Super bad clay issue

[Kuntzy]

I went out digging this past thursday. There was ice on the river, and the gravel bars were frozen down to around 6 inches. I wasn't able to classify any material at the river due to the temps so i just filled 20 unclassified buckets of material to bring home and work during the cold weather.

While digging i punched through two different clay layers. The first layer i hit was a mix of blue clay and smaller rock.it is a pretty soft clay. The second clay layer is around an inch thick and hard as a rock, there is some cobble on it but none on the inside of these huge clay chunks

If there is gold in any of this clay i want it. any tricks or tips to get the majority of the clay broken up enough to pan?


Thanks, Justin.

 

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[Jeff95531]

The Big Blue Lead can be found in So Kal in the El Pasos and the San Gabriel Mts . I don't know for certain, but I suspect it is as far south as Julian/San Diego. Where you find it , you find gold.

Yep to down South and trying to link it in North with Happy Camp right now.

 

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[IMAUDIGGER]

Sounds like you have a little bit of Hoffmanitis. Let's run 10,000 yards through the plant before we take a sample pan.
Sorry, that's all I could visualize when you mentioned 20 buckets

Even worse - basing the disposal of "overburden" material based upon a couple pans.
That type of material can easily be very rich and not show a single color in a pan.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I'd suggest scrubbing the material in a cement mixer first. You may even throw in some steel balls in order to assist in breaking it up.
-----
As always with Gold Rush - you are not seeing the entire picture.

Early into their season there was a shot of someone picking out the cornflakes prior to processing the concentrates....the gold they show now looks very uniform almost like it has been screened or brought in from somewhere else. No corn flakes and no nuggets.

That type of deposit should have a pretty good number of various sized nuggets, which would probably make up the bulk of the gold.

 

[kcm]

I'd suggest scrubbing the material in a cement mixer first. You may even throw in some steel balls in order to assist in breaking it up.
-----
As always with Gold Rush - you are not seeing the entire picture.

Early into their season there was a shot of someone picking out the cornflakes prior to processing the concentrates....the gold they show now looks very uniform almost like it has been screened or brought in from somewhere else. No corn flakes and no nuggets.

That type of deposit should have a pretty good number of various sized nuggets, which would probably make up the bulk of the gold.

I read on another forum from someone close to the actual show that yes, indeed, the gold you saw was NOT the gold from their season. It was borrowed from elsewhere - no mention from where, though!

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Yep to down South and trying to link it in North with Happy Camp right now.

I believe it was mined in Hornbrook. I suspect most of the gold that I find comes from the extension of the deposit shown on this map.

Map of Auriferous Conglomerate Deposit :: Annual Reports of the State Mineralogist - Maps

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I read on another forum from someone close to the actual show that yes, indeed, the gold you saw was NOT the gold from their season. It was borrowed from elsewhere - no mention from where, though!

I would anticipate their gold to look more like this...Flattened pieces that have been ground off of larger nuggets, smashed by soft angular rock leaving a rough texture. I would also suspect that a metal detector would be a better prospecting tool than a mining pan. Lastly - it almost seemed like they needed a large trommel. I wondered how much was lost from clay balls rolling through the box and dense semi-conglomerate getting screened out with the larger rocks.

View attachment 1391106

 

[russau]

From reading "Lost River of gold" and looking over the map at the rear of the book , I was impressed ! I mailed Wally Koz (before his passing ) a portion of that book because he and Milty had a dredgeing claim in that area.

 

[kcm]

I would anticipate their gold to look more like this...Flattened pieces that have been ground off of larger nuggets, smashed by soft angular rock leaving a rough texture. I would also suspect that a metal detector would be a better prospecting tool than a mining pan. Lastly - it almost seemed like they needed a large trommel. I wondered how much was lost from clay balls rolling through the box and dense semi-conglomerate getting screened out with the larger rocks.

View attachment 1391106

Still no pic.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

 

[goldenIrishman]

The Big Blue Lead can be found in So Kal in the El Pasos and the San Gabriel Mts . I don't know for certain, but I suspect it is as far south as Julian/San Diego. Where you find it , you find gold.

It's in San Diego without a doubt. I hit it in several locations when I was living there.

 

[beekbuster]

ive been in area where when i found the clay it was loaded with gold, other areas(different stream) no gold in the clay at all, not 1 fly poop speck.