Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,670
6,412
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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Upvote 7
Yes it was a great trip, and Thanks 63 for inviting me, I needed it!
After getting off the main road, I thought it would be smooth sailing out in the back country dirt roads. But no…mother nature has to put her challenges out there.
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No problem…
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Just move it…

On our way…
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Oh crap..another one…
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Cant move it? Go around it!
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No way around it…Walking from here…
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WHAT??? Down there? Herb…you are crazy!
But so am I! So lets go!
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Nice views…from the edge.
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Oh Dam! Now we gotta go back……UP!
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Wait for me!
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Long walk back…
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I think I see the truck up there…somewhere???
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Next ridge over…on top.
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Break time…
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Man your truck is dirty!!!
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No need for lanteers…
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Next morning…
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Herb is still sleeping! COFFEE IS READY!!!
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That is the ridge that we were on yesterday…all the way to the left on the lighter line.
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Herbs out there somewhere???
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Ahh…There he is…
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And Herb gave you the rest of this trip…
Thanks again…it was Great!

Thanks Lanny! For letting us jump into your thread.
 

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Well done Mark! And yes the truck was dirty and so were We! He said nothing about waking up at O'Dark Hundred so, I didn't. It felt
good to be sleeping out there.

A simple good time!

I've come back for another comment. In Marks pictures labeled "Herb's out there Somewhere?" The spot we'd come up on was still fairly clear of brush from the 2008 fire and many large rock outcroppings were showing all with lots of quartz stringers as well as massive quartz pockets in them. I'd come up on one of them and casually waved my GMT's stock coil over a burned downed log and the darn thing gave a signal. I thought a bullet in the log? I rolled the log over and under it was a lid to an old jar. I checked the log and the signal was gone. I just shook my head that the detector signal goes through wood and rock and will tell you if anything is there. Like Lanny I've found small bits of gold under 6" to 8" of rock so these machines will tell you if something is there I just have to believe the tool.....63bkpkr
 

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Great pics of gods country. Lanny I hear this thread is soooooooooooooooo old it has just qualified for social security and still a rockn' out-tons a au 2 u 2 -John
 

Halito My Friend,
I just stopped in to let you know how much I still enjoy your thread. And, while I'm here, I might as well show what this rotten economy is bringing us down to. The California State Mining and Mineral Museum in Mariposa has been robbed | abc30.com

For crying out loud!! A pickaxe??? Sure didn't take much planning did it? I wonder if they realise that a simple analysis can place the origin of the gold? Almost as good as DNA. The worse part is that some beautiful specimens may be lost forever.

Eagle
 

For crying out loud!! A pickaxe??? Sure didn't take much planning did it? I wonder if they realise that a simple analysis can place the origin of the gold? Almost as good as DNA. The worse part is that some beautiful specimens may be lost forever. Eagle

The other sad thing about it Eagle is....the economy doesn't look any better for the near future either. Gonna be a lot more of this type of criminal activity all over and more non-replaceable treasures will be lost forever. GN :hello:
 

The other sad thing about it Eagle is....the economy doesn't look any better for the near future either. Gonna be a lot more of this type of criminal activity all over and more non-replaceable treasures will be lost forever. GN :hello:

I'm afraid that I can only agree with you Brother.

Today the mining museum, tomorrow your refridgerator.

Eagle
 

Nice Lanny! Both the background as well as the foreground. Just got back in from two days of dust and 'splorin' with Hefty1. We did a lot of detector waving, removed lots of various metals from the field but did not find any gold. The time 'out there' was well worth it even when I would forget to close the tailgate window before driving down a dusty road. We saw some marvelous country from good vantage points and came across several sections of placer deposits, scanned the root balls of many downed pine trees, checked out several ravine creeks and covered quite a bit of country. A good time for sure!
Our overnight camp on a thick pile of wood chips, softer and warmer than sleeping on the bare mountainside.

Herb,

It looks like you and Hefty had a great time 'splorin in the mountains. You took some great pictures to boot! There's nothin' like gettin' out in the wild to make a person feel fantastic, whether you find any metallic gold or not.

All the best, and thanks for posting the pics,

Lanny
 

Yes it was a great trip, and Thanks 63 for inviting me, I needed it!
After getting off the main road, I thought it would be smooth sailing out in the back country dirt roads. But no…mother nature has to put her challenges out there.
Thanks Lanny! For letting us jump into your thread.

Jump in any time guys--you know you're always welcome, and it looks like you had some great fun, in spite of the challenges you faced, or maybe that's what made it so fun.

Thanks for all the pictures you added Mark to enhance your outing with Herb.

All the best,

Lanny
 

Well done Mark! And yes the truck was dirty and so were We! He said nothing about waking up at O'Dark Hundred so, I didn't. It felt
good to be sleeping out there.

A simple good time!

I've come back for another comment. In Marks pictures labeled "Herb's out there Somewhere?" The spot we'd come up on was still fairly clear of brush from the 2008 fire and many large rock outcroppings were showing all with lots of quartz stringers as well as massive quartz pockets in them. I'd come up on one of them and casually waved my GMT's stock coil over a burned downed log and the darn thing gave a signal. I thought a bullet in the log? I rolled the log over and under it was a lid to an old jar. I checked the log and the signal was gone. I just shook my head that the detector signal goes through wood and rock and will tell you if anything is there. Like Lanny I've found small bits of gold under 6" to 8" of rock so these machines will tell you if something is there I just have to believe the tool.....63bkpkr

It sure does work that way Herb. I hope you guys give it another shot sometime and come up with some nice specimen gold.

All the best,

Lanny
 

Great pics of gods country. Lanny I hear this thread is soooooooooooooooo old it has just qualified for social security and still a rockn' out-tons a au 2 u 2 -John

Social Security would be great--if they cut me a check for this thread, that is. It's great to have you drop in John. The range of experiences you've had while chasing the gold are amazing. Drop back in anytime and drop us some pearls of wisdom.

All the best,

Lanny
 

Halito My Friend,
I just stopped in to let you know how much I still enjoy your thread. And, while I'm here, I might as well show what this rotten economy is bringing us down to. The California State Mining and Mineral Museum in Mariposa has been robbed | abc30.com

For crying out loud!! A pickaxe??? Sure didn't take much planning did it? I wonder if they realise that a simple analysis can place the origin of the gold? Almost as good as DNA. The worse part is that some beautiful specimens may be lost forever.

Eagle

I saw that article, and I watched some video on coverage on it as well--a bonafide crying shame to lose treasures such as those. The world has changed--things just aren't respected the way they were and security, or common decency that deterred individuals before has lost its efficacy. Sad indeed.

All the best Eagle, and I'm glad to see that so many are enjoying your thread--it's always an intriguing read: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/t...-lost-treasures-mariposa-ca-photos-added.html

All the best my friend,

Lanny
 

Shots of happier days:

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There's nothin' like being underwater and pulling a nugget from the bedrock, especially when the sun first flashes on that sassy gold that's been cached in the river bed for untold millenia.

All the best,

Lanny
 

I know the feeling, wish I could dredge but sniping is still great.

Here is a shot of my clean nuggets and specimens from the last 2 months in 1oz vial's.
The Silver one is either a platinum nugget or lead, dunno yet, havnt checked into it.

IMG_4686.jpg



A pic of our full pull for the summer, well the full 1/2 oz vial of finer flakes had another gram or so that I had in the pan still when I took that pic, its filled all the way into the neck. :)

Two of the 1/2oz vials are finer flakes and the other two 1/2oz vials are picker/clinkers.

IMG_4685.jpg
 

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Great shots--nice haul!

All the best,

Lanny
 

Thanks Lanny, its a hell of a re-start to a life long hobby. :)
 

Re-start? Were you a dredger before? Or were you a sniper a while back, and now you're at it again?

All the best,

Lanny
 

NeoTokyo,
Great pictures and if that is what you consider to be a start well than I for one am anxious to see what you do next. Thank you for sharing your finds....63bkpkr
 



Cool video, if you like old hardrock mines. (1865-1971)

All the best,

Lanny
 

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