looking for the right places

palmercanyonsavant

Jr. Member
May 5, 2005
37
5
claremont So. call area
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Garretts AT_PRO ,
I all the years of my brother and me have panned ,sluiced and wondered thru the mountains , one question always remained the same "why can I find gold here and not there, it's the same mountain".

Well certain things through the years have been noticed that may attribute to these reasons why it may be like that.

We all know erosion plays a major roll in this, but the major roll of erosion can not happen if certain things get in the way,
such as vegitation and exposure to the terrain around (see infer-red picture below ) also major change in tempature or large rain falls.

It was not until The big fires in So. California that the presence of gold on the eastern slope valleys ( more vegitation and shade side)
also the major increase of black sands and other heavy materials.

So to help find a possible good location try viewing some infer-red pics and look for the barren hillsides and this may not be true for all cases ( usually slopes faceing the sun ) and view where all the valley meet ,chances are you might find a lot more .....WE DID


see the pics
 

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Hello palmercanyonsavant,

Infrared photos of the earth, what an awesome SHARE! Thank you! I did not notice what your source or internet site was for the IR pictures was, could you post that please.

Next, your pictures are super and you came up with some very nice nuggets and the work site photo looks interesting, looks like you have a wagon or wheel barrow for a safety catch basin. Also some sturdy pipes for the water supply! I do not want you to give away anything about your site but if you can explain a little about the site, like are you pumping water from a source or is it a captive system? Thank you for sharing your fun with the rest of us.

Good Luck and Good thinking, 63bkpkr
 

:hello: well it's a lot of work but it is worth it some days :thumbsup:

The system is a closed loop system the water is stored in a long settlement pit and is pumped into a 5 gallon acid type barrell (side cut out) with inlet for water on on end and the other end has the 4 inch pvc coming out and goes to the sluice.

The barrell acts as a mixing and dirt clod breaker ( hard pack ) , it also acts as a catch for the large nuggetts.

The 4 inch pvc is about a inch of the bottom ( side - see sketch )

this is a bench placer approx 200,000 years old according to the erosion factor done on hard rock erosion scale done by a college, heck who knows we might even find a wooly mammoth skeleton in the hard mud pack.
 

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Interesting set up and great gold! When fires rip though an area it weakens the integrity of the soil and mantle. Erosion, landslides and mass wasting is common in these areas so look out below! On the vegetation barren ground the surface material also washes away more easily possibly creating/exposing new gold deposits.
The area of good gold concentrations in your pic looks like some kind of fan-ish mass wasting slide deposit to me. If you can find a flow channel, or if new ones appear the gold should be more concentrated in those spots.
Good luck, you got a real nice dig there.
CGC
 

Nice looking operation, was the cave there before you worked it or did you have to dig it out? Great pics, got to love the gold to work that hard for it!! In general with an ancient river like that where are you finding the pay streaks in relation to the cemented gravels, like do you find more on the upper layers or bottom layers or near bigger rocks cemented in the mix, I know of a spot like that in my area but the matrix of rock is very thick and wide, just wondering where to start? Thanks for any info, Gravelwasher :icon_sunny:
 

In the cemented layers (about 15 to 18 layers) gold is present between the lower level and the upper level, the gold if found was on top of the previous flood layer but not mixed in the zone aove it.

As for finding gold behind boulders, most was found jus under them, knowing which way the river flowed at the time would be a big help but in there you almost have to dig out under it and that could be very mixed emotions ..... found gold ..... but I got this problem of getting this pebble off my leg ( 2000+ pebble) some of them are as big as VW's and other bigger yet.
On some trips in we found boulders on the floor that was not there earlier and that floor was the area being work last.... :dontknow:

The tunnel was already created by someone, as best as we can figure out was worked up to the late 30 or early 40's, a coin found in area, door hinges, type of tools found, pot belly stove parts, square nailspossibly started in the 1890's and abandoned later.
 

Palmercanyonsavant,

Thanks for taking the time to respond, much appreciated!! So it sounds like there are many layers of flood gold as if each layer cemented together before the next wave of flood gold washed on top of it?

How are things going with the mining operation? Do you have any timbers for supports or nets/fencing to line the ceiling to avoid headaches? Love the pics you posted very nice!! Lots of gold to you!! :icon_thumleft: Gravelwasher
 

Nice placer mine you have there it is what we all search for Gold and lots of it to make our lives easier in the long run You have alot of nice gold there HH and Love the barrell set up is your water source pressure feed or free flowing water.
 

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