Examples of Superstition Mountain gold

[gollum]

Look. If you throw stuff out there it is up for scrutiny. If you have answered the same old questions so many times why don't you just make a document where you can cut and paste from? But make it a legit response not a rasher full. If the internet is too much for you, then you should consider your options. I in no way mean to imply you should give up, just man up.

More of a man than you could ever hope to achieve. You telling me to "man up" is a little like the pot calling the kettle black! Why don't you hike up your skirt and take a walk in the mountains and look for yourself. Maybe try a library.

Heck, I even sent you privately a link to Ron Feldman's LDM Forum where all that stuff we keep telling you has been hashed and rehashed can be easily searched, but yet you still come here claiming no responsibility for doing anything yourself except asking us. HAHAHA

...and you're telling me to man up? HAHAHA Your a laugh riot! Like I said, You'll go far!

You know what. Repeating all this same crap over and over is REALLY boring. I rechecked previous posts and all you seem to be doing is causing drama. I'm done. IGNORE

Mike

 

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[releventchair]

I often share hunting,fishing,detecting,mushroom picking notes but sometimes some people get too pushy about specific details, you know the ol draggin the cat home backwards attitude when you don't tell them everything they want to know in order to duplicate my efforts and locations?
Then they end up with non G.P.S. directions to a landfill.
Who's fault is that, and who learns anything about finding their own sites and resources with info on how to do it already secured?
It's an attitude. Attitude has much to do with personal success; mine and theirs.

 

[gollum]

Nice attitude there Mike.
In all fairness, you do state a lot that is not even close to fact so you can't blame the guy for asking.

V

Sticking your two cents in as well? You obviously haven't been keeping up, but don't let that stop you from commenting on things you don't understand.

Mike

 

[gollum]

Frank,

I don't use my size to push anybody around. I do, however, use it to back up what I say!

The problem I have is with internet tough guys. I have ALWAYS been willing to back up anything I say. I will more than gladly go toe to toe with any man that wants a swing at the plate. I don't threaten anybody, and if I am wrong about someone, I am more than man enough to admit it. Too many folks out there like to be condescending, rude, and/or insulting behind the anonymity of the internet.

Take Care - Mike

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Let's make it real clear, any insults throw after this post will not end well for guilty party or parties, this includes implied insults too....I'm done giving warnings...

 

[Tnmountains]

Well that was 6 pages of nothing deleted.

 

[sgtfda]

Was out in the Superstitions the other day doing a little testing for gold. Found a spot that had some nice chunky gold. This is from a 2 gallon bucket. The black sand is full of it.

 

[Not Peralta]

Amigo's ,have some burroand chill out,theres no point in getting all worked up over something that is so trivial, It really doesn't matter any way in the long run.
ps.Sarge ,nice pan for a two gallon bucket.np

 

[Simon1]

Very nice Frank, you seem to have that Midas touch. ( stay away from NP's coffee blend, it has a nasty after taste, like for two weeks ).

 

[Hal Croves]

The black sand associated with panning seems common regardless of geographic location.
This is a rookie question but how is that possible and what exactly is the black sand?
Does it hold gold flake after a heavy rain/wash event?
Or, are they both "heavy" and depositing in low spots?

Fascinating phenomenon.

Nice example.

 

[Azquester]

Magnetite is actually a form of Iron in a state of suspension. It won't rust away. It's a heavy like lead or gold. Usually it's at the bottom of your pan when your done panning along with the gold. Like what they process in the show Gold Rush. Black sands are what they process after removing the sluice box matts or carpets. Where there is iron usually gold is nearby. One thing gold doesn't travel far from the source which I'm sure has Frank about as excited as a young boy on his first date.

I just discovered a place like that in a canyon down here. Last weekend I found the "Secret Trail" leading down into the canyon that was made who knows when. I had my pan and some water but the Bee's were so thick in the channel I couldn't do a thing about it. Maybe this weekend It'll be cold enough that the Bee's won't bother me and I can finally process some of that fine chunky stuff!

The black sand associated with panning seems common regardless of geographic location.
This is a rookie question but how is that possible and what exactly is the black sand?
Does it hold gold flake after a heavy rain/wash event?
Or, are they both "heavy" and depositing in low spots?

Fascinating phenomenon.

Nice example.

 

[gollum]

Hey Hal,

Here is a link:

BLACK SAND

If you find black sand, you can usually find gold. USUALLY but not always.

Mike

 

[Azquester]

Down here we call that a "Hung Over" because your always hung over a rock puking.

Very nice Frank, you seem to have that Midas touch. ( stay away from NP's coffee blend, it has a nasty after taste, like for two weeks ).

 

[sgtfda]

You let nature do the work for you. Desert prospecting. Start in a wash. When it rains heavy material moves fast. Flour gold will flow until the water stops running then it drops on the surface. It will be found within the first 4". Lynx Creek is a good example of this. Heavy gold goes down below the black sand layer and will settle on bedrock. The bedrock can be near the surface or very deep. False bedrock near the surface will have nice gold also. When testing I look at areas where the heavies (rocks) drop or get trapped during heavy flow. I also look for black sand streaks in those spots. I'll take small samples from the various layers down to the false bedrock. I vacuum the false bedrock surface. I mark the bucket with a number and a rock near the spot. Haul the dirt home and run it through my Gold Well sluice. Each bucket hold 2 gal. I get nice gold in a bucket I go back and dig up the spot until the gold plays out. I know a area with 5 foot of solid black sand. Not a speck of gold. If gold was present it would settle under that 5 foot. Many times after 5 ft of water runs down a wash the gold will move to a new spot. You then need to start testing again if it's a good area. Lynx creek surface gold moves every time it rains and water runs. You just test areas where the rocks collect. Get at least ten pieces in a test pan and you dig there. Pieces in Lynx are generally small. Woody hit Lynx a lot. I prefer the Superstitions. The pieces are much larger. Average 1/4" and larger.

 

[Azquester]

Frank, Your my kind of Prospector!

This area down here I've known about for some time. I ran into a guy years ago coming up out of there at dusk. I thought he was going to shoot me but instead he took his hand off his gun and extended it for a greeting. We got to talking and he showed me some nice big nuggets he was finding by the same methods you just described with the rocks. Only he would process the material down in the canyon by screening down and panning. Since it was a dry canyon I asked how he took water in as it was so steep and such a hard climb It looked impossible. He told me that he would just bring in a few gallons at a time and used garbage bags for a small pond so he could pan. Of course he wouldn't tell me his spots or even give me a clue but he did say he was working a rich bank and had been living off the gold he pulled out of that bank for ten years!

I never saw him again. I started going there many times trying to locate the area he was in as there was no claims down there and he was taking a chance being there himself. I asked him why he never filed on it and he just replied he didn't want the trouble. Since something happened to him (Old Timer) he has never returned that I have seen from the lack of tracks. So a few weeks ago I went back there. I think I posted some pictures of me being there on this forum. I was taking a break after hiking up the canyon looking for a better area to get some shiny stuff as the area's down further had only large flakes and small pieces not like what he had showed me once seven years ago. While I was taking a break I looked up and saw hidden under a tree just barely, the tops of some plastic buckets very well concealed under a large tree. I investigated and found they had a date on them of 1998. That would be just about ten years from the date I ran into the guy and add seven years from the time he stopped going there. Well each one of the buckets had putrid water in them. He also had a large bottle of Clorox hidden in the weeds just about ready to disintegrate from age. The self of rock had what at first glance looked to be natural run off from a small ravine but upon closer inspection it was his tailing pile! I haven't found the source of his diggings yet but I think it was a large area so I'll need to take samples under the rocks. I panned samples of the dug out bank as I remembered he said he was working but I think he was pulling my leg as most do when they have a secret source. I sure wish I knew what happened to the old fella. Probably played out and left. But the Gold he had was about 3/8 inch or larger.

You let nature do the work for you. Desert prospecting. Start in a wash. When it rains heavy material moves fast. Flour gold will flow until the water stops running then it drops on the surface. It will be found within the first 4". Lynx Creek is a good example of this. Heavy gold goes down below the black sand layer and will settle on bedrock. The bedrock can be near the surface or very deep. False bedrock near the surface will have nice gold also. When testing I look at areas where the heavies (rocks) drop or get trapped during heavy flow. I also look for black sand streaks in those spots. I'll take small samples from the various layers down to the false bedrock. I vacuum the false bedrock surface. I mark the bucket with a number and a rock near the spot. Haul the dirt home and run it through my Gold Well sluice. Each bucket hold 2 gal. I get nice gold in a bucket I go back and dig up the spot until the gold plays out. I know a area with 5 foot of solid black sand. Not a speck of gold. If gold was present it would settle under that 5 foot. Many times after 5 ft of water runs down a wash the gold will move to a new spot. You then need to start testing again if it's a good area. Lynx creek surface gold moves every time it rains and water runs. You just test areas where the rocks collect. Get at least ten pieces in a test pan and you dig there. Pieces in Lynx are generally small. Woody hit Lynx a lot. I prefer the Superstitions. The pieces are much larger. Average 1/4" and larger.

 

[Azquester]

Frank,

Ever wonder if any of the gold you're finding came from those old Peralta Leather Bags during the Massacre?

View attachment 1245353
Was out in the Superstitions the other day doing a little testing for gold. Found a spot that had some nice chunky gold. This is from a 2 gallon bucket. The black sand is full of it.

 

[gollum]

No Bill,

Frank's gold is not like what would have come from Peralta Pack Saddles. That stuff will have chunks of quartz still attached. If you look at every piece of known (and possible) Waltz (LDM) Ore, it is all in the matrix. Every piece of Superstition Float I have seen also has quartz attached.

What WOULD be interesting is if Frank has his gold XRF (XRay Flourescence) Tested, and compare the results with the results of the Matchbox and Kochera Ores that Thomas had tested in 1991. It may not say too much, but it may be able to at least match the geologic event that produced the gold.

Mike

 

[Hal Croves]

Hey Hal,

Here is a link:

BLACK SAND

If you find black sand, you can usually find gold. USUALLY but not always.

Mike

Thanks Mike.
Not always for sure.
So, all surface gold is ultimately traced to a source higher up and the presence of black sand with gold is only coincidental (they are both [all] heavy materials).

 

[gollum]

More than coincidental. An old saying in hardrock mining is that Iron is the Mother of Gold. Where you find black sand, you can USUALLY find gold. Black sand is a lot of iron and hematite. If you look at many gold/quartz veins, you will also find dark red stained rocks. That red stain is from the iron oxidizing when exposed to the atmosphere, then leaching out onto the rock.

While black sand is USUALLY a very good indicator of gold, the old fashioned way to find an outcrop vein is to start at a bend or large boulder in a creek. This is where the water slows down, and the gold being carried by the currents drop to the bottom. If you pan where the water slows down, and you find even a small bit of gold, that means it came from somewhere upstream. A prospector's job is to find out where upstream that gold came from. How you do that is to start as before. Keep moving upstream about 100 yards at a time. Every 100 yards or so, sample the bottom of the creekbed and pan it. As long as you keep getting gold (even a tiny bit), keep moving upstream. When you get to the point where you stop getting gold in your pan, go back about 50 yards and sample pan again. No gold? Move another 25 yards or so downstream. Keep going back the way you came, until you start getting gold again. From here, start moving up the side of the creek/arroyo. Up one side or the other is the vein you have been chasing from the slow water (unless the gold you found was all that is left from a pocket that weathered away HAHAHA).

Here is a chunk of almost pure Iron Ore and magnetite from an old Spanish Iron Mine in the Supers (the one from Ryan's Video):



Hope that helps - Mike

 

[cactusjumper]

It's also possible that the source gold came down by different paths. The old timers used to gauge the amount of gold in their pan and using a pyramid pattern work their way up the side of the mountain, slowly testing across their pyramid as the tip becomes smaller. Eventually, you should reach the source. No shortcuts!

Good luck,

Joe Ribaudo