Gold in Tailings Pile. Worth Further Investigation?

[yolderboy96]

Howdy! Recently I was in a mineral-rich area where a few gold mines were located about one hundred years back. I was looking at some copper (native and oxidized) ore when I stumbled upon a nice gold specimen at the end of a tailings pile. I continued looking at more rocks similar to the specimen I just found, and found more and more rocks with gold-looking material. I pressed a knife against some of the specimens and it left a dent, rather than shattering it. This told me that it wasn't pyrite, although I am sure there is a chance of some being present. There are a total of four piles, but I only found these specimens on the bottom right side of the pile, but nowhere else along the pile. I'm guessing that the ore acted as float, and worked its way down the pile. I have not been able to locate anymore specimens of this type after picking up a good amount of them. My question is: would it be worth searching around for more gold in this area, since I've already found, what seems to me, a good amount? I haven't located the old mine yet, but i'm still finding clues. Even if I do locate the mine and am able to enter it, would it be worth finding where this rock was blasted from (given all the dangers)? Or would it be best to just keep searching tailings piles? Any feedback would be appreciated, thank you for your time!

 

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[jair]

This is what do . Check the piles down in several spots to see if you can locate more . I try for 5 gallon bucket total and crush , pan or run through some sort of equipment to catch the finest material and pan again . Melt if possible with torch and make sure and cover it first , with borax , you can get it at the stores , slowly swirl torch with some distance and slowly getting closer until it's melted all together . Then you'll know if you really have any thing good enough and quantity enough to go further on . Meaning , repurchase on owner ship of claim or property , and hopefully if your planing on entering a mine , make sure you have some one with you that has some sort of knowledge of mines and what to be cautious of . Always have back up .

 

[arizau]

Abandoned mines are usually abandoned for a reason. First and foremost is they ran out of visible ore.

As to entry: Beware......Old mines have many life threatening or life taking dangers. Bad air, loose ceiling rocks, deep shafts, rotten timbers, etc. I personally choose not enter them but many do. The old timers were pretty good at removing obvious veins but they may have missed some unexposed ones or left what they might have thought to be negligible pockets while they were mining and some have found what they missed with a metal detector or by close inspection.

The old timers hand sorted ore for further processing and dumped what they considered as waste. What you likely found is some pieces of ore they overlooked as it was mixed in with some, more obvious, waste material. Since it was at the bottom edge of the dump it probably was from one of the last loads of waste material they dumped over the edge or at least from a load that was dumped in that direction.

What ever you choose to do......BE SAFE!!!!

Good luck.

PS: Not many things prettier than gold in pure white quartz!!!

 

[stefen]

All property belongs to someone...

Even if it appears to be abandoned, you may be trespassing on anothers persons claim.

Make sure that you have permission before you dig, haul or trespass.

Spend some time and investigate with the appropriate agency.

Locals may provide some historic facts...