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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[Lala]

If it's pockets inside of clay, it sounds like a little lens. Always check the contents of a lens; sometimes they can hold gold, and other times you'll get absolutely nothing. But, if you follow the three rules of prospecting (1. Test, 2. Test, 3. Test.), you'll quickly find out what's in those lenses.

So, pan and test to be sure. Nature has strange ways of setting up deposits. Thus the old saying, "Gold is where you find it."

I remember once thinking I was funny by responding to the old saying by replying, "Well, if gold is where you find it, then it must not be where you don't find it." I don't make fun of the original saying now, seeing some of the strange places that gold shows up.

All the best,

Lanny

LOL! I like that. Yeah... I have been digging in a dry creek. I've got so much material to sift through I'm starting to get overwhelmed.

 

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[Lala]

Up front, I know this story is rather involved, and lengthy, but it's a story I'm willing to tell, as it involves the results of quite a bit of detective work, and the results of a lot of previously fruitless detector work!

On Saturday, June 14th, I got ready to head to the hills to try to find some gold. I'd been out the previous day with a group of High School students, an annual trip we've been making for the last five years, and they found some flakes, the weather was gorgeous, and they had a great time playing in the water, and rootin' around lookin' for gold, in the mountains.

So, early the next morning, I grabbed my 2100, and the little Joey mono coil, and I picked up my partner, and we drove the four hours to get to the gold fields. The day was incredibly beautiful. We cached our equipment in the outfitters tent, and went out with the detectors to find some gold. The week before, I'd finally found a nugget on the slate cliffs, and that was encouraging, as I'd never found one on this particular side of the river before. Isn't that funny--I could find them on the other side of the river, but not the opposite bank--go figure?

Anyway, my buddy had his SD with the Coiltek 14" mono, and I had the Joey wired up to mine. He headed off to stomp some ground he'd been saving, and I went to a gully that had always intrigued me, but one that had consistently skunked me.

The oldtimers have done a massive amount of hand mining in this area--stacks of rocks are piled all over, and it's shallow to bedrock in quite a few places. There's massive old pines, and lots of guts--shallow little washes--and boulders everywhere.

Well, what I'd noticed before, on previous trips, was that someone had moved a lot of rocks off of places that were shallow to bedrock, and they'd really had to work to move those rocks, let me tell you. So, they must have moved them for a reason . . .

So, for a long time, almost two seasons actually, I'd tried detecting those places with a pulse machine, and with the SD, and I'd never found anything but little steel and brass boot tacks, and square nails--you get the picture.

But, this time around I had the Joey, and it had already found a sassy little nugget on the side of the river I wanted to hunt, so it was broke in; it was golden so to speak.

I started detecting along the exposed bedrock, the rock that had been uncovered by some industrious gold seekers. I'd always seen evidence of their work, but never understood what, or how they were finding anything with this technique, as we'd cleaned the bedrock and panned it in those exposed places, and never got anything but little fines--and scarce bits they were too!

However, I still detected along the bedrock with that little Joey, and all at once I got a little whisper. Now, I use a great little signal enhancer, and Gray Ghost headphones as well, and with the SD, and that little Joey, I can really hear faint signals.

I've turned off the enhancer a bunch of times to see what the SD sees without it, and there's NO comparison--that enhancer really jumps those faint signals up into the realm of reality.

Anyhow, I kept scrubbing that coil over that faint signal--more like a bump in the threshold than anything else, but definite--not ground noise--and the coil was right over bedrock, almost no dirt at all.

By way of explanation, the Slate bedrock, or shale, depending on which fault I'm working, is in sheets, or fractured finger-like projections. This bedrock was Shale I believe, and it was like leaves of rock sticking up. (I've since learned it's called friable rock.)

I scraped what little overburden there was off with my pick and scanned again. There was the sweetest, mellowest little signal you can imagine! But, there was no dirt on the bedrock. So I started to pry out pieces of the bedrock, and kept scanning after I removed each piece. And here's something important--I love the little Joey for its manueverability--it gets down into really tight spots.

So, there was a small space in the bedrock I'd exposed, and the tip of the Joey fit it nicely--the sound was coming right through the rock, and the rock was perpendicular! The SD was seeing the gold right through the sheet of rock.

I kept carefully breaking up the rock and scanning, and I noticed that the signal was moving--not getting any louder, but moving deeper. It still had that soft, sweet tone on the SD--not harsh like the growl of a square nail when you get close to it.

But, I took out another piece of bedrock and the signal was still in the same place. I looked where the rock had been and I saw a golden sparkle. I couldn't imagine it really was gold at last, but it was--a nice, yet very flat, nugget.

I gave a wolf howl and my buddy came over to see what I had (not much of a stealth hunting technique I realize, but effective at getting my buddy out of the timber and over to see the finds). He really liked that little thumper.

I was ready to move on down the bedrock a ways, and he suggested that I scan the hole again--Duh! Sometimes I forget the basics, so I did scan it again, and I got another signal!!

I rooted around, using the same technique I've described, and pulled out another flat nugget, that was lodged tightly between another two sheets of bedrock, about an inch from where the other one was.

I diligently scanned that little area--about two foot square--and no more signals. But, the bedrock was sloping off downhill, and there were about two inches of small, gravelly overburden and clay covering it. I scanned it--no signal.

But, and this is important, I took my pick and cleaned off all the dirt--every bit, and scanned it again, and you've guessed it--another sweet whisper.

I had to break the sheets of bedrock again, and those nuggets really drop fast and easily every time you move that bedrock--it's a fact. But, I got two more nice flat nuggets that way, and one of them was bent on the end, where it was lodged in a perpendicular crack in one of the sheets of rock.

So, I took out four nice little nuggets--all under a gram, about a quarter of an inch long, from a section of bedrock about ten feet long. Say, I guess that makes it a patch, doesn't it--well, a patch of sorts--nothing like the Aussies find though.

I scraped around in the bedrock farther down the wash, but got skunked (that's a reality any serious nugget shooter should get used to).

I went back to the Outfitters tent to get some grub, and then I geared up again and went to another spot that's always looked good, a place where someone has moved all kinds of rock off the bedrock, but one that's always managed to shut me out as well. I used the same slow, scrubbing technique, but got blanked.

It was getting dark, and I went up over a big sheet of bedrock that had a lot of sluff on it. It's a genuine, bonafide square nail mine that spot is, but I decided to scan some more of it. I got a sharp signal, moved the sluff, and a nice square nail jumped to the supermagnet!

Not much of a surprise, considering the location, but remembering my buddies counsel, and the little ribbing I'd taken from him earlier in the day for violating one of the sacred laws of nugget-shooting, I scanned the spot again. And, you probably won't believe this, but there's not a word of a lie in it, there was that same, soft, sweet tone again!

Only this time, the bedrock was a different type--solid--no leaves or sheets of bedrock--really hard solid stuff. I worried some of it with my pick--went down a couple of inches, and out popped a nice, very flat, nugget. By this time, I was beginning to think that maybe this was my day, and I'd better scan the spot again--maybe there was something lucky in that technique. I did, and there was another signal, but I could not break the rock anymore with my pick.

So, I headed back to the tent for a masonary chisel and my small sledge, and a flashlight--because it was dark! My buddy came back with me, and let me tell you--he's a real sledge and chisel man--he made the chips fly I should say! Every time he chipped a chunk out, I'd scan with the Joey, and the signal got louder.

Down four inches, the signal moved--we'd been working carefully as it had gotten continuously louder, the deeper we'd gone. Up on the side of the hole, in some bits and chunks of rock, the signal rang sharp and clear. Nested in it was a little beauty with a little pot belly, and a very flat end.

I rattled the gold around in my little plastic jar--six sassy nuggets in one day!! It seems when the gold finally comes, it makes a heck of a statement.

Now the combined weight was only around three grams--not a huge mass; but man, the lessons I learned! And the places I'll go back to . . . And I've still got that big sheet of bedrock to work, because those last two nuggets were in an old cemented crevice, and it keeps going too!!

Now I know what the others were after--lots of flat nuggets that were down several feet originally in the bedrock--the oldtimers had broken the bedrock up a couple of feet, and taken all the cream, but they didn't have the technology to see what that little Joey could see, so there's still a little cream frozen in those old cracks.

Update: I went back this past summer (2012) with the Falcon MD 20 and got a couple more grams of gold from those cracks!

Happy hunting, and all the best, as always,
Lanny in AB

Do you ever find any crystals?!?!?!

 

[Jeff95531]

Wow Jeff!

What can I say after kind works like that?

You are most welcome, and I'm so very happy you're finding gold by using some of the tips.

I'm still learning, and I've learned more about detecting again this summer, and the nuggets are the benefit of the learning.

I've tackled completely different conditions this year that I've never tackled before, and I've found some nice, sassy gold because of it.

All the best, and thanks for your kind words of appreciation,

Lanny

Small but still proof. These refused to go thru a 20 mesh during processing the 5 gls today. Cell pics so sorry for quality but yes, that's the biggest flake I have ever recovered right next to the nickel. I can barely get it to move in the pan

 

[Lanny in AB]

Do you ever find any crystals?!?!?!

Rarely as most of the places I work are old channels: glacial and river.

The exceptions are when I've done a bit of hard-rock exploration . . .

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Small but still proof. These refused to go thru a 20 mesh during processing the 5 gls today. Cell pics so sorry for quality but yes, that's the biggest flake I have ever recovered right next to the nickel. I can barely get it to move in the pan


/QUOTE]

The nice thing about flakes of gold is that sooner or later you'll find a bigger brother or sister of the family, then one day you'll break into the nugget club. For many years I panned glacial gold (powdered gold: micron gold) and that flake of yours would have been a whopper!

It's amazing how sluggish gold is, but that's also why all of the methods to capture it take advantage of that same property of specific gravity.

I remember the first time I saw gold on bedrock in a rapidly moving stream. I'd disturb the piece; it would pop up briefly then vibrate slightly as it drug, yes drug, (no better word to describe the action) itself along the bedrock. However, the trick was on me as the first chance it got it immediately dropped into a crack in the bedrock and did a complete disappearing act! (I really miss dredging as it lets a person truly observe the properties of gold in action.)

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Well, got out this weekend and did some detecting. Got a nice catch of small nuggets.

Finding the biggest one was a bit of a learning experience. I ran the coil over the bedrock, got a signal that definitely read iron, screamed out iron in the headphones in fact. Hit the little pocket with the super-magnet, big chunk of steel shaving from an excavator bucket on the magnet.

Scanned the same bedrock spot again. Got another iron reading and a typical smaller iron sound. Super-magnet returned with another bucket shaving, but smaller in size. Scanned the exact same spot again with not much hope, I mean, two signals that were duds? What were the odds. But this time, a softer sound and a reading on the scale that popped around 45+ but wouldn't stay fixed, disappeared as I swung the coil. Dug some rocks out of the way, scanned again, louder signal and reading holding steady up around that 50 (Gold Bug Pro meter). Rooted around with the magnet, nothing on it. Moved out more material, scanned again: no signal.

Scanned the pile: signal. Reached a bunch of material off the top of the pile with my hand, waved it over the coil and got a nice scream. Sifted chunks onto the coil until I heard the "whap!" we all wait to hear. Moved some material on the coil with my thumb and heard a growl. There it was; a nice sassy nugget.

The learning part? Three separate signals: two iron, one gold. It would still be there if I hadn't kept checking that little pocket in the bedrock after removing signals.

But most of you already know that.

However, it's just too stinking easy to walk away, and it makes me wonder what nuggets I've walked away from in the past that were masked by louder, obnoxious signals.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

To add to the previous nugget find a bit. The area I was working was an old placer pit, thus the bits of track and blade that overwhelmed the site.

It just flat out gets boring and tiring to deal with all of the signals as they're annoyingly frequent, a signal in every direction the coil is swung. Yes, the meter tells what's supposedly steel or iron, but after hundreds of signals, it becomes tempting just to look at the meter, or interpret the sound, and keep on swinging the coil until a promising signal arrives. However, without getting rid of the signals from what I'll call the distractors, it's impossible to hear the good signals, even though sometimes a tiny bit of steel will sound very much like a soft nugget sound.

So, sometimes it pays just to take a break, get your head back in the game, calm the mind and rest the body, then continue to get that magnet in there to eliminate all of the distractors as you start detecting once again. Then the true game can begin, the one where you're out to listen for those tiny bumps and breaks in the threshold . . .

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Don't be a gold snob.

So, here's the deal on gold snobbery: While out gathering nuggets the last few outings, I've noticed that I have come dangerously close to the line, the repulsive gold snob line that is. What I mean by that is that I look at a patch of ground, decide where I consider the best place to look for the nuggets is, and then I hammer that ground and lose interest in all surrounding areas.

Sometimes that works as I'll capture some sassy gold, and other times there are no nuggets to be found no matter how many eddy currents I fire into the dirt. It's when faced with a case of nugget defeat that I begin to realize that gold snobbery is raising its ugly head.

So what is a gold snob? Well, since I'm the one that's flirted with the line, I should define the line: To me it's when I deliberately rule out areas to nugget shoot based on my judgment that no self-respecting chunk of gold would ever choose to hang out in the places I've decided to snub, thus making me a gold snob. In other words, I'm too good to go poking around in those unworthy areas, and that attitude pushes me to the gold snob line.

So here's the lowdown on that showdown of snob vs. humble nugget shooter. In every one of those recent hunts, when I experienced my epiphany (my dramatic realization) that I was becoming a gold snob, I overrode my hubris (my excessive bad pride), and I went to check those areas where no nugget could possibly dare to be found in comparison to the the prime ground my brain had previously chosen.

However, in each and every one of those cases of imminent snobbery, I found nuggets! One of those sassy nuggets is the size of my thumbnail and obese, yes in need of weight loss!! One has teeth, which I've never seen an example of before (truly, teeth). One was in a pocket with the pieces of steel I mentioned two postings ago, but it resided on a piece of bedrock that had no business hiding gold as it was to heck and gone from the pay streak, but the gold was there regardless. Another was on the margin of an abandoned excavation that had lots of exposed bedrock, the bedrock of which produced no nuggets, but the margin produced a nice nugget indeed. Still another was along a contact zone that produced all kinds of old square nails, can-slaw, slivers of bucket and track, etc., and yet the nugget was there in spite of my snobbery that no nugget would join such common trash, trash where even with my pan I couldn't find a speck of gold. Sadly, and with shame I admit, that in each and every case, I had to abase myself to go detect those undesirable areas, yet all of those undesirable areas turned out to be very desirable indeed!

What else can I say?

I guess I'll have to join Gold Snobs Anonymous if I'm not more careful, yet my recent success has reminded me of my humble roots where I used to be happy to detect anywhere just for the off chance of finding a nugget. Those dim, yet happy memories brought me back from the brink . . .

So, take a warning from me: Don't become a gold snob. It may just stop you from finding the gold that's there waiting to be got.

When in gold country, check the likely and unlikely areas. Gold sometimes travels bizarre paths to get to where it's waiting to be found.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Meanwhile, here's a photo a nugget shooting acquaintance of mine sent me. He found this beauty on Father's Day.

At 131 grams (well over four ounces), it sure would make anyone's Father's Day very exciting indeed.

I hope you enjoy it.

That's a Canadian two-dollar coin beside it, and that's not a small coin!



All the best,

Lanny

 

[KevinInColorado]

Love the philosophical post. Gold snob risk also applies to us sluicers.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Don't be a gold snob.

So, here's the deal on gold snobbery: While out gathering nuggets the last few outings, I've noticed that I have come dangerously close to the line, the repulsive gold snob line that is. What I mean by that is that I look at a patch of ground, decide where I consider the best place is to look for the nuggets, and then I hammer that ground and lose interest in all surrounding areas.

Sometimes that works as I'll capture some sassy gold, and other times there are no nuggets to be found no matter how may eddy currents I fire into the dirt. It's when faced with a case of nugget defeat that I begin to realize that gold snobbery is raising its ugly head.

So what is a gold snob? Well, since I'm the one that's flirted with the line, I should define the line: To me it's when I deliberately rule out areas to nugget shoot based on my judgment that no self-respecting chunk of gold would ever choose to hang out in the places I've decided to snub, thus making me a gold snob. In other words, I'm too good to go poking around in those unworthy areas, and that attitude pushes me to the gold snob line.

So here's the lowdown on that showdown of snob vs. humble nugget shooter. In every one of those recent hunts, when I experienced my epiphany (my dramatic realization) that I was becoming a gold snob, I overrode my hubris (my excessive bad pride), and I went to check those areas where no nugget could possibly dare to be found in comparison to the the prime ground my brain had previously chosen.

However, in each and every one of those cases of imminent snobbery, I found nuggets! One of those sassy nuggets is the size of my thumbnail and obese, yes in need of weight loss!! One has teeth, which I've never seen an example of before (truly, teeth). One was in a pocket with the pieces of steel I mentioned two postings ago, but it resided on a piece of bedrock that had no business hiding gold as it was to heck and gone from the pay streak, but the gold was there regardless. Another was on the margin of an abandoned excavation that had lots of exposed bedrock, the bedrock of which produced no nuggets, but the margin produced a nice nugget indeed. Still another was along a contact zone that produced all kinds of old square nails, can-slaw, slivers of bucket and track, etc., and yet the nugget was there in spite of my snobbery that no nugget would join such common trash, trash where even with my pan I couldn't find a speck of gold. Sadly, and with shame I admit, that in each and every case, I had to abase myself to go detect those undesirable areas, yet all of those undesirable areas turned out to be very desirable indeed!

What else can I say?

I guess I'll have to join Gold Snobs Anonymous if I'm not more careful, yet my recent success has reminded me of my humble roots where I used to be happy to detect anywhere just for the off chance of finding a nugget. Those dim, yet happy memories brought me back from the brink . . .

So, take a warning from me: Don't become a gold snob. It may just stop you from finding the gold that's there waiting to be got.

When in gold country, check the likely and unlikely areas. Gold sometimes travels bizarre paths to get to where it's waiting to be found.

All the best,

Lanny

Just a superb post Lanny, well said!!!

Jim.

 

[Hoser John]

Gold is where you find it and NOT where you don't find it. I love it when folks tell me to NOT waste my time as they got it all-----then I hit it big jus' sayn'-John

 

[DizzyDigger]

Lanny, great stories as always. Can't begin to count the hours
I've spent reading and enjoying them all...thank you for taking
the time to them all with us.

BTW, let your friend know he's found the "Rocker Arm Nugget" ...

 

[calisdad]

Lanny, great stories as always. Can't begin to count the hours
I've spent reading and enjoying them all...thank you for taking
the time to them all with us.

BTW, let your friend know he's found the "Rocker Arm Nugget" ...

There's 15 more of them just like it?

 

[Jeff95531]

You can be a gold snob all you want and mother nature will hand you your arse on a platter every time...or so it seems for me. My last trip out was a perfect example. All the way there I was telling myself sample, sample, sample FIRST! But once I got there, I saw this bedrock "mountain range" running from flood bank to stream. It was about 40x10x12 with undisturbed rocks of graduated size lined up along side the downstream receding base. It was framed in the blue sky and pines, glowing, angels singing.

I went right to the low point and "sampled" while I dug like a madman to find a clay layer with no gold on it or under it. Yes Old Ma Nature did give me my biggest flake ever, so the brass ring was just enough to get me to go try again next week and do what? SAMPLE! Kinda like real estate...location, location, location. Will we ever learn? Doubt it, cuz sometimes thinking outside the box pays too!

 

[63bkpkr]

Ha,Ha,Ha Lanny, marvelous post! I pulled a 1/4 oz. of nice flat 1/8" dia. pieces of gold out of just such a spot, a Gold Snob Spot that is. It was also a great adventure that I'm so glad I did not miss.


Thank you for the reminder............................63bkpkr

 

[meMiner]

Great advise on the Gold Snob condition. We are all susceptible.

I have been very guilty of passing up on targets that did not give the "perfect sound" and/or rushing through "the wrong area". In fact, most of the spots that look really good have probably already been detected by somebody who thought the same. You can normally see the dents in the ground indicating an old metal detecting hole. Yet, that is probably the same spot where I have spent much of my time and energy, looking for the signals that the prior guy missed - hoping my machine or capabilities were better. It is always nice to be proven right - looking an area over and saying to yourself gold will be here and then finding it. However, gold is sneaky - it never read the books on where it should hide. LOL

 

[Jeff95531]

"However, gold is sneaky - it never read the books on where it should hide. LOL"

Good one

 

[A Sasquatch]

Hi Lanny, when I found that beauty I was sing to my self..... My mazarati does 185.....,,life's been good to me so far......

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi Lanny, when I found that beauty I was sing to my self..... My mazarati does 185.....,,life's been good to me so far......

Great to see you here!

All the best,

Lanny