Virginia backyard gold.

[Mgumby16]

After I bought my house I found that there was an old gold prospect in the back yard. There are usually 5 to 20 colors in a pan of the topsoil. Going to run a loaming program soon and possibly some trenching. I want to find the quartz vein that produced the gold.

Just sampling the little feeder stream in this video. It's enough to keep me interested since it's 100 yards from my back door lol.

Hope y'all enjoy. Please let me know what you think and how you would go about finding the vein.

 

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[RTR]

Gold in your back yard...priceless ! How about a auger for that tractor for some test hole sampling . Good luck

 

[scvbasteve]

Are you looking to add any help, I am always looking for a new adventure.

 

[arizau]

To search for the lode, if it still exists, sample uphill on both sides of the creek and continue the sampling upstream as long as you are finding gold in them or pieces of mineralized quartz, etc (aka "float").....or better yet an outcropping! That said, it's possible that the drainage, current and past, is the only source for gold on your property and the lode is further upstream or fully eroded.

Good luck.

 

[Mgumby16]

More info on the old prospect, "There are some small creeks and springs, but not enough to furnish power. A vein, 18 inches wide, is prospected by open pits; the ore was tested by pan washing and yield good results."

That was from an old report done around 1860. Civil war probably ended any exploration. Most of the old old pits and trenches are on my property and the vein trend should cut right across my property.

This prospect isn't recorded by the USGS or the state.

 

[mike(swWash)]

Time to dredge

 

[wildminer]

Very nice place you have. Includes two of my favorites, gold and a nice dog!

 

[Darth Placer]

Gold in your back yard...priceless ! How about a auger for that tractor for some test hole sampling . Good luck

I second that Matt ... if your looking for a vein that auger will get you samples all the ways down to bedrock where the vein is. Grid it off and it should show itself.

 

[Mgumby16]

Decomposed bedrock is usually less then 6 inches to 1 foot down. And since the vein is at a near vertical dip, unless your right ontop of it with the auger only the upper 6inch to 1 foot thick layer of alluvium will have gold, and if there happens to be gold mineralization in the decomposed bedrock it will be contaminated with the upper alluvial gold.

I plan to run a trench perpendicular to the strike of bedrock so that any veins that are intercepted can be cleaned up and sampled insitu with less likely hood of contamination. It will also let me get precise strikes and dips on the vein, as well as possibly observe increases in mineralization as the vein is approached.

Thanks for the input.

 

[N-Lionberger]

Your footvalve is right under the discharge from your sluice. Thats a nice looking pump you're shredding up. Also you are digging just downstream of your tailings, get some lay flat hose and move your pump upstream of your operation, place your sluice at the lowest possible place and work your way up, you're gonna get stuck running like that. You are pretty pressed for luck with a 4" in that little trickle gonna stress that pump as well. I would suggest making a map of your property and mark out all the holes, shafts and trenches, really clean them out inspect and take notes, get a cast iron mortar and pestle to pulverize specimens for panning, I doubt loaming would be worthwhile as the old timers obviously already did so to dig those prospects.

 

[firebird]

That's pretty neat, would love to find gold in my backyard like that. Those specs are way too small though, if it's not chunky flakes then that could mean the gold traveled a very long distance with the source possibly being in someone else's property.