Let Dredging Begin (nugget photos)

[strickman]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Here is a good tip for you , it's no guarantee mind you but will increase your chances .Years ago I learned when fishing - WATCH THE BANKS ! Usually there are tell tale signs of structural changes ,it might be the rise and drop of the country rock . A different type of bedrock .Elevation changes ,pitch ,loose material , or esp the ancient layer. Usually there is a tell. Especially if you look to the other side and see a continuation of a certain formation . I applied that technique to prospecting and immediately saw results. If a ancient layer is encountered watch for changes as well , if all the flatter rocks are layered horizontal - and you see a section that the layering is a different angle or even vertical like another river cut through it . That could be a good spot . Another thing most things in a certain area are typical - meaning that if it is the same as everything else ,whats special about it ? probably nothing .........................think about it ,if it is unique -why ? how ? unique structure might have unique gold content .......what looks good now might have been nothing special 1,000 or more years ago ...and the opposite is true also ----what looks like nothing special could have been unique 1,000 years ago . A lot of ancient rivers and streams ran different directions than present day streams ......... WOW !!!!!! imagine that !!!!! would you work a certain area different if you thought the water ran a different way ? I WOULD ......................... just something to think about .

 

[Lanny in AB]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Strickman--great stuff!!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Eagle--don't hold out on us. What's the story about your dredge-suit heater? Got any details and specifics? Was it hard to build? Easy to maintain?

All the best,

Lanny

 

[EagleDown]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Eagle--don't hold out on us. What's the story about your dredge-suit heater? Got any details and specifics? Was it hard to build? Easy to maintain?

All the best,

Lanny

It wasn't hard to build, at least after a couple of tries. Little or no maintainance. And best of all, since I had my own acetelyn/oxygen set-up, it was inexpensive for me to build.

I'll post it in my thread in the morning, as I don't want to tie up nuggy's thread. Besides, this keeps jumping up and down, so I've transferred what I already typed to word. Too long for here.

Eagle

 

[EagleDown]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Nuggy, I don't know if you're interested in my suit warmer, but I'm posting the first part of the instructions on my thread, in a moment.

Eagle

 

[nuggy]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Thanks Eagle, yes I saw it. Like all great inventions it's simple, but very clever. I wish I'd had one years ago when I really needed it. Awesome idea, it will last longer and be less liable to burn the user than the copper coil type. Nuggy

ANYONE who wants to see these instructions go to - Treasure by location - California - Lost Treasures of Mariposa Ca.

 

[EagleDown]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Thanks Eagle, yes I saw it. Like all great inventions it's simple, but very clever. I wish I'd had one years ago when I really needed it. Awesome idea, it will last longer and be less liable to burn the user than the copper coil type. Nuggy

ANYONE who wants to see these instructions go to - Treasure by location - California - Lost Treasures of Malparisa Ca.

Oops, let's change that to; Treasures of Mariposa, CA (Mariposa is Spanish for Butterfly.)

Thanks,

Eagle

 

[nuggy]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Sorry Eagle, Spelling wasn't my best subject, was trying to figure out how to put a link in for people, couldn't figure that out - so just wrote it out.
I've changed it now. Nuggy

 

[Lanny in AB]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Sorry Eagle, Spelling wasn't my best subject, was trying to figure out how to put a link in for people, couldn't figure that out - so just wrote it out.
I've changed it now. Nuggy

Here's the link Nuggy: http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,325842.0.html

All the best,

Lanny

 

[nuggy]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Thanks Lanny, lots of this I.T. stuff I just can't seem to get a handle on. Nuggy

 

[EagleDown]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Sorry Eagle, Spelling wasn't my best subject, was trying to figure out how to put a link in for people, couldn't figure that out - so just wrote it out.
I've changed it now. Nuggy
_________________________________________________________________________________
Here's the link Nuggy: http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,325842.0.html

All the best,

Lanny

Hey, No problem Nuggy! Hell, I'm a pretty good speller and I always have to reread my posts, and remove typos. Thanks for recommending my thread!!

Lanny, thanks for putting my link in. I fully intended to do it, but I guess I forgot.

What can I say??

Eagle

 

[nuggy]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

While working methodically along a creek bed about 18 years back, I came to an area under a twenty foot high bluff.
The creek turned here, and as usual in such places it went deep, normally the gold is blown out of such places by the velocity of water.
We were using 20 ton excavators - feeding a five foot trommel, the whole of this section of the valley floor was being put through. The top foot was scraped off first then put back on top once the deeper alluvial wash, which averaged about six feet deep to bedrock, was processed.
Anyway the area under the bluff was lean on gold, but from way down about 20 feet deep I pulled up a piece of unusual looking wood. I put it aside and when I examined it later it was a section of riffle like I had not previously seen.
It was flat on the bottom, just over an inch thick, and corrugated on the top - much the same profile as a piece of corrugated iron. Holes about 2 inch diameter had been made every 6 inches or so along the low parts. It was in surprisingly good condition so I took it home to add to my collection of gold field relics, along with a few 1800's era bottles that came out of the same hole.
The longer I looked at it, and thought about it, the smarter that riffle design got. The gold would tend to run down into the lower part of each trough, then it had to pass over a long series of holes, I think it would have caught gold well, very ingenious.
Most of the old sluice boxes I dug up had very crude, rough cut blocks used as riffles, so someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make this type. Not being a wood worker, I have no idea how I would corrugate a piece of wood, but it would have taken some trouble to do it by hand. It must have been at least 60 years old and could have been over 100. Unfortunately my collection of relics - including this section of riffle, was lost when my house burned to the ground 12 years ago, otherwise I could have put in a photo. Nuggy

 

[Lanny in AB]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Wow Nuggy--fantastic read. That riffle design sounds exceptionally ingenious. You never knew who was going to show up in a gold field (everybody from English Royals to master craftsmen), so a master wood-worker may have been in on that design (perhaps a furniture maker used to intricate designs) or a shipwright--who knows. I'm with you on the relics you find while dredging. I've found everything from money to pieces of machinery--you truly never know what you're going to find. I remember one of the coolest finds was a very old boyscout knife, some of the dumbest have been anything and everything any yahoo wanted to toss in the river a hundred and thirty years ago!

Great post, and all the best,

Lanny

 

[EagleDown]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Great story Nuggy!!

As Lanny said, you just never know what you'll find next. In one area, I found the head of a RR sledge hammer, weighed #18. I don't know how anyone could hit a spike with it, the work surface was only about 2" across. A couple of days later, I uncovered a Wells Fargo pad lock. It was still locked, but no strong box. But, my all time chuckle was when I saw a small nugget in a crevass. I put the suction nozzle near it and as the sand disappeard from around it, it turned into a 10K Shaffer ball point pen. .....And, after it dried out, it worked great.

Eagle

 

[nuggy]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Thanks Lanny and Eagle, a little return on the great reading you have given me maybe. Nuggy

 

[nuggy]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Just had a friend drop in for a visit, and to show me his nuggets. Over a troy ounce in total, biggest is 16 grams, and I thought you guys might like to see them.
The lucky hand is mine, had to give them back though, I miss them already, sigh. Nuggy

 

[Gravel Hog]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

That is what it is all about. Thanks for sharing. Makes me want to fire up the dredge, brrrr cold, ice, snow, maybe not.
Seems the miners I know over there in NZ have never mentioned nugs like those, always fines and flakes and so on. Keeping it secret for themselves, they are.

Question- Noticed how pale the color of those nuggets are. On average what does the fineness run on them? Just Curious.
The Alaska gold I have seen is pale yellow also and runs around .800 fine.

Here is some nuggets we get out here in California (back before the dredging ban ). Notice the deep yellow color. They assay .950-.980.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Nuggy--Lucky!! It always feels so good to warm up the old palm with some hot gold! Yes, those pictures are much appreciated. All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

G.H.

Nice gold--beautiful stuff! It's too bad you can't dredge any more. Any light on the horizon?

All the best,

Lanny

 

[nuggy]

Re: Let Dredging Begin

Hi Lanny, just waiting for my mate to get here to start dredging, and some free time. My back is not good enough to dredge alone any more.

The gold runs about 98% or better in that area, the photo is not quite right for color, very early digital camera.

Yes nuggets like that are rare indeed here, I never found any as big as his biggest (so far anyway). Nuggy