Good sluice for Virginia.

[Gold belt George]

Hi I live in central Virginia (lake Anna) there was quite a lot of mining done here. I am on the search for a sluice that would excel in recovering the fine gold we have around here, most of our gold is locked within pyrites. There are tons of huge quartz rocks the size of water melons scattered about(riddled with iron staining and pyrite inclusions) my only guess is from past mining activity, no exposed veins of rock anywhere to be found. I have access to a few creeks that cut directly across the chipowamastic formation that all the mines in the area were digging at. Is there anybody in my area or deals with similar AU-pyrite deposits that could guide me on a sluice that fits my region best?
Also any advice for a newbie saves me from learning the hard way <3

Thanks in advance -George

 

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[RTR]

Your location ? Any sluice will doBut I highly recommend a Miller Table For the fine stuff ...Best of luck !
>> http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/600650-went-back-my-favorate-virginia-creek.html

 

[Gold belt George]

I’m a 15 minute walk from lake Anna state park( the entrance anyways haha). Ok good to know I’m over thinking it here I’ve read good things about the Miller tables, I’ll definitly look more into them and I actually think I’m at a bend of an old river on my property, it’s all underground now, was a running creek years ago, I imagine many many years it could have been a full on river. At the minimum the valley of the land from the old tributary curves into the still running river 500 yards away, I’m finding river pebbles all underneath the topsoil, attempting to find where the majority of heavies dumped to confirm my suspicions

 

[RTR]

Your in a great area.All it takes is time/work/ research/dedication

 

[RTR]

Your surrounding counties have a long history of gold prospecting and they didn't get it ALL yet ! And with no 'commercial' gold mining allowed whats left will be left for a loooong time to come to find.Heavy rain , and a new crop appears
I looked into buying stream front property there and ...they know what the have ... asking Big $$$$s

 

[Gold belt George]

Thanks for the reassurance I’ve been extremely intrigued lately. And judging from your favorite virginia creek post I was rather wrong about it all being fine XD, guessing you got close by the lode? Now if only I could find some 1 ton boulders around here...hmmm best of luck to ya I’ll be sure to report back anything cool

Glad to see for my own eyes they didn’t get it all! That actually explains why land prices are surprisingly high for a not so prime location never thought of it that way

 

[DeepseekerADS]

That actually explains why land prices are surprisingly high for a not so prime location never thought of it that way

It's not about potential gold, it's about proximity to Smith Mountain Lake. Kinda like a vacation resort....

 

[brianc053]

George, I’m very jealous of your location. I live up in New Jersey but come down to Contrary Creek a few times a year to dredge with friends. I’ve always enjoyed it (despite the acidic water).
I started out just sluicing there (before upgrading to a dredge), and here are my opinions:
- if you don’t have good water flow (Contrary often has low/slow flow), then sluices in general will struggle. I’ve seen the Le Trap style (green plastic) work ok even with low flow.
- if you have good flow, the “stream sluice” style (Gold Hog makes a good one; Keene and others do too - these are the silver aluminum ones with mats in the bottoms) will work well. 6” wide is good for portability. 10” wide will work a lot more material.

Also, PM me if you’re interested in having some help exploring your property. My son (15 years old) and I are planning some 2019 weekend trips down to VA and Contrary Creek is one of the locations we will visit. We’ve got lots of equipment to share.
- Brian

 

[Huzzah!]

George--I'm from Central VA, and from one who went from a pan, to a home-made sluice, to Keene's Le Trap, skip the sluice and just go for Gold hog's Piglet mini-highbanker. Buy the recommended Honda pump. Buy the hoses. It is worth it; get it over with. Because most of what we have is fine/chunky gold--not that there isn't a nug or two hanging around--running the Piglet is the way to go since it allows us to process a bunch of material while capturing the small stuff. I throw my piglet on my pack, wrap the hard hose around the pack, put the soft hose in a bucket, strap the bucket(s) to my pack, and, with a shovel in one hand and a gas can in the other, throw the pack on my back and take off through the woods. It's the best way to be mobile while having equipment that can process process process. You won't be able to keep up.

Of course, the only trick is having a bearing creek. But if you have one then you're in the chips. If you haven't watched AU79 Prospecting on YouTube you should look him up--has a bunch of great vids. Good luck.

 

[Mgumby16]

Gold Belt George - I live down near Palmyra VA, and dredge and prospect throughout VA. The quartz float you are seeing on the surface is most likely from a vein directly under it. In the piedmont of VA there is usually about 30 feet or more of what is called saprolite, which is bedrock that has decomposed to soil, in your area saprolite should start once you get through the upper few inches of topsoil. The quartz on the surface is just a surface expression of a vein in the saprolite since quartz is very weathering resistant it doesnt decompose with the surrounding bedrock.

Any of the gold we are getting via normal prospecting means is free gold, there are minute amounts locked in the pyrite but there is no mechanical means to release it, only chemical such as mears chlorination. Also i would say that here in VA the vast majority of the gold is acutally fairly coarse being 30 mesh or larger, i have yet to encounter a large paystreak of gold finer then 30 mesh that actually adds up to much weight.

At the end of my 2018 season i actually did a sieve analysis of the gold i recovered. Ill post pictures of the results below, needless to say the largest weight fraction of my gold was from pickers and nuggets which made up 36.7% of my total gold for 2018.

As for sluice type any of them will work well here in VA. Just take into consideration the amount of water flow you will have during summer. A lot of the smaller creeks have very little flow by late summer. A small highbanker makes that not an issue as you can recirculate your water with it.

 

[Gold belt George]

Thank you all for your advice and encouragement it’s truly priceless. That sieve analysis is really interesting, i hope to find locations that produce like that someday!

Great job and a mini highbanker seems my best route if I plan on running what I believe to be a dried up river, or else I’d have to bring the dirt to the river.

I’ll post a couple pics of the float, and yep saprolite is hit about a few inches to a foot down.
Also I crushed some ore that seemed to be extremely rich quartzite found a small piece of gold still stuck to a small piece of quartz( used 100x mic) upon looking at the sledge hammer head I used as a pestle it appears gold has smashed and stuck to the divots, use marks, and scratches of the sledge. Is this normal for gold to do? I’m not sure it is gold, but I cant think of what else would behave this way.

 

[arizau]

Gold will definitely stick in the voids and in fact flatten out and smear by sticking in adjacent tiny voids as it is extremely malleable. Check this out. https://www.google.com/search?q=gol...1.69i57j0l5.9833j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8. What you are experiencing is "over grinding". That, by the way, is a common problem in milling of ores in commercial operations. Not only does it often effect recovery, it adds cost to the process.

Since you seem to be experiencing that, a viable alternative would be to lessen the grind/crush then screen and pan the various mesh sizes of the fines. Re grind the screen oversize if necessary. Panning will not only clean and isolate the "freed up" gold but also other particles with gold in them will likely concentrate with it due to the added weight of the gold. Panned concentrates of tightly classified samples is what I would be looking at under magnification....if at all.


Good luck.

 

[Gold belt George]

Thank you! Very interesting, really makes me wonder what keeps it held at sizes so thin... food for thought I suppose

That’s really encouraging actually I just bought a pestle and mortar rather than what I was doing... heh. But yes the sample I crushed and viewed under the microscope was of panned classified concentrates of a rock smaller than a golf ball.

Good luck to you too! I know I’ll need it

 

[njcommercialdiver]

Contrary creek is a good gold producer, the army corp of engineers bulldozed alot of the soil there and straightened the creek out, if you stay near the edges you can stumble on a nugget, the main streambed is only replenished float gold, as its hit very hard each year. there is alot of bedrock near the bridge over contrary creek, and is hit pretty hard, always see someone there each time ive went

one of my highbankers i built for this trip
looking back upstream towards the bridge, dont know why it turned sideways, it shows the right way on conputer
working the sand bar at the edge of the stream
nice nugget that came from the spot above, the tanic acid in the stream makes the gold real pretty but makes all the nuts and bolts on you stuff turn brown and when it rains, it makes alot of foam

 

[Huzzah!]

I'm real close to Contrary, but I've yet to go. Not aware of the proper 'rules' to access. Sticking to private spots but hearing this is encouraging. Thanks for that post.

 

[RTR]

I'm real close to Contrary, but I've yet to go. Not aware of the proper 'rules' to access. Sticking to private spots but hearing this is encouraging. Thanks for that post.

Heading North( from the town of Mineral on Route 522)....Go N. for 5 miles.... Just before you cross a steel bridge that's clearly marked "Contrary Creek"... (on the Left) you'll see a pull-off .That's your access point .
DO-NOT go above high water mark of the creek DO-not leave any 'junk behind .....Best area is down stream from the 522 bridge,. Good luck