The good news and the bad news.

[arizau]

The good news. I collected about a two shovelful sample from a new spot and it contained 0.01 grams of mostly plus 50 mesh gold. Not too bad for two shovelfuls.

The bad news. This is a fairly remote, hike in only, spot with no water source and the material is currently sticky wet and cannot be screened to take out more concentrated samples to play with. Not only that but when it is dry it forms hard clods that probably isn't likely to break down to good drywashable material so, to be efficient, it needs to be wet processed. Since it is too far to hike in water I guess I will have to try it later in the year and see if I can figure out a way to be productive in dry washing. Such is the life of a prospector.

 

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[arizau]

After studying an aerial map of the area I'm prospecting (thanks My Land Matters!) I found another access point, to the arroyo I have been working in, that is a shorter route and, as it turns out, less steep. I sampled in two places and panned them out at home. A one gallon bag sample of cut bank hard pan had several pieces above 50 mesh but it is hard to dig/chip out. Three one gallon bag samples were of un-cemented material from a bedrock outcropping in the bottom of the arroyo. I was pleasantly surprised when I found a picker (0.08 gm) in that sample but then disappointed that that was about the sum total of the gold found in the sample. After I found the picker I was expecting/hoping that there would at least be several other coarse, but smaller pieces to add to the total take. At least, at this site, I can fairly easily pack in water and a panning tub to concentrate some material on my future trips. I hate packing dead weight samples and these weighed about 40 pounds total. Total take: 0.10 gm or 10 times as much as my last samples from a downstream spot. I should be able to run at least 10 times as much material when I have water for accumulating concentrates at the site and it would be great if some of the gold were more pickers. That wouldn't be the first time I had that dream.

 

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