One of those holy crap videos

63bkpkr

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Aug 9, 2007
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Southern California
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Wow! Just looking at that was amazing to see just how crazy we are. Thanks for putting it up..........63bkpkr
 

NeoTokyo

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Aug 27, 2012
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Redding
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Thanks for sharing, awesome vid. :)
 

Lanny in AB

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Apr 2, 2003
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We saw drifts like this all the time get uncovered. It was incredible what those oldtimers did to get the gold. Furthermore, some of the most fun I've ever had panning was dirt taken from around those old drift mine posts—the stuff they left behind.

We also saw places uncovered where they'd roomed out a huge space underground. When they hit a rich spot, they'd go back and forth and back and forth, backfilling as they went, until they'd worked the hot spot out--leaving a network of parallel tunnels where they'd roofed a large "room" deep underground.

In the video, they pan up the side of the dig, and you can see the massive amount of glacial dump (boulder clay and wash) they had to dig through to get down to the gold. But, on the pan shot you can see a very mineralized spot high up that may be part of a surface run--there's a lot of mineralization in that spot up that bank.

Moreover, you're talking serious big bucks to excavate through that much overburden to get that payday of gold--huge investment.

Having said that, I've been there working with the big operations when they got to bedrock adjacent to roomed out areas where the gold started again, and it was so rich you could walk along the pay seam about six to eight inches above the bedrock and flick nuggets (2-3 gram in size) out of the side wall. Now I don't care what your definition of fun is, but that's insane fun. Furthermore, when they stopped the washplant to clean up, the sluices were yellow with nuggets from top to bottom—and these were big sluices. I'd never seen that before, nor have I seen it since.

Those oldtimers knew how to find the gold, and weren't afraid to work for it to get it. And those tunnels were kept low on purpose, so it was an awful place to work.

All the best,

Lanny
 

blynch35

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Sep 6, 2012
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Alabama
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gold nuggets

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Apr 5, 2008
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Springfield, Oregon
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Great video and thanks for sharing it here. With the knowledge the
old times had about finding gold, wonder just how well they would
have done if they could have had modern equipment to work with.
Gold Nuggets :hello:
 

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