Hunt4gold - First prospecting adventures and beyond

[KevinInColorado]

This is looking GOOD!

 

[Hunt4gold]

On to a new prospecting section of a south Denver creek I identified using Google Earth overlaid with geologic outcrop maps. This section is about 150 yards long with the following features - a few good point bars with inside bends, some bedrock that is anywhere from a few feet below stream bed to right at stream bed, pockets and incised channels cut into bedrock, a few large boulders and two small waterfalls. Went out for a few hours to the upstream part of section, which starts with a small waterfall.

At the base of the falls there are some football size rock and fist-size to 1/2" gravels. Took a shovel full of gravel and panned out about 15 colors (#30 to 100 size gold), so a positive start.


There was a great spot to set up the Bazooka about four foot below the waterfall, so I decided to run about eight gallons of material through the sluice.
Bazooka set up:


The first several shovels were mostly running gravel/sand/black sand through the Bazooka. The I hit a soft clay bed mixed with a fair amount of 1/2" and smaller gravel and black sands.


With a little bit of hand mixing I was able to dissolve the clay in a plastic oil pan (see in background above photo) and the run it through the sluice. What was cool was after dumping the clay/gravel into the sluice and rinsing the pan out, I almost always found a few small flakes (#30 size and smaller) still in the oil pan.
Here is a shot of the gold I sucked up just from remnants left in the oil pan.


Moved downstream about 20 feet to an old piece of concrete (really old and crumbling) in the middle of the stream. There was 2" to 1/2" gravel piled up behind it, so I dug up two shovels of material and panned them down to black sand. Wish I had taken a photo of the black sand- each pan ended up having about 1 1/2 cups of black sand --- and about half was magnetite, which I removed with a magnet. As I was double dropping the magnetite I could see several colors in the pan, so am really excited to process this also!
Will post photos of processed cons from both of these spots within the next few days...

 

[StreamlineGold]

On to a new prospecting section of a south Denver creek I identified using Google Earth overlaid with geologic outcrop maps. This section is about 150 yards long with the following features - a few good point bars with inside bends, some bedrock that is anywhere from a few feet below stream bed to right at stream bed, pockets and incised channels cut into bedrock, a few large boulders and two small waterfalls. Went out for a few hours to the upstream part of section, which starts with a small waterfall.

At the base of the falls there are some football size rock and fist-size to 1/2" gravels. Took a shovel full of gravel and panned out about 15 colors (#30 to 100 size gold), so a positive start.
View attachment 1386565

There was a great spot to set up the Bazooka about four foot below the waterfall, so I decided to run about eight gallons of material through the sluice.
Bazooka set up:
View attachment 1386566

The first several shovels were mostly running gravel/sand/black sand through the Bazooka. The I hit a soft clay bed mixed with a fair amount of 1/2" and smaller gravel and black sands.
View attachment 1386567

With a little bit of hand mixing I was able to dissolve the clay in a plastic oil pan (see in background above photo) and the run it through the sluice. What was cool was after dumping the clay/gravel into the sluice and rinsing the pan out, I almost always found a few small flakes (#30 size and smaller) still in the oil pan.
Here is a shot of the gold I sucked up just from remnants left in the oil pan.
View attachment 1386568

Moved downstream about 20 feet to an old piece of concrete (really old and crumbling) in the middle of the stream. There was 2" to 1/2" gravel piled up behind it, so I dug up two shovels of material and panned them down to black sand. Wish I had taken a photo of the black sand- each pan ended up having about 1 1/2 cups of black sand --- and about half was magnetite, which I removed with a magnet. As I was double dropping the magnetite I could see several colors in the pan, so am really excited to process this also!
Will post photos of processed cons from both of these spots within the next few days...

How deep is the overburden? Your getting me motivated to get back out there

 

[Hunt4gold]

Streamline,

Overburden (above bedrock) runs from no overburden to 2-3 feet in the stretch I am exploring.

 

[Hunt4gold]

Here are the photos from my two sample pans (mentioned above) - about a shovel full of material each. These two sample pans produced about 1 1/2 cups of black sand, then I remove most of the magnetite and ended up with 3/4 cup of sands to finish pan.

Panned around a tablespoon of cons at a time:


Each tablespoon produced similar amounts of color (lowest color count was 3, highest was 36, ave was around 12 colors -- all gold pretty small 20 mesh size to 100).
Average gold recovered from tablespoon:


Here is the final gold recovered from the two sample shovels:


Will go back this weekend and dig out behind the rock down to bedrock - should be bigger gold towards and on bedrock -- maybe my first picker!

 

[KevinInColorado]

This looks awesome. You may have found your first honey hole!!

 

[adirondackjim]

Congratulations and enjoying your pictures and updates!

 

[Hunt4gold]

Finally processed the cons from Bazooka at waterfall location mentioned above. About 3/4 to 1 cup of black sands and its hidden gold. I ran about 8 gals of gravel through the Bazooka. Was hoping for a little more color out of the spot based on my initial sample pans, but hey, its gold and a blast finding it!


The little curve above the dime is made up of more than 150 colors of 50 to 100 mesh size gold. There was a lot of super small gold at this spot - wish I could grow them into +20 mesh size!

Still on my quest for the honey hole!

 

[arizau]

Finally processed the cons from Bazooka at waterfall location mentioned above. About 3/4 to 1 cup of black sands and its hidden gold. I ran about 8 gals of gravel through the Bazooka. Was hoping for a little more color out of the spot based on my initial sample pans, but hey, its gold and a blast finding it!
View attachment 1387627

The little curve above the dime is made up of more than 150 colors of 50 to 100 mesh size gold. There was a lot of super small gold at this spot - wish I could grow them into +20 mesh size!

Still on my quest for the honey hole!

For 8 gallons of feed; I would call that a very good take.

Good luck.

 

[Hunt4gold]

Thanks Arizau. Am looking forward to getting back to this stretch of stream. There are numerous spot where I can run the gravel down to bedrock - about 1 to 2 foot down - through the Bazooka. Hoping for some exciting finds...

 

[arizau]

Were I you I would be thinking hand dredge/gold sucker for clearing some possible bedrock cracks, etc. Submerge and weight down a low sided container next to where you are sucking, transfer under water and there will be less spillage.

Good luck.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Nah, just scrape up the top inches of clay/bedrock. Faster than a hand pump

 

[arizau]

Nah, just scrape up the top inches of clay/bedrock. Faster than a hand pump

Partially agree but, if submerged there could be some or a lot of sand or gravel/gold that cannot be scooped off of solid bedrock with a shovel. My suggestion was a given second step assuming your suggestion was already performed.

 

[Hunt4gold]

Kevin and arizau
Went out today to dig out behind the big rock where I did my two sample pans last week. The interesting part is that (before reading your posts this evening) I did exactly what you both suggested! After digging out a 3' x 3' area behind the rock down to bedrock, I scraped the heck out of the surface and brought up a lot of remaining sands and the top 1" layer of bedrock, which is a sandy-shale. When I finished scraping the surface, I used the hand dredge to suck up the remaining sands in the hole. Both processes added to the gold recovered. My DIY hand dredge worked well (first time using) but one thing I need to do is replace the ribbed hose with one that is smooth inside. The ridges in the hose caused some of the more angular rock to lodge in the hose and block the flow. I have a pin through the nozzle that restricts 1/2" and larger gravel, so that helps.
Hole was about 20" deep.


The flow was not great for the Bazooka, even though I built a pretty nice dam.


Looks good in the photo, but I was losing some gold either over the top or from the chamber. Did not lose a lot, but put a pan below the outlet and did find some color.


There was a LOT of black sand and magnetite. In a single shovel, it panned down to about 1 cup of black sand. From what I saw cleaning out the Bazooka and a few more sample pans, I believe this will be my best gold for an afternoon outing.

Proof will be in the processing of the cons!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Good stuff. To improve gold capture, run a little less steep and dam the whole creek to get good energetic flow. A leaky dam will do fine

Also make sure there's enuf water over the deck to have the grizzly fully under water.

 

[Hunt4gold]

Good stuff. To improve gold capture, run a little less steep and dam the whole creek to get good energetic flow. A leaky dam will do fine

Also make sure there's enuf water over the deck to have the grizzly fully under water.

Will do - thanks Kevin.

 

[Hunt4gold]

Sunday I explored one of the bedrock areas I've discovered. Since the bedrock is a sandy shale, it does not have the classic fractures that granite and some metamorphic rocks develop. However, there are some spots that have developed nice pockets like the one in the photo below. This one was about 2.5 feet wide. Started out by removing three 20-pound rocks and digging out the hole with a shovel. Turns out the 8" depression turned into an 18" hole with an undercut on the upstream side.


Got around 2 gallons of material out of hole with shovel. Did a final clean out with my hand dredge, which pulled out about 1+ gallons of sand/black sand out of the bottom and cracks.

Hand dredge material:


There was very little flow in this stretch, so I have to pan everything down to cons, which ended up being 1 1/2 cup of black sand after removing the magnetite. Saw nice color each time I panned down to cons - so will be fun seeing how much gold was in the hole.

Gold in black sand from hole:

The second pocket I explored was only 10" long, 7" wide, and as it turned out, there was about 8" of material that I dug and dredged out of it. I took a small sample from the top, which had some encouraging color in it (see below).
Small pocket after pulling gravel/sand out:


Gold from initial small pocket sample:

 

[arizau]

Probable measurable results from a single test pan is always good! Your research and work is paying off.

 

[Jeff95531]

You're doing it all right. Great job!

 

[Hunt4gold]

Thanks Arizau and Jeff -- Since I first went out prospecting this past September, I have learned a lot from local people like Kevin and from folks on this forum. There are also some good videos like the ones GoldHog puts out that have been very educational.

The fun part is that I still have a lot to learn, and there are a ton of creeks, gulches, and rivers within 3-4 miles of me to explore! The area I am working now has enough prospecting spots to keep me busy for several months. Most likely I will work a few more spots there and then switch to another creek or ravine to explore and sample. Really enjoy the research and discovery part of prospecting.