How to of nugget hunting

[pgill]

Hi All,

Not sure if this is a silly question or not..... Is there any signs that can tell a person if there are nuggets in a river? How would I know where to look?
I am living in South Africa in a gold mining area (underground rock mining).... Would that mean that rivers near by would also have gold in them?

God bless
Peter

 

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[goldinmypan]

First question would be what kind of gold are the mines producing? If the veins have visible free gold then the chances of nuggets in the rivers possible. If they are producing ore with microscopic gold then you probably could sluce the rivers for dust but nuggets would be rare.

 

[pgill]

GoldInMyPan,

Thanks for the reply. Yes it is ore that is being mined, being extracted with cyanide, carbon, and the james table. But I do remember in 1990 that a few nuggets were found on the conveyor belt. I think if I was to set up a sluice in the local rivers, they would shoot me

Thanks again,

God bless
Peter

 

[nebraskadad]

Hi All,

Not sure if this is a silly question or not..... Is there any signs that can tell a person if there are nuggets in a river? How would I know where to look?
I am living in South Africa in a gold mining area (underground rock mining).... Would that mean that rivers near by would also have gold in them?

God bless
Peter

Peter,

Geologically, Look for large rounded gravels and black sands. It is likely placer gold exists as much in South Africa as it does anywhere else in the world. Just because of the depths at which gold is mined currently exists in SA doesn't mean you couldn't find it in surface placer deposits.

Check out a couple websites on prospecting
- these contains some really good tutorials..

http://www.goldgold.com/learngold.html
http://www.goldgold.com/prospecting.html


What is the process of staking claims once you find a decent placer deposit in SA? Is it public grounds? or privately owned? This may be the biggest hurdle you'll face. perhaps you can look at the properties in question and find areas outside existing owned mining areas to prospect?

Get familiar with the geology of the areas currently producing gold.. The adage is "Gold is where you find it"..

Gold in SA is often considered paleoplacer. Check out
http://www.stangrist.com/
as well.. Stan has a "report" he hawks on his study of paleoplacers.. He finds gold all over the world based on these studies.

 

[Willy]

Check the surrounding hills and look for contact zones and quartz (preferably rotten or dicoloured). ..Willy.

 

[nebraskadad]

Google "South+Africa+Placer+deposits"

Looks like you might want to "check out" the beaches for fines. set up a hibanker with ribbed matting. You might start a rush..

South Africa is the second largest producer in the world, after Australia, contributing about 23% - 30% of global production. Of this, 90% accounted for ilmenite production, with rutile the remaining 10%. Ilmenite, zircon and rutile are the main minerals produced from the extensive beach placer deposits located along the eastern, southern and northeastern coasts of South Africa. Smaller deposits are located on the west coast of South Africa, north of Cape Town.

Richards Bay Minerals (RBM), which is jointly owned by BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, is the largest titanium slag producer in the world. Annual production of titanium slag exceeds 1 Mt per year. RBM has enormous reserves along the KwaZulu Natal coastlines situated along the eastern coast of South Africa with mining reserves estimated at lasting around 20 years at current production rates.

Anglo American's Namakwa Sands is also a big player. Namakwa Sands' R 942 million Brand se Baai mine and Saldanha Bay smelter facility produces 250 000 tons a year of titanium slag as well as pig iron, zircon and rutile from reserves of avout 500 Mt. The company announced the approval of its R1.13 billion second phase in 1997 which extende total heavy minerals output to 530,000 tons a year by 2001 by constructing a second ilmenite smelting furnace at Saldanha. Titanium slag output will increase from the 97,000 tons per year to 235,000 tons per year. Brand se Baai reserves are more than 500 million tons.

Kumba Resources (South African steel giant, ISCOR's unbundled mining arm) has been evaulating several properties throughout South Africa. Kumba operates a mine and smelter near the town of Empangeni. In the year ended 30 June 2003, Kumba's subsidiary, Ticor Ltd, produced 91 000 t of ilmenite and 53 000 t of zircon and 20 000 t if rutile.

Southern Mining Corporation has the rights to the Bothaville heavy mineral occurrence, which has estimated reserves of up to 90Mt. The total inferred resource is estimated in excess of 185 million tonnes, with possible in situ heavy mineral reserves in excess of 50 million tonnes, based on an estimated heavy mineral grade of 30%. Of this, an estimated 40 million tonnes comprises the in situ valuable heavy minerals which, at a 75% recovery, should yield 30 million tonnes of valuable heavy minerals. The composition of these heavy minerals is estimated to be ilmenite (68%), zircon (9%), other titaniferous minerals (23%), Monazite (<1%).

 

[pgill]

Thanks everyone for the replies....

They give me hope yet I have often wondered how to tell seeing as the gold mines are always going down here. I do know the two famous places are Barberton and Pilgrims rest where they pan for gold, but hey for me I do think there just has to be other places.... Thanks guys, I will look deeply into this.

God bless
Peter