Gold hunting prospecting tips.

[Lanny in AB]

Tips and little stories for anyone that wants to learn a bit more about chasing the gold. Whether you're a rookie or a Sourdough (a Pro), you might find something to read. My main thread, http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html on the metal detecting for gold page has been up for many years, and it has some tips too along with many, many stories of me out chasing the gold, but it takes a long time to wade through all of the almost 80 pages now.

So, I thought I'd start a thread over here dedicated to more of the tips and techniques on how to find gold, and I may transfer some tips from my older thread over to here as well.

Essential gold fact.
(This fact is one that's often ignored, if not undervalued or forgotten in the rush to find the gold.)

Gold fact: Gold is heavy.

Rookie prospector fact: Most rookies forget this.

Prospecting reality: many "seasoned" prospectors forget this.

Prospecting mantra: never forget that gold is heavy.


(Yes, lead is heavy too, but gold is nearly twice as heavy as lead (19320 kg/cu.m VS 11340 kg/cu.m).



For example, if you want to look for gold in a stream, don't start digging in a sandbar. Don't start digging in clay or mud. While it's true that gold will stick to clay, usually if you dig a bunch of clay, you'll get a lot of clay in your pan. . . .

Look at the stream and see where the bigger stuff is collecting.



If you're in an area where there's flour gold (glaciated gold that's been hammered and ground to a powder consistency), look for gravel bars where the rocks are fist-sized and larger. Why? Specific gravity rules specify that if the stream was traveling with enough velocity to carry rocks fist-sized and larger, flour gold was also traveling with them (if there's gold in the stream). Remember? Gold is heavy, so it takes force from water velocity to move it during a flood or during high water. (This also applies to bench deposits and old channels.)

If you're in an area where there's flake and picker gold (or maybe even nuggets), look for a place in the stream where rocks the size of couch cushions or big round watermelons or trashcans were moving during high water. Then, get a vantage point where you can look downstream to see if there's any pattern to their disposition. (I'm referring where the stream is fairly shallow to bedrock or hardpan as the bigger rocks won't disappear as they sink themselves with the stratifying action of the stream. Big, wide, slow moving streams that are deep to bedrock sometimes won't follow the same rules.) Look downstream and if you can see the big rocks lined out (running in a consecutive line downstream from each other) in a linear pattern, each following the others downstream, I'd get in those rocks and start digging. Why? Gold is heavy. Just think about the energy involved in the stream velocity that moved those rocks: pickers and flakes and maybe nuggets were running with that big stuff. Dig, dig, dig. Test, test, test.



Flashback time: When I was working with a large placer operation and they'd hit large boulders (the size of your couch at least, not the cushions), and we were working ground where nuggets were common, everyone would get excited about the possibilities. (I say possibilities because sometimes Mother Nature plays tricks and only drops the big boulders because she shifted the gold run off somewhere else.) So, when those big boulders were moved out of the way, everyone would get down in the pit after the machines were shut down for the day to start panning. (I'd often be panning the material as we went down as well to keep the feedback going to the excavator operator to let him know what size of gold, or how much gold was showing in the pan at the various levels, or in the varying layers of materials as they changed from level to level.)

On one unforgettable day, the gold run was so heavy after the big rocks were moved that we walked along the face of the wall where it met the bedrock (from about two feet above and down to the bedrock that is), and we were able to see the nuggets packed in the gravel and then flick them out of the wall into a pan!

Now I know that some of you are going to think that I was smoking cheap crack, and that there's no way anything like that could ever be possible, but I was there and it happened anyway. Moreover, once you've seen pay with that much gold in it, and once you've experienced a sight like that, you can never forget it either. There was so much gold in the pay layer that because the boss was gone to town for supplies, the sluice crew messed up and fed the sluice at the wrong rate (they fed it as if they were running normal material). The boss arrived back in camp just as the run ended and the crew was just shutting down the wash-plant. To his horror when the water stopped flowing, there were nuggets all the way from the header boxes right to the end of the last riffle in both sluices, and this was a big wash-plant!

So, as you undoubtedly remember (by now in this post) that gold is heavy, what do you think was happening while the nuggets were being deposited all the way to the last riffle in the sluices?

That's right, the nuggets were going over the end of the sluice and heading down into the settling ponds too. What a fiasco! I'll not bore you with the colorful adjectives the boss launched at the sluice crew.



But, what an unimaginable sight regardless. Nuggets from the header boxes all the way to the last riffle!! I had my video camera with me and wanted so badly to shoot video of the sluices; moreover, I had my regular camera with me and wanted to shoot some stills as well, but the investor wouldn't let me do it. He was quite an uptight fellow, to say the least.

Some other miners were working their way down the mountain along our road on their way to cross the river with their equipment, so they could get started on running dirt at their claim. They stopped by to see how things were going. Their jaws hit the ground, hard. They'd never seen the like, and I certainly never have since. Pounds and pounds of beautiful nuggets, with pounds and pounds of galena in all different sizes left to be separated from the gold. (What a pain that was as you can't remove galena with magnets, so it's hard to speed up the cleanup process.)



So, when you're looking for gold, think heavy. Try to think heavy thoughts because gold certainly thinks that way. Moreover, if you're working a stream where it's shallow to bedrock, always, always check the bedrock very carefully. Why? As gold is heavy, and as the stream materials are constantly agitated by the water, the gold will continue to drop through the liquified, moving materials of the stream to eventually come to rest. Why does it stop? It hits something that won't move or give way, and in the case of bedrock, it meets all of the immovable object criteria.

While dredging, I've had to pry enough nuggets from cracks and crevices to know how well fractured or rough bedrock works when it comes to stopping gold.



(Note: I shot this picture with an underwater camera (the glacial melt water is crystal clear and bone-chilling cold). It's a nugget that's sitting on the bedrock, and the water is moving along at a really good clip. I'd just finished moving and then carefully sucking all of the surrounding material away from the nugget on the bedrock with the dredge nozzle kept far enough away to only move the lighter material. The natural velocity of the water was not a factor when it came to the specific gravity of that chunk of gold: that nugget would not move after it was uncovered! It sat right there. If you look around, you'll see other gold resting in the stream run as well.)

Fun fact: while dredging, I've disturbed gold on the bedrock, but because gold is so heavy, the velocity of the stream drags (and I do mean drags) it along the bedrock until it reaches a crevice, and the gold disappears right quick I can tell you! If it's a good sized nugget, once you uncover it, that sassy chunk of gold will sit there in the water right tight on the bedrock waiting for you to make a move. That's how well gold can resist the velocity of the water. That's why some writers say that gold is "lazy". It's so sluggish because due to its specific gravity that it takes the shortest route between two points. So, if you're in an area with coarse gold, always remember this weighty fact as you're plotting where to test your stream materials. In your head, draw some imaginary lines (straight lines) from point A to point B.





Go to bed tonight reviewing the fact that gold is heavy: almost twenty times as heavy as the water that's transporting it, and almost ten times heavier than the other materials the stream's water is moving along with the gold. Knowing this may just have you rethinking things the next time you're out working a stream where it's shallow to bedrock (or other stream deposits as well).

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

By the way, it's far too cold here right now to chase the gold. So, since I'm snowbound, I'll kick out a few posts from time to time, and at other times I may get a chance to post a few more as well.

 

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[KevinInColorado]

"Why didn't I see that sooner?"

Soooo true, suddenly it's right in front of me and I see the pattern or the meaning clearly!

 

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[Lanny in AB]

Having been dredging the same claim for 35 years I can attest to the fact that at first the gold I found was skimp. I was actually prospecting trying to find and learn what was/had happened. It took years to learn what was good and what was not. On my main claim I realized that a large rock slide had damned the creek and formed a lake; in ancient geologic time. The tree growth, flats, silts in the ancient lake bottom became obvious after awhile. But at first I only looked at the creek and stuck the dredge in places where the creek looked good but the gold was sparse.

With two main creeks feeding the lake it became obvious finding the spot where the fast water entered the lake would be hot spots....and so they were. It is understandable that gold would not enter the main body of a lake. And the down cutting of the channel through the silts was observed.

Additionally when the rock damn broke it scattered huge boulders down the creek for about 1/4mile. In and around these huge boulders was always gold....and the richest part of the claim was in this stretch. I dredged it out in about 15 years and the gold does not replenish willingly.

For a long time I looked down into the canyon where the huge boulders were still strewn down about a 100 yd section of creek. So of course I thought it was time to lower the dredge down into the canyon....which I did. I set the dredge up and saw a huge boulder embedded along the bank of the creek....and it had a lot of pea gravel laying on bedrock immediately below it.....maybe about 3x4 ft area......4-6 inches deep. I did the spot in about 10 minutes and went to the sluice to check. In the lower riffles were a number of nuggets about the size of marbles.....they could not pass thru the griz and punch plate so they were in the riffles.

I looked up stream and counted about 35 such huge boulders; basically laying on bedrock. I got a little excited. BUT in three weeks of dredging I found that the additional boulders I saw and worked had their rusty bottoms in the "UP POSITION". They had moved and released their cache of gold...which I had found further downstream.

Thus the secret to finding the gold in the canyon was to find the old "boulder nests" where they had sat where the bedrock was showing to be rusty stained....yet much of the gold had washed away....only the cracks and crevices still held gold.

There is always some things to figure out....and often it takes time to see it. When we do we think: "Why did I not see that sooner"? When we find gold such things tend to become obvious...but it is always a learning experience.

Bejay

These are a fantastic series of tips you've shared!

Your experience and knowledge have helped me look at some things in a very different way. I'm looking forward to putting their solid rationale to work in future expeditions.

Thanks for the great ideas, and thanks for your willingness to share of your expertise about prospecting and surface suction gold recovery.

I too have been down the "Why did I not see that sooner"? road many, many times, and I've often wondered how I could have missed things that were so obvious to me later on.

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[Lanny in AB]

It's just a bit cold this time of year for prospecting.



I'm sure some of you are out there finding the gold though.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Just a quick note to the Rookies:

Far too often I see rookies panning by the river, and the river is a great gold producer. However, at the end of the day, many beginners feel very lucky to have found one or two specks of gold, and too many find none at all.

I've helped many of them find a spot where they could get some decent flakes and color, but it's stumped me why so many beginners fail. After all, a lot of them have read books, articles, and watched videos on how to find places to pan. Of course, some Rookies have never done any research on how to find gold; they're just visiting or passing through a good gold area, and they get caught up in the excitement, buy a pan, and have at it with no instruction whatsoever.

So, this is to the Rookies: "I've thought about why so many of you fail off and on to find the gold. Obviously those of you that have a knack for remembering details, or for internalizing techniques have an advantage over the others, but too many of you just get frustrated by not seeming to find a decent spot where you can get some gold."

I'm sure the reality gold shows on TV don't help as they give out often strongly conflicting messages about the ease or about the difficulty of finding gold.

One thing I've done for the last few years though has seemed to stick with more Rookies than any other.

I have them look up and down the river. I ask them some questions about what they see. (I would encourage you to do the same every time you get to the bank of a stream you want to pan.)

Of course they tell me they see lots of rocks and water. So, I ask them to look at the size of the rocks. Some of them say they've read about panning downstream of boulders in a river, and that's a good tip, sometimes, if a hundred other gold seekers haven't already hit that big boulder. So, I ask them to look to see if they can find a string of larger rocks following one another, roughly in a line down stream (always pay attention to this). That usually stops them short for a bit. And, it gets them looking at least for a key indicator where the gold is likely to drop.

I imagine that every Cheechako that's ever picked up a book on prospecting or panning has read about inside bends, about looking below pinch-points where the stream is allowed to widen, and about checking behind bedrock outcrops, etc., etc.

I remember talking to an Oldtimer from California years ago, and he told me to watch for lines of bigger rocks following each other downstream. I know I've talked about this before, but this one bears repeating: when you see a line of boulders or larger rocks lined-out downstream, get around those rocks and do some testing! For the stream to let go of those boulders or large rocks, and to lose enough force to let them drop, why, any gold that was traveling the same path (and, it would be in a good gold stream), would have to drop as well. This also applies to old channels that are high and dry. If you find a line of boulders or big rocks running down that old stream bed, get at it!

For clarification, and so as not to get confused, I'm not talking about just any big rocks in the stream bed that are deposited in the channel. You have to find a defined line of big rocks like someone stretched a tight string along a marked, often angled line, and along that imaginary marked line, the rocks have dropped out sequentially as the water lost its power to carry them. That's a great place to check for the gold.

You need to watch for places like this.

Mathematically, this will give anyone that's a rookie a solid shot at finding repeatable gold on their outing, not just a one-off lucky scoop that had a random flake in it. This is a gravitational density process of deposition that's predictable exactly because it's repeatable.

If, while you're sampling around that line of rocks, you start to find other heavies (pyrite, ironstone, garnets, galena, etc.), you'll know you're on the right track, and that will encourage you to do more sampling until you find the gold. And, if by some chance you get skunked, at least you were looking in the right place, and the odds were with you.

All the best to every rookie out there; we've all been there, trying to find where the gold's dropped,

Lanny

My main thread:http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[Jeff95531]

"I have them look up and down the river. I ask them some questions about what they see. (I would encourage you to do the same every time you get to the bank of a stream you want to pan.)"

"This also applies to old channels that are high and dry. If you find a line of boulders or big rocks running down that old stream bed, get at it!"

"This is a gravitational density process of deposition that's predictable exactly because it's repeatable."

I was one of those rookies last year. Listen to this man...do what he says...you will find gold...I did.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Many thanks Jeff.

It's always good to hear from you, and I'm glad you were able to capture a little of that sassy gold. Mother Nature's a Pro at hiding it, and it you were able to find it, you're doing great.

Keep in touch, and all the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Punching Through Pay Layers

To you old pros, this is nothing new, so tune out if you wish.

But to those that are still Rookies, this is something important to remember: when you're out panning, and you're lucky enough to find where the gold is running, you still need to keep testing as you go along.

That's right, the three rules of prospecting (1. Test, 2. Test, 3. Test) are still in play.

Two season's ago, I was testing some new ground. After studying the stream for low pressure drop zone indicators, right on the surface I determined that there was a pretty good run by looking at how specific gravity had arranged the rocks. At that time, here were three other groups of panners in the same area, but they were all heading for bedrock.

Well, in the spot I'm referring to, there are boulders everywhere, and getting down to bedrock is almost impossible. However, even if a prospector got to bedrock, a lot of good gold was being thrown out on the way down.

How much gold, well, I'll have to tell you a few things to explain that.

As I stated, right on the surface, there's a pretty good run. The run is fairly easy to track as the gold runs with small pieces of ironstone (magnetite, a quarter the size of the fingernail on a pinky), and when you're finding the magnetite, the gold is either to one side or the other of the magnetite run, slightly below it, or directly with it! The important thing is that it's a predictable, repeatable pattern. As well, sometimes oxidized cubes of pyrite are running with the gold (or just off to one side or the other, or slightly above as with the ironstone). The surface run maxes out after several inches, and running any dirt directly below that run is a waste of time as that connecting band of dirt is barren.

The other panners had all punched right through that surface run on their way to bedrock, and they'd thrown the gold aside.

How many colors to the pan were running in that surface deposit? 20-40 colors, and sometimes as high as 60! (I took a green Rookie with me on another day, and he had 58 colors in his first pan, and three of the colors were pickers! Needless to say, he's hooked on the spot, but the bad thing is he thinks finding gold is quite easy, but he has no idea how long I had to sample to verify that surface run, or was he clued in to where to look for other indicators to locate a surface deposit.)

The next pay-streak the other panners punched through was down close to the 8-10 inch mark. The pieces of oxidized pyrite and ironstone were about the size of fingernails in that run. Furthermore, there were rusted nails and chunks of cast present as well. The gold in the second run was coarser as it should have been considering the size and density of the heavies running with it, but it too was deposited in a band that only several inches thick.

I kept sampling below the second run and hit the third run at the 12-14 inch mark. The ironstone here was thumb-sized, and the pyrite cubes were considerably larger as well. However, the gold was bigger too. It was all picker sized, but there was not a heavy concentration of it. The interesting thing about this last pay layer is that it was riding with a layer of heavier clay, and the whole deposit was riding on a two-foot band of blow sand. Of course I tested below the blow sand, but I couldn't get any color in the layer beneath.

Now, the other panners I've mentioned had all hit the blow sand, punched through it, and they were working the clay and cobble deposit below it. But, they were getting hardly any gold at all. When they wandered over to see how we were doing, they couldn't believe how much gold we had as we'd been there a lot less time than they were.

So, I gave them some condensed prospecting tips on testing for pay layers, what to look for as indicators of low-pressure drop zones, and a couple of weeks later when I went back to that spot, almost all of them had a nice collection of gold

However, it was only almost all as one set had stuck with their hole to the other side of the planet, and they had almost nothing to show for a ton of hard, hard work. They never did get to bedrock either as the boulders approaching bedrock are all jammed nose to nose together. This only made sense in reference to specific gravity as the boulders get bigger at depth as you approach bedrock.

The last time I checked on those groups of Cheechakos, two sets were running sluices, and they were doing well because they were only working the pay layers. The other group however had abandoned their digs to head off to look for gold in a different spot.

So, keep following the three rules of prospecting especially if you find a pay-streak, for there may be more pay-streaks below your original find.

The whole point of this post is to alert you to the reality of gold deposition. Sometimes, there's only a surface run, and all of the dirt below it is barren. At other times, there are several pay layers that often get thrown out in the rush to get to bedrock where there may or may not be any gold.

All the best,

Lanny

My main thread:http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[GrayCloud]

Without a doubt, one of the best threads I have read in a long time. Thanks for all the info Lanny, Bejay, Etc.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Without a doubt, one of the best threads I have read in a long time. Thanks for all the info Lanny, Bejay, Etc.

Thanks so much for dropping in to say so!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

For those of you just starting:

If you're on a well-known good gold-bearing stream, and if it's very easy to get to the water, chances are it's been hammered.

Does that mean there's no gold left to recover at that easy access point?

No, but your chances are way slimmer than if you take a little extra effort to get yourself into a spot that's tougher to get to. Or, if you come back late in the season when the water's down, or early in the spring before the runoff starts for the same reason.

That tougher to get to spot could be higher up the bank or set back farther from the stream proper vs. the easy access spot. Furthermore, it could be a place in a gorge that's upstream or downstream from the easy access, a place that might require some strenuous hiking to get to.

Just remember that most people that chase the gold want the easy way to the gold. Moreover, most people are easily satisfied with a little color, and they don't really want to put out too much effort, especially if it's hot work or uncomfortable work. Because of this aspect, they never get to where the better gold is: the spot is better only because the odds of finding bigger gold or a heavier concentration of gold dramatically increases on a gold gold bearing stream when you get away from the hammered places everyone crowds to.

I'd dropped my dredge in to some terrible places, and I've floated it downstream in to some awful spots as well, but often the reward is well worth all of that extra effort because most people just won't follow through with the extra workload to get the equipment to where the gold has been waiting, often undisturbed for a good chunk of time.

When I go sniping, I try to look at where the high water has run in the most recent flood, then I'll work above that looking for signs of a hundred year super flood or perhaps one even bigger than that. As well, when prospecting in areas of glaciation, gold gets hung up in all kinds of interesting places. Learn where gold gets hung up; those spots are repeatable traps that hold the gold, but you've got to know how to identify them.

I remember when I was first working old hydraulic pits. An Old-timer told me to look for bedrock shelfs with lips that slowed the descent of the slurry as it was being washed down. Those places are repeatable gold traps, and in a good hydraulic pit where the miners cut to bedrock as they worked their way down the mountainside, those spots trap the gold because of physics, and those aspects of physics work wherever the gold gets a chance to slow down. Moreover, always remember that hydraulic mining was very inefficient; a lot of good gold got left behind. In fact, when dredging, if you can ever dredge downstream from an old hydraulic sluice run, do it! That goes for working downstream from regular large-scale sluice runs as well.

I got in a spot once where the bedrock stepped up a small rise. There were nice nuggets in those "steps". I had to work hard to uncover them, but that's why the gold was still there. The easy spots had been detected to death. Don't be afraid to get a nice rock-rake and have at it with a good dose of elbow grease to see what's been left behind.

Bare sheets of exposed bedrock have probably been hammered many times by nugget shooters. This doesn't always mean they got all of the gold. I have experienced a few exceptions where I came along and found good coarse gold deeper down than the former nugget shooters could get at with their earlier equipment, but I've made a significant investment in first-class equipment, and a beginner would have a much better shot at finding nuggets by uncovering bedrock that was buried 100+ years ago by hand-stacking. Why? No metal detectors then to check the worked bedrock. They simply covered it up after they'd worked any cracks and crevices they could see. Or, they'd break the bedrock to a predetermined depth, but that didn't always mean they've reached the end of deep or hidden crevices.

As usual, I've kind of wandered off topic a bit, but back to my main point: if you want to have a better shot than the average weekend warrior, look in the more difficult to get to places along those nice gold bearing streams, the spots farther back from the waterline too, and leave the easy access gold to those that don't have any higher expectations.

All the best,

Lanny

My main thread:http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[Lanny in AB]

It's funny sometimes how one memory sparks another.

I remember one season I was way up north (really), and we were working with some large-scale placer miners.

They were working a pit at a lower elevation, but they were having us prospect some ground off across a small gulch from an old placer excavation (the ground we prospected proved out nicely, and they moved in and mined it out).

Well, in that abandoned pit close to where we were prospecting, there was a little natural sluice run down some stepped bedrock. Nature had left about ten to twelve feet of what I can only describe as the perfect little sluice box made of stone! It had just the right amount of slope to boot.

What was interesting though was that someone had snuck in sometime staying out of sight of the current workings, and they were running sniped material from the exposed bedrock cracks down that little sluice. There was a natural flow of water running through the sluice, supplemented as needed by small diversions, channeled by whomever was working that sniped material, thus reducing their dirt down to the heavies.

It sure was a cute little operation, and it certainly was effective as the bedrock was rough, and it held the gold well.

I've never seen another like it, but I've read of ground sluicing before where Old-timer's used exposed bedrock as a sluice to run their material over, and this little operation was just a practical application on a much smaller scale.

All the best,

Lanny

My main thread: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[63bkpkr]

Nice input Lanny! Your last comments about natural sluices reminds me of a spot back in CA I've been trying to relocate, in my mind at least. I think I've found it and once I am released from working off debt I will return to that location for about 3 summer months of prospecting, I am looking so forward to it! Nothing like snooping around the hills of NorCal.................63bkpkr

 

[Jeff95531]

Punching Through Pay Layers

"As I stated, right on the surface, there's a pretty good run. The run is fairly easy to track as the gold runs with small pieces of ironstone (magnetite, a quarter the size of the fingernail on a pinky), and when you're finding the magnetite, the gold is either to one side or the other of the magnetite run, slightly below it, or directly with it! The important thing is that it's a predictable, repeatable pattern. As well, sometimes are running with the gold (or just off to one side or the other, or slightly above as with the ironstone). The surface run maxes out after several inches, and running any dirt directly below that run is a waste of time as that connecting band of dirt is barren.

The next pay-streak the other panners punched through was down close to the 8-10 inch mark. The pieces of oxidized pyrite and ironstone were about the size of fingernails in that run. Furthermore, there were rusted nails and chunks of cast present as well. The gold in the second run was coarser as it should have been considering the size and density of the heavies running with it, but it too was deposited in a band that only several inches thick.

I kept sampling below the second run and hit the third run at the 12-14 inch mark. The ironstone here was thumb-sized, and the pyrite cubes were considerably larger as well. However, the gold was bigger too. It was all picker sized, but there was not a heavy concentration of it. The interesting thing about this last pay layer is that it was riding with a layer of heavier clay, and the whole deposit was riding on a two-foot band of blow sand. Of course I tested below the blow sand, but I couldn't get any color in the layer beneath.

Now, the other panners I've mentioned had all hit the blow sand, punched through it, and they were working the clay and cobble deposit below it. But, they were getting hardly any gold at all. When they wandered over to see how we were doing, they couldn't believe how much gold we had as we'd been there a lot less time than they were.


All the best,

Lanny

My main thread:http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

Well, it looks like I need to start learning about rocks...
ironstone...is it also known as magnetite? Is it magnetic?
oxidized cubes of pyrite-does this appear bright? Like a chrome bumper?

I've been finding shiny black (or dark blue) rocks in the sluice and pan (about half the size of my pinky finger nail and smaller) and it seems like it is heavier than the rest of the slurry?

any help to get me started in Rockology 101 is greatly appreciated!

 

[Lanny in AB]

Nice input Lanny! Your last comments about natural sluices reminds me of a spot back in CA I've been trying to relocate, in my mind at least. I think I've found it and once I am released from working off debt I will return to that location for about 3 summer months of prospecting, I am looking so forward to it! Nothing like snooping around the hills of NorCal.................63bkpkr

So great to see that you're still checking in to see what's happening on TNET!

When you get the chance to head back to your old stomping grounds, I certainly hope you'll find that spot you're racking your brain for.

If I know you, nothing's going to get in your way; that's for sure.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Well, it looks like I need to start learning about rocks...
ironstone...is it also known as magnetite? Is it magnetic?
oxidized cubes of pyrite-does this appear bright? Like a chrome bumper?

I've been finding shiny black (or dark blue) rocks in the sluice and pan (about half the size of my pinky finger nail and smaller) and it seems like it is heavier than the rest of the slurry?

any help to get me started in Rockology 101 is greatly appreciated!

Ironstone/magnetite will be some of those heavier rocks you've described, I'd imagine. It's pretty easy to check, just carry a strong little magnet with you to check. If they're ironstone, they'll jump right to the magnet. The nice thing about those rocks is that they belong to the gang of heavies, and they're very good friends of the gold gang members. The other good friends of gold that are heavy and dark colored, but are non-magnetic could be hematite, another form of native iron ore.

Pyrite can be bright and shiny when it's newly exposed/newly cleaved/newly deposited as cubes in the stream, but when it's been in the river a while, it will be a very rusty red color (if you smash the oxidized cubes, you'll see the bright shiny innards). But, as it's also heavy, it likes to lurk close to where you'll find the gold.

You can find pyrite and ironstone and no gold, but as they're such good indicator stones if you're in a proven gold bearing stream, keep snooping around (to the left of, to the right of, just below the gang of non-gold heavies) and you might just find some of that sassy gold!

Enough of Geo 101. I've rambled on long enough, but I hope you find this helpful in your search for gold.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[The Gilded Lens]

Awe man, that moment when you reach the end of a good thread!

Thanks Lanny for all the good tips! My mind is still chewing on them and trying to picture them.

 

[Jeff95531]

Damm...I totally missed Lanny's answer till now! Looks like I have to subscribe to yet another thread.

Thanks for explaining rocks as well as you do everything else Lanny. I see why Kevin told me my gold from Horse Shoe Hole was dirty. It had a "George Hamilton" look to it from the clay I found it in. Kevin suggested soaking it in Vinegar and 24 hours later, no more fake tan!
BTW, I got my first rock book today...

Peterson First Guide to Rocks and Minerals by Frederick H. Pough: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 9780395935439 Paperback - Hippo Books

Looks like I'm going back to school as map reading 101 has also already begun for me. It's kinda like high school all over again, as things get tougher as you go along, but this time, all are elective courses.

And here is my prospecting tip for the day...

When I finished up at Horse Shoe Hole, I knew I wouldn't be back for a while and I wanted to take some pics...do a 360 of the entire area to look at later. Problem is my dumb phone won't download them and I soon forgot about them. Friday, I got bored at a waiting room and found the pictures. One that was VERY significant was the last one I took, facing away from the open end of the Horse Shoe Hole and towards Smyth Creek 2. What was in it

Well what it looked like a was a sluice intake...think wide to narrow, with an obvious depression and reaching out to a large boulder on the left, with smaller rocks going over to another large boulder on the right. Following it down...it turns into an hour glass shape just before it gets to the creek. Now here's the trick...This area that I had missed before was full of golden leaves (yes, made me think of gold), with only grass and rock on either side of the depression. This natural sluice will be visited the minute I run out of good gold mining upstream.

Moral is take those pics folks and take em at different times of the year and ESPECIALLY in the fall and winter as visibility is greatly enhanced then.

Heavy pans to all!
Jeff

 

[goldenIrishman]

Jeff.... On Clays site look in the books and grab yourself a copy of FM 21-26. It's the Army map reading and land navigation training manual. (AKA Maps Reading for Dummies) I grabbed a copy to refresh my skills as well as to teach Robi (and others) how to read and navigate off of topo maps. Explains everything you need to know on how NOT to get lost.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Awe man, that moment when you reach the end of a good thread!

Thanks Lanny for all the good tips! My mind is still chewing on them and trying to picture them.

You're most welcome, and many thanks for dropping in!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Damm...I totally missed Lanny's answer till now! Looks like I have to subscribe to yet another thread.

Thanks for explaining rocks as well as you do everything else Lanny. I see why Kevin told me my gold from Horse Shoe Hole was dirty. It had a "George Hamilton" look to it from the clay I found it in. Kevin suggested soaking it in Vinegar and 24 hours later, no more fake tan!
BTW, I got my first rock book today...

Peterson First Guide to Rocks and Minerals by Frederick H. Pough: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 9780395935439 Paperback - Hippo Books

Looks like I'm going back to school as map reading 101 has also already begun for me. It's kinda like high school all over again, as things get tougher as you go along, but this time, all are elective courses.

And here is my prospecting tip for the day...

When I finished up at Horse Shoe Hole, I knew I wouldn't be back for a while and I wanted to take some pics...do a 360 of the entire area to look at later. Problem is my dumb phone won't download them and I soon forgot about them. Friday, I got bored at a waiting room and found the pictures. One that was VERY significant was the last one I took, facing away from the open end of the Horse Shoe Hole and towards Smyth Creek 2. What was in it

Well what it looked like a was a sluice intake...think wide to narrow, with an obvious depression and reaching out to a large boulder on the left, with smaller rocks going over to another large boulder on the right. Following it down...it turns into an hour glass shape just before it gets to the creek. Now here's the trick...This area that I had missed before was full of golden leaves (yes, made me think of gold), with only grass and rock on either side of the depression. This natural sluice will be visited the minute I run out of good gold mining upstream.

Moral is take those pics folks and take em at different times of the year and ESPECIALLY in the fall and winter as visibility is greatly enhanced then.

Heavy pans to all!
Jeff

You're most welcome Jeff.

Your tip on taking pictures is a very important one as you will see things differently when taken at different times as you've stated. Nice tip.

All the best,

Lanny