The Gilded Couple (The Gilded Lens) - A golden journey.

[The Gilded Lens]

I prospect weekly. Locating a new claimsite on tues however with my partner.

Where are you looking towards? Heavy pans as always

Looking for new locations and learning from others. We only have pans at this point.

 

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[TheGoldProspector]

Looking for new locations and learning from others. We only have pans at this point.

Indeed. AR conf has always treated me well for Just Hands and Pans.

 

[The Gilded Lens]

Indeed. AR conf has always treated me well for Just Hands and Pans.

Thanks! I'll look into it. I've only ever been to the North Fork.

 

[The Gilded Lens]

As promised here's my new nozzle for the hand dredge. Tried it out in the brook today. Seems to work as good as the PVC nozzle only I can shove it into places the rigid PVC can't go and I get to view what I'm taking.

 

[TheGoldProspector]

Thanks! I'll look into it. I've only ever been to the North Fork.

North fork is touch and go w just a pan. Esp there being Mineral claims near and around pennyweight

 

[The Gilded Lens]

North fork is touch and go w just a pan. Esp there being Mineral claims near and around pennyweight

Ooh, I've heard of Pennyweight! Don't know where it is, but I've heard of it. LOL I was a sheltered kid.

I'm closest to the SF of the Yuba, do you know of any places (besides Bridgeport) where you can pan (eventually sluice... come on tax return!) and that isn't all claimed up?

 

[The Gilded Lens]

Couldn't get out to a river today, so I settled for the brook again. 6 itty bitty specs. And we got eaten alive by mosquitoes! Mosquitoes in January!! I hate this drought!

 

[Duckwalk]

Those so called itty bitty specs are a lot bigger than the stuff I find! Great job!

 

[TheGoldProspector]

Ooh, I've heard of Pennyweight! Don't know where it is, but I've heard of it. LOL I was a sheltered kid.

I'm closest to the SF of the Yuba, do you know of any places (besides Bridgeport) where you can pan (eventually sluice... come on tax return!) and that isn't all claimed up?

Good specks. Keep diggin.
Let's make a deal, this year you show me around your parts of the south yuba, and you pick a fork on the American River system and I can meet you somewhere accessible to dig

We can even make a TN Outing out of it all. I know AUFISHER and I are itching to get another meet up scheduled.

How bout it?

 

[The Gilded Lens]

Good specks. Keep diggin.
Let's make a deal, this year you show me around your parts of the south yuba, and you pick a fork on the American River system and I can meet you somewhere accessible to dig

We can even make a TN Outing out of it all. I know AUFISHER and I are itching to get another meet up scheduled.

How bout it?

That would be fun! We've only been in the hands and pans area of the Yuba, but it would be easy to walk out of bounds and be able to bring more tools. We'd love to to be a part of a TN outing! Thinking about getting a bazooka with our tax return. Our biggest problem is that we live close to a lot or creeks and rivers, but don't where we can legally go and haven't mastered reading the programs that tell you (plus they load SUPER slow on our slow internet).

As long as it's a Sun,Mon or Tues count us in for some adventure.

 

[braveheart1954]

I've been metal detecting in Michigan since 1998...moving to San Diego in Aug. and have watched 200 videos on gold prospecting already. Ready to start myself! Got the bug already by watching videos... if you want some top advice you have to watch a 100 hours of UTube vids. Best teacher you can get. Don't watch on your phone..waste of time...have to have a large screen. Already bought a "Gold Bug 1" detector for $250 off Ebay, ...works great..even works good on coins at 8" deep and I found 3 very small link gold chains and small gold earrings and studs as small as 1/10 of a gram at the beach that my $1600 detectors wont pick up at all and all the other detectorists missed! I am the only one with a gold detector at the beach and can't wait till the snow is gone to get back there. With all the great videos on gold hunting I feel like a pro to pan, metal detect pacer, dry wash, sluice or mine! LOL Nice finds already ..good luck! John

 

[The Gilded Lens]

Hacked up the quarts deposit in the brook today. It's pretty decomposed I think especially towards the surface. Soooooo much mica! Seems to be a blue clay mixed around it. Milky quartz with variations and veins of a green mineral I am told is epidote. No gold in it so far. The mica from washing off three sections of quartz!

 

[huntsman53]

Hacked up the quarts deposit in the brook today. It's pretty decomposed I think especially towards the surface. Soooooo much mica! Seems to be a blue clay mixed around it. Milky quartz with variations and veins of a green mineral I am told is epidote. No gold in it so far.
View attachment 1115289 The mica from washing off three sections of quartz!

Wow! I just recently returned to TNnet after concentrating my posts elsewhere and I can't believe I read every post in this Thread as well as viewed every pic. Those are some awesome pics by all that contributed and especially by you (The Gilded Lens)!

I just wanted to comment on a few things. First, I agree that you should crush the Quartz and pan it out! Yeah, there may be lots of Mica and probably Pyrite but you may eventually find some Gold in there as well. The main thing I wanted to touch on that no one really said anything about was you mentioning the Blue Clay. The Blue Clay although a real pain in the Spuds McKenzie, is an extremely good sign and you should explore it as in dig it out and pan more and more of it. Blue Clay is often a sign of Silver as Silver turns Blue as it is exposed to limited amounts of oxygen and then will likely turn to more Magentas, Purples and other similar colors as it is exposed more and more to oxygen and it is probably what gives the Clay it's Blue coloring. Gray or sometimes referred to as Grey and Blue Clay and some other colors of Clay are often associated with Gold, Silver and sometimes other heavy metals such as Platinum and others. You may not find much of anything such as Gold or Silver flakes in the top layers of the Clay but mid-ways down or below the Clay, if you ever get that far, you may find decent amounts of Gold flakes and possibly Nuggets. You may never find anything flake or Nugget-wise in the form of Silver but there is a way to find out if Silver is actually there. I will try to find my notes (previous posts) on how to determine and actually extract the Silver but it requires a compound added to and mixed in with the classified Clay in an old Iron Pot or other appropriate container. You then torch the Clay and small nodules or round balls of Silver will appear if Silver is in the Clay. During this process, some other heavy metals may also form up in the same manner. I have a similar spot here in Tennessee and have been told that the Clay is flowing out of an eroding Volcanic Pipe and this may very well be the case with the Clay on the property where you reside. Since you rent/caretake the property, it might be a good idea to clean up and decorate with rocks, flowers or other growing things or even items where you dig out the Clay and Quartz as it could eventually become unsightly and the property owner may squash your prospecting on the property.

I hope this information helps and gets you onto some nice Gold, Silver and possibly other heavy metals!


Frank

 

[The Gilded Lens]

Wow! I just recently returned to TNnet after concentrating my posts elsewhere and I can't believe I read every post in this Thread as well as viewed every pic. Those are some awesome pics by all that contributed and especially by you (The Gilded Lens)!

I just wanted to comment on a few things. First, I agree that you should crush the Quartz and pan it out! Yeah, there may be lots of Mica and probably Pyrite but you may eventually find some Gold in there as well. The main thing I wanted to touch on that no one really said anything about was you mentioning the Blue Clay. The Blue Clay although a real pain in the Spuds McKenzie, is an extremely good sign and you should explore it as in dig it out and pan more and more of it. Blue Clay is often a sign of Silver as Silver turns Blue as it is exposed to limited amounts of oxygen and then will likely turn to more Magentas, Purples and other similar colors as it is exposed more and more to oxygen and it is probably what gives the Clay it's Blue coloring. Gray or sometimes referred to as Grey and Blue Clay and some other colors of Clay are often associated with Gold, Silver and sometimes other heavy metals such as Platinum and others. You may not find much of anything such as Gold or Silver flakes in the top layers of the Clay but mid-ways down or below the Clay, if you ever get that far, you may find decent amounts of Gold flakes and possibly Nuggets. You may never find anything flake or Nugget-wise in the form of Silver but there is a way to find out if Silver is actually there. I will try to find my notes (previous posts) on how to determine and actually extract the Silver but it requires a compound added to and mixed in with the classified Clay in an old Iron Pot or other appropriate container. You then torch the Clay and small nodules or round balls of Silver will appear if Silver is in the Clay. During this process, some other heavy metals may also form up in the same manner. I have a similar spot here in Tennessee and have been told that the Clay is flowing out of an eroding Volcanic Pipe and this may very well be the case with the Clay on the property where you reside. Since you rent/caretake the property, it might be a good idea to clean up and decorate with rocks, flowers or other growing things or even items where you dig out the Clay and Quartz as it could eventually become unsightly and the property owner may squash your prospecting on the property.

I hope this information helps and gets you onto some nice Gold, Silver and possibly other heavy metals!


Frank

Thank you! I've always been a photo nut

Do you have any suggestions as how to crush it up best? It's already pretty brittle (at least the smaller sections, whereas the larger portions are pretty dang solid) and chunky. I'll post a few pics of the large rocks that came out of there. Within the layers you can see the intact mica deposits. I found an area that has a lot more of the epidote/green mineral in it. It's actually very pretty (yes, I'm strange). Woah, thanks for the info on the clay! Definitely interested in your clay method.

Thanks for the suggestions with the yard. The area that the quartz deposit on is acres and acres away from the houses and protrudes into a little seasonal stream bed (really too small to even call it a stream) that's only got water in it when it rains (meaning it's almost bone dry right now). We wouldn't mess up the yard without permission and without filling any holes, that'd be messed up.

 

[fowledup]

Here's how to make a cheap and easy crusher you can bring with you out in the field. Get two pieces of pipe, one pipe needs to fit inside the other with end caps on it. Cap only one end of the bigger pipe, cap both ends of the smaller pipe. Length is up to you, somewhere around 18" total length, just make sure the inner smaller pipe is longer than the bigger base pipe by a hands width or so. Put the material you want to crush in the bigger pipe and use the smaller one like a post pounder to pulverize it. Nice part is you can fill the smaller pipe with sand or dirt to make it heavier then dump it out before you head home, or put the pulverized material in the smaller pipe to keep for panning later. DId you all ever hit any of the spots on the N fork we talked about?

 

[The Gilded Lens]

Here's how to make a cheap and easy crusher you can bring with you out in the field. Get two pieces of pipe, one pipe needs to fit inside the other with end caps on it. Cap only one end of the bigger pipe, cap both ends of the smaller pipe. Length is up to you, somewhere around 18" total length, just make sure the inner smaller pipe is longer than the bigger base pipe by a hands width or so. Put the material you want to crush in the bigger pipe and use the smaller one like a post pounder to pulverize it. Nice part is you can fill the smaller pipe with sand or dirt to make it heavier then dump it out before you head home, or put the pulverized material in the smaller pipe to keep for panning later. DId you all ever hit any of the spots on the N fork we talked about?

Great idea! Thanks!

 

[huntsman53]

Thank you! I've always been a photo nut

Do you have any suggestions as how to crush it up best? It's already pretty brittle (at least the smaller sections, whereas the larger portions are pretty dang solid) and chunky. I'll post a few pics of the large rocks that came out of there. Within the layers you can see the intact mica deposits. I found an area that has a lot more of the epidote/green mineral in it. It's actually very pretty (yes, I'm strange). Woah, thanks for the info on the clay! Definitely interested in your clay method.

I was going to suggest building a rock crusher or purchase one but "fowledup" beat me to it and I agree with him on what to use!

The Quartz you have on the property is decomposing Mica-Quartz and contains a lot of other minerals including Iron and possibly Gold. There may not be a lot of Gold in the Spring where you pan but just the fact that you and your husband have found a few specks, points to it being there and coming from somewhere. It may or may not be coming from the decomposing Quartz outcroppings, so during times when there is plentiful water in the wet weather Spring, you might want to pan upstream until you find no more Gold. This should tell you that you have passed the source, then just backtrack downstream until you first find Gold and then try to find out it's source (an outcropping, another small underground spring or other). However, you may get Gold all the way to the Spring's head (where the water emerges from the ground to create the small Spring, Crick, Creek or Stream (whatever you want to call it) or the Blue Clay area could actually be where the source of the Gold is coming from. If the Blue Clay area is the source, it may not be possible to find the source of where it is coming from as it may be coming from deep in the ground but who knows.


Frank

 

[The Gilded Lens]

I was going to suggest building a rock crusher or purchase one but "fowledup" beat me to it and I agree with him on what to use!

The Quartz you have on the property is decomposing Mica-Quartz and contains a lot of other minerals including Iron and possibly Gold. There may not be a lot of Gold in the Spring where you pan but just the fact that you and your husband have found a few specks, points to it being there and coming from somewhere. It may or may not be coming from the decomposing Quartz outcroppings, so during times when there is plentiful water in the wet weather Spring, you might want to pan upstream until you find no more Gold. This should tell you that you have passed the source, then just backtrack downstream until you first find Gold and then try to find out it's source (an outcropping, another small underground spring or other). However, you may get Gold all the way to the Spring's head (where the water emerges from the ground to create the small Spring, Crick, Creek or Stream (whatever you want to call it) or the Blue Clay area could actually be where the source of the Gold is coming from. If the Blue Clay area is the source, it may not be possible to find the source of where it is coming from as it may be coming from deep in the ground but who knows.


Frank

Ooh! I'm gonna try that the next time the rest of the brook has enough water in to pan! Right now only the lower portion (also the deepest section) has any water at all in it. Part of it comes from the yard across the street and through a culvert, then it goes through one of our fields, under the driveway through another culvert (yes panned out that culvert- skunked) then through another field where it meets another run off/brook that comes from the pasture next to the property and confluences next to a HUGE boulder (think there's a pic of the confluence and the boulder on page two or three) and finally from there it the banks look a lo more like a steep ditch (maybe three or four feet deep in areas) before it shallows again and continues into the property behind us.

I think I hit clay under the big confluence boulder as well, but cant remember the color. I'll pan it again once we get more rain this week when we do the testing.

 

[The Gilded Lens]

BIG NEWS! Just ordered a 36" Sniper!!! Sooo stoked!!


... so I've got the song "Ive got a golden ticket" from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory stuck in my head, only it's "I've got a Bazooka Gold Trap".

 

[AlaskaGold]

Congratulations!