Gold migration in submerged soils

[605dano]

What I have is a steep sided gulch with a pretty straight run, hard rock mines up above, that makes a bend just above where two ridges come together and the stream has eroded a gap between them. I believe there is a bedrock dam in place across the stream between the ridges that backs up groundwater in a depression on the bend. I would think that any gold coming down the gulch would end up in the hole above the bedrock dam and not be able to climb out. Now my problem is that when I dig down I hit water. The water table fluctuates a lot. In wet years it is at the surface but goes down in dry years. we have had a couple years of drought and last summer was able to dig down about 5 and a half feet before hitting water. AS I got about three feet down all the gravel was stained red from iron and I hit the tops of some very large boulders. I ran the gravel in a sluice and didn't find any gold. What I am wondering is would gold in a stagnant pool of soil work it's way to bedrock? Also would the large boulders be on bedrock or suspended? If the drought continues and I am able to get deeper would there be gold below. Since I have not found any gold suspended in the soil I wonder if I'm beating a dead horse or there are riches below. I am in gold country so the chance is there . Any ideas?

 

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[arizau]

One thing you did not tell us is if you have found gold in that gulch upstream from the area you describe. If you have not then you may be beating a dead horse. I would first determine if there is any gold in the gulch by sampling up and down stream before I did any major digging.

Good luck.

 

[Bonaro]

Small dredge or power sluice with a hydroforce nozzle will clean out the hole if the water is too high.
If there is boulders and larger rocks in the hole then the water is not always stagnant. It take a lot of moving water to move a boulder. Keep in mind that the high water events that formed the creek may have been hundreds or thousands of years ago.

 

[605dano]

There has been placer mining in the gulch in the past, mainly the 1800s and 1930s. As of now it either private ground or staked so sampling is out. I guess my main question is if flood gold hits a low pressure area will the gold slowly work its way to bedrock over a long time or will it stay suspended if the soil is laying in water.

 

[benny]

I think that if there were artesian water willing up from under that spot, the gold would quickly work its way to bedrock, or the spring opening. Even so, I'd think that you'd be finding some gold. Are you finding black sand?

 

[Bonaro]

Gold is heavier than anything else of similar size and it will work its way down.

 

[Goldwasher]

without water is "sinks" very... very ..very slowly

 

[605dano]

If the drought continues I will dig deeper and see what I can find. The boulders are a problem but if I can't go around them I will break them up. The fact that the gravel is a bright red from iron makes me think that it has been sitting in water for a long time. Hopefully I will get to a layer of concentrated gold. If so I could then bring in an excavator but for now I am just prospecting and dreaming.

 

[Scottish888]

Water is mechanisim that allows gold to be transported within an alluvium, sediment or stream, there may be other considerably smaller factors such as earthquakes but these are comparatively rare as a transport mechanism

 

[Capt Nemo]

An earthquake will tend to liquefy the ground, which in turn, would cause gold to drop to a catching structure (bedrock, hardpack, clay layer) rather quickly.