Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
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.

 

Last edited:
Upvote 6
Apr 17, 2014
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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
As always a good read ! Thankyou Lanny and may you and yours's have a very merry Christmas and to one and all ! :coffee2:
Thanks for your kind reply, and a very Merry Christmas to you as well.

All the best,

Lanny
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Nice post. But ... about that OP ... there is no chasing gold. It doesn't run away much ... ya gatta go find it :D
Yes, wise words from an experienced gold hunter--the gold doesn't run away, and the greatest puzzle is to try to find where it's hiding (Mother Nature is incredibly clever). But somehow I still manage to find ways to get involved in the chase.

All the best to you Netherlandr, as I continue to chase that sassy gold,

Lanny
 

Cariboo5

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Oct 27, 2011
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And a belated Christmas to you, Jim and the others here and all the best in 2024 chasing gold. I have switched gears, sold all my placer claims and now chasing my new gold (Copper) in my mineral ( hardrock) claims. Have a couple of decent areas in the Quesnel Terrane which host several large porphyry copper deposits. All the best to everyone ....
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
And a belated Christmas to you, Jim and the others here and all the best in 2024 chasing gold. I have switched gears, sold all my placer claims and now chasing my new gold (Copper) in my mineral ( hardrock) claims. Have a couple of decent areas in the Quesnel Terrane which host several large porphyry copper deposits. All the best to everyone ....
Thanks, and it's great to have an update on what you're up to!

Good luck with the hard-rocking. I've had some fun the past couple of winters chasing nuggets near old hard-rock gold mines, and I've had some success too.

Glad you're still chasing the gold.

All the best, hope you get some good material,

Lanny
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Well, at long last the book has started. I never realized how many stories I had filed away or how many stories I've posted over the years on the Internet, and it's a bit of a slog to get things organized, but it's coming together. As for how long it will take, I don't know, but I may have to release my stories in different segments as I can't see how I'll get them all in one book.

All the best to those of you lucky enough to chase the gold in warmer locations (I only get into the desert seasonally for short bursts of time during our northern winters), but I love chasing gold in the desert, and I love the rich history of mining I find there.

The most recent hunts have been in Nevada, and Nevada is absolutely amazing as it's rich with mineral deposits right from the bottom (by California and Arizona) to the top (California, Oregon, Idaho).

Lots and lots of places to look for gold in Nevada, and I can easily hop over to California and Arizona as well while visiting in the bottom part of the state of Nevada.

All the best, and good luck with finding the gold,

Lanny
 

Terry Soloman

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May 28, 2010
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White Plains, New York
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Primary Interest:
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Well, at long last the book has started. I never realized how many stories I had filed away or how many stories I've posted over the years on the Internet, and it's a bit of a slog to get things organized, but it's coming together. As for how long it will take, I don't know, but I may have to release my stories in different segments as I can't see how I'll get them all in one book.

All the best to those of you lucky enough to chase the gold in warmer locations (I only get into the desert seasonally for short bursts of time during our northern winters), but I love chasing gold in the desert, and I love the rich history of mining I find there.

The most recent hunts have been in Nevada, and Nevada is absolutely amazing as it's rich with mineral deposits right from the bottom (by California and Arizona) to the top (California, Oregon, Idaho).

Lots and lots of places to look for gold in Nevada, and I can easily hop over to California and Arizona as well while visiting in the bottom part of the state of Nevada.

All the best, and good luck with finding the gold,

Lanny
Can't Wait! I want an autographed copy!!
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
OP
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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Quartz Rock With A Faint Tone

I was out in the Nevada desert with several buddies chasing the gold near a bunch of old hard-rock gold mines. I found so many pieces of old blasting caps with the Equinox, I thought I was going to go crazy because of the nice non-ferrous reading on the Nox. The Oldtimers sure did a lot of work in the area as there were massive mine dumps in front of the adits, all of them running in a crescent shape around the mountain.

I headed up a little gulch that ran up and away from a large mine, and I started finding projectile (lead) after projectile, over and over again. And, the trouble with spent rounds is they ring up on the meter right in the gold range, so after an hour of finding my own lead mine, I headed back down the mountain.

I walked over to another mine dump from a smaller mine, and I started finding square nails and more bits of wire and blasting caps (if I'd have kept all those bits, I could have started my own copper mine too), so I headed back to the rendezvous point to see what the boys had found.

One of them had an oval piece of white and stained quartz about the size of a folded pita, and he was swinging his Gold Monster back and forth over the rock, and he kept getting a weak signal. (The meter would hop over toward the positive side, but then skip back.)

My buddy had a rock hammer with him, and he started chipping off chunks of that quartz, then they'd scan them. With every chunk that gave no signal, he put them in a little pile. He kept chipping off chunks until there was only about a golf ball-sized piece of the original rock left. In that chunk there was a signal, and when he hit it with his rock hammer, it opened along a fracture line and there was the gold! Nothing big, but the only gold we found that day.

All the best,

Lanny
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
No doubt about having a exciting time of it ! :coffee2: :icon_thumleft:
Just curious, is there good gold to be found in Missouri?

All the best,

Lanny
 

russau

Gold Member
May 29, 2005
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Well yes there is gold in Missouri but it's in the River's (Mississippi & Missouri Rivers. And there are sand & gravels claim's to contend with as well as barge and pleasure craft traffic.
 

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