open thread ! please add your stories .

[strickman]

here is a new thread for those who don't want to worry about jumping someones thread . feel free to add any exploits ,info ,techniques ,equipment -or anything else ... One day I went to check out some new place ,found a little but not worth the effort .Had a great visit with a friends father . Now half my day was gone and not much to show for it . So ,I called a friend and he gave me a spot he was wanting to check out . I didn't have the time to set up the dredge , only a couple hours left . So I decided to go sniping . Went down to the water ,found a few interesting cracks -went to work . Found a spot where the exposed bedrock was above the water level . I started cleaning the cracks , when I noticed a hollow sound when I was using a chisel . I got the big bar out [6'] and low a behold got that big piece to move . It had a 1" crack that opened up to about 6"-8" and about 2 1/2 ' deep under it . The clay was different than most in that area . You could feel the difference . I tried a pan half full ,before half way I noticed that I had fines near the top . Now I have been doing this a long time and I am a proficient panner . So with daylight wasting I threw it in a bucket . I did this for about an hour and a half . Cleaning the cavity as best as I could ,bear in mind I had quite an array of implements at my disposal ,some of which proved to be just what was needed . Finished at dusk ,I reluctantly had to leave . All the way home I was wondering how I really did that day .After a two hour ride home I couldn't stand it any more . I stopped by my prospecting buddy's house to run it through his gold wheel . I had about half a bucket of cons ,probably less. When I showed him , he thought they were dredge cons . I explained how I half panned it down ,as time was of the essence . We started feeding the wheel slowly and you should have seen the grooves light up ! That stuff was loaded , the best I have seen for 1 decent sized crack . I did better in a hour and half with a pan and few tools than the last several times with a 3" dredge all day ! There were no big nuggets all was coarse fines and decent thick flake . But that was definitely a memorable experience , wish I could do that every day . Please feel free to add your stories ,this is a high jack thread . NO RULES !

 

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[Frank1960]

I'm just thinking about starting to pan haven't ordered pan set yet but checking out sales for them right now that take paypal. Was also thinking of getting a sluice but might just get the pans first and see how things go. So any advice on what to look for, how to read a creak and such would be helpful. I'll check this thread often. Thanks

 

[Astrobouncer]

Ok I got another story about bedrock.

In a gold bearing river where I have been prospecting I found a promising looking stretch of bedrock that had never been worked (because apparently these crevices had never been pried open). It is a schist bedrock and has lots of grooves running parallel to the water flow to hold the heavies. It drops about 5 feet to form a nice little waterfall. At the left hand side almost on the bottom of the waterfalls bedrock the natural grooves of the rock had formed a small chamber and sure enough, scraping that out I found a couple nice size flakes along with much iron chunks and some ilmenite. However, further on down the bedrock there was nothing at the lowest base where you would expect there to be many heavies. This is the V intersection of the rock, where the bottom of the bedrock ran up against another piece of bedrock. I tried panning further along the bedrock and nothing. Now right after this V in the bedrock the river makes a dramatic S turn to the right, but it goes underground then comes back out on the outside of the S turn. I couldnt get into the small crevice the water goes into, but on the exit side of the S turn, that place was loaded with heavies and lots of small flakes of gold. I guess what happens is during flood stage the river just roars right over that lower bedrock, churning the heavies up and into the crevice. On the exit side, the S curve gets much wider (and thus the water slows down) and drops the heavies there. And sure enough, there's quite a debris field there of gravel and bigger stones. So I got many times the amount of gold from panning that, then I did cleaning off the bedrock bottom.

 

[strickman]

good one ab, y'all keep 'em coming !

 

[strickman]

I went sniping one day near an old abandoned mine , the chosen spot was the hollows down below the shaft .The area rich in history ,yet all alone . Knowing the mine was a very good producer ,wishing it could tell me it's secrets .My plan of attack was simple ,I would go up the creek to the foot of hill .Retracing the steps the old timers took many years ago .Thinking as they worked up the hill closer to the vein ,surely there was a crack they missed-or possibly one that was replenished with time . I was not expecting much ,really just hoping for a good showing . So I began sampling the cracks for any of the older layer ,the type you can feel the difference in immediately .I was not having much luck only a small amount of fines and maybe two flakes .Actually flake was a stretch ,these were not much to look at but after all that effort any pay was better than none . I didn't have any tools to speak of no pry bars ,no pick ,no suckers . Just a pan ,bucket and small garden trowel . This was many years ago and I was trying to go as light as possible after a mile and a half hike down it seemed like two and a half up.So while I was checking cracks I noticed the bedrock changed a little .Then I noticed a very thin quartz strike running through it . It wasn't much very thin to say the least . Then the bedrock dipped - there was a rusty looking pocket about the size of a small grapefruit ,not round but oblong .The quartz seemed to be rotten but parts of it were still hard and quite sharp .It was cutting my hand for every small tablespoon full of material ,all in all there was not even a double handful of material recovered. By then my hands were bleeding pretty good and they were definitely sore. Slowly I started panning it down wondering if it was even worth the effort .There wasn't much there to start with ,but as I swirled the pan the flash was unmistakable .Staring at the bottom , there it was again . I couldn't believe it ! There was a piece the size of my thumbnail ! It had a good character with very rough edges ,but part was almost smooth .Very unique to say the least .With bloody hands I picked it up ,by then I was trembling not believing what had just took place . There was another half of a dwt. in course flake and fines . Several I couldn't suck up with my sucker bottle , and this area was not known for large nuggets. So you never know what you might run across .Always watch for the different or subtle hints .Sometimes someone or something is trying to tell you something.

 

[strickman]

I put this on another thread but felt it needed to be here as well .Here is a good tip for you , it's no guarantee mind you but will increase your chances .Years ago I learned when fishing - WATCH THE BANKS ! Usually there are tell tale signs of structural changes ,it might be the rise and drop of the country rock . A different type of bedrock .Elevation changes ,pitch ,loose material , or esp the ancient layer. Usually there is a tell. Especially if you look to the other side and see a continuation of a certain formation . I applied that technique to prospecting and immediately saw results. If a ancient layer is encountered watch for changes as well , if all the flatter rocks are layered horizontal - and you see a section that the layering is a different angle or even vertical like another river cut through it . That could be a good spot . Another thing most things in a certain area are typical - meaning that if it is the same as everything else ,whats special about it ? probably nothing .........................think about it ,if it is unique -why ? how ? unique structure might have unique gold content .......what looks good now might have been nothing special 1,000 or more years ago ...and the opposite is true also ----what looks like nothing special could have been unique 1,000 years ago . A lot of ancient rivers and streams ran different directions than present day streams ......... WOW !!!!!! imagine that !!!!! would you work a certain area different if you thought the water ran a different way ? I WOULD ......................... just something to think about .

 

[nuggy]

All good and handy to know stuff well done Strickman, The other thread was my one, and I forgot to thank you for your contribution, so thanks.

That bedrock sniping - creviceing can be very productive, need some good strong tools; pry-bars, scrapers, spoon, hammer and chisel. I gotta get myself one of those turkey baster sucker things soon.

Went out creviceing once, and forgot to take something to put gold into was a pain getting it back out of my shirt pocket lol. Now I take a clear plastic pill bottle, (no more glass ones for me after dropping one with half an ounce in it and having to shift big rocks, only to recover about a third of an ounce). I take a couple of film canisters too, just in case. Nuggy

 

[strickman]

I have had some very good days sniping . sometimes better than dredging .I have went to places where others have cleaned it out ,or so they thought ----- and I did better than they did ! the first time I hit a good crack - I knew that sniping definitely had potential. and I enjoy your post as well. keep 'em up.

 

[FiresEye]

Great thread Strickman!

Well, this one time down at the river I was finding gold on the near side with easy access, I had my little portable sluice down there with my rock hammer and shovel and was moving some dirt with a few five gallon buckets... Well, I decided it might be a good idea to cross the river and see the other side that I had so long looked upon... Oh the other side was a treasure trove of groves and branches, a seemingly impassible pause from a distance... Well, like riffles across the river, this stretch of bedrock ran, and the whitewater of the rapids revealed an underwater bridge of rocks. Growing up as a hunter fisher, and pioneer, I had a pair of river boots from my father that I thought I'd be bold enough to cross this river.... THis reminded my of Indiana Jones stepping out onto the invisible bridge in the Holy Grail, as I crossed the river the thousands of gallons per minute rushed me, I looked downstream and some swimmers were riding the wave on intertubes like it was California. The walk across was as vivid and awesome an adventure I will ever remember.... Once I got to the other side I saw a new vision, one of diffuculty and renewed adventure.

The tale back is another story.

 

[nuggy]

Hi Strickman, I am still waiting for you to take your new GB pro out into nugget country and tell us how it performs, even though I have not previously mentioned it .
I was definitely going to get an MXT, but I'm wavering, the bug is lighter, (which can mean a lot less arm strain in a days swinging) cheaper and feedback so far seems good. It's a big decision as I will be stuck with whatever I get for a long while. Nuggy

 

[Astrobouncer]

Me and a buddy named Shay were doing some sluicing on a river in NC earlier this year. This was a river Shay had dredged before so he knew there was good color here, you just have to find the streak. We sampled gravel bars, dug down in several places, dug behind rocks, even went to the gray clay layer deeper in the river. But we weren't having much luck other then flood gold there. About an hour before we were fixing to leave, Shay found a small stretch of orange clay poking out of the bank. He asked me to pan it since it he was still feeding his sluice, and I was going around still sampling trying to find a good spot. First pan, got a nice size flake and about 5-6 pieces of color. I investigated the clay further, and above it was some kind of brown rusty layer that had lots of fine gold. So both the orange clay, and the layer above it were just loaded with gold. I ran half a five gallon bucket through my sluice, and then took another quarter of the bucket of that stuff home to pan.

So the morale of this story is always check out any clays you see! After that find, I pay special attention to clays, to at least check if there's any values in them. As to how much gold I got that trip, I don't know for sure because I still have the cons from that day to go through. I am going to run them through my miller table when I finish it, because there was so much fine gold it would be a pain to pan out.

Oh and the rusty layers can be amazing too, but that's another story.

 

[strickman]

nuggy ,I posted a trip report on the g.b.pro . so far I like it ,it will hit on small gold - the ground grab works well .I ran it side by side a gb2 ,both worked well .my buddy got a nice nugget -luck of the draw -he had a better crack to work . but we checked all signals with both detectors .I hit some small stuff , and it would even hit on #8 shot . I am waiting for some warmer weather now ,should get a break in a week or two .

 

[nuggy]

Yep, saw that post - will wait for the next update, when you've swung it a bit more, sounds pretty good so far though, aye. Nuggy

 

[FiresEye]

"Egypt's gold was typically obtained by two different methods. Placer gold, found in river deposits of silt, was simply extracted by washing the lighter silt away with water, picking out any particles of gold, and setting aside whatever was found for later melting into ingots. This is possibly the way the metal for Egypt's earliest golden artifacts was obtained. Gold-bearing veins of quartzite were also exploited in the eastern desert and in Nubia. Quartzite is a harder stone than the stone bearing copper ores (malachite could be mined with flint tools, which it was during early periods), so greater effort had to be used to extract it. A Greek account from the 2nd century BCE describes the Egyptian miners lighting fires over deposits of gold-bearing quartzite to make the stone more brittle and smashing the stone with hammers and picks. The broken rock was then reduced to dust by a series of mortar and pestles and hand mills. Gold was separated by hand from the resulting powder. Trenches along the surface were what characterized the typical Egyptian gold mining operation, though particularly promising veins were followed underground vertically or horizontally into mountainsides for as long as was practical, with one especially deep shaft recorded as extending 120 cubits straight down.


Gold is typically found in native form, but it usually contains some sort of metallic impurity, in Egypt this impurity was usually one of iron, copper, or silver. Ironically, the chief impurity of the gold found by the miners of Egypt was silver, which was considered much more valuable than gold due to its comparative rarity. Varying amounts of silver impurity is encountered in Egyptian gold. Gold that was diluted with a high enough impurity of silver was called electrum, and was highly prized for its durability and sheen. Refinement of gold for greater purity did not occur until sometime around the age of Persian hegemony over Egypt, though it was graded by purity by the twelfth dynasty. Gold was refined by the Egyptians using salt to extract the silver, which was lost during the process.


Iron production in Egypt lagged behind the rest of the Middle East, not being produced internally until around 1000 BCE. The 18th Dynasty saw a gradual increase of the amount of iron products and by the 26th Dynasty bronze was falling into disfavor as a metal for tools. By the time of the Ptolmaic Dynasty, iron had replaced bronze as the metal used in tools.
"

 

[strickman]

t you got a couple of good shots in there. it's hard to catch lighting .you did alright .when it's off in the distance and you see it flickering ,the way the clouds stack up .looks real cool. I got pinned down a time or two this past year ,once chest deep in the water ! that stuff was hitting all around us -and it was close . we were trying to pack up ,as fast as possible .if it was any closer we would have been hit ! came up fast ,didn't last to long but that was about an hour .in the hills that stuff can sneak up on you.