AT GOLD/Garrett /Garrett pro pointer/ 5x8 double d coil and sniper coil/Lesche digger
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All Types Of Treasure Hunting
Enjoyed reading your article it was informative. I have always had an interest in prospecting as I grew up in Julian Ca. and it has a rich mining history but when I was a kid it didn't hit me, it wasn't until I moved away that the interest grew. Living in the central valley of California now below the Sierra's and now the bug has me.I found a tertiary river over west of I-5 and it is over 70 miles from the Sierra's so I have pretty much wrote it off but am still going to check it out.
Here is a MUCH smaller bench than what Kevin is showing. I have been working it off and on the past couple of years. I found it from a single round cobble on the side of the hill (winter prospecting). I traced it uphill by trenching through the overburden until I hit it's source. Here there is two feet of black dirt and angular rocks that contains little gold. I pile this material up and use it for reclamation of my hole behind me. Below the black dirt is about three feet of brown river cobble mixed with angular rock and large bedrock sections that contains decent gold.
The first picture shows some large blocks on bedrock that had a few inches of cobbles between them. This was all covered with another foot or so of brown pay dirt and then two feet of black soil on top.
This second picture is a look on bedrock.
The third picture is a days worth of the spoils.
Last edited by spillercanyon; Dec 05, 2018 at 08:38 PM.
Reason: Pictures didn't work
I see the post has been removed but I did read it before it was removed and I don't think you mentioned tunneling as another way bench placers are mined. There are a number of mines in the Tuolumne area that tunneled down through the cobbles to bedrock and then fan out along bedrock. Not the safest mining but it is done.