various plants and trees that concentrate gold and methods of extraction.
No doubt in my mind that various plants will occur in specific areas of minerals~ simply thier nature. How far such a study will work in the US for prospecting?? Well as I said there is not much lore to it here.

 

[Ragnor]

YouTube has a bunch on the subject...watch with a skeptic eye.

I don't get any results searching youtube for secondary enrichment or plant indicators for gold. Could you tell me the search term you use of share some links?

 

[dave wiseman]

I don't get any results searching youtube for secondary enrichment or plant indicators for gold. Could you tell me the search term you use of share some links?

https://www.google.com/?gfe_rd=ssl&ei=rJ3JVqT1AeGD8QfLjY6wAg#q=plant+indicators+for+finding+gold

 

[dave wiseman]

https://www.google.com/?gfe_rd=ssl&ei=Ep7JVq-mD-OD8QeIvaDACw#q=secondary+enrichment+gold+deposits

 

[Jeff95531]

Gold 'Growing' On Trees Hints At Buried Treasure, Scientists Say (VIDEO)

You're right tho, not as much as when I looked for it in 2012

 

[TerryC]

Look through my OLD posts. I, along with others, mention certain and specific plants that grow in mineral rich dessert soils. Their names escape me at the moment, though. TTC

 

[PatrickD]

Please allow this old codger to chime in. There is a prominent name in historic treasure hunting who used this technique a LOT. He went by the nickname Hardrock Hammond and was a confidant of Karl Von Mueller. I remember hearing stories of how he would perch on an overlook and study the terrain. He looked for patterns of plant discoloration or patterns of growth for certain plants.

A lot of times, plant life will be healthier or not as healthy based on mineralization. There was a grove of Aspens I found in the Sangre de Christo mountains that were scrawnier and sickly looking trees compared to those surrounding this small area. It turned out to be a pooling area for water runoff that was laden with iron mineralization. The dirt itself set off a metal detector until that was discriminated out. Here are a couple pictures that show coloration patterns.



I apologize for not remembering the specifics of the story, but I remember KvM and my father talking about how Hardrock found a cache of silver bars due to the plants growing on top of it. It was either a different type of plant from the surrounding plants or a patch of discolored plants compared to those around it.

I have also seen an area in SE Utah just north of Hovenweep that was full of fulgarites. While the ground was nothing but a large rolling landscape of solid white stone, it was proliferated with lightning strikes due to a large deposit of conductive metal beneath it. Here are a couple pictures of that place.


This one shows the scale of some of the fulgarites. (Don't mind the treasure hunter gut on my friend.)



There are some that would put this in the same category as ghost lights and dowsing. But there is more science than science fiction with the facts that underlying things in the soil (metals/minerals/caches/electrical conductivity/decomposition/previous soil disturbances/etc) affect the plants above it.

When I have used this technique, studying terrain from a high vantage point, the quickest thing to notice was previous soil disturbances. Something makes the plants look different and stand out. It is a subtle pattern but visible to the patient minded treasure hunter.

Good luck with your treasure hunts.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Trumpet plants indicate high soil mineralization.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Dried or yellow grass spots can show the presence of buried landmines. The soil dries quicker over the mines. Something to think about when prospecting an old war zone.

 

[TerryC]

Trumpet plants indicate high soil mineralization.

Terry's got it! Trumpet plant. And a very nice picture at that. Tnx, Terry. Terry