Blue Clay / Sandy Gravel Assay Results

[racingjoe66]

Okay Guys and Gals, I had 2 samples of material tested and came back with the following results:

Sample 1----gold 0.142 oz per ton
------------silver 0.275 oz per ton
------------platinum 0.021 oz per ton
------------palladium 0.014 oz per ton
------------osmium 0.028 oz per ton
------------ruthenium 0.020 oz per ton
------------iridium 0.007 oz per ton
------------rhodium 0.004 oz per ton

Sample 2----gold 0.133 oz per ton
------------silver 0.199 oz per ton
------------platinum 0.017 oz per ton
------------palladium 0.016 oz per ton
------------osmium 0.023 oz per ton
------------ruthenium 0.021 oz per ton
------------iridium 0.007 oz per ton
------------rhodium 0.005 oz per ton

I am new to all this and wondering if the gold / silver is even worth mining with these results? I assume the other material results are so minor they aren't worth going after? The material sent off to be tested was a mixture of sandy gravel that is sitting on top of a blue clay layer and mixed in with these 2 samples was some of the blue clay that was right there at the sandy gravel layer. Would it be worth it to go deeper into the clay to have it tested further for gold and silver only? Going lets say 6 inches deep and then again at like 24 inches deep into the clay or what do people suggest?

Thanks for any and all input!!!

 

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[crashbandicoot]

Okay Guys and Gals, I had 2 samples of material tested and came back with the following results:

Sample 1----gold 0.142 oz per ton
------------silver 0.275 oz per ton
------------platinum 0.021 oz per ton
------------palladium 0.014 oz per ton
------------osmium 0.028 oz per ton
------------ruthenium 0.020 oz per ton
------------iridium 0.007 oz per ton
------------rhodium 0.004 oz per ton

Sample 2----gold 0.133 oz per ton
------------silver 0.199 oz per ton
------------platinum 0.017 oz per ton
------------palladium 0.016 oz per ton
------------osmium 0.023 oz per ton
------------ruthenium 0.021 oz per ton
------------iridium 0.007 oz per ton
------------rhodium 0.005 oz per ton

I am new to all this and wondering if the gold / silver is even worth mining with these results? I assume the other material results are so minor they aren't worth going after? The material sent off to be tested was a mixture of sandy gravel that is sitting on top of a blue clay layer and mixed in with these 2 samples was some of the blue clay that was right there at the sandy gravel layer. Would it be worth it to go deeper into the clay to have it tested further for gold and silver only? Going lets say 6 inches deep and then again at like 24 inches deep into the clay or what do people suggest?

Thanks for any and all input!!!

I don,t know man.that,s beyond my pay grade.Welcome to Tnet,someone will be along to help.

 

[arizau]

Clay layers often act as false bedrock and gold associated with it is usually on or near the surface of the layer. I would be inclined to try to hit actual bedrock beneath the clay layer then sample the material that lies on top of it.
Just my opinion......I am not a fan of assays on placer material. Sample pan results vs. a guesstimated volume of feed should tell the tale/is it worth my while to mess with?

Good luck.

 

[racingjoe66]

Have dug down 12 feet from the surface and still nothing but solid clay and the clay has no rock in it at all. Did 3 pan samples of the sandy gravel layer and did break down some of the surface clay till it all washed out and can see hundreds of colors in the pan. I'd say it's like flour gold in the 100 - 150 micron size

 

[mikep691]

Knowing a general location of this would help. .14 OPT seems pretty low unless you can strip mine to the clay layer and actually have enough material to make it add up. Costly venture to say the least.

 

[Tpmetal]

Just a wild guess but I would assume profitable operations would want well over a half oz per ton

 

[Tesorodeoro]

I‘m not sure an assay report for a placer deposit would be good for much unless you had a bunch of them.

mining profitability obviously is dependent on the costs to secure mining rights, permits, excavate, process, reclaim, etc. I’m assuming you are contemplating mining with heavy equipment since you took the expense of having assay tests performed?

 

[racingjoe66]

I have an excavator from the 80's that I can go down 30 ft with and 2 dump trucks from the 70's and I have a 3/4 cu yd bucket on the excavator now. I do have a 1 cu yd bucket I can put on it and only have 2 ft - 3 ft of over burden (topsoil / black dirt) sitting on top of this sandy gravel layer that is 1 ft to 18 inches thick then the clay that I haven't found an end in site yet being 9 feet into the clay in about a 120 foot long stretch. So getting to that sandy gravel layer is easy. I am digging a 1 acre pond in this area right now anyway. I have 6.5 acres of this I can strip and get that layer, if it was profitable enough.

If my math is correct that 0.142 oz of gold per ton 2,000 lbs of material equals an 1/7th of an oz of gold? And this sandy gravel stuff weights any where from 2,400 lbs to 2,900 lbs per 1 cubic yard. So then 1 scoop of my 1 yard bucket of this could be worth from $260.00 - $300.00 range?? Or am I doing some bad math?

Getting to this layer is super easy as I am doing my pond in this location anyway and have done a little of it to start until we discovered all this. My main question is it worth it to stock pile it vs going and dumping it somewhere as waste and build or buy a small trommel and let my kids and grand kids run the material over years to come? Would'n't be a huge operation or anything fancy as I am not rich by any means.

As for the 2 test sample I sent off of this sandy gravel layer with some of the blue clay in it. They were samples from about 300 feet apart from each other. Me and my son have both panned some of the material as well in 2 different locations and you can see the gold in the pan and lots of it with some black sand as well. Once we get to the end that is all that is there is black sand and gold. There is a lot of crushed granite in this sandy layer and some bigger pieces of it and a lot of smooth river rock also. In 1 test scoop of a shovel I dug right at where the clay and sand meet, was a baseball size of course granite and sitting between it and the clay was lots of bigger pieces of the gold that was stuck between the rock and clay that you could see with your bare eyes easy. Then looking further at the piece of granite I could see gold all over it in the cracks and small holes and such. I broke off a piece that was cracked on it and it was packed with gold in that crack. Because of finding that rock and the gold with it was why we sent off samples to be tested. I still have that rock sitting in my kitchen with the gold on it all over and the small piece I broke off with the gold sitting on it. If only I had a good camera to take pictures of it to post on here, I would.

So if my math is correct, then it does look like it is worth it to stock pile somewhere on my property to have the kids and grand kids run the material as something fun to do in the summer and make some money? Then if so, how far can the gold penetrate into the blue clay? I plan to send off 1 or 2 more sample further down into the clay itself and only the clay be tested this time to see if it has gold too or just the sandy gravel layer.

thanks again for all the input

 

[racingjoe66]

 

[racingjoe66]

The 3rd picture its hard to make out the gold on the rock but on the side of the pan to the left you can see the flake there. The 2nd picture is the small chunk I broke off that was cracked and flaking off anyway. The 1st shows the gold in one spot on the rock. The last picture is a small small small fraction of the gold I took out of 1 small pan and there is tons more left in that pan. That is when I stopped and sent off 2 samples to be tested. The pictures aren't the best, but that is all I can do

View attachment 1991258

 

[arizau]

The way you prepped the samples sent for assay is important. Only a bulk sample(s) of unconcentrated material could be considered a fair representation for your potential values. Then the samples must be weighed and entirely processed to determine what the values are per ton. Was that procedure followed? If the assays are for concentrates that you guys panned then they, in no way, are representative unless you took in consideration the starting weight.....something many do not do. That is one reason why I stated earlier that I am not a fan of assays on placer material.
Good luck.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

FYI, I don’t see any gold in any of the pictures you posted.
I see schist mica. This doesn’t look like anything like what you have described (black sand and gold).

Find any SILVER while panning??

Thought you were looking at placer gold from gravels?

 

[racingjoe66]

For the samples I sent in. All I did was walk down to where I am digging and with my shovel took out a scoop and placed it in a zip lock bag and weighted each bag from each location out to 2 lbs for each spot I took a sample from. Then I mailed them off to a lab would did the assay for me and gave me the results.

I didn't sort or anything the material I sent in. Just dug and placed in the bag and mailed it off. So I do believe I did follow that.

 

[racingjoe66]

Tesorodeoro, the black sand we had panned out is sitting in another container when we washed the pans out to get other samples to pan.

 

[racingjoe66]

Trying to take pictures the best I can with an old phone at 4.0 zoom and low megapixel and the lighting isn't showing it very well either. No haven't even looked for silver or really know what it looks like in raw form. Or if the silver in my sample came from the blue clay that was mixed in with the gravels.

 

[racingjoe66]

The pan when we panned it, was a very very tiny sample nothing huge. The gold I have seen is all small like flour gold size to where you almost can't see it then some flakes in the jar that you can see and pick up with tweezers. Not pickers or nuggets unfortantly

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Sorry, I still don’t see any gold.
I see blond sands mixed with dark colored sand and mica.
Not accusing you of lying, I just don’t see it. I’d suggest having an experienced miner take a look directly at it. That way you don’t waste your own time.

 

[arizau]

About all I can say now is I wish I had your problem........or that you were my grampa!



That said I would be test panning in scattered areas to kind of define if the deposit is uniform or not.

Good luck

 

[racingjoe66]

Okay guys I tested a flake of the gold in question in the 6th picture of the last set I posted. I tested it with a needle and poked it. The flake didn't break apart or anything. The flake folded around the needle and I was able to poke the needle through it and it now sticks to the needle tip. So I would assume that means real gold?

 

[one blanket]

The gold probably is in the gravels/sands as previously said. search for richest deposit or just stockpile like you said for kinfolks to process.
You may be missing the money by ignoring the clay.
Firebrick clay cannot have any impurities.
Historically, an earthenware clay deposit near Caledonia Missouri imported workers from the old world to make tableware. ( 1800's??)