Found a big deposit! Finally.

[Ohiogoldfever]

For several years I’ve prospected my area. I’ve hit nearly every creek and river in 30 miles. Mostly gravel bars as Ohio gold tends to be pretty small. I traveled up a little creek a bit further than I had in the past. Tested a gravel bar just around a sharp corner and BANG! 40-50 specks. Pan after pan it’s holding strong. The largest chunky black sand, garnets and mixed iron stone and verity’s mjnerals I’ve found to date.

After about 20 pans in and I’ve found this deposit is about 200’ long and as wide as 20’. The real kicker, there’s bedrock about 3-4’ below this bar, I can see it exposed on the fast side of the river.

Freaking tickled fellers!

I’ll try and post some decent pictures once I get to doing some real work.

 

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[Johnnybravo300]

The pits in Colorado around here at least clean their own gravels.
They don't leave any gold for us. Cold hearted heathens.

 

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[Ohiogoldfever]

I got out yesterday for about an hour and tested around some more. I have about 15 pans of cons I’ll clean up today at some point. Few little bits. So much black sand it would take ages to pull just one pan back without washing most the gold back with them.

 

[Assembler]

I got out yesterday for about an hour and tested around some more. I have about 15 pans of cons I’ll clean up today at some point. Few little bits. So much black sand it would take ages to pull just one pan back without washing most the gold back with them.

Try rolling a 5 gallon plastic bucket with magnets on the outside to catch a lot of the iron sands before panning the materials. There is a plastic compost drum about the size of 5 gallon bucket that has a nice screw on lid, just add some magnets.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Got a bit cleaned up. I only had an hour or so to fool with it.

 

[Assembler]

Got a bit cleaned up. I only had an hour or so to fool with it.

That is looking very good. Could be very interesting having a 30 - 50 gallon drum with concentrates on the bottom.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Try rolling a 5 gallon plastic bucket with magnets on the outside to catch a lot of the iron sands before panning the materials. There is a plastic compost drum about the size of 5 gallon bucket that has a nice screw on lid, just add some magnets.

I’ll have to give it a shot. With such a big area to work I’ll need to speed myself up however I can.

 

[arizau]

Got a bit cleaned up. I only had an hour or so to fool with it.

It appears that much of the pictured gold is larger than the associated sands. Screen classified batches of the concentrates would probably make cleanup panning much easier.
Good luck.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

It appears that much of the pictured gold is larger than the associated sands. Screen classified batches of the concentrates would probably make cleanup panning much easier.
Good luck.

You are correct. They have been classified separately. I did use one clean sniffer to pick up material from each classification so your seeing all sizes dumped out of the snuffer I was using while panning things back.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Assembler]

You are correct. They have been classified separately. I did use one clean sniffer to pick up material from each classification so your seeing all sizes dumped out of the snuffer I was using while panning things back.

Thanks for the heads up!

If you decide to use a cement mixer / drum tumbler you will not need to classify for the first concentration step.
You will need to classify the concentrates before you run through your slice / highbanker setup for best results. The finial step of panning could also need classification steps as well.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

If you decide to use a cement mixer / drum tumbler you will not need to classify for the first concentration step.
You will need to classify the concentrates before you run through your slice / highbanker setup for best results. The finial step of panning could also need classification steps as well.

As much as I dig the idea of a mixer (and I have one) it’s a long walk from the truck. If I’m packing heavy chit that far I’ll drag my proline dredge/ high banker.

I’m a solo guy and it’s a half mile through the woods so two trips there and back doesn’t sound fun. That’s why I’m working on the quickest way I can process a good load of cons to finish up later.

If I had a prospecting buddy I’d sure like to drag my dredge down there.

 

[Assembler]

As much as I dig the idea of a mixer (and I have one) it’s a long walk from the truck. If I’m packing heavy chit that far I’ll drag my proline dredge/ high banker.

I’m a solo guy and it’s a half mile through the woods so two trips there and back doesn’t sound fun. That’s why I’m working on the quickest way I can process a good load of cons to finish up later.

If I had a prospecting buddy I’d sure like to drag my dredge down there.

I hear what you are saying as you have to move equipment every time you go out.
The dredge will move a lot of materials in short order.
I can see what you are talking about working solo as most are not willing to work very much or very hard.
This could be the biggest reason why you are finding very reasonable values as who wants to pack equipment every time out.

The plastic compost drum is light and should work on a smaller scale for quick results. A 15 - 20 gallon plastic drum rolled on top of ground would be a faster processor for course concentrates.

Likely out of the question but have you looked at the possibility of a steel zip line to help move equipment and concentrates in and out?

 

[arizau]

I’m a solo guy and it’s a half mile through the woods so two trips there and back doesn’t sound fun. That’s why I’m working on the quickest way I can process a good load of cons to finish up later.

I haven't tried this but I'll bet that the following different approach to production panning will quickly produce some decent concentrates, from a fairly large volume of feed, with little to no losses.
Put a couple or more panfulls of less than 1/2" feed into a 5 gallon bucket, add water and stir the heck out of it. After the spin settles a little, pour off some of the muddy water then, from around the edge, scoop out, an inch or so of the gravel and sand*...add more feed and water and repeat.


*The heavies and gold are going to settle mostly around the center of the bucket.

 

[Assembler]

I haven't tried this but I'll bet that the following different approach to production panning will quickly produce some decent concentrates, from a fairly large volume of feed, with little to no losses.
Put a couple or more panfulls of less than 1/2" feed into a 5 gallon bucket, add water and stir the heck out of it. After the spin settles a little, pour off some of the muddy water then, from around the edge, scoop out, an inch or so of the gravel and sand*...add more feed and water and repeat.


*The heavies and gold are going to settle mostly around the center of the bucket.

To reduce the wear on the body perhaps a cordless drill and paint mixer attachment could be used. Still I would not want to process the 200 ft. gravel bar this way just looking for fast results is the goal.

 

[DizzyDigger]

OGF, having dealt with much the same issue, I've built several larger volume classifiers of differing styles. They all worked, but a couple were rather labor intensive.

Building an oversized classifer

After using a regular, bucket top sized classifier since I was young, I broke down last year and built a manual trommel. The trommel works great for dry material, but without a spraybar, pump, etc. it's near worthless for classifying the wet, rocky riverbank gravel. The bucket top...

www.treasurenet.com

Dizzys Diggin Thread - 2014

Dizzy's Diggin' Thread - 2014 I enjoy sharing the adventures (and misadventures) of my prospecting and mining trips, so rather than create multiple threads I thought I'd just run a journal (of sorts) and then just continue to add to it as I go. It's a bit like keeping a campfire going all...

www.treasurenet.com

The gold there was small, much like yours, so I would classify material down to 1/4" at the river and then bring it all home to run through my Gold Cube.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

I haven't tried this but I'll bet that the following different approach to production panning will quickly produce some decent concentrates, from a fairly large volume of feed, with little to no losses.
Put a couple or more panfulls of less than 1/2" feed into a 5 gallon bucket, add water and stir the heck out of it. After the spin settles a little, pour off some of the muddy water then, from around the edge, scoop out, an inch or so of the gravel and sand*...add more feed and water and repeat.


*The heavies and gold are going to settle mostly around the center of the bucket.

I like this idea. I watched a Jeff Williams video of him doing this with a power drill as assembler suggested. It seems to work. I’ll give it a shot and report back.

I’ve also built a boil bucket. A clear 5 gallon bucket with a water feed piped into the bottom. Pump forces water from the bottom up pushing silt out the top and in theory lofting the lighter materials allowing the heavies to slide under them when agitated.

I’ll let you all know if it works.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

OGF, having dealt with much the same issue, I've built several larger volume classifiers of differing styles. They all worked, but a couple were rather labor intensive.

Building an oversized classifer

After using a regular, bucket top sized classifier since I was young, I broke down last year and built a manual trommel. The trommel works great for dry material, but without a spraybar, pump, etc. it's near worthless for classifying the wet, rocky riverbank gravel. The bucket top...

www.treasurenet.com

Dizzys Diggin Thread - 2014

Dizzy's Diggin' Thread - 2014 I enjoy sharing the adventures (and misadventures) of my prospecting and mining trips, so rather than create multiple threads I thought I'd just run a journal (of sorts) and then just continue to add to it as I go. It's a bit like keeping a campfire going all...

www.treasurenet.com

The gold there was small, much like yours, so I would classify material down to 1/4" at the river and then bring it all home to run through my Gold Cube.

Heck yea. I’ll read through these. Thanks Dizzy.

 

[Assembler]

I like this idea. I watched a Jeff Williams video of him doing this with a power drill as assembler suggested. It seems to work. I’ll give it a shot and report back.

I’ve also built a boil bucket. A clear 5 gallon bucket with a water feed piped into the bottom. Pump forces water from the bottom up pushing silt out the top and in theory lofting the lighter materials allowing the heavies to slide under them when agitated.

I’ll let you all know if it works.

As a second step the boil bucket works well with the power drill mixer with slower speeds to remove more lighter materials. Fine tune for your area materials.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

As a second step the boil bucket works well with the power drill mixer with slower speeds to remove more lighter materials. Fine tune for your area materials.

Yep. That’s right along my line of thinking.

 

[Assembler]

Yep. That’s right along my line of thinking.

Yes this second step will save time from classifying if you are just wanting concentrates.
I'm thinking that the compost bucket with a lid could be used and then roll with a set of magnets on the outside to catch a lot of the iron before dumping out as concentrates to carry out.

A wheelbarrow could be used to carry everything in and the wheelbarrow could also be used to move materials up to dryer ground if needed. Maybe use the wheelbarrow to just pile the surface 1 - 3 ft. of materials in a pile to process later. This way you could see what is around the bedrock layer much faster.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Yes this second step will save time from classifying if you are just wanting concentrates.
I'm thinking that the compost bucket with a lid could be used and then roll with a set of magnets on the outside to catch a lot of the iron before dumping out as concentrates to carry out.

A wheelbarrow could be used to carry everything in and the wheelbarrow could also be used to move materials up to dryer ground if needed. Maybe use the wheelbarrow to just pile the surface 1 - 3 ft. of materials in a pile to process later. This way you could see what is around the bedrock layer much faster.

Unfortunately a wheel barrow won’t be happening. It’s a long walk through thick woods, several large logs to cross, two creeks with steep sides, tall weeds. Pushing a wheel barrow would be a nightmare.

I do appreciate your input. Large things in and out aren’t really a good option. At least not for a lone wolf. Next time I’m out I plan to just dig a hole to bedrock. I can’t be to far off already. As you’d expect the gold seems to be getting a bit larger as I go further down. Fingers crossed a big hole pays off.