Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

[Lanny in AB]

Do you love to chase the gold? Please join me--lots of gold hunting tips, stories of finds (successful and not), and prospecting poetry.

Nugget in the bedrock tip:

I had a visit with a mining buddy this past weekend, and he told me of an epic battle to get a nugget out of the bedrock, and of what he learned from the experience. I thought some of you might like to learn from his mistake.

While out detecting one day, he came across a large sheet of bare bedrock. The bedrock was exposed because the area had been blasted off with a water cannon (a monitor), by the old-timers! It was not fractured bedrock, in fact it was totally smooth.

He was not optimistic at all of the prospects of a nugget. But, for some reason (we've all been there) he decided to swing his detector over that bedrock. After a long time, just as he was about to give up on his crazy hunch, he got a signal, right out of that smooth bedrock.

There was no crevice, no sign of a crevice, nada! So, he had to go all the way back to camp to get a small sledge and a chisel. The signal in the rock intrigued him, but he still wasn't overly optimistic. For those of you that have chased signals in a similar situation, sometimes there's a patch of hot mineralization in the bedrock that sounds off, but this spot, according to him, was sharp and clear right in the middle of the signal, not just a general increase of the threshold like you get when you pass over a hot spot in the bedrock.

Anyway, he made it back to the spot and started to chisel his way into the bedrock. If any of you have tried this, it's an awful job, and you usually wind up with cut knuckles--at the least! Regardless, he kept fighting his way down, busting out chunks of bedrock. He kept checking the hole, and the signal remained very strong.

This only puzzled him all the more as he could clearly see that it was solid bedrock with no sign of any crevice. He finally quit at the end of the day, at a depth of about a foot, but still, nothing in the hole.

An experienced nugget shooting friend dropped by the next morning to see him, and asked him how the hunt was going. My buddy related his tale of the mysterious hole in the bedrock, and told the friend to go over and check it out, and see if he could solve the riddle.

Later in the day, the other nugget hunter returned. In his hand was a fine, fat, sassy nugget. It weighed in at about an ounce and a quarter! After my friend returned his eyeballs to their sockets and zapped his heart to start it again, he asked where the nugget had come from.

Imagine his surprise when he heard it came from the mystery hole!! He asked how deep the other guy had gone into the bedrock to get it. "Well, no deeper" was his reply.

So, here's the rest of the story as to what happened. When the successful nugget hunter got to the bedrock, he scanned the surface got the same strong signal as my buddy. He widened out the hole and scanned again. Still a solid tone. He widened the hole some more so he could get his coil in, and here's the key and the lesson in this story, he got a strong signal off the side of the hole, about six inches down, but set back another inch into the side of the bedrock!!

My unlucky friend, the true discoverer of the gorgeous nugget's resting place had gone deep past the signal while digging his hole!!

Now, of course, a good pinpointer would easily solve this problem. The problem was, my buddy didn't have one, so why would he widen the hole, right? Well, the other guy was the one with more experience, and that's why he did. It was a lot more work, but what a payoff!

So, my buddy's butt is still black and blue from where he kicked himself for the next week or so for having lost such an incredible prize.

Some nugget hunting lessons are harder than others to learn. . . .

All the best,

Lanny


P.S. When in gold country--check the bedrock, regardless of whether it looks likely or not! Mother Nature likes to play games sometimes.

 

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[Lanny in AB]

Excellent story Lanny. Thanks for taking me along. I have also been into some steep places (Cariboo BC comes to mind) that were easier to walk up then descend down the mountain due to limitations of the human body. Funny how you found a spot that they were able to get machines into. I guess it proves, where there is a will (and good gold), there is always a way...

Thanks for dropping in, and the entire surrounding area had been heavily worked in the past, turning almost everything upside down and in the process generating huge piles of overburden, making it very difficult to walk into the area I chose, lots of steep slopes and loose footing everywhere. But, as you've mentioned, the gold was good as I found only the crumbs they left, but they were beefy crumbs nonetheless letting me know that they really hit a payday in that excavation.

All the best,

Lanny

 

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[Jim Hemmingway]

Jim, what kind and thoughtful things you always have to say! Thanks so much.

I hope you're out pounding the ground looking for a bit of silver. It's been raining a bit too much here for me to get out and chase the gold, but that's the way Mother Nature seems tease me: it finally stops snowing; the snow melts at elevation in the mountains so I can get in on the trails, then it rains so much everything is a sticky, muddy mess just waiting for some sunshine to dry!

All the best,

Lanny

Lanny… thankyou for sharing your most recent goldhunting adventure. It was superbly written and captivating, it’s always delightful to read about your prospecting experiences in the wilds of British Columbia. Hope the weather soon cooperates with you, over here we’ve had a generally cool, wet spring so far.

I doubt we’ll look for native silver until this autumn, but meanwhile we may look at mineral occurrences in central and eastern Ontario. We figure that within an hour’s drive of Bancroft, Ontario roughly 95% of all known minerals occur, and many can still be found at reasonably accessible collecting sites and road cuts.

We’re interested in all the more commonplace materials, a short list would include quartz, apatite, titanite, tremolite, fluorite, beryl, garnet, corundum, amazonite and many other notables. Some of the crystalline minerals of interest are occasionally found in gem quality. We think this will be an interesting and fun change for us. So that’s our tentative plan, but first we have some research to do to at least get started in this new facet of treasure hunting. Besides, it's a good excuse for us to see some new country.

Looking forward to your next installments to this thread, and good hunting this spring and summer. Meanwhile, all the very best to you and the family.

Jim.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Lanny… thankyou for sharing your most recent goldhunting adventure. It was superbly written and captivating, it’s always delightful to read about your prospecting experiences in the wilds of British Columbia. Hope the weather soon cooperates with you, over here we’ve had a generally cool, wet spring so far.

I doubt we’ll look for native silver until this autumn, but meanwhile we may look at mineral occurrences in central and eastern Ontario. We figure that within an hour’s drive of Bancroft, Ontario roughly 95% of all known minerals occur, and many can still be found at reasonably accessible collecting sites and road cuts.

We’re interested in all the more commonplace materials, a short list would include quartz, apatite, titanite, tremolite, fluorite, beryl, garnet, corundum, amazonite and many other notables. Some of the crystalline minerals of interest are occasionally found in gem quality. We think this will be an interesting and fun change for us. So that’s our tentative plan, but first we have some research to do to at least get started in this new facet of treasure hunting. Besides, it's a good excuse for us to see some new country.

Looking forward to your next installments to this thread, and good hunting this spring and summer. Meanwhile, all the very best to you and the family.

Jim.

Sorry for the lateness of the reply Jim. I've been out chasing the gold, and I've had some good success getting a nice catch of nuggets with the detector while I've been offline.

I always appreciate your kind comments about the writing Jim; you are a true gentleman.

As for the weather, it finally dried out and made it so I could get up to the higher elevations in the Rocky mountains where the good stuff likes to hide.

Had an interesting outing chasing some bedrock the Oldtimers worked heavily in the 1800's, and they didn't get all of the gold either, so it was nice they left some for me. Of course, if they'd have had the tech we have today for sniffing out the gold, there's no way they'd have left what they did.

I've never expanded my chase to include as many geological items the way you have done in Ontario, but it sounds like your area is rich in a fascinating variety of minerals I just don't have access to here in my stomping grounds, so I'm glad you have so many options.

As for the silver you find, you're the king in my book! You've certainly recovered some incredibly wonderful examples of what Mother Nature spent countless time creating and generating. I love to look at the pictures you've taken of your incredible specimens: you do a superb job of displaying them.

One interesting item from my last trip, there was a line of boulders on some exposed bedrock, and detecting around them, I found no signals. Moreover, I imagine that's a common thing for nugget shooters to do, to detect around the boulders, then move on. However, I took the time and stressed the muscles more than I should have to move each of the boulders until I could do a clean job of detecting the bedrock they covered, and the results surprised me, well beyond what I imagined they'd be, but that's a story for a cold or a rainy day when I can't be out chasing the gold.

All the best, and thanks for dropping in,

Lanny

 

[63bkpkr]

Ah Lanny,
Your hints of "what's to come" in your prospecting journal are so tantalizing and keep us on the edge of our camp chairs waiting for the leather pouch full of your verbal nuggets to be opened before us! Can't Wait to hear about your further adventures, but then we will all need to wait for the right timing to come!!

Me, I'm still working hard at a city job though I've hopes for an August adventure into the hills of NorCal that I so love and miss.

Best Regards,................63bkpkr

 

[Lanny in AB]

Ah Lanny,
Your hints of "what's to come" in your prospecting journal are so tantalizing and keep us on the edge of our camp chairs waiting for the leather pouch full of your verbal nuggets to be opened before us! Can't Wait to hear about your further adventures, but then we will all need to wait for the right timing to come!!

Me, I'm still working hard at a city job though I've hopes for an August adventure into the hills of NorCal that I so love and miss.

Best Regards,................63bkpkr

Herb,

Great to hear from you, and I'm glad you're thinking of another of your adventurous outings to Northern California!

I am looking forward to your account, if you are able to go, and would love to read about it as you do a wonderful job of telling your tales.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Sorry for the lateness of the reply Jim. I've been out chasing the gold, and I've had some good success getting a nice catch of nuggets with the detector while I've been offline.

I always appreciate your kind comments about the writing Jim; you are a true gentleman.

As for the weather, it finally dried out and made it so I could get up to the higher elevations in the Rocky mountains where the good stuff likes to hide.

Had an interesting outing chasing some bedrock the Oldtimers worked heavily in the 1800's, and they didn't get all of the gold either, so it was nice they left some for me. Of course, if they'd have had the tech we have today for sniffing out the gold, there's no way they'd have left what they did.

I've never expanded my chase to include as many geological items the way you have done in Ontario, but it sounds like your area is rich in a fascinating variety of minerals I just don't have access to here in my stomping grounds, so I'm glad you have so many options.

As for the silver you find, you're the king in my book! You've certainly recovered some incredibly wonderful examples of what Mother Nature spent countless time creating and generating. I love to look at the pictures you've taken of your incredible specimens: you do a superb job of displaying them.

One interesting item from my last trip, there was a line of boulders on some exposed bedrock, and detecting around them, I found no signals. Moreover, I imagine that's a common thing for nugget shooters to do, to detect around the boulders, then move on. However, I took the time and stressed the muscles more than I should have to move each of the boulders until I could do a clean job of detecting the bedrock they covered, and the results surprised me, well beyond what I imagined they'd be, but that's a story for a cold or a rainy day when I can't be out chasing the gold.

All the best, and thanks for dropping in,

Lanny

Hi Lanny… hope you are getting good results and that the weather is cooperating with you. We’ve experienced an unusually wet and rather cool summer to date here in central Ontario.

I especially liked your comments about moving boulders on exposed bedrock. We often move boulders and occasionally over the years have been pleasantly rewarded with silver nuggets beneath them. We can certainly relate to how pleased you must be with your results.

But unlike the goldfields we read about, our silver float is generally not found on bedrock. Most tends to be found fairly close to the surface. We speculate that this is due to the most recent glacial action scraping surface silver veins and subsequently depositing some of it in fairly close proximity to the source. It helps to explain how the early miners found so many documented silver floats on the surface by eyesight, some weighing up to several hundred pounds. The photo below illustrates the typical size that we find… and only because we have the advantage of using metal detectors.

Looking forward to your next installment to this thread Lanny, meanwhile good luck with everything.

Jim.

​

 

[RelicLady]

Hello everyone,

Checking in to see if any luck has been had with finding gold using a less expensive metal detector versus a Minelab?

 

[63bkpkr]

Yes, Whites GMT as well as the Nokta Fors brand of detectors and the Makro Racer/Gold Racer machines. And it seems you've not been on here very long so Welcome...............63bkpkr

 

[beekbuster]

the makro racer and fors gold+ have the isat(intelligent self adjusting threshold) which makes them run smoother on hot ground. california gold does very well with them, though i think he would do really well with a radio shack detector also. these as well as gmt, gb pro, gb2 are excellent detectors. the 1 up the pi's have is that they are largely unaffected by hot ground and hot rocks, mostly. every detector will lose depth as the ground becomes more mineralized, but pi detectors have better depth. higher frequency vlfs find smaller gold, but are more affected by hot ground.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hello everyone,

Checking in to see if any luck has been had with finding gold using a less expensive metal detector versus a Minelab?

Hi there,

I see you've got some good replies already, and I'd like to jump in about the Gold Bug Pro: I've paid for that detector many, many times over, super-easy learning curve, loves to find gold nuggets, has a great ID meter, solid inexpensive machine. I love it!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Yes, Whites GMT as well as the Nokta Fors brand of detectors and the Makro Racer/Gold Racer machines. And it seems you've not been on here very long so Welcome...............63bkpkr

Thanks for helping out Herb! Just dropped in for a quick stop here at home, then back out at it. Fantastic gold summer so far. Did you ever make it out yet?

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

the makro racer and fors gold+ have the isat(intelligent self adjusting threshold) which makes them run smoother on hot ground. california gold does very well with them, though i think he would do really well with a radio shack detector also. these as well as gmt, gb pro, gb2 are excellent detectors. the 1 up the pi's have is that they are largely unaffected by hot ground and hot rocks, mostly. every detector will lose depth as the ground becomes more mineralized, but pi detectors have better depth. higher frequency vlfs find smaller gold, but are more affected by hot ground.

Thanks for dropping in and for dishing out some solid advice. I love your philosophy of life: eat, sleep, hunt, fish, prospect . . .

All the best,

Lanny

 

[ProspectorBill]

Thanks for helping out Herb! Just dropped in for a quick stop here at home, then back out at it. Fantastic gold summer so far. Did you ever make it out yet?

All the best,

Lanny

Glad to see you having a good summer and hope the gold keeps jumping into your pan!

 

[bobinsd]

Lanny....years ago I suggested the receding glaciers would expose new locations for placer gold. Have you explored the possibility?
Have you seen the latest "Gold Fever" how where they c=actually went inside a glacier and found nuggets in the first pans? This was not far from Anchorage,
I believe. I don't know why they went inside the glacier since the whole area downstream would have produce similar results. It did add to the
"excitement" because of the obvious cave-in possibility.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Lanny....years ago I suggested the receding glaciers would expose new locations for placer gold. Have you explored the possibility?
Have you seen the latest "Gold Fever" how where they c=actually went inside a glacier and found nuggets in the first pans? This was not far from Anchorage,
I believe. I don't know why they went inside the glacier since the whole area downstream would have produce similar results. It did add to the
"excitement" because of the obvious cave-in possibility.

I like your thinking, and I can think of no reason why if a glacier was covering a good placer area it wouldn't result in good pay; after all, however long the glacier has been parked over that spot (possibly many thousands of years), no prospectors have been able to get at the gold frozen in that icy vault.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[63bkpkr]

Good Morning Lanny,
Nope, I've not made it out yet though it is possible that it will happen later this year! I am looking forward to it and so are my BGT mini, new gold pan, climbing/safety ropes, tent, Insurance Policy, etc.!!!!!!!...............Glad to hear you are doing well and that you are heading back out shortly, keep the smile going with new finds!..................63bkpkr aka Herb

 

[RelicLady]

Thanks! I was on a few years ago and just getting back. Love this forum.

 

[RelicLady]

Perfect. Thanks!

 

[Oakstrails]

How many of you have ever worked with a sticky, black bedrock? I ran into this situation one summer, where the bedrock had lots of graphite in it, lots of pyrite, and lots of quartz stringers, but it was sticky, like gooey cheese. Man, did it hold the nuggets!

They were stuck to it like flies to fly paper. The stuff was terrible to pan, and the graphite was murder--my hands were black for days, and the green pans looked like you'd used them to change oil.

But, the gold was sure trapped, in fact, as the water dropped in the river, I found a nugget just by looking at the bedrock, as the nugget was stuck fast to the surface, just winking in the sun, so to speak.

Anyway, there's more to this story, but I'm interested in input from others, if you've ever run into this stuff before, or anything like it.

Thanks,

Lanny in AB

I'm sure I would have remembered. [emoji3]
I now know if I do run into something similar I need to pay attention and not pass it up.

Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk

 

[Lanny in AB]

Glad to see you having a good summer and hope the gold keeps jumping into your pan!

Thanks! The gold has been good this summer, but the heat has been bad; however, it's kept the mosquito population down, so that' a plus.

Thanks for dropping in, and all the best with chasing your Ontario precious metals,

Lanny