The Grizzly Tales- A First Year Dredger Diary

[DizzyDigger]

Nice nugget Chef...have you noticed that it's shaped a bit
like the State of Washington?

Also, hope you don't mind but I polished your pic up a little...

 

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[GrizzlyGremlin]

Yeahhhh!!!! Sick my man!! Good for you man you deserve it! Thats a beautiful piece and an Awsome day!

 

[chef440rt]

I had another 1+ gram day today, but sadly today was my last day to dredge the Wild Am. Packing up tomorrow and back to work Monday. I dredged everyday from last Monday till Saturday, from about 10.30 to 6. My grand total was almost 6 grams, but I still have some concentrates left so it might go up by 1/2 gram. Ether way I had a blast and earned a lot more experience on prospecting.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Looks great. Very impressed.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Way to go Chef!! Thats very impressive and a great take! Nice coarse stuff the lot of it. We will be back up on tuesday. Excellent job! Looks amazing

 

[triple d]

Chef and Grizz. great job. Shows put the hard work in. And sometime it pay off.

 

[chef440rt]

Grizz go hit that big pile of rocks Tuesday. I have a good feeling it will pay off. Please post the photos when you do. I'm very curious to see what is there. Good Luck!

 

[huntsman53]

Grizzly,

Great Thread and great posts! Thanks for sharing!

Concerning your questions and thoughts on the Clay! I find quite a bit of powder and small flake Gold down to and into the 1st few inches of the Clay, then not much or nothing until I get through it. Once I punch through the Clay, I start getting back into the Gold in less than a foot and it is gradually increasing in size. I punched through 3 Clay layers at a location in North Carolina, each one varied in color and it was pretty much the same as above in the first sentence, except the Gold amounts kept increasing the deeper I dug. However, once I got through the 3rd Clay layer, I hit a layer of ancient stream bed gravels and rocks and man talking about an increase in Gold and the flake sizes really went up and we started getting some pickers. About this time a Copperhead and Black Snake came floating down the stream fighting a death fight and ever since then, I can get my friend Tom to go back to this location. I even offered to buy him some Knight's Armor but still no go as he is deathly afraid of snakes. It must have to do with the Two-Steps he encountered in Nam.

I would recommend finding a good Clay layer just downstream of an inside curve of the stream and about 2 feet from the bank. Dig down and punch through the Clay layer and see what is below it. You never know, you might just hit the jackpot!


Frank

 

[KevinInColorado]

Similarly, I've punched thru a clay layer on a creek here in south metro Denver to find another gold bearing gravel layer ...fun day!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Thanks and Chef we will be going directly to that big pile and DESTROY it. Its all thats on my mind. Hopefully the rain holds off if not oh well dredging anyway!

 

[chef440rt]

I tried to get through the clay layer at the Wild Am in NH but I gave up at 14'' of solid clay. That stuff is like cement. It took like a half hour to get that deep. I'm sure it is thinner somewhere on that river. I always wanted to find out what is under it. Someday I will spend the whole day just trying to see how many layers there are there.

 

[huntsman53]

By the way, what are the colors of the Clay you all have encountered in the stream? The one's I dug through in North Carolina ranged from the first which was whitish then trended to brownish/gray, then the next (2nd) was mixed with whitish and orangish/reds (definitely a lot of Iron in this one, then the 3rd (if my memory serves me correctly) started similar to the second layer then trended to a brownish/gray then bluish/gray. Also, in my' secret spot which is a little closer to home, the Clay layer I have encountered starts out more whitish with some grays and blues mixed in then goes to primarily bluish/gray. I never could get through to the bottom of the Clay due to big boulders in the hole but I got Gold somewhat throughout the Clay layer. However, it is kind of unique as it is apparently being deposited into the stream by another underground stream which flows into the stream on which I prospect. There is not a another spot on this stream where there is Clay and also, there is no Gold above this location. Also, according to the many old timer Gold Prospectors and even Geologists that I have talked to about this spot, all have stated that it sounds as if the underground stream is flowing through an eroding Volcanic Pipe and that the Bluish Clay indicates that there is Silver in the Clay and probably other heavy metals. Oh and I almost forgot, I tried my best to pry one of the boulders out of the hole with my' shovel, going way under it and even backing out to just catch an edge of it but it would not budge. One time when backing the shovel out to pry further up on the boulder, the shovel slipped, scraping the boulder on the way up. I pulled the shovel up and since there was Clay in it, I emptied it into my' Classifier sitting on top of my' Gold Pan. When I panned the material down, there was a sliver of Gold in the pan. You could tell that the sliver was sliced off a bigger piece of Gold and it makes me wonder if the boulder has a lot of Gold on and in it or if it may be all or mostly Gold. I know that you all are thinking I am crazy for not working that spot 24/7 to get the boulders out and see if the one or all of the boulder have Gold on and/or in them. I have a hard time finding time to go there and besides, it is remote and about a mile from any road and the boulders are so heavy, I don't think they are going anywhere. I have only been able to get back there once in three years with some friends and we found that Mother Nature in the form of flash floods, placed tons of overburden over top of the hole. We dug in one spot for hours and just barely got into the Clay layer before we had to leave. I hope to get back there sometime this year but I have to carry my' Smith & Wesson .45 Long Colt as we found that there is a big male Cougar hanging out in the area and I don't trust going up against him with just a shovel. I think the sliver of Gold is in my' snuffer bottle inside a big blob of Mercury where most of the rest of my' Gold from the stream is. I will either have to burn off or recover the Mercury to get the Gold out and if I do, I will take a pic of the sliver and post it on TNnet.

If you encounter any Bluish to Bluish/Gray Clay, save all of the heavy stuff that stays in your' Gold Pans with the Gold and Black Sand and have it checked out to see what it is. I have quite a bit of the stuff around here somewhere but haven't gotten around to having it checked.


Frank

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Thanks frank! The wild am has a blue/grey clay hardpan false bedrock whatever you want to call it layer. The material on top of it varies. Directly on top of the clay is usually a couple inches of a whitish grey silt thats very compacted. Over this is gravels. Some of it is very compacted and some is not. The last run we are going to do tmw will be just in the clay. I want to put this to rest. Im taking my blaster and seeing if there is a treasurer trove under it, or if its all hype. Regardless im ITCHING to get back under water.

 

[huntsman53]

Thanks frank! The wild am has a blue/grey clay hardpan false bedrock whatever you want to call it layer. The material on top of it varies. Directly on top of the clay is usually a couple inches of a whitish grey silt thats very compacted. Over this is gravels. Some of it is very compacted and some is not. The last run we are going to do tmw will be just in the clay. I want to put this to rest. Im taking my blaster and seeing if there is a treasurer trove under it, or if its all hype. Regardless im ITCHING to get back under water.

Sounds like a great plan and I wish you the best of luck for some nice Gold! Don't forget to keep all the heavies that stay down with the Gold and have these materials checked out later. While I can't be sure, there are a lot of old timer Gold Prospectors and even Geologists that I have talked to, that say that the Blue clay indicates Silver in it. Apparently the color has to do with the oxidation of the Silver which turns to bluish colors, then something akin to a magenta/purple color then darker purplish as it is effected more and more by the oxygen in the water. Also, some of the materials I have encountered in my' secret spot are even heavier than the Gold and makes panning the Gold somewhat difficult.


Frank

 

[KevinInColorado]

Hi Frank, if you really have something more dense than gold (aka heavier), then you have something of value. Here is the list of the most dense elements (water on this scale is 1,000):

Uranium 18,800 (only found as a much less dense form in nature)
Tungsten 19,300
Gold 19,320
Plutonium19,840 (not a naturally occurring element)
Platinum 21,450
Iridium 22,420
Osmium 22,570

 

[Prospector70]

Holy Jumping Jesus!

Y'all are rockin it! Nice work, more more more!

 

[huntsman53]

Hi Frank, if you really have something more dense than gold (aka heavier), then you have something of value. Here is the list of the most dense elements (water on this scale is 1,000):

Uranium 18,800 (only found as a much less dense form in nature)
Tungsten 19,300
Gold 19,320
Plutonium19,840 (not a naturally occurring element)
Platinum 21,450
Iridium 22,420
Osmium 22,570

Thanks Kevin! Although I have no idea as to what the materials are, some are always moving with the Gold in my' pan while other material is sticking to the bottom. Therefore, some appear to be about the same weight and others much heavier than the Gold. If the material is one or more of the more rare heavy metals, where would you even sell it and besides, it would take a lot of it to make even an ounce but it does seem to be more abundant than the Gold in the clay.


Frank

 

[KevinInColorado]

For now, just save it up...solve the "how do I sell it?" Question later when you have a little pile. But DO save it!

 

[huntsman53]

For now, just save it up...solve the "how do I sell it?" Question later when you have a little pile. But DO save it!

Thanks Kevin! I will save all of the heavies and Gold. The only problem I have is that ever so often, my daughter takes it on herself to clean and organize everything in my' garage and in the past, has had a tendency to throw out what see thinks is just plain old dirt in my' Gold prospecting buckets and other cointainers. A few years back, I was Wild Boar hunting and checked out a creek in a Gold producing area that is named Gold Branch. I wanted to get a sample from the creek but I did not have a shovel or bucket, so I cut the top off of a soda can that I found, dug down as deep as I could, dumped several can fulls into a plastic Walmart bag that I had, brought it home and stored it in the garage for panning later. Well, it along with some other samples I had, disappeared. I have really got to find a better place to store and hide the material!


Frank

 

[KevinInColorado]

Thanks Kevin! I will save all of the heavies and Gold. The only problem I have is that ever so often, my daughter takes it on herself to clean and organize everything in my' garage and in the past, has had a tendency to throw out what see thinks is just plain old dirt in my' Gold prospecting buckets and other cointainers. A few years back, I was Wild Boar hunting and checked out a creek in a Gold producing area that is named Gold Branch. I wanted to get a sample from the creek but I did not have a shovel or bucket, so I cut the top off of a soda can that I found, dug down as deep as I could, dumped several can fulls into a plastic Walmart bag that I had, brought it home and stored it in the garage for panning later. Well, it along with some other samples I had, disappeared. I have really got to find a better place to store and hide the material! Frank

Too funny!