Found this in +/-4 gallons of dirt

GarretDiggingAz

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Okay. I've made four trip to this hole and pulled out about 120 gallons of dirt. This includes my last trip. The first couple pics is what I pulled from 4 gallons of last trip with another 20 gals to go. The pic with more gold in it, is a total of what I've done not including the pic from 4 gals. No big nuggets, but for the most part this is the Arizona gold. Lol. I sure enjoy this hobby. One of these days I'll weigh this for a total. Could be after this dig or maybe by years end. I think this amount at least pays for the gas.

So here's a question: Would you keep digging this hole? Or would you keep searching for a higher producer? Does anyone have an idea of the total so far?
 

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GarretDiggingAz

GarretDiggingAz

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Look at all the beautiful purple flowers! I wonder if you can detect the presence of gold from observing plants in an area?

It's been said before to watch for certain flowers and plants. Certain plants/flowers seem to be attracted to certain mineral rich grounds. I'll tell ya this. I've detected this area and have found enough iron both sands and ore. Even found the pitcher plant. Golds been know to be around these flowers. I "still" didn't detect gold around there. However, digging in this particular area produces small pickers to fly poops.
 

Bejamble

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I would keep going. Gold is gold. Might go weeks without find any gold/silver MD'ing.
 

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GarretDiggingAz

GarretDiggingAz

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would a gold cube work well in that hole ?
I've actually thought about the gold cube. I think there's a hopper option for it, but not certain. I feel it's like my highbanker. Not a lot of material in a short amount of time. Instead it's 5 gallons or so in an hour.
 

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GarretDiggingAz

GarretDiggingAz

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I'll be posting a pic of gold from first 5 gals. I forgot my gold sniffers. So I had to leave my gold in the cons and the mat.
Interesting thing is first run was dry dirt. Woke up at 2:30 am to rain. Crap! I'm in a wash and it's raining. Quick check on phone says supposed to rain till 10 am Thursday. Got my kids up and packed highbanker and sleeping bags into truck and went to higher ground. I didn't want to be one of the statistics. So anyway, the second run was 2-1/2 gallons of damp dirt/clay balls. I know I lost some gold, because I actually run it through a 20 mesh classifier. Found two small poops (crap), but I kept all the muck that's caught before going into recirc. Should be there. Normally I soak and classify all my clay soils so balls are in a bucket that I break down. Anyway, from what my test has shown. The hole's still a producer. I'll get up a pic tomorrow.
 

G Freeman

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Nice stuff Garrett congratulations how do you get the gold out of the dirt. I tried panning some red clay dirt but cant have any luck at that.
 

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GarretDiggingAz

GarretDiggingAz

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Nice stuff Garrett congratulations how do you get the gold out of the dirt. I tried panning some red clay dirt but cant have any luck at that.
When it comes to the clay balls. I soak them in water and mix the slurry. Then run through the sluice. Pan the cons. Just like gravel.
The clay balls are small because got classified down. Just mash down the bigger ones and swirl in the bucket. I'll wash my cons like that as well. Bucket works like the pan. Heavies down on bottom and clay materials stay on top as well as the black sands. Just takes time.
 

AzViper

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When it comes to the clay balls. I soak them in water and mix the slurry. Then run through the sluice. Pan the cons. Just like gravel.
The clay balls are small because got classified down. Just mash down the bigger ones and swirl in the bucket. I'll wash my cons like that as well. Bucket works like the pan. Heavies down on bottom and clay materials stay on top as well as the black sands. Just takes time.

My answer to clay balls until I have a working trommel is to classify to 1/2" and put everything else into 5 gallon buckets. At the end of the day the buckets were dumped into this cut down 15 gallon barrels and used the drill/mixer. Works like a charm to bust everything up into a slurry.

Drill.jpg
 

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GarretDiggingAz

GarretDiggingAz

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AZViper
That's a good way to do that too. I just went through 4 gallons of red clay. Got three little knarly pieces. About the size of ground coarse pepper. Then about 5 specs like the size of salt. Daughters college fund (her bucket) not doing as good with that test spot, but still found something for the trouble. I'll post a pic of what she got after I get home from ASU vs Washington game. Lol.
 

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