Input on Sampling From Old Hands Please

[starsplitter]

Newbie here.

We just came back from a river located at about 3,500 feet. Relatively wide. Average depth probably about 1-3 meters. We sampled with a pick, shovel, bucket, classifier, and pans.

The sampling was along the bank, in some bedrock crevices (ledges at flood level), and in the water along the shallows in likely areas. We sampled four locations along about 200 meters of river. All on the same side.

We filled 8 buckets two thirds full with classified material, we got a little less than a gram and numerous small rubies (the black sand shimmered in red). Also, the pans often turned up a faint "glow" along the edge of the black sand. Earlier, in the same area, was found a gram plus sized nugget up on the shelf.

Please give opinions as to worthiness of the sampling and what it indicates. We are considering using a dredge. Thank you.

 

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[419GottaMinute]

It would help to know the state yer working in. Nuthin specific, mind you...

 

[starsplitter]

Not a state, a country. Ecuador.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Inside or outside river bends - which side did you sample?

 

[starsplitter]

Straight section of the river. Guess we should have focused on the bends. Also, in the immediate area of the sampling was a feeder that obviously floods. We followed it up but found nothing. No gold. No rubies.

 

[Lanny in AB]

It sounds like you did the right thing sampling the feeder. So, obviously the gold and ruby sands are in the main channel. Unless it's a straight shot through a bedrock canyon, sampling along the sides will only give you an indication of gold (which is what you found). As you've been told, if there's bends in the river, sample the upstream end of any bends or bars that run off the inside bends.

If you want to do a more careful sample, and if you can get a dredge (4-inch), you can cut across (perpendicular to the flow) the stream bed looking for bands of heavies (chunks of magnetite, galena, nails and iron) which will run to one side or the other of the gold (or slightly above the gold as you go down). And, if you find the gold, follow the run by working your way across, noticing when the gold starts to thin out on the sides of the pay.

With a straight, narrow-sided bedrock canyon, of course some pay will collect wherever the canyon widens, drops over a shelf, swings around a bedrock outcrop, etc. However, a good whack of the gold will tend to be lazy and run in a pretty straight line through the middle of the channel, parallel to the canyon walls, so that's why it's good to sample perpendicular to the flow with a dredge if you can to see what or if anything's been dropped in the middle of the channel.

All the best,

Lanny