Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Do you love to chase the gold? Please join me--lots of gold hunting tips, stories of finds (successful and not), and prospecting poetry.

Nugget in the bedrock tip:

I had a visit with a mining buddy this past weekend, and he told me of an epic battle to get a nugget out of the bedrock, and of what he learned from the experience. I thought some of you might like to learn from his mistake.

While out detecting one day, he came across a large sheet of bare bedrock. The bedrock was exposed because the area had been blasted off with a water cannon (a monitor), by the old-timers! It was not fractured bedrock, in fact it was totally smooth.

He was not optimistic at all of the prospects of a nugget. But, for some reason (we've all been there) he decided to swing his detector over that bedrock. After a long time, just as he was about to give up on his crazy hunch, he got a signal, right out of that smooth bedrock.

There was no crevice, no sign of a crevice, nada! So, he had to go all the way back to camp to get a small sledge and a chisel. The signal in the rock intrigued him, but he still wasn't overly optimistic. For those of you that have chased signals in a similar situation, sometimes there's a patch of hot mineralization in the bedrock that sounds off, but this spot, according to him, was sharp and clear right in the middle of the signal, not just a general increase of the threshold like you get when you pass over a hot spot in the bedrock.

Anyway, he made it back to the spot and started to chisel his way into the bedrock. If any of you have tried this, it's an awful job, and you usually wind up with cut knuckles--at the least! Regardless, he kept fighting his way down, busting out chunks of bedrock. He kept checking the hole, and the signal remained very strong.

This only puzzled him all the more as he could clearly see that it was solid bedrock with no sign of any crevice. He finally quit at the end of the day, at a depth of about a foot, but still, nothing in the hole.

An experienced nugget shooting friend dropped by the next morning to see him, and asked him how the hunt was going. My buddy related his tale of the mysterious hole in the bedrock, and told the friend to go over and check it out, and see if he could solve the riddle.

Later in the day, the other nugget hunter returned. In his hand was a fine, fat, sassy nugget. It weighed in at about an ounce and a quarter! After my friend returned his eyeballs to their sockets and zapped his heart to start it again, he asked where the nugget had come from.

Imagine his surprise when he heard it came from the mystery hole!! He asked how deep the other guy had gone into the bedrock to get it. "Well, no deeper" was his reply.

So, here's the rest of the story as to what happened. When the successful nugget hunter got to the bedrock, he scanned the surface got the same strong signal as my buddy. He widened out the hole and scanned again. Still a solid tone. He widened the hole some more so he could get his coil in, and here's the key and the lesson in this story, he got a strong signal off the side of the hole, about six inches down, but set back another inch into the side of the bedrock!!

My unlucky friend, the true discoverer of the gorgeous nugget's resting place had gone deep past the signal while digging his hole!!

Now, of course, a good pinpointer would easily solve this problem. The problem was, my buddy didn't have one, so why would he widen the hole, right? Well, the other guy was the one with more experience, and that's why he did. It was a lot more work, but what a payoff!

So, my buddy's butt is still black and blue from where he kicked himself for the next week or so for having lost such an incredible prize.

Some nugget hunting lessons are harder than others to learn. . . .

All the best,

Lanny


P.S. When in gold country--check the bedrock, regardless of whether it looks likely or not! Mother Nature likes to play games sometimes.

 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Another shot of more gold.

The original link for the photo I'd posted here long ago is dead--here's another shot of some gold as a subsitute.

IMG_0931.jpg




All the best,

Lanny in AB
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Thanks!

Thanks for your kind words Coinshooter,

Lanny in AB
 

coinshooter

Bronze Member
Mar 20, 2003
1,672
495
So. Cal.
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You can put that coarse stuff in my pan anyday so you can get to the other stuff!
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Nice Canadian Gold Nuggets

Here's a shot of some nice Canadian gold nuggets I found with the SD2100. Here are a couple of other shots of early finds with the 2100--a fantastic gold finding machine.


All the best,

Lanny in AB



25minzoo.jpg
 

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Chris in BC

Full Member
Mar 19, 2003
155
38
Langley
Detector(s) used
Minelab X-Terra 705
Keene 5" dredge
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hey wow Lanny, what's the coin underneath, Beauty character nuggets there, love em! Chris
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Thanks Chris,

laid the center one out on the Bluenose. Nice, fat chunkers they are!

Very beefy gold up north where I got them--not flat and hammered like the stuff I'm getting farther south. In fact, in reference to the northern field, you have to be real careful when panning in the local creeks as quite a few nuggets are round, and will roll out of the pan. I caught more than one trying to get over the top riffle on the plastic pan!! And they're the size of chick-peas to boot!

All the best,

Lanny in AB
 

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Chris in BC

Full Member
Mar 19, 2003
155
38
Langley
Detector(s) used
Minelab X-Terra 705
Keene 5" dredge
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Het lanny

"Likely" story, sounds like a bunch of "bullion",,, Close?

Hey man, keep em comin, good read, thanks, Chris
 

Fred

Full Member
Apr 3, 2003
192
8
Princeton,BC,Canada
Detector(s) used
Whites GMT
His attitude is about the same as mine. It isn't even really all that pretty and is worth anything to me until it is turned into cash. Besides,where could you have run to with it! LOL Fred
 

Hoser John

Gold Member
Mar 22, 2003
5,854
6,721
Redding,Calif.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Great finds Lanny!! We have a great canyon here in nth. calif. called Deadwood and it runs into the trinity river.It has some of the blackest gold ya ever saw in your life!Oxide coating extremely thick.I dredged,and detected, thousands of places in 4 US states and never saw such a mess! At the days end ya don't pan out your cons from dredging but soak'm overnight in bleach -then process,even the quartz mix and other host rocks are black!! Tons a au 2 u 2 in free Canada-John :D
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Re: Het lanny

Chris in BC said:
"Likely" story, sounds like a bunch of "bullion",,, Close?

Hey man, keep em comin, good read, thanks, Chris

Well Chris, it certainly was bullion, but it only ran about 90% fine!

All the best,

Lanny in AB
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Fred,

I don't usually turn it into cash. I give a lot of it away, and have it made into jewelery for gifts as well.

Hope you stub your toe on one the size of your shoe,

Lanny in AB
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Wow Hoser,

That's quite the little tale you told there, and very interesting at that. I've never heard of using bleach. Thanks for the tips and all the very best,

Lanny in AB
 

Chris in BC

Full Member
Mar 19, 2003
155
38
Langley
Detector(s) used
Minelab X-Terra 705
Keene 5" dredge
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Right on Lanny, one of my favorite places on this earth, wish i could work it again myself. Chris
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Silver Dollar and Coarse Gold

Here's some sassy gold posing it up on an 1887 Silver Dollar. Here's another shot of some nugget shooting gold as well.

All the best,

Lanny in AB

1887bresize-1.jpg

 

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IronMike

Jr. Member
Nov 2, 2003
30
1
Sacramento California
Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries...

Hey Lanny in AB, thanks for the tons of good reading. I have seen in several Hyd. pits areas of black, shist/shale patches and was wondering if maybe this is the black goo bed rock you are refering to? Also, what king of signal inhancer do you use with your SD? I hunt with an OLD PRO, we both have GP X's. when I run my 8" mono, he will run his 11" that I don't have and he is constantly spanking me. I have Koss 35's and been thinking about the Gray's.
HH
Micheal
 

IronMike

Jr. Member
Nov 2, 2003
30
1
Sacramento California
Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries...

Hey Lanny in AB, thanks for the tons of good reading. I have seen in several Hyd. pits areas of black, shist/shale patches and was wondering if maybe this is the black goo bed rock you are refering to? Also, what king of signal inhancer do you use with your SD? I hunt with an OLD PRO, we both have GP X's. when I run my 8" mono, he will run his 11" that I don't have and he is constantly spanking me. I have Koss 35's and been thinking about the Gray's.
HH
Micheal
 

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