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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[GarretDiggingAz]

Thank you Lanny and Eagle for your appreciation and kind words. I'm not sure how good of a teacher I am. I just know what has worked for me. The area I work the most is semi damp most the year. Rarely is there enough water for any kind of wet operation, and rarely is it dry enough for a dry washer. Metal detecting is just the most efficient method to put some gold in my poke. Luckily the area has nuggets, however not much for fines. I just hate to see people move buckets full of material for a meager return. There is good gold out there in pockets. I too used to bring lots of dirt home to run through a recirculating device, but I found it to be a rather inefficient way to sample. As you guys know, volume doesn't necessarily mean a better return. Everywhere I have been so far has been worked before, and most have been worked multiple times. What I tend to find is leftovers or gold that was previously missed. It just makes more sense to be selective about what I dig for a better return for my efforts. In my opinion we have technology on our side with metal detectors. We can see things in the ground with these devices and I believe we should take advantage of the technology to better our chances of finding a good deposit. You know what I mean, work smarter not harder. I am still looking for a proper pay layer or deposit and learning more every day. Until then I'll keep all the pesky little sassy nuggets I find along the way, lol. Dennis

Dennis
I appreciate the advice. I do enjoy the digging and running the sluice though. Plus I do enjoy hobbling through the hills, probably places I shouldn't go to, to go detecting.
I whole heartedly agree about working smarter. I'm certain once I find my first nugget my sluice might not see as much action. That'd make my wife happy. No more dirt at home. Lol.
The only good thing is that at least I get color each trip. Not ounces but it's truly an enjoyment just being out and about and not dealing with the pain being at home with my pain.
This hobby/profession is my best remedy. Just wish gas wasn't going up again.
Believe me when I say this. I'll put some additional tools in the pack and I know my nuggets coming soon. I just need to get out there and not forget my detector (again). I'm always looking to improve and learn. Especially if I can learn from those who know. Thx to others on this forum TNet wide. Yes that means Lanny as well.

 

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[EagleDown]

Dennis
I appreciate the advice. I do enjoy the digging and running the sluice though. Plus I do enjoy hobbling through the hills, probably places I shouldn't go to, to go detecting.
I whole heartedly agree about working smarter. I'm certain once I find my first nugget my sluice might not see as much action. That'd make my wife happy. No more dirt at home. Lol.
The only good thing is that at least I get color each trip. Not ounces but it's truly an enjoyment just being out and about and not dealing with the pain being at home with my pain.
This hobby/profession is my best remedy. Just wish gas wasn't going up again.
Believe me when I say this. I'll put some additional tools in the pack and I know my nuggets coming soon. I just need to get out there and not forget my detector (again). I'm always looking to improve and learn. Especially if I can learn from those who know. Thx to others on this forum TNet wide. Yes that means Lanny as well.

I posted this in my thread, but I decided to post it here also, just to make sure you read it. This is in regards to your post about how the kids prefer to dig for a few specks of gold, rather than go with you, metal detecting:

Halito Brother GarretD,......If I may, I feel the need to tell you something about the psychology of 'kids'; If you take them fishing three or four times and nobody even gets a bite, the fifth time you go out, they will be a bit reluctant to go with you. The excuse? = "Why? We never catch anything"!! So, in this case, you haven't found any nuggets with your detector, but you've found a little gold through digging holes. Now, they're happy with these results because (at least) they're seeing gold, while having (valid) hopes of one of them being the FIRST to find that big piece. Even if it hasn't been said aloud, the sibling rivalry is there. Anytime you have 2 or more kids together, you'll also have the desire of being the "Alpha Dog". (lol)

Your job my Friend is to channel that rivalry in such a way that they will prefer going out metal detecting with you.

What I would try, would be to let one volunteer to dig in the college fund hole, while the other goes with you to dig while you metal detect. Have them take turns with the metal detecting. Once you have found a nugget with the detector, I guarantee you that you'll not only have them agueing about who gets to go detecting with you, but by the time you find your second nugget, they will be clamoring for their own metal detectors. (Basically, so that they can outdo dad). (lol)

 

[Lanny in AB]

Garret,

Eagle is on the money about the sibling rivalry thing.

I'd try out what he's outlined and see what happens.

Even if you're in an area where there's lots of trash, some of those finds can be very interesting. I see people post finds all the time, finds they're not sure of exactly what they've found. Moreover, that might motivate them to get out to detect and dig more. It's always interesting to post a find on treasurenet and have a bunch of people give input as to what it is.

All the best

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

We need to change the term "Dredging" to Triple-S mining (Surface Suction Sluice Mining) to get ourselves removed from the horribly negative stereotypes of dredging that cropped up in the late 1800's and early 1900's:

The term dredging should be deleted from every reference to the activity and replaced by surface suction sluicing. The name dredge should be removed by every manufacturer on their equipment as well. There's just too much baggage attached to the word "dredge" and a lot of it is left over from the late 1800's and early 1900's and rightfully so. Those monster bucketline dredges did leave entire wastelands behind them.

What we do today only briefly alters the stream and the fall or spring storms quickly remove any signs of our passing. What's left is clean, highly oxygenated, silt free gravel that's prime for spawning. I've watched the fish methodically choose those surface suction sluice gravels (SSS mined gravels/Triple-S gravels) over the natural ones over and over again. The fish know something about gravel that's best for spawning, and that's why they choose it. By the way, Triple-S mining (surface suction sluice mining) should not occur when any spawning seasons are on, in order to kill the fishing lobby's objections. So, there goes any argument by greenies or enviro-nazi's about that element as well.

Perhaps California needs to organize any renewal of SSS mining (as demonstrated, the term can easily be shortened to Triple-S Mining or even shorter to Triple-S) to clearly protect spawning seasons in order to kill the hate lobby organized around those events.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Lanny I agree. I think the average person hears the word dredge, and thinks of the old bucket line dredges that literally chanced the coarse of rivers. People also are buffaloed into the thought that suction dredging causes a more severe sediment flow than your average light rain... Silly people....

 

[IMPDLN]

How about under water vacuum cleaning. Dennis

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

We need to change the term "Dredging" to Triple-S mining (Surface Suction Sluice Mining) to get ourselves removed from the horribly negative stereotypes of dredging that cropped up in the late 1800's and early 1900's: The term dredging should be deleted from every reference to the activity and replaced by surface suction sluicing. The name dredge should be removed by every manufacturer on their equipment as well. There's just too much baggage attached to the word "dredge" and a lot of it is left over from the late 1800's and early 1900's and rightfully so. Those monster bucketline dredges did leave entire wastelands behind them. What we do today only briefly alters the stream and the fall or spring storms quickly remove any signs of our passing. What's left is clean, highly oxygenated, silt free gravel that's prime for spawning. I've watched the fish methodically choose those surface suction sluice gravels (SSS mined gravels/Triple-S gravels) over the natural ones over and over again. The fish know something about gravel that's best for spawning, and that's why they choose it. By the way, Triple-S mining (surface suction sluice mining) should not occur when any spawning seasons are on, in order to kill the fishing lobby's objections. So, there goes any argument by greenies or enviro-nazi's about that element as well. Perhaps California needs to organize any renewal of SSS mining (as demonstrated, the term can easily be shortened to Triple-S Mining or even shorter to Triple-S) to clearly protect spawning seasons in order to kill the hate lobby organized around those events. All the best, Lanny

Lanny,
I second this renaming. Since it's not really dredging. At least in my book of definitions. Dredging to me is the use of the dredge lines or other machinery that took massive amounts of material and then deposited the tailings all along the washes. With the SSS Mining we are only taking the loose materials off the surface and then relocating the material, minus the heavies and toxins, into the streams or rivers.

 

[EagleDown]

We need to change the term "Dredging" to Triple-S mining (Surface Suction Sluice Mining) to get ourselves removed from the horribly negative stereotypes of dredging that cropped up in the late 1800's and early 1900's:

The term dredging should be deleted from every reference to the activity and replaced by surface suction sluicing. The name dredge should be removed by every manufacturer on their equipment as well. There's just too much baggage attached to the word "dredge" and a lot of it is left over from the late 1800's and early 1900's and rightfully so. Those monster bucketline dredges did leave entire wastelands behind them.

What we do today only briefly alters the stream and the fall or spring storms quickly remove any signs of our passing. What's left is clean, highly oxygenated, silt free gravel that's prime for spawning. I've watched the fish methodically choose those surface suction sluice gravels (SSS mined gravels/Triple-S gravels) over the natural ones over and over again. The fish know something about gravel that's best for spawning, and that's why they choose it. By the way, Triple-S mining (surface suction sluice mining) should not occur when any spawning seasons are on, in order to kill the fishing lobby's objections. So, there goes any argument by greenies or enviro-nazi's about that element as well.

Perhaps California needs to organize any renewal of SSS mining (as demonstrated, the term can easily be shortened to Triple-S Mining or even shorter to Triple-S) to clearly protect spawning seasons in order to kill the hate lobby organized around those events.

All the best,

Lanny

That's one of the best ideas to ever float down the river. Let's make it unanimous....SSS Mining!! (Or, SSS Gold Recovery). Wait, maybe we could tie it in with "Toxic Materials Removal". Perhaps we could get 'GreenPeace' to help us then. (lol)

Sorry Brother, your suggestion makes a lot of sense, but I couldn't resist a little levity. Actually, it's a great avenue to explore!!

 

[Lanny in AB]

OK,

Triple-S mining and toxin removal. Or, Triple-S gold recovery and toxin removal.

That does have a better ring to it Eagle.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

Ok. Now let's get GPC on our side. This would surely win them over. This would be the best idea to help resolve it. Now if we could profit on this copyright. Well Lanny could. Then that'd be even better. 3S & M Toxin and gold recovery of America. (3SMTGoA). Stock options anybody?

 

[Lanny in AB]

Lanny I agree. I think the average person hears the word dredge, and thinks of the old bucket line dredges that literally chanced the coarse of rivers. People also are buffaloed into the thought that suction dredging causes a more severe sediment flow than your average light rain... Silly people....

I like your line of thinking on this issue.

I hope that it catches on or that at least some positive dialogue can result from it.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

How about under water vacuum cleaning. Dennis

That's a great idea too Dennis.

Thanks for the suggestion.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Lanny,
I second this renaming. Since it's not really dredging. At least in my book of definitions. Dredging to me is the use of the dredge lines or other machinery that took massive amounts of material and then deposited the tailings all along the washes. With the SSS Mining we are only taking the loose materials off the surface and then relocating the material, minus the heavies and toxins, into the streams or rivers.

What you say has some solid merit for sure.

I hope some kind of a movement gets people back to the table to start bringing the two sides together.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Ok. Now let's get GPC on our side. This would surely win them over. This would be the best idea to help resolve it. Now if we could profit on this copyright. Well Lanny could. Then that'd be even better. 3S & M Toxin and gold recovery of America. (3SMTGoA). Stock options anybody?

Copyright? I wish!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

We were working a high bench placer in the Rocky Mountains. It was a spot on the bundle of claims we were prospecting that I had tested a couple of years earlier, as I’d seen some large boulders and cobbles that had been moved, clearly indicating that they were out of place (a different color from the surrounding rocks, no lichens, etc.) The pile of rocks was located on the opposite side of a tree-covered hump, right where the Chinese had built a series of their famous rock walls.

The walls ran in curves, at one point surrounding a massive round pile of cobbles, and I’d followed along down in the trenches enclosed by those walls to where the Chinese workings abruptly ended right in the side of the hill. Those Sourdoughs from Asia had punched themselves a drift mine right in that hillside long, long ago. The entrance was all slumped in, but the miners’ well-laid walls of carefully placed stone were still perfectly organized in their geometric curves.

As the Chinese Sourdoughs had spent so much effort in this area, I felt it was worth testing the place too. So, that’s why I’d checked out the spot over the hump from the drift mine a few years back. Over the hump, where the boulders and cobbles had been pulled out of the hillside, I’d found a nugget right on the bedrock in the clay! Because of that nugget find, we’d come back with a little backhoe and a trommel to run a larger test.

However, the dirt was mighty tough digging. Mother Nature had lain in that channel while carrying a massive run of clay, and when that clay hardens up, it’s just this side of concrete in toughness. In fact, it was so obstinate, we had to chain the backhoe to a large tree to stop it from bucking up and down, and to keep it from tipping itself into the dig hole!

We finally got enough dirt piled to start the test. We were shoveling the dirt directly into the little trommel. That homemade wonder had an old Briggs and Stratton engine on it that was running at a slow putt, putt, putt speed. The water that was washing the dirt was pressured up by nature through the use of a siphon that we’d set earlier in the season. It was a two-inch line of plastic pipe (in rolls) that we’d strung up the mountainside to catch the run of a creek that ran parallel to our operation, but we accessed it at a much higher elevation. (That whole adventure is a story for another day!) Because of our efforts, we had great water pressure without the hassle of having to start a pump every time, and without the hassle of paying for oil and gasoline!

We had a black mat in a v-shaped tray just where the first wash exited the trommel before the material then dropped into the sluice, and there was a nice catch of flakes building up on that mat.

The day was hot, as it was mid-summer, the fresh scent of pine and fir filled the air, and I’d taken off my jacket and set my defender shotgun on top of it over on the other side of the gold machine.

As I turned to reach for another shovelful of dirt from the pile, I noticed movement off to the left, for two large shapes were coming over the rows of hand-stacks, those piles left over from the 1800’s when the Old-timers hand-mined the shallow diggin’s bedrock over 150 years earlier.

I looked, and then I looked again. However, I still couldn’t believe what I saw.

Two grizzlies of almost the exact same size were strolling our way. And, when I say strolling, that’s exactly what they were doing. They were in no hurry at all, not a care in the world (a luxury you can afford when you’re at the top of the food chain), and they were investigating every single thing along the way, as they made progress closer to where we were working.

All at once, I had a giant brainwave to spook those bears right out of there! I ran quickly ran to the quad, started it, and revved that engine, nice and loud, multiple times. My brainwave led me to believe that the powerful noise of an engine would scare the bears away, of course.

What a bad brainwave that turned out to be.

Instead of heading the other direction, the twin grizzlies came closer. Then, when they were far too close, and this is when things got, and always get, downright freaky, they both stood up! Well, let me tell you, if you think grizzlies are large on all fours, wait until they stand up about twenty feet away from you.

Yikes!

I felt very small and powerless.

However dim my little brain might be, I finally realized what was happening, so I quickly shut the quad down and slowly moved off to the other side of it. With the engine shut down, the grizzlies seemed to lose interest, and they calmly moved off down the rows of hand-stacks toward the cliffs that front the river.

Now, as both of those bears were young, that’s the only reason I was lucky that day. Those curious grizzlies must have been three-year olds, ones just kicked off their momma, and they were out for a stroll to see the world. Therefore, everything was interesting to them, and when they heard an idiot revving an engine, it was brand new news to their ears, making it all that much more interesting. Furthermore, when I’d fired-up the quad, I’d hit the switch in their brains indicating that here was something on the must see list. So, they did what bears do when encountering input that’s unfamiliar, they check it out by standing up.

I can still see in brain replay those huge heads and torsos swaying side to side as they scented the air, but luckily, we were downwind of them, and luckier still, they weren’t hungry or mad that day. A true double bonus.

I learned a couple of lessons that day: always keep the shotgun close, not far off on the other side of the gold machine, and second, never assume that what might frighten or spook one animal (like a squirrel or deer) will also frighten another.

After we were sure the grizzly twins weren’t returning, and after my heart had slowed down to a gentle 200 or so beats per minute, we settled back into the routine of washing gravel. Furthermore, at the end of the day, we had a nice catch of gold in the cleanup tub.

Nevertheless, the best part of the day wasn’t the gold; it was that we didn’t wind up as bear grub!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Jeff, I took the liberty of moving your post over here as a follow-up. I hope you don't mind, as I'd like to give as many others as possible the chance to read your cool stories.

Great story Lanny. Reminds me of a couple for sure.

We flew into our yearly fishing spot in AK looking for the usual ...24-36" rainbows and 15 pound lake trout. My good friend and I and a newbie friend of mine were the first to arrive. We got dropped off and the plane left for the next group. The pilot said he'd be back in 3 to 4 hours with the rest of our group and gear. We got camp set up on the Alagnak River at the mouth of Kukaklek Lake. With a little time to kill, we wondered up the beach on the lakes edge. The beach was literally covered with salmon bones from last years spanning of Salmon. As we ambled along, my buddy saw a very large blond grizzly coming towards us along the same beach. The bear was just as you described...strolling and investigating, just like we were. Since our walkabout was not planned, the rifle was 100 yards behind us...back in camp. We decided since the bear was only a 100 yards away, we should be getting back. As we walked, my newbie buddy nervously looked over his shoulder and said "shi*! That bear is coming for us!" By the time we turned around and looked, the bear was ambling again. As we stood our ground, the bear stopped and looked around...looking everywhere but at us. As we picked up speed, so did the bear and he was closing in faster than we could get back to camp. My buddy and I told the new guy to RUN and get the rifle (something he had NEVER held before) while we stood our ground. That worked for a moment but the bear started "jogging" our way with obvious intent. It started to look like it would be a tie between my friend arriving with the rifle and the bear upon us. Suddenly in the midst of all this, we heard the low but unmistakable drone of the 12 cylinder Beaver Dehavilland returning from Homer with the rest of our gear and crew. The pilot saw what was happening, banked the plane sharply and put the floats right over the bear. He was still running the last time I saw him...thank gawd

Another time, same location. I was sitting on a hill doing what bears do in the woods when I noticed a grizzly on the other side of the river. He was digging into the bank obviously wanting whatever little critter had gone into it's hole. Back in camp bacon and eggs were cooking away over the camp stove. (Anybody who knows these bears KNOWS this type of breakfast will bring in EVERY bear in the area and this one was no exception. I always objected to this type of breakfast FOR that very reason, but was always over ruled). I watched him sniff the air, go back to digging and then sniff the air again. With an obvious "F this" the bear pushed himself away from the hole and headed for the river bank. I had the nocos with me by now and was yelling blow by blow descriptions as he approached. The bear disappeared as it got closer to the bank and I continued to watch. Suddenly I saw a huge amount of water splayed in the air (on "our" side of the bank) as he shook off. I returned to camp and we waited.

There were LOTS of paths around and every single one of them were created by grizzlies. So we had a pretty good idea of where he would show up. Sure enough, here he comes out of the elders. Keep in mind there were NINE of us, all standing shoulder to shoulder and yelling at him to go away. He stopped and obviously didn't like what he saw and was hearing. Did it stop him? Nope. With the same look on his face that he had at the ground squirrels hole, he resumed coming into camp..now at 50 feet away. (that is an attitude you get when you're at the top of the food chain.)

My buddy aimed and fired a single but potent round over the bears head. I will NEVER forget seeing every single muscle in the big bad body quiver when that round went off. He ran a very large 1/2 circle around us and kept going at a full run till we couldn't see him anymore. Had we not had a firearm, I am certain the outcome would have been quite different.

Thanks for the memories Lanny....the best ones are when you live to talk about them!

What great stories!

They remind me of some of the other encounters I've had.

I'm glad that firing the warning round worked, as it sometimes makes things go sideways instead, but like you said, the best encounters are the ones you live to talk about.

We once had a bear stalking us, and I mean he was at it for a while. He crossed the river twice, angled up a cliff and circled around behind us, then swam the river again.

He stopped directly across from us on a cliff (we were working in a canyon) about thirty yards away in a thin stand of trees and started doing that aggressive bear stomp and sway thing, so my buddy fired a warning shot right past his head.

All he did was shake his massive head and come toward us.

Two of our buddies were already coming down the trail to meet us, and they showed up (quite excited by the unexpected gunshot) at that exact moment. Because of that, the bear slowed considerably as he didn't like the looks of four of us. As well, my one buddy picked up a long log and held it over his head, making himself look huge. The other one picked up a big slab of slate.

The entire combination of more humans and the illusion of increased size generated some kind of anti-bear magic, and he made the prudent choice to move on to other things.

Go figure.

I'm not sure what would have happened if our buddies hadn't joined us, but in that case, the gun hadn't done the trick at all.

I have another story somewhere when the gun failed to chase off another bear (it was when we spanked two rounds to either side of a huge Black bear), but I don't know if I can find it or not.

Thanks again for your stories, and all the best,

Lanny

 

[EagleDown]

Halito Brother Lanny,
I just posted the following in my thread. I hope you don't mind if I post it here also. I'd like to see as many of our readers and friends benifit from this as possible.

Distilled water
I just had one of my occasional 'flashes' that I want to share before I forget about it. (A lot of my 'flashes' come to me, but I never follow up on them, due to lack of necessity). But, I believe this one is worth remembering.

Take a large container, (like the bottom half of a 55gal. steel drum, or anything else that would work). Paint it "flat-black". Then, fill it about 2-3rds full with dirt or sand. Put anything in the center of the dirt that you can sit a container on, where it will be stable. SATURATE the dirt with ANY AVAILABLE WATER. Then, place the container used to collect the water on your small 'stable' platform. Cover the top with a sheet of relitively thin plastic. (You'll need to figure out a way to seal the edge of the plastic, so air doesn't escape). Now, place a small stone or some kind of other weight in the center of the plastic, so that it will sag to the center. This way, the condensation will run down the plastic and drip into your collection "cup". (You'll have to place the whole arrangement someplace where it will get direct sunlight to heat up enough to evaporate the water).

Even if the water you saturate the dirt with is radioactive, the distilled water you're collecting won't be. Why? Water has to have particulate matter in it before it can become radioactive. The distilled water will have no particulate matter in it.

I was taught this trick for getting water out of the ground, many years ago. I see no reason why it wouldn't work with a container like I've described here.

I'll have to experiment with this a bit, to determine the quickest and easiest way to do it. But, feel free to pass this on to our friends. Who knows, it could save a few lives during an emergency.

Note: I should add here, if you entend to drink this distilled water exclusively, it would probably be worthwhile to have a supply of mineral supplements on hand, since the distilled water will not have any minerals (that we normally get while drinking 'normal' water).

Love and Respect,

Eagle

 

[Brivic1]

Hi Laney,I accidently erased you last message ,but we can continue here.
I had asked about the difference between a pyroclactic mud flow and teriary riverbeds.
I will attach a couple of images ... is it old river or pyromudflow...?

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi Laney,I accidently erased you last message ,but we can continue here.
I had asked about the difference between a pyroclactic mud flow and teriary riverbeds.
I will attach a couple of images ... is it old river or pyromudflow...? View attachment 968404 View attachment 968405

The only possible pyroclastic mud flow (or perhaps it was a lahar) that I've ever encountered was in Montana, so other than that, I don't know much about them.

I did uncover a few things for you though that might be of use:

"Pyroclastic flows are high-density mixtures of hot, dry rock fragments and hot gases that move away from the vent that erupted them at high speeds. They may result from the explosive eruption of molten or solid rock fragments, or both. They may also result from the nonexplosive eruption of lava when parts of dome or a thick lava flow collapses down a steep slope. Most pyroclastic flows consist of two parts: a basal flow of coarse fragments that moves along the ground, and a turbulent cloud of ash that rises above the basal flow. Ash may fall from this cloud over a wide area downwind from the pyroclastic flow.

Lahar is an Indonesian term that describes a hot or cold mixture of water and rock fragments flowing down the slopes of a volcano and (or) river valleys. When moving, a lahar looks like a mass of wet concrete that carries rock debris ranging in size from clay to boulders more than 10 m in diameter. Lahars vary in size and speed. Small lahars less than a few meters wide and several centimeters deep may flow a few meters per second. Large lahars hundreds of meters wide and tens of meters deep can flow several tens of meters per second--much too fast for people to outrun.
Source:

volcanoes.usgs.gov/Hazards/What/PF/pcflo...
www.geo.mtu.edu/volcanoes/hazards/prim...
volcanoes.usgs.gov/Hazards/What/Lahars..."

In addition, I found an entire e-book about the Alleghany District of California which includes information on the types of deposits I believe you may be referring to, plus a lot of other geologic information that's well outside of your request:
Gold quartz veins of the Alleghany district, California - Henry Gardiner Ferguson, Roger W. Gannett - Google Books

As far as conglomerate deposits and Tertiary deposits go, if you're referring to huge sections of former river run that are now cemented together, I have encountered that before, many times. Sometimes the material is exactly like cement, and sometimes it's only semi-concreted. At other times it's very rusty and it crumbles easily.

Working that material is extremely difficult, but I have found gold in it with my detector before. Moreover, I have a buddy that found an entire chunk that had broken off from a deposit somewhere else (he searched for years in vain trying to find the source of where the clump he found came from), and that large piece of conglomerate had dozens and dozens of nuggets in it. He kept some of the original matrix with the nuggets sticking out to show me what it looked like. In addition, he had a display tray with dozens of pieces in it displaying the gold nuggets he'd broken free from the matrix. It was quite the collection.

I've found nuggets in conglomerate before while Surface Suction Sluicing (Triple-S Mining or Triple-S gold recovery, formerly called dredging by me). I've found nuggets in the box with conglomerate still covering their entire surfaces, with no gold visible whatsoever. Furthermore, I found three nuggets cemented together, the largest on the bottom, then decreasing in size with the smallest nugget on the top.

A buddy of mine recovered one that was an ounce and a quarter. Because of its weight, it stopped right in the header box, and the nugget was encased in that natural concrete as well.

Sometimes that conglomerate is in huge belts. Other times, it's in big chunks in the river, either deposited there by glaciers, or broken off from shelves by weathering action, or redeposited in the stream by erosion as the river encounters intact deposits along its way.

I remember the first nuggets I found in a Tertiary deposit that were in that conglomerate. After I showed the gold to the miners whose claim we were detecting, they took every chunk that they came across and used the tracks of their excavators to smash up the lumps as much as they could. However, it wasn't a very effective technique as some king of ball mill or something similar would have been much more effective.

Sometimes I'll come across sections of the material outcropping from the banks of streams, and I always run my detector over it.

In summary, I'm not sure this information is what you're after or not, but that's the only frame of reference I have to your question. Moreover, to summarize my reference to Tertiary riverbed deposits, I've seen the material run all the way from crumbly to rock hard. I've seen many pounds of gold come from it, and nothing at all come from it too. As with any stream deposit, if it was carrying gold, the material is worth running. If the run was barren, even though it's ancient, running the material proves to be a waste of time.

So, whenever I uncover or find deposits of concreted river run, I always pass my detector over them.

Another one of my buddies found a chunk that was about the size of the box on a full-sized pickup truck. It was alive with signals on its topside, and so they attacked it with small sledgehammers and masonry chisels. They got a lot of gold that way, and they kept at it until there were no more signals to be found. In that case, I believe the chunk broke on a plane right where there was a fantastic run of placer in that particular ancient pay layer. In other words, it was an incredibly lucky find as Mother Nature broke that huge chunk right at the seam and did the lion's share of the work for them.

I know a bunch of other nugget shooters that have found many nuggets in the same material over the years.

All the best, and I hope some of this helps you, but I really don't know a lot more about it,

Lanny

 

[Cl1983]

If it was volcanic (I can't tell from the pic and neither can my geology professor) I would lean towards a lahar because pyroclastic flows seem to be more like ash flows, lahars melt glaciers if I remember right