Mark in Southern New Mexico

[mamich]

I thought I would start a journal, I live in southern NM and have had the prospecting bug for a while now but really started about 1.5 years ago. Spent a bit of time wandering around the desert before ever finding my first speck. I signed up to TNet about a year ago and I first off want to say many thanks to all the people out there who post to the gold prospecting forum, I've have stayed quiet and definitely learned a lot from all of the knowledgeable folks that post. So much that I am now a real claim owner, thanks again to TNet and it's contributors. I still have tons to learn and years to figure it out but really I hope to never figure it out and just continue to learn. Posting a few pictures below of the last couple of trips out with the drywasher.

First trip, .82 grams, man that had me smiling since it was my biggest take up to that time.


These last two are from my second trip, first time over a gram. Time to celebrate, I know not every day will be this good but I was definitely smiling from ear to ear. Amazing what I learned here, if it wasn't for you all I'd still be smiling just to see two or three flakes and really I still do.
I hope to post some more as the year goes by but I am going to focus a lot on trying to really sample the heck out of the claim.

 

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[mytimetoshine]

Very nice Mamich. Desert gold!

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[KevinInColorado]

Congrats and it's great to see you choose to share your success. I'm sure your posts will encourage others too

 

[Jeff95531]

Welcome and glad your here mamich. Learning about gold and finding it? Tuff work! Lots of good gold coming from your claim? Priceless! Looking forward to your adventures.

 

[Hunt4gold]

Looking forward to hearing about your adventures in NM! I have family in Portales NM, works as a professor at college there. Also worked on a book about NM many moons ago. Great place with lots of beautiful hidden areas.

 

[Borg]

I live in Alamogordo. We have a gold club in town and drywash at Orogrande. Are you close?

 

[Rawhide]

Nice to see someone from Las Cruces sharing and posting. Just got too confusing for me to prospect.

 

[mamich]

Thanks to all, I live in Las Cruces moved down here in 86 before that I froze my tail off in North Dakota. A little history of my last couple years since I started this fun excursion. I begin by doing a lot of searching on the great wide inter-web figuring out PLSS and overlaying it on google earth trying to match up with the LR2000 and county records. One thing I tried my hardest to do was not trespass on someones claim. Not sure about other places but the claims and markers in this neck of the woods are pathetic. Then somewhere along the line I uncovered TNet, probably about the time I made my first sluice or miller table. The most valuable resource I found then was My Land Matters (big kuddo's to the guys behind that, I think it's "Clay Diggins" if I 'm wrong I'm sorry but whomever got that started deserves and huge thumbs up). I ran around the Caballo's a bunch and sampled a ton of areas but only managed a few flakes here and there. Then I met a guy who has a claim over in Orogrande and did a bunch of testing and drywashing over there all of last summer, it just got to be a long drive over there for me and after a long day of drywashing I was beat. The Gold was a lot better there than the Caballo's and it seemed like I could sample anywhere and find atleast a flake. So then I joined the GPAA and hit some of their claims up in the Hillsboro area it was a much closer drive for me, only an hour. Found some decent spots and worked them up until around Christmas and then I started searching again and found some old un claimed area in the Hillsboro district and staked my claim. It's been a fun ride and keeps me busy outside of work, of course when hunting seasons are on I have to put down the gold pan. I just love the outdoors and keeping my mind far away from work, probably the biggest reason I finally started prospecting was because I couldn't hunt year around and needed another fun outdoor adventure.

I just finished running a couple of buckets of sampling that I brought back last weekend and found a little so I guess I'm weeding out the bad spots on the claim, I hope to get back up there this weekend and do something, either recirculating with a sluice or drywashing? not sure yet, I want to spend some time stockpiling some screened material and let it dry out but I'm a little hesitant right now, I have someone hitting my claim and drywashing some spots ( shoot one place they hit was 20yds from my newly placed location monument) kinda irks me a bit!!! So was I get that situation I plan to pile a bunch up and really run the drywasher hard, just not yet don't want someone to come in and just run all the dirt I dug. Anyways, enough for now, thanks again to all for the replies.

Borg, When, where does your club meet? I might be able to swing up that way. Also do you guys ever hit Hillsboro?

 

[mamich]

Casca, Sorry it got confusing for you. What seemed to bother you the most?

 

[mytimetoshine]

Thanks to all,Then somewhere along the line I uncovered TNet, probably about the time I made my first sluice or miller table. The most valuable resource I found then was My Land Matters (big kuddo's to the guys behind that, I think it's "Clay Diggins" if I 'm wrong I'm sorry but whomever got that started deserves and huge thumbs up)

Agreed, Clay diggins website is awesome and he is a wealth of knowledge that doesn't come with the arrogance of others. Desert gold!!!... I just like saying it and seeing it in guess


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[Jeff95531]

Agreed, Clay diggins website is awesome and he is a wealth of knowledge that doesn't come with the arrogance of others. Desert gold!!!... I just like saying it and seeing it in guess


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Desert Gold. Yeah...I like the sound of that. You do have a video camera, right mamich?

 

[mikep691]

As the latest snow storm races through the Sierras, I like the sound of DESERT Period. Welcome to TNET mamich. I spent some time in eastern NM thanks to the USAF. They said "You'll love it there, A girl behind every tree". Well there ain't no trees. Sorry to hear of the high grading on your claim, but it's basically a fact of life for all of us claim owners.

Good luck on your future outings, and keep the pics coming. Word of caution though, if you're using your cell phone for the pics, be sure to disable the GPS before taking pics. Your pics will be GPS tagged otherwise.

 

[bobw53]

I want to spend some time stockpiling some screened material and let it dry out but I'm a little hesitant right now, I have someone hitting my claim and drywashing some spots ( shoot one place they hit was 20yds from my newly placed location monument)

If I wanted to stockpile for drying, and I was afraid of high grading... I would run it through the dry washer FAST and STEEP, once. Or do a quick and dirty job of screening out the
big stuff and make 2 piles... Make it look like it has already been run once. The other thing is to move away from roads, if you are going to hit it hard, at least do it where somebody
would have to walk up and over a hill to see what you are doing.

Its Hillsboro, it happens. There really aren't a ton of "private" claims, average person stuff, up there. Most of it is Themac/NM copper corp.. There are also a few other companies..
There was also a rash of Ebay claims sold up there (I was a willing victim, gold fever is no joke), and there was no consideration to overclaiming, and most of the people that did buy them probably never
even visited them and just wanted a wall hanger.

Your claim will keep out honest folks that do their due diligence. It won't keep out honest folks that don't do their due diligence and it won't keep out the riff raff, and it probably won't
deter the people that are genuinely honest but figure the claim is just a wall hanger and a few buckets won't hurt anything.. And by "keep out", I mean they won't dig... There is nothing
stopping people from hiking, camping or just wandering around, or maybe just checking it out.

And NO it wasn't me.

For instance, this is my claim, but that's not my pile.. I wish they would have left a note. Its not the first one I've found.

Nice find..

Remember the old gold camp up there was called Gold DUST for a reason. There is a TON of TINY gold up there. Just went 'splorin'
yesterday and brought back a few buckets.. Cubed 'em, screened 'em and sure enough, as always, 100's and 100's of pieces of gold that
are so small that you can't even see them with the naked eye.

If you are digging in an arroyo and come across greenish grey rock with black flecks in it, and hopefully some pyrite, keep that stuff, take it home,
and crush it. If you are more to the east, the green/grey may turn white, but with the same black stuff in it.

Here is a piece I found a few weeks ago. The stuff circled in sharpie is the "good stuff". I thought it was cool because I had never seen it running
through other rock like that.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Welcome to Treasure Net. There is an excellent thread here on desert prospecting, testing, claiming, equipment, research, etc., in the journal area by GoldenIrishman, God rest his soul. You should read it.

I'm in Colorado, I don't get to the dry areas, so I personally cannot add much to desert prospecting. I can vouch for the great utility of the Le Trap drop riffle sluice in stream or recycling endeavors. GoldenIrishman had a nice set up using the Le Trap and recycling water, though he had recently bought a dry washer to sample with.

As you have discovered, there are lots of helpful folks here.

 

[mamich]

Thanks for the advice bobw53, maybe I'll see you up there sometime. My wife's uncle grew up right next to gold dust, he remembers going out with his dad as a young boy and using a rocker box in the draws to scratch up a few dollars here and there.

Thx goldpanner, I have read a quite a bit of his journel and threads. TNet members have all contributed greatly to my journeyman knowledge in prospecting and have helped me with a few builds along the way, I built a recirculating higbanker using Goldhog mats but I only pull it out when it's either not dry enough or something's I find gold mixed with clay that the dry washer just can't pull it out good.

Was up last weekend and ran about ten buckets of screened material in the dry washer, hoping to get the cons cleaned up one of these evenings. Will post a pic when I get it done, work and honeydo's have been eating away at my fun time this week

 

[mamich]

Here's a few pics from the weekends work. I finally got a chance today to clean up the cons and weigh them. A little desert gold for mytimetoshine

 

[Jeff95531]

Let me fix those for ya mamich...

 

[mamich]

Hey Jeff95531, what was wrong with the previous pictures they looked fine on my screen, I'm a little green on this picture posting on TNet?

Was able to make a trip out yesterday for some more dry washing time after spending the weekend prior out turkey hunting. I slipped off my previous pay streak this was from 12 buckets of 1/4 inch screenings. Not bad but as always was hoping for more. There's always next time.

 

[mamich]

Oops those are upside down for me

 

[Jeff95531]

Are you taking pics with a phone? You have to hold it 180 from last time and you got it.