Old river chanel in the side of the hill

BrassEagle

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Mar 15, 2009
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I looking for Info. on this type of mine. There is solid bed rock surrounding river rock, all most at the top of the hill. It has been work in the past, the mine goes back a long ways I am told with a large cavern to one side. the top of the hill is covered with a lava cap from Mt. Lassen. It is in the Loomis, Rocklin Ca. area Was this a under ground river at one time? The river rock is from large to small in size. The owner of the land has work the area around the front of the mine and found gold but he is not a gold miner. I will be going there on Sunday with the crew to check it and doing some test pans. Anyone worked this type of mine?
 

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Clay Diggins

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Nov 14, 2010
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The river was above ground and was covered with the lava cap at a later date.

These are the tertiary channels of California.

Heavy Pans
 

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BrassEagle

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The pic of the bed rock with the river rock on top of it is just like what this mine is. I only had a quick look the other day. Thanks for the link Winner58
 

63bkpkr

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While bushwhacking, I've come across the edge of a historic river channel that has been exposed by natural weathering of the ground above the ancient river channel. So things like this will be more common in the next 100 years or so as the material currently on top is weathered away by Natural actions, wind/rain/snow melt/earth quakes/animal dens/rock slides/tree roots/etc., etc.

While driving along some highway out of San Andreas, CA (NorCal), I was going through a sweeping curve on this two lane road and all of a sudden I realized that the walls on either side of the road were all placer deposits locked in place by natural mineralization, what a surprise. So yes, this type of thing exists. Being in the right place at the right time is all that is needed just like the rest of prospecting................63bkpkr
 

dave wiseman

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Jul 23, 2004
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63bkpkr,if you were driving north out of San Andreas Ca. on Highway towards Jackson Ca.the teriary rivers and their remains are all on private property.In between the two previosly mentioned towns is Mokleumne Hill where there are at least seven channels of different time periods with many of the channels having earlier and later channels above and below the main one.Not all of the channels are gold bearing or of great value.If you drove northwest on highway 12 towards Valley Springs Ca. the same situations exist,with the old tertiay channels being on private ground.Amn interesting side note is that very few gold bearing quartz veins were worked in any of the tertiary channels.Also the rims of most channels were rarely worked.....https://archive.org/details/tertiarygravels00knowgoog
 

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goldenIrishman

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I used to work what is known as the Ballina Placer in San Diego county. It's an old river bed that has in many places been pushed up and now sits on top of the hills in the area. No lava cap but some of the roughest digging I've done while mining. This placer runs from the desert to the ocean and many home have been built over it through the years. More than one of my construction buddies have gotten gold out of the ground while digging footing trenches for foundations.
 

Hoser John

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Mar 22, 2003
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Hope you have a detector as nothing will assist your op faster or process more materials for recovery. Lots of luck as GREAT highbar areas abound there in the motherlode-John :laughing7:
 

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BrassEagle

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I don't think my old coin master detector will be much good. We will do some sampling and look to see if we can set up a trommel. Getting it to the top of the hill should be fun.
 

goldenmojo

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Lots of tunnels were driven in that general area. Mine map shows many nice homes now sitting atop of them. Stay Safe in there. Good Luck.
 

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BrassEagle

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Well it will take alot of work to make it safe to work, loose river rocks on both sides going to the entrance. Safety first! Not many flat spots to set things up. I need to think this over some.
 

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