Go down or out

Indianametal · Mar 28, 2013

I have been slowly working a boulder drop between high water levels for the last month and a half. To my surprise I have been finding good chunky gold in the first foot of material, I am now about 3ft down and should be within a couple feet of bedrock and everything is petering out to very fine gold and sometimes nothing at all. Should I continue to use energy going down through the hard pack or would my energy be better spent spreading out and just collecting the first foot of the entire streak?

Jeff95531 · Mar 28, 2013

I am no expert at all, but if I were you, I'd move out one foot and down one foot till there was no gold to be found. Dig to bedrock at the last best place found. Just my .02

Vance in AK · Mar 28, 2013

If I were you I would continue to bedrock. Real good chance you will find another good layer of gold there. Then work out concentrating on the levels where you have found gold. The streaks will probably run more up & down the creek than accross it.

Oldyoungtimer · Mar 28, 2013

I have worked a creek before where the gold was in one of the layers in the creek bed. I got real excited thinking if i go deeper I'm going to get better gold! But that was not the case. It was a great learning experience as I'm very new to prospecting. Now that being said on the same creek i ran into a part where the bedrock was very shallow (about 2 feet) and the deeper i went the bigger the gold. I think a factor was the clay layer, i didn't ruin into it in shallow bedrock. But i did on the other part of the creek and that it's where the gold was. Are you running into clay? If so are you digging past it? That might be acting as a false bedrock.

AlwaysBusyJ · Mar 28, 2013

I would work the first layer of good gold and clear as much area as you can, then dig down deeper if you get the chance. I'm guessing you're going to run the first layer anyway since you already know it's producing, the only question is do you have the time/equipment to go deeper searching for more good stuff. I'd have to get down to bedrock and at least test a spot or two if it was me, I'd die of curiousity wondering if anything was down there.

Hemisteve · Mar 28, 2013

If you only have a few feet to get to the bedrock then go for it. At least you will know what is down there and then you can start running the best pay layers.

Indianametal · Mar 28, 2013

Thanks for the replys, the only clay I have gotten into has been bits built up between the rocks, I havent hit any gray false bedrock clay. I think for the remainder of the winter/cold water season i am going to clean the top layer. Once the air gets hot enough to withstand the water(its spring water and is always cold) I will try to make it to the bedrock.

Oldyoungtimer · Mar 29, 2013

That's how i am too lol. The cold weather keeps me from doing a lot. But then again it keeps those critters and insects at bay! Hope you hit the mother lode. Good luck!

goldenIrishman · Mar 29, 2013

Take the geologic history of your area into account. Sometimes gold is deposited in layers by 100 year floods etc. There might have been enough water to move sand and gravel down stream but the gold needed the flood levels to get washed into the stream bed. It's going to depend on the location of the lode that the gold came from in the first place.

I myself would continue down to bedrock just to be sure. You might find some killer pay dirt there or you may not. Either way, you're not going to know till you try. If there's nothing there then move outwards at the level you were finding color. LOL At least you'll have a place to work from that's closer to the job at hand.