Prospecting a gravel Bar on a Curve

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

Hey people! It's all about getting outside and having a great time! But it wouldn't do any harm if we could find that yellow spec we all love seeing in our pans right!? So I'm prospecting this big gravel bar on a curve and I've taken a couple of samples. To tell you the truth I only found 1 spec of gold on my sluice box. Here are a couple of shots using imaps of the place that I'm working. All samples were taken no more than 16-20" deep. Should I keep going deeper? Since this is a big curve and a big gravel bar? The red dots are an estimate of the spots I've sampled and the red line its what I kinda predict gold should be traveling? Let me know what would you guys do?

 

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[OwenT]

You've established that there is gold there, good. I would recommend starting at the water (or the bank) and sampling in a line down the other way (see picture) and see where the highest concentration of gold is. Make your sample holes the same depth, and 16 or 20" is good but you probably don't even need to go that deep just for a sample if it's hard digging. I would expect the gold to hug the bank mostly not be as far out toward the water as you drew it.
Also look at the material on the bar, is it all the same or different? If there's bigger rocks in some areas start there because that's where heavy things like gold are dropping. Lanny in AB wrote a piece in his metal detecting thread about looking for the lines of boulders and those being good spots.

 

[chlsbrns]

..
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[TheCaribbeanDigger]

You've established that there is gold there, good. I would recommend starting at the water (or the bank) and sampling in a line down the other way (see picture) and see where the highest concentration of gold is. Make your sample holes the same depth, and 16 or 20" is good but you probably don't even need to go that deep just for a sample if it's hard digging. I would expect the gold to hug the bank mostly not be as far out toward the water as you drew it. View attachment 1289140
Also look at the material on the bar, is it all the same or different? If there's bigger rocks in some areas start there because that's where heavy things like gold are dropping. Lanny in AB wrote a piece in his metal detecting thread about looking for the lines of boulders and those being good spots.

Actually gravel is smaller where you drew the line. I'll head today to the site and take pics of the place! Thanx for the ideas and Ill test again today!

 

[DizzyDigger]

I circled a spot where I would look first.



Start at the surface...right on top, and then check down to
about 1 ft. It may be "flood gold", and if so it'll be in the top
8"-10" of material.

 

[Alex Burke]

Did you check the thread you started in the sluicing section? I spent 10 minutes researching the gold for you haha. Go to the Rio de La Plata read that paper when you get time not all of it is super complicated and it will probably save you time if your going to the right area, gold is hard to come by there from a quick scan of those papers but possible if you travel a little I think

 

[Aufisher]

I would divert the water and remove everything down to bedrock if possible.

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

This is how it looks like. This is how the gravel looks at the edge of the water while the inner part of the curve the gravel is small. Theres hardly black sand in the 3 samples I took, while in every sample I took near the edge there was a lot of black sand. Theres a small bar right when the curve starts. I imagine it's where the water starts to slow down coming in the turn. I took 2 samples, lots of black sand and I think it's gold. "Flour gold"
Notice how small it is compared to the black sand!

 

[Hefty1]

Black Sand is your friend...work the front of the Black Sand. (upstream)

 

[mike(swWash)]

The bar in the last post isn't to big. Start at the up river end of the bar. Sample each shovel depth down 2 or 3 scoops, top of the bar to the water line every 3 feet, then move down river 5 feet and repeat until you run out of gold or gravel bar. Draw a line of the best results and that's the pay line.
Time consuming....yes, but be thorough before you move on.

 

[chlsbrns]

TCD The image is from a free USGS Bulletin. You can download or read it at...

https://books.google.com/books?id=O...page&q=cross section at skim bar gold&f=false

The USGS rules for info on where to find gold!