Explain to me: Bedrock

Swampbuckster · May 2, 2012

This is a rookie question here but everyone that gives me any advice always says " go deeper, get down to the bedrock, work the cracks and crevices." Ok....wait. Everywhere I have been prospecting, I find most of my gold in the first 4 to 6 inches of river bottom. If I dig much deeper than that, I get CLAY or a type of organic composite. Some creeks I get a liner of a few larger rocks, but nowhere near boulders or what I consider "bedrock" I am always imagining a solid layer of rock below the river bed with cracks and separations in it. So what exactly is bed rock?

hunter_46356 · May 2, 2012

Swampbuckster, I live in NW IN. but don't prospect around here. True Bedrock here is covered with 30 to up to possibly 100 feet of glacial till. The ideal situation is to find the best gold your location offers or go to a location that offers better gold. Everyone says go deeperbecause of the whole gold is 19.3 times heavier than water, well it only make sense the better gold will be on the bottom, on the bedrock or on a false bedrock such as a clay layer. There will be gold in many different levels on it's way deeper and that's also a good sign that you have a continuose re-supply of gold in your location. If your finding the gold ontop of the clay then this might be the best it's going to be in that location. Do your homework for your location, the whole inside bends, real bedrock, false bedrock any negative flow areas. Check them all, and work the ones that show the best color that way you'll get the most for your effort. Sample Sample then Sample some more before you dig the best. If you don't have a true bedrock, then find the best false bedrock you can. It took me three trips to a new creek to finally find a good streak and real bedrock. I know there's more to found you just need to look. Every trip I found better spots that I hadn't found before cause I was so into diggin and panning. You might spend a whole day sampling but it should pay off if you do your homework. Good luck and your in the right place to learn from the best, and that wouldn't be me cause I'm a newbie too.

63bkpkr · May 2, 2012

Hey there swampbuckster in Lower Michigan,
Come to think of it I do not recall much bedrock either out of Detroit. In the UP some of the trout streams might have BR showing. Here in CA the bedrock Can Be exposed or nearer the surface and then the historic river beds that have been covered over can be way down under. When you hear the term "Placer Mines" that are tunneled they have run a drift or vertical shaft into the ground to reach what they hope is a location for a historical river channel. I know a couple of fellas who hit a small pay streak in one of these that was yielding placer gold and also platinum nuggets, kinda exciting! Last year I worked quite a few sections of drybedrock right in a river channel with my GMT and found 'some' small gold but did not hit a true paystreak. I think hunter 46356 nailed the explanation pretty good! Good Success with your lookin........63bkpkr

ryaan21 · May 2, 2012

Just about every stream and river near me in the UP has bedrock showing. There are places with cliffs of old bedrock 20-30 feet high that the soil has been stripped from by the wind and rain.

Hoser John · May 3, 2012

Gold Miners make the Bedrock....which is nuttn' but solid blessed rock that holds the glorious gold and concentrates it into economically viable deposits to mine your lifetime away...jus' gotta luv' it-tons a au 2 u 2 -John

Swampbuckster · May 3, 2012

Well thanks for clarifying that for me. I like the whole "go deeper for more gold" idea, it sounds great, but the 43 flakes I've found so far is all flour gold. It's all been found above the clay in the sand and gravel. Or within an inch or two into the clay. There is NO bedrock, hence there is no veins of gold or large amounts of it. Just glacial drift gold ground up into bitty flakes for me to waste my time with!! Not in it for the money but for the fun of it. Figure if I can successfully get gold around here, I should be able to get the hang of it when I make it out to gold rich areas. Going to the UP for a week this summer for my honeymoon. Fiance already knows we are A: Trout fishing and B: Prospecting! lol. Thanks.

hunter_46356 · May 4, 2012

I was out yesterday an ran into a couple others guys prospecting the same creek. In picking there brains a bit I found that they have been coming here for a couple years now. They had a small highbanker set up and I could see where they had been working a few areas. I was surprised that they hadn't worked the boulder/gravel bar area I've been working since it was so obviously excavated, but they hadn't. Don't get me wrong they were a couple good ol boys and had been camping on the gravel bar since Sun. They definately had their stuff together, prospecting gear, campgear, canoe, and didn't seem to mind that I have invaded their spot. Even invited me to a clean out before I left. I've been here several times and seen no one before today. Another couple (husband and wife)showed up later and said he had a new 3" combo but it was to much to try to get across the creek with the water level as it was. They worked the other side of the creek with shovels and buckets while the brand new 3" sat in the truck

? I showed them what I had for a few hours worth of just bucket work and I'm pretty sure when the waters down he'll be back to work the bar. ( I gotta think about getting or building a dredge) Back to your post, When you say there's "No" bedrock just remember the term bedrock for you might just be that clay layer. The way you have to look at it, anything that stops the gold from going any deeper is as good as solid rock. Now you just got to find the best consentration in that layer. Your finding gold but don't sell yourself short, go find the better gold which I'm guessing is there. Bucketfreak68 turned me onto a some video's on youtube. Go there and search "Prospector Jess" and/or hunting4gold. This guys has a some 23 videos in which I learned alot fast about where to look for the best consentration of even our flour gold. When I used these ideas my pan got more colorfull and fast. This may get you to a youtube link but I'm no techno puter guy if you know what I mean. He has several vid's but the ones to watch in particular are with him in front of a class room board. Good Luck!

hunter_46356 · May 4, 2012

By the way this is yesterdays take for 15 gal. of material. Don't really know know how this holds up to other IN finds with that amout of material but I was OK with it. (I need a dredge 10 x the material and you should get 10 x the gold right. Gotta Love the FEVER.

Swampbuckster · May 4, 2012

I've at best pulled four specks of flour in one pan. My prospecting gear only consists of a homemade 1/4" mesh classifier which is then reduced to an eighth inch classifier and directly into my pan below that. My prospecting buddy and I put together a re circulating sluice but have not ran any good material through it yet. I also built a small hand sluice but haven't messed much with it because of the slow current creeks I usually work. I do have good flow through the latest creek I've found but still am limited to using it between July and August and hafta get a permit. (State owned land, MDNR guidelines) Craziest thing is the largest piece of gold found yet was the very first time my friend and I went out- with just a garden shovel and pie plates! The latest place though I have worked has panned out most promising yet of all the areas I've prospected. I will on my next trip out concentrate on getting a bucket of classified material to bring back and run through the re circulating sluice.

ohiochris · May 8, 2012

Clay acts like bedrock , gold sinks until it hits the clay and then cant go any farther. You should find gold stuck in the clay down to about 1 inch or so if you break the clay up and dissolve it real good. Because of the geology here in the great lakes area and how the gold ended up here , you wont normally find any gold below the clay layer. The clay was there before ancient glaciers deposited the gold bearing till. Locations with exposed bedrock either had no clay layer or it was just worn away long ago. Bedrock is the place to look if there is any but if there isnt then the clay layer is just as good. Larger and heavier gold stays put and works its way down to bedrock or clay while the smaller stuff sometimes called float gold dont sink very well and even moves around with the water current , you can find it literally anywhere and you dont have to be at the bedrock/clay layer.

Swampbuckster · May 8, 2012

Thanks ohiochris. I believe your explanation is what I am finding around me. Does it make sense to have a different concept of where to find this type of gold. I always look for areas with run off and high banks around the stream/ creek. I always imagine during heavy rains and snow melts, the placer deposits in the tiniest pieces at this point washing down the banks as the ground erodes and washes down to the river where ultimately it will work down to the clay. The whole river bend and backwater areas I would think wouldn't hold true to my area. Most the current in the rivers/creeks is slow to mild with an occasional rush after a storm. But honestly, just last week, after working an area on a creek in some hills, I was heading back and walking through the swampier portion of this creek. Still gravel and sand bottom, I decided to sample an area. found gold there and just about everywhere throughout the swampy section I checked. Funny thing was there was nothing but a lake with a small dam a few hundred yards up from where I was. Again, all flour specks, nothing to write home about or get rich off of but it is still fun.

ohiochris · May 9, 2012

Seems like you are looking in the right areas and the higher the banks the better. The stream I am working right now , and the section where the majority of the gold is , is really straight but not much elevation change so it too flows slow most of the time. Its a section of stream on the outflow side of a dam holding back a lake. I am literally just working my way down the stream with a shovel , scraping everything down to about 1 inch deep into the clay , because thats where the gold is , not the traditional inside bends of the stream or behind rocks....its literally spread out everywhere. But there does seem to be more on the side of the highest bank.

ohiochris · May 9, 2012

From what you describe , the stream you are working has a lot in common with mine. One thing Ive noticed is a LOT of pyrite ranging in color from gray or silver to brown or gold. If you are seeing the same thing , try to keep as much of that pyrite as you can. Ive been learning lately that pyrite can contain gold and there are ways of extracting it. Im also noticing some of what looks like platinum or silver , not sure yet though.

James/Ouida · May 9, 2012

The creeks I'm in also produce a lot of pyrite, in one spot, the creek bed looks like a fairy sneezed golden glitter all over. From what I've researched, pyrite can contain 5% to 30% gold, so I'm not saving the stuff since i would need, hmmm, a five gallon bucket full to yield a profit. good luck fellers
James

ohiochris · May 9, 2012

James/Ouida said:
The creeks I'm in also produce a lot of pyrite, in one spot, the creek bed looks like a fairy sneezed golden glitter all over. From what I've researched, pyrite can contain 5% to 30% gold, so I'm not saving the stuff since i would need, hmmm, a five gallon bucket full to yield a profit. good luck fellers
James

Yeah it takes the work to extract gold from pyrite , and you would need a lot of it to profit from it alone , but if you are already finding gold then what was extracted from the pyrite would just add to your overall yield. A lot of us eventually experiment with getting the extra unseen gold out of black sand , either by roasting and fracturing it , grinding it up , smelting or chemicals , and it works. Just crush the pyrite and throw that in there too. Its not something you would turn a profit from , but gold is gold , why throw it away. The way I look at it is I am not really doing this for profit anyway , unless I got really lucky I am gonna spend more on gas and time then what I will get from the gold I find , so why not see if there are ways to add a little bit more gold to my total take and have fun with it at the same time ?

TerryC · May 10, 2012

BEDROCK: a thing that Fred Flintstone sleeps on.... usually found in his bedroom. TTC

Hoser John · May 10, 2012

Terry I thought THAT was Wilma

?John

TerryC · May 14, 2012

Sorry, Hoser. I should not be playing with a new guy like that. He might get scared away. I don't want that! Swampbuckster, I apologize. ALL newbie questions welcome here. And welcome to the net. Bedrock is the local host rock that is the deepest you can dig. NOT to be confused with a false bedrock, such as a lava flow. A book on geology can help with a better explaination. Stick in there, partner and after muddling through the nonsense answers (and nonsense replies) you are going to learn something from these guys and gals. Gauranteed! TTC