FLIPPIN FRICKEN FRICKEN FLIPPIN

[Goldwasher]

I was gonna post this Sunday but, I had the fortune of getting stuck on the phone with Clay Diggins for a few hours and never got back to it.

You can't really sample under a boulder..rubbing my pan on them doesn't seem to help. So, If I'm getting gold around one and I can get it out of my way. I do.

I was bringing samples back with me during hunting season. I was using the creek bottom whenever I could cause it was less crispy and cracky than the woods.

Found a quartz crystal cluster newly exposed in a pocket I had started a few years ago.

There was water in the creek in several places though still too warm and old for me to want to really be in it too much.

But a little rain and cool weather means it's about time for me to get to diggin and flippin.

As you can see, there is a lot of bedrock to open up and clean out.
In the six years I've been working this drainage I've came across one flake with a tiny smear of mercury. When I was dredging we got some everyday.

I get black stuff and figure manganese oxide. Though I have gotten a few that were greenish and looked to me like they had mercury burned off at one point.Now I'm thinking its just contaminated with mercury and just needs some heat and acid.

Well, now we're into a spot with 50/50 gold dirty gold I'll just have to get used to cleaning it .

You'll notice the before and afters. All from the immideate area seen in the flipped boulder pic. Not really a lot of dirt moved as I've only had enough water to pan and it is still moving too slow for me to rerally snipe the bedrock under water. It just stays too cloudy right now.
So, just blind scraping and scooping right now.
Oh and the boulder, the pic with the gravel and creek water what you can see of the corner is what ends up face down. I moved it as far as I could with out my come along.

 

[QNCrazy]

Very nice GW. Is that the stuff I get to look forward to bedrock busting? I hope, I hope. This weekend should be interesting depending on how much rain we get. Hopefully the heaviest will dump north of us.

 

[Goldwasher]

You gotta get into the bedrock Mike. Break it up, pry it apart. lift chunks. Don't neglect smooth bedrock either look for rough spots and features in smooth bedrock areas.
If your working slate wear gloves.

 

[Terry Soloman]

You're an animal! Great looking gold!

 

[Oddjob]

That cluster in picture five, did you get that out intact, and if so do you have some other pictures of it. Looks very nice.

Lot of that area looks like some folded up inner tubes from a rig would shift things well enough for better leverage with minimal work to help get it out of the way.

Congrats on your gold and cluster.

 

[Goldwasher]

That cluster in picture five, did you get that out intact, and if so do you have some other pictures of it. Looks very nice.

Lot of that area looks like some folded up inner tubes from a rig would shift things well enough for better leverage with minimal work to help get it out of the way.

Congrats on your gold and cluster.

It didn't make it out intact. The pieces are actually still in my pack. I have some nice clusters from the same void. I 'll take some pictures.

I have two come a longs and two bars. That lunker is the middle child of three I'll be moving that will take a bar and winching. The rest are in the fifty to hundred pound range and will flip scoot and roll.

I toss(lob.. heave..flip.. pitch ..roll) a lot of 30# minus up along the bank onto areas I have detected or dug already. Old school.

I have to put thought into where I start and hope to go.

It's raining pretty good right now. Sluicing pretty soon.

 

[Prospector70]

Holy Frick!

Sweet gold!!

 

[Bejay]

How close can you get a rig/quad to your spot? If not too far you might try taking in a couple 5 gal buckets of water. Then use a hand suction gun to suck up the crevices...adding just enough water to get some suction each time you give it a go!. Good luck.

Bejay

 

[Goldwasher]

I have enough water. Theres enough for pumping right now. I haven't walked farther down canyon to get the hand dredge. Been working here because of the water. After the rain all night and thats coming in i'll be sluicing soon and the water will be clear enough for me to see bottom.

 

[Bejay]

I have enough water. Theres enough for pumping right now. I haven't walked farther down canyon to get the hand dredge. Been working here because of the water. After the rain all night and thats coming in i'll be sluicing soon and the water will be clear enough for me to see bottom.

You got to just love the water when it happens in the desert. Like makin hay when the sun shines. Yep..water is good! It don't get no better than that!

Bejay

 

[bpete]

wow great pics.

 

[TAKODA]

Purdy bit of shine GW . Ever forward . Merry Christmas .

 

[Arachnofreak]

That is just awesome man! That material and the area just look freakin perfect lol. Nice gold too man.

Charlie

 

[Reed Lukens]

With all of the mercury, it looks like you may be in a spot that used to either be a hydraulic ground sluice or had one built on top of the bedrock at one time that's long gone? It takes 3 or 4 cleanings over a long period to get all of the mercury off of the nuggets but they do eventually quit turning silver after a decade or so

 

[Goldwasher]

With all of the mercury, it looks like you may be in a spot that used to either be a hydraulic ground sluice or had one built on top of the bedrock at one time that's long gone? It takes 3 or 4 cleanings over a long period to get all of the mercury off of the nuggets but they do eventually quit turning silver after a decade or so

Its right next to several worked benches and yes they were ground sluicing and running long toms. Punch plate with inch holes in it.

The creek and benches were worked early in the rush. The hillside veins from the 1860's to the depression.

Though they didn't work every area very well and the Chinese didn't come in and flip the whole area upside down

 

[KevinInColorado]

With all of the mercury, it looks like you may be in a spot that used to either be a hydraulic ground sluice or had one built on top of the bedrock at one time that's long gone? It takes 3 or 4 cleanings over a long period to get all of the mercury off of the nuggets but they do eventually quit turning silver after a decade or so

Would a good long soak in nitric do the job in one go? (I’m about to use nitric for the first time to clean gold)

 

[Reed Lukens]

Would a good long soak in nitric do the job in one go? (I’m about to use nitric for the first time to clean gold)

Nope, you'll be doing it a few times as the mercury keeps coming to the surface. It will look clean, you'll put it away, then when you take it out, you'll be scratching your head thinking it looked cleaner before... But nitric is the best way to clean nuggets without damaging them. You can also heat them but still plan on at least cleaning them twice. Just melt down the fines into buttons.

 

[Goldwasher]

yep, first time with heat they go from dirty silver/green/black to gold..but it only takes a day or so for more mercury to sweat out.

Takes a couple times before they stay clean.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the education as always