Arthos - Adventures in prospecting.

[arthos]

Longing the adventures. Today I decided to check out a old prospect site in my local area, visited the remains of an old mill site and ended up with a flat tire! Stumbled across some old junk left behind maybe someone can help identify what I'm looking at.



Unfortunately the tire puncture ended the day, but the following 2 pictures are what I wanted to look at.
First image is the mill foundation and dump seen in the video.

2nd is where I was hoping to visit. Red circles look like portals, blue are interesting visible Elsinore fault line.

 

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[GoldpannerDave]

Interesting looking specimen there you have. Keep us posted on what you find out there in the desert.

 

[arthos]

Well guys I picked up my first detector. Its a Minelab xterra 705 gold. Fairly inexpensive at under 500 dollars. But I can say it does find gold. A couple nuggets located so far and I'm feeling good about the purchase. The Southern California desert still has chunky gold to be found!

 

[Assembler]

Well guys I picked up my first detector. Its a Minelab xterra 705 gold. Fairly inexpensive at under 500 dollars. But I can say it does find gold. A couple nuggets located so far and I'm feeling good about the purchase. The Southern California desert still has chunky gold to be found!

View attachment 1533450

Love the picture of the nice nuggets. Thanks

 

[Assembler]

The first object (or one of the first) is a type of battery with the carbon center. Many of the other objects are connected to engines or trucks / cars say 40's - 50's time frame.

 

[arthos]

The first object (or one of the first) is a type of battery with the carbon center. Many of the other objects are connected to engines or trucks / cars say 40's - 50's time frame.

Correct. I figured that out once i got it home and spent some time looking at it.!

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi Arthos,
First, thank you for sharing with us and the video/pictures are great as we love pictures!

So you understand what the battery is all about. Blasting caps come in two variety's, electrical and old school burning fuse. Either type are roughly 1/4" outside diameter and roughly 2.5" in length. The electrical type has two wires coming out of it while the fuse type has hollow up to the explosive charge. The electrics can be set off due to static charge and either are dangerous as crushing could cause them to go off, either will easily blow a hole into a shoe! The Fuse type requires a fuse and a crimping pliers for forming the hole for the cap in the dynamite stick, cutting off a length of fuse(typically black, waterproof and burns accurately depending on the rating of each fuse type) - Insert the clean fresh cut end of the fuse into the cap till it bottoms out on the charge and crimp the top of the cap around the fuse. IF one does not follow the above procedure carefully it is possible the cap will not go off (a hang fire) requiring one to remove the stick of dynamite form its hole and to perform the procedure all over again. Having had ONE hang fire in my life I do not ever want to experience a second, at any moment it could explode ending ones life.

Your detected nuggets are Fantastic and among the best (actually better than) of the detected items I've personally detected! Seems like you and your machine will have a long good life together. What coil or coils do you have for it. I think the company Nel Coils produces after market coils for your unit.

You have an interesting location though due to its size it will take time to determine its possibilities. Use every helping hand Ma nature offers to assist you in your adventure, gullies/side canyons/bare rock outcroppings etc. Best of success................63bkpkr

 

[arthos]

Hi Arthos,
First, thank you for sharing with us and the video/pictures are great as we love pictures!

So you understand what the battery is all about. Blasting caps come in two variety's, electrical and old school burning fuse. Either type are roughly 1/4" outside diameter and roughly 2.5" in length. The electrical type has two wires coming out of it while the fuse type has hollow up to the explosive charge. The electrics can be set off due to static charge and either are dangerous as crushing could cause them to go off, either will easily blow a hole into a shoe! The Fuse type requires a fuse and a crimping pliers for forming the hole for the cap in the dynamite stick, cutting off a length of fuse(typically black, waterproof and burns accurately depending on the rating of each fuse type) - Insert the clean fresh cut end of the fuse into the cap till it bottoms out on the charge and crimp the top of the cap around the fuse. IF one does not follow the above procedure carefully it is possible the cap will not go off (a hang fire) requiring one to remove the stick of dynamite form its hole and to perform the procedure all over again. Having had ONE hang fire in my life I do not ever want to experience a second, at any moment it could explode ending ones life.

Your detected nuggets are Fantastic and among the best (actually better than) of the detected items I've personally detected! Seems like you and your machine will have a long good life together. What coil or coils do you have for it. I think the company Nel Coils produces after market coils for your unit.

You have an interesting location though due to its size it will take time to determine its possibilities. Use every helping hand Ma nature offers to assist you in your adventure, gullies/side canyons/bare rock outcroppings etc. Best of success................63bkpkr

I just have the stock 18khz 6x10" double D Coil. Seems to work fairly good. Those nuggets were found in bedrock cracks on exposed bedrock in a stream bed. Different location from the above video. I'll look into the Nel Coils thanks for that tip!

 

[arthos]

Some high altitude exploring in the southern California desert. I visit 3 old mines, the first is known and located in MDRS and on Topo maps. The second one is more of a prospect shaft only went in a short distance. That third mine though is no joke, collapsing collars of vertical shafts that seem to have no bottom is not nothing to take lightly. Massive mine dump, and the remains of a hand stacked stone cabin.

 

[arthos]

Finally went back to the mine site from the previous post. Found an open adit. I located what must be the main portal for the site which looks to have had plywood placed against the face the portal then back filled with a dozer. The plywood is sticking out of the top of it. With the help of some careful satellite and foot searching i found an alternate mine on the site up a hill away from the "road" in an inconvenient place to cover over. I grabbed some hand samples but haven't done much with them yet. Found a chunk of white quartz in the mine dump but inside the mine it was less obvious, good mineralization though. The tailings pile for the mill site nearby is all grey crushed rock the consistency of fine sand the color of cement. So I don't think the old timers were processing this limonite looking material. Maybe only interested in crushing the quarts they found? I'd be interested any thoughts you all may have. Heavy pans guys.

 

[arthos]

Some interesting quartz.

Back again checking out some old diggings. This time with lots of UGLY, beautiful quarts . This one is also near home in Lake Elsinore Ca. took some bushwacking to get to it as the old mine road is washed out and over grown. Actually it was the hand stacked rock retaining wall that I spotted from google earth that got my attention, its now washed out over grown and intermittent. There are at least 6 different dig sites along this canyon 3 of which actually went underground that I could see. I think the road was put in to support this workings. This quarts does not sound off for my detector so that's a bit discouraging. Other problem is I don't own a proper crusher.



I wonder what the red looking crystal looking material is one this one.


Anyway I'ts been to long since I found actual gold and its causing my fever to subside a bit (heaven forbid) So I think my next trip will be out to proven ground where I have found gold in the past. Hopefully i can make something happen.

 

[arthos]

In this episode of Arthos searches for the yellow. I headed back to the area I found these 4 beauties

Walked the creek found very little bedrock to detect, lots and lots of sand and old mining debris such as cans, classifying screens, metal sheeting ect. On pretty cool piece of "trash" I came across this old trommel half buried in the sand. A nearby old tire of the tractor type tread and some track. Lots of hard rock mines and prospects around.

No gold this trip. I've been solely searching with my 18khz Minelab 705. I know there is more gold flowing down that dry wash but the bedrock is so deep under the sand and the trash so prevalent I think I'm going to have to change my searching location or maybe my approach.

 

[63bkpkr]

Hello Arthos, hope you and yours have a wonderful Thangsgiving, Christmas and New Year, whew, that's busy! Enjoy...........63bkpkr

 

[arthos]

Its been a while!

Well I finally found gold in my local mining district Pinacate which includes the areas of Good Hope, Gavilan Hills. I've been exploring every mine, and prospect in the area, for quite some time now. So Cal had some pretty good rains Christmas week this year, which means the normally dry seasonal creeks are currently flowing. Perfect time to venture out into them thar hills with a gold pan and a dirtbike and see what i can find!


That's small stuff to be sure but I found it in an area I have previously been told has no placer gold.Pretty cool!

 

[DizzyDigger]

Arthos, following along and happy to see you've had some success..

I lived in Elsinore back in the late 70's..totally different place
back then, and was more commonly known as the "Valley
of the Drunks". I think there were four bars in town, and
five chapters of AA..

 

[arthos]

A bit of time has passed since the last post and bit of SoCal gold has been found. Right now I'm looking to move out of So Cal, possibly to Payson Arizona. I hear there is still gold to be found in Az, not sure about that area.
Cheers all.

 

[Mountaineer2020]

Pretty nuggets! Have yet to find any with my detector. The whole discrimination thing eludes me. Hope you can find some similar treasure in Arizona! Looks like you've mastered the aerial photo searching for mines.