Canadian Nugget areas

[M3R1IN]

Does anyone out there know of any nugget rich areas in Canada?
Specifically BC or Alberta?

 

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[Willy]

Yup, if your setup is self contained and recirculating there's no problem save for: 1) To run any significant amount of material, you'll need some honkin' holding tanks and somewhere to dispose of the tailings/muddy water. 2) you gotta watch out for that riparian zone (crock of $h**) which extends 30 horizontal meters from the high water mark.. can't mine it. Another thing to be wary of is that there are often conflicting regs between the ministry of mines and DFO. In such cases, DFO comes out the winner and ignorance of this fact is no excuse in their eyes. I don't want to sound like a puling ninny, but I can't afford to lose my truck, mining equipment, or money (big fines possible). I know that a person can just walk up to a stream an plunk in a sluice and probably get away with it (many do).. until they get caught. Considering the amount of gold most people end up getting (and all the hard work involved), it's kinda like trying to make a living by ripping off 7 Elevens. ..Willy.

 

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[Functional]

Yup, if your setup is self contained and recirculating there's no problem save for: 1) To run any significant amount of material, you'll need some honkin' holding tanks and somewhere to dispose of the tailings/muddy water.

I'm not really interested in going to that size of production unless I find a honkin pig of a deposit somewhere. I was looking at something like a small rocker box inside a large tub, or a gold wheel like the one on this page:
http://www.desfox.com/

Nothing too fancy, just something that allows me to increase my volume and get down to the black sands and gold. From there, I can do the finish panning in my trailer, or when I get home. Actually, I know I could increase my volume just by not doing what I've been doing in the past. I was reading several pages on that other forum you posted Willy. I too, used to pan with the "swirling motion" as tought to me by another prospector. Now I can see where I could have saved myself alot of work, by not doing it that way.

2) you gotta watch out for that riparian zone (crock of $h**) which extends 30 horizontal meters from the high water mark.. can't mine it. Another thing to be wary of is that there are often conflicting regs between the ministry of mines and DFO. In such cases, DFO comes out the winner and ignorance of this fact is no excuse in their eyes. I don't want to sound like a puling ninny, but I can't afford to lose my truck, mining equipment, or money (big fines possible).

Likewise here. I don't have much to loose, but what I have, is all I have. I know they've recently change the reg's, but I don't know if its that much better, or any better at all for the little guy. It is definitely easier for people to stake claims online, but a person needs some leeway when actually doing the exploration.

I know that a person can just walk up to a stream an plunk in a sluice and probably get away with it (many do).. until they get caught. Considering the amount of gold most people end up getting (and all the hard work involved), it's kinda like trying to make a living by ripping off 7 Elevens. ..Willy.

I've seen it happen. I was panning away several years ago at the mouth of Ruby Creek, where it dumps into the Frasier River, reasonably contented with the small amount of flake gold I was getting. Along comes a guy with a backpack suction dredge from the campground across the creek from where I was. He steps over to the downside of a big boulder and starts working away for about 5 minutes and leaves with as much flake as I had from panning all that morning and a nice 1/8th ounce nugget. That was so annoying.


F.

 

[Willy]

You can save yourself a lot of grief by getting a couple or 3 classifier screens (1/2", 1/4", 1/8") and classify a 5 gal buckets worth.. then pan it out. Throw the tailings to the side and run a detector over it later on.. just in case there's a big 'ol nugget resting within. That and using something like a Garrett supersluice pan can result in quite good production. ..Willy.

 

[Functional]

You can save yourself a lot of grief by getting a couple or 3 classifier screens (1/2", 1/4", 1/8") and classify a 5 gal buckets worth.. then pan it out. Throw the tailings to the side and run a detector over it later on.. just in case there's a big 'ol nugget resting within. That and using something like a Garrett supersluice pan can result in quite good production. ..Willy.

Sounds like a good plan Willy. I've got an old Garrett pan, but its got 4 or 5 riffles to it. Seems to work ok, but theres times I'd just as soon use my big old steel pan and just take everything down to sands to pan out later. All depends on what the local aggregate looks like.

To date, I've never found any gold with either of my MD's, both are early 1980's vintage and I'm not sure if they would detect it. Wish I had a hunk of pure gold around to test them. Guess I'll just have to throw them both in the trailer and see how they do when I find some gold.

F.

 

[Willy]

What are the detectors? I've got an old X-100 (1980's) that can still beat the pants off many a newer detector.. some high dollar indeed. A lot of people think you need the newest and shiniest detector on the block to do well; I pulled out around $6000 in gold (when it was going for $285 oz) with a Fisher CZ6a a few years ago.. beating out 2 minelab SD2200d's, a Goldmaster 4b, AU52, GB1, and a gold Stinger. Found all of this in less than a week of searching. ..Willy.

 

[Functional]

What are the detectors? I've got an old X-100 (1980's) that can still beat the pants off many a newer detector.. some high dollar indeed. A lot of people think you need the newest and shiniest detector on the block to do well; I pulled out around $6000 in gold (when it was going for $285 oz) with a Fisher CZ6a a few years ago.. beating out 2 minelab SD2200d's, a Goldmaster 4b, AU52, GB1, and a gold Stinger. Found all of this in less than a week of searching. ..Willy.

I could do with a week, or two of finds like that. With gold at about $650.00 U.S. an ounce, it sure wouldn't hurt my feelings at all.

My MD's are the ones listed above my avatar. The White's Coinmaster 1000 Series 3 and Garret American SX S1, (at least I think its an S1). Both are in rough shape right now, having been rescued from a recycling bin at my friends work, but they still work. Had to pay the scrap value for them $1.00 for the pair.



These are just a couple of the many projects I have in the works at the moment. I need to do something about rewiring the battery, or replace whats there with a battery pack so I can use AA's instead of the 9 volts they use now. At least the rest of the wiring and circuitry are ok, (except for the voltage meter/battery level indicator, on the Garrett, which bought the bullet).

I do have some gold rings around here I could test them with, but they're only 14K I think, so that probably wouldn't be a difinitive test.

F.

 

[Willy]

Ya know what?.. that old saying comes to mind "none are so blind as those that have eyes to see". Should have done more looking and less typing. Anyway, I'd say that those particular detectors are maybe a bit too antiquated, and operating at too low of a frequency with no GB.. though it's hard to tell with the Garrett. You could probably get a few bux for them on the classifieds and pick up an older Tesoro, Compass, whatnot. The nice thing about the older detectors is that they generally don't use multilayered circuit boards or surface mount, so adding an external GB and/or threshold can be pretty easy. If you go for Tesoro, try to get one with ED 180 disc. I have a feeling that the ED 90, 120, 160 disc. can probably changed over to ED 180, but getting hold of the info is rather difficult. Yet again, I'll get on my hobbyhorse and tout some of the benefits of getting an older detector; the main one being price. I picked up my X-100 for abt $150 US (after shipping and taxes) and it has the performance of a $1000 detector. The big thing is, it's HOT on gold. I think that that is one of the reasons you don't see many of those old Compass detectors for sale. Operating at 13.6 KHz (somewhere around there) makes them good on gold. Same with the older Tesoros which operate at 12KHz. Look at the MXT (abt 14 KHz) and the new Fisher F75 (abt.13 KHz) or the Tesoro Vaquero (13 or 14KHz). . all hot on gold. In regards to test nuggets and such, peel off a tiny bit of lead. Make it really small, 1 or 2 grains, and if your detectorcan see it.. you'll have a whizz-bang nuggetshooter. just make sure that, if you're testing in AM mode, it's in the motion AM mode. ...Willy.

 

[Functional]

If you go for Tesoro, try to get one with ED 180 disc. I have a feeling that the ED 90, 120, 160 disc. can probably changed over to ED 180, but getting hold of the info is rather difficult. Yet again, I'll get on my hobbyhorse and tout some of the benefits of getting an older detector; the main one being price. I picked up my X-100 for abt $150 US (after shipping and taxes) and it has the performance of a $1000 detector. The big thing is, it's HOT on gold. I think that that is one of the reasons you don't see many of those old Compass detectors for sale. Operating at 13.6 KHz (somewhere around there) makes them good on gold. Same with the older Tesoros which operate at 12KHz. Look at the MXT (abt 14 KHz) and the new Fisher F75 (abt.13 KHz) or the Tesoro Vaquero (13 or 14KHz). . all hot on gold. In regards to test nuggets and such, peel off a tiny bit of lead. Make it really small, 1 or 2 grains, and if your detectorcan see it.. you'll have a whizz-bang nuggetshooter. just make sure that, if you're testing in AM mode, it's in the motion AM mode. ...Willy.

I tried that test with the White's Coinmaster and it didn't detect a thing. (Scraped a piece of lead off of a wheel weight.) I need to get another battery for the Garrett before I can try it on the lead. Maybe tomorrow I'll get over to the store and grab one. I sort of have my doubts about it though.

Update: I did manage to borrow a battery and test the Garrett, but its no better with the lead. Oh well.

If I had the cash and the electronics ability, I'd consider trying my hand at building one of those DIY home built PI MD's, or maybe a BFO MD like this one:
http://home.clara.net/saxons/bfo.htm

They claim it can detect a gold coin at 120 mm's, (almost 5 inches). Don't know how that compares with other MD's, but it beats the cr#p outta mine. Guess I'll wait and see how I do with panning this summer before I lay out any more cash for toys.

F.

 

[Willy]

A BFO would only lead to bitter disappointment. These days it's cheaper to buy used than to build from scratch. Like I posted earlier, you can possibly sell both those oldies and end up with enough to buy an older Tesoro.. or at least a chunk of the cost. ..Willy.

 

[M3R1IN]

Yup, if your setup is self contained and recirculating there's no problem save for: 1) To run any significant amount of material, you'll need some honkin' holding tanks and somewhere to dispose of the tailings/muddy water. 2) you gotta watch out for that riparian zone (crock of $h**) which extends 30 horizontal meters from the high water mark.. can't mine it. Another thing to be wary of is that there are often conflicting regs between the ministry of mines and DFO. In such cases, DFO comes out the winner and ignorance of this fact is no excuse in their eyes. I don't want to sound like a puling ninny, but I can't afford to lose my truck, mining equipment, or money (big fines possible). I know that a person can just walk up to a stream an plunk in a sluice and probably get away with it (many do).. until they get caught. Considering the amount of gold most people end up getting (and all the hard work involved), it's kinda like trying to make a living by ripping off 7 Elevens. ..Willy.

Willy
I have about 150 acres of land in the foothills of alberta in the waterton lakes area. I was wondering if i need to stake a claim to pan on my own land? um..i thought i asked my dad (a realtor) about being on peoples land and such and apparently theres something called government water allowance where anyone is allowed to be within 25 feet of the water line up to the change in vegetation on any natural body of water? for example we have a "swimming hole" on our creek that the locals have grown accustomed to using before the land was purchased and i was asking him how this rule applies. He said that we cant do a damn thing about them being there (not that we care one way or the other) because of that law. Whats this riparian zone you speak of? where would one mine if not within 30 meters of the creek?!? maybe im just confused...

 

[Willy]

You can pan it, no problem; the difficulty arises when you want to do more than pan.. like sluicing or dredging. That's when the headaches start. AFAIK, waterways and such are crown land nad anyone can noodle around on them. The riparian zone is that chunk of land that the government steals from you that extends 30 m from the high water mark (yet you still have to pay taxes on it). This area provides trees for fish to climb and nutritious roots for turtles to eat. This means that if there's an ancient stream bed 40 away, you can mine it or even disturb it (so keep down the cussin'), but not if it's within that 35 m. ..Willy.

 

[M3R1IN]

i probably sound exceedingly stupid but:
If i dig a hole at the edge of the waterline that is illegal?

 

[Willy]

If DFO wants to be a pain in the butt.. probably. There's a property for sale on the edge of Osoyoos lake. Well, this guy bought it with an eye to putting in an orchard. Didn't happen. Turns out the first 100' is now a riparian zone and, if DFO wanted to get sticky about it, buddy wouldn't even be able to mow the grass (disturbing a sensitive ecological (..my hairy white butt it is..) area) . This is what I've been told and I see that the property is for sale again; can't do anything with it. ..Willy.

 

[M3R1IN]

DFO...LOL fisheries and oceans... funny how they can have jurisdiction in a land locked province
Ive never seen any such officers here...i think ill still be mining my creek

 

[Willy]

See, this is how it goes.. I take a leak against a tree (major pollution) in the middle of nowhere, but still within 30 m of the creek, and it percolates through the soil, carried on the legs and backs of beetles and earthworms (causing untold genetic damage) and plain ol' gravity.. til it reaches this little ol' non-fishbearing stream. From there the stream, chock full of incredibly toxic miner's waste, flows into progressively larger streams until, at a certain point, it reaches the habitat of the incredibly rare purple nosegrowler carp. Well, this just shocks the hell outta it's delicate metabolism and it proceeds to go belly-up and (before it dies) SCREAMING to Mother Earth (Gaia in Granolaheadese) about how dirty ol' placer miners are raping, I say RAPING the earth to assuage their filthy lusts for precious metals.. or something like that. ..Willy.

 

[M3R1IN]

"CAN I GET A WITNESS!?!"
"CAN I GAT AN AMEN!?!"
I say special interest groups should be illegal
and governments should base their laws on science not hippies rhetoric

 

[Willy]

The world is my toilet. ...Willy.

 

[bcfromfl]

Sorry about reviving this old thread. Reading Lanny’s posts over the past few years has inspired me to dream about a Canadian nugget shooting trip before it would be physically imprudent for me to try to do such a thing any longer. Some of the links in this thread no longer work, and I’d like to ask for some guidance to know what I need to do on the legal/permitting end of things. More importantly, I’d appreciate suggestions on where to make contacts to get permission to go on claimed land…as I know I wouldn’t be able to locate decent ground on my own within a relatively short period of time. In order to give me enough time to sort all this out, I guess I’m looking at the summer of 2019.

I’m an experienced miner and outdoorsman, but have had the misfortune my whole life of living far away from the Western goldfields. Over the past 30 years I’ve mined in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the beaches of Nome, and the Klamath/Indian Creek area of northern California. I plan on buying a Garrett ATX primarily because of it using conventional alkaline batteries instead of the proprietary rechargeables Minelab uses. I’m experienced with detectors and currently have a Gold Bug Pro, but found that it just doesn’t handle mineralized ground well enough to depend on it as one’s sole machine — discovered that when trying to use it around serpentine bedrock in California. (Had to switch it to discriminate mode…hated to do it, but there was no other way.)

I’ve narrowed down my areas of interest to two, and maybe three areas:

• The Atlin Lake area of British Columbia
• The Cariboo region of British Columbia, specifically, Cunningham Creek, Antler Creek, Williams Creek, or Lightning Creek

In another thread from 2012, a TNet member posted some info indicating that the Hunker Creek area in the Klondike was pretty rich. His last post was in 2013, so, it doesn’t appear as if he’s around here any longer. He did say that there are “many areas open for staking,” hence, open ground, but again, I would have no way of determining which spots would be good for nugget shooting, or, would be more appropriate for dredges or dozers. I know a lot of the gold in the Yukon tends to be smaller, and maybe not a good bet for detectors.

I’m guessing that most of these areas are going to have lots of overburden (at least those spots I’d have access to), so, maybe my best bet would be old hydraulic pits or scrapes. Probably not many areas with exposed old channel or bedrock! I don’t mind hiking, but, given the limits/realities of tenting in bear country, I should probably stay within, say, five miles of a decent road. Should I be concerned about leaving a vehicle parked on the side of a remote road during the day? Locals giving Yankees a hard time?

On my list of things to try are Chambers of Commerce and perhaps local diners/hangouts, and maybe even placing an ad in local newspapers. If I know people, though, I’m guessing that I wouldn’t get many solid responses from these types of inquiries. They don’t know me from Adam, and would have little incentive to offer a stranger access to their ground. I expect to allow a claim owner the pick of the best nuggets, and wouldn’t mind sweetening the deal with a six-pack or two.

I’d be grateful for any ideas you all might have!

 

[arizau]

If you don't get the info/responses you need here, you will probably get some knowledgeable responses if you were to join and post on the Canadian based GPEX gold forum. I think most are understandably closed mouth about where to go but you should at least get some info on the laws. I have seen where some have been offered access to their claims for panning so they might ok detecting too.

Good luck.

 

[PioneerPauly]

Hey M3, im in BC and more specifically, Vancouver Island. I have a few good 'secret' spots over here and a few claims on the Fraser if your interested.