Specimen in highly mineralized ground

[Brivic1]

Recently I was using my old whites Vsat GM3 downslope from an outcropping, high in the mtns of Northern Calif. It was a terrible place to hunt No trash but hot ground all over. Then I hit on a solid sound . as if it were a 30.06 cartridge case.A solid and clear signal.
I soon had it out of the ground, about 4 " down max. It was a lumpy , heavy stone... or whatever. Too much dirt on it so , taking a walk to the truck and some water in a pan, brush a little , softly... and there shone gold.
I will attach some images.
The specimen is 2" x2" x 2" and weighs 55 gram. A quartz matrix and iron staining , . It is a crystaline , lacey specimen. I thought of nitric , to melt away the rocky quartze etc. But, who knows of its make-up.

Anyway, some of my mates thrashed the area with various machines, VLF and Pulse but found no more. All were challenged by the iron ground.

I am needing some ideas.... How would the XP Deus handle this contrary ironstone ground? . I have heard that it is a great machine.
Anyone with info on the XP wireless Deus and this kind of situation please comment or contact.. Thank you all, Brian
]

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Upgraded Night Vision Monocular Digital Infrared Monocular Telescope for 100% Darkness with 8X Zoom - Grab it through Amazon!

[strick]

Nice work Brian! A PI is going to be your best bet in that kinda ground. The Deus in the gold fields program is super chatty on the hot rocks. In the right hands it will find gold but not many using them for that. SDC 2300 would work well on that type of ground.

strick

 

[dave wiseman]

Looks fairly rough,so it's close to the source.Take some samples of that vein or others nearby...and nitric acid won't dissolve the quartz...hydrofluoric will,but is very dangerous stuff.

 

[DDancer]

Very nice find. As Dave suggests some sampling is definitely recommended. As to detection it'd probably be good to rake and detect and horedoc's suggestion of a SDC is a good one. VLF's will be challenged by the minerals judging by that specimen. I would not try to remove the stone with acid, hydrofluoric being the only one that will affect quartz, as it looks like it will break down and fall apart when the host rock is removed. Though you may get a lacy piece out of it most of it will have to be recovered in a pan.

 

[Hard Prospector]

Well done and very nice specimen, pieces like this are treasures in themselves when left intact.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Brian… a very fine quality specimen… congratulations.

The advice above is all good. I wouldn't mess around too much with it, and definitely would not attempt to reduce the amount of quartz in the more fragile areas containing the crystalline gold… too easy to damage it. Give the specimen a careful cleaning / rinse and be content with the way it looks. The inclusions and iron stains are an important part of its inherent natural appeal.

Jim.

 

[johnedoe]

Recently I was using my old whites Vsat GM3 downslope from an outcropping, high in the mtns of Northern Calif. It was a terrible place to hunt No trash but hot ground all over. Then I hit on a solid sound . as if it were a 30.06 cartridge case.A solid and clear signal.
I soon had it out of the ground, about 4 " down max. It was a lumpy , heavy stone... or whatever. Too much dirt on it so , taking a walk to the truck and some water in a pan, brush a little , softly... and there shone gold.
I will attach some images.
The specimen is 2" x2" x 2" and weighs 55 gram. A quartz matrix and iron staining , . It is a crystaline , lacey specimen. I thought of nitric , to melt away the rocky quartze etc. But, who knows of its make-up.

Anyway, some of my mates thrashed the area with various machines, VLF and Pulse but found no more. All were challenged by the iron ground.

I am needing some ideas.... How would the XP Deus handle this contrary ironstone ground? . I have heard that it is a great machine.
Anyone with info on the XP wireless Deus and this kind of situation please comment or contact.. Thank you all, Brian
View attachment 1149961 View attachment 1149962 View attachment 1149963 View attachment 1149964 ]

I think either a PI or a dedicated VLF gold machine is your best bet here.... I really don't think the Deus would offer any advantages and may not perform as well.
Buy the way...... Beautiful specimen....

 

[Brivic1]

Brian… a very fine quality specimen… congratulations.

The advice above is all good. I wouldn't mess around too much with it, and definitely would not attempt to reduce the amount of quartz in the more fragile areas containing the crystalline gold… too easy to damage it. Give the specimen a careful cleaning / rinse and be content with the way it looks. The inclusions and iron stains are an important part of its inherent natural appeal.

Jim.

Thanks Jim, Thank you all for your answers.
Believe me the area is a hotbed from 7000 feet to 3, 000ft all the same rock structure.
My friends had a TDI and another a ML 4500 ? , both pulse. And of course the whites VLF and a whites gmc? or k cannot remember. All of us were beaten by that ironized ground.

As you all know.... and you have all done this test ... get a rock, hot or cold. that is giving off a signal, take it from the ground environment, hold it up 3 feet or so, take your pinpointer, and it will not sound off. Thats the place we are into..
I am not a mining geologist but have been detecting since the mid 1960s

The XP D came from a friend who gave it a good mark on gold programme .
As I said before we all were stymied by the ground.

I am going to pothole and sample at 2 feet below GL about every 10 ft upslope and keep a graph/ map of it all

I thank you all for the warm help..
Cheers, Brian

 

[Lanny in AB]

Recently I was using my old whites Vsat GM3 downslope from an outcropping, high in the mtns of Northern Calif. It was a terrible place to hunt No trash but hot ground all over. Then I hit on a solid sound . as if it were a 30.06 cartridge case.A solid and clear signal.
I soon had it out of the ground, about 4 " down max. It was a lumpy , heavy stone... or whatever. Too much dirt on it so , taking a walk to the truck and some water in a pan, brush a little , softly... and there shone gold.
I will attach some images.
The specimen is 2" x2" x 2" and weighs 55 gram. A quartz matrix and iron staining , . It is a crystaline , lacey specimen. I thought of nitric , to melt away the rocky quartze etc. But, who knows of its make-up.

Anyway, some of my mates thrashed the area with various machines, VLF and Pulse but found no more. All were challenged by the iron ground.

I am needing some ideas.... How would the XP Deus handle this contrary ironstone ground? . I have heard that it is a great machine.
Anyone with info on the XP wireless Deus and this kind of situation please comment or contact.. Thank you all, Brian

Booyaah!!

Great find! What a beautiful piece.

As for the ironstone ground, are you referring to chunks of magnetite? If so, a DD coil on a good pulse machine should quiet that down. On my 5000 with a DD, they're not a problem, with a mono, they can be a problem. But, I don't know the size of your chunks of ironstone either.

When you say your friends were challenged by the iron ground, could they not ground balance? Or, was there constantly chatter? No depth?

Sorry I can't help you with the XP wireless Deus.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Featherdfishead]

Beautiful Specimen Brivic !
All the best advice above and it sounds like you got your sampling tech down. If you have access I'd try the SDC mine handle very hot ground amazingly well.
Good Luck and Keep us posted.

 

[G-bone]

A beautiful piece indeed. Love the close up shots.
I agree, it's worth going back and sampling the area in depth.

Unless your trying to recover the gold itself for monetary value, I'd make a nice mount and leave her as is.

Great find!

 

[Brivic1]

Beautiful Specimen Brivic !
All the best advice above and it sounds like you got your sampling tech down. If you have access I'd try the SDC mine handle very hot ground amazingly well.
Good Luck and Keep us posted.

Thanks all of you, I watched a shoot-out between a Garrett ATX pro and a ML sdc... It was the Garret by a gnats hair... There was a sort of blind spot with the sdc on a small nugg at 8 "..
After all of these 50 + years I may go get another Garret and get the duff all off of 20 x 40 ft of that slope and go look for that reef.. and then replant with geraniums heh heh, and some DF.

Thanks again , all good info.
Cheerio , Brian

 

[huntsman53]

Beautiful specimen and congrats on an amazing find! If I had found such a specimen, then I would bucket up all of the material I could from where and around where it was found and downhill (downstream) as much more is likely there and also much has eroded out long ago. I am wondering if an old White's Goldmaster 66-T would be up to the task of signaling on the Gold and not the Iron and Hot rocks. They can either operate in Mineral (ferrous) or Metal (non-ferrous) mode and I think a combination of both. I have one but need to make a minor repair to the battery connections and change out the old battery pack holders to newer ones before I take it out. I have 5 coils ranging from a 3.5 inch Sniping type coil all the way up to a 30 inch whopper coil. I am hoping that when I get the repairs and modifications done, that the 30 inch coil will pick up a Gold nugget in the back pocket of a Chinaman from Tennessee, LOL!


Frank

 

[Featherdfishead]

Brivic1 - I know the videos your talking about but feel there is plenty of evidence out that the SDC is more sensitive to small gold, has no falseing problems, has more power, and is overall a better design and build. The ATX is a great machine but when it comes to a prospecting only unit the SDC is superior. All detectors have a hole in there detecting field. Find that window and you could film any machines week point.

AjR

 

[kayakpat]

they sure are gorgeous, Those must be from the source where they formed, they don't look beaten

 

[mytimetoshine]

:sly:

 

[rustyfind]

Great specimen. Thanks for the look see. It keeps me hunting.

 

[timemachine]

Really, so ya say "...high in the mountains of Northern California..." eh,? Interesting...

 

[Brivic1]

Time machine, Mytime to shine, hello, both use "time" in your handle. . interesting. Franklin Graham once said, " time is like a river, you can only touch it once"
Well , when my knee gets healed I will try to touch that river again, right where I found this specimen and the area uphill .'may have to chase off a few bears tho.

Who knows, its mate may still be there and that river can be touched again. Tho I definitely will be using a pulse machine , ATX or M/L.... After we drill a bunch of sample holes that is.

We just have to keep looking , it is there someplace. Happy hunting to all . G'nite. BV

 

[Brivic1]

G'day my friends................. Just to update you all.

Health has kept me down low since about June, but not my mates, just last week F found the little brother and sister to my find.
Same matrix , same location, but 20 ft or so uphill.
A couple of friends had detected that area after I left and did no good, then up comes F , for another shot,with the same detector as mine... Vsat GM3 and scores twice,, Maybe total weight out-did my find... I hope anyway. I smiled all night when I got the word of his finds... tickeld me pink.. Good hunting to all of you.. Brian