Placer Claim Mined Out?

[desertgolddigger]

I belong to a local club that owns a claim. This club has had this claim for many years, and acquired it after the old timers had mined it previously, and others after they commercial outfits closed up.
I walked quite a bit of the 160 acre claim, and noted that just about every wash had been worked. Most of the surface nuggets has also been detected by those with gold detectors. In other words, this place has been picked over and over and over.
But I m a stubborn type of person, and I figured, just watching how people ram their puffer and blower drywashers, that some gold was just being blown through them. maybe not much, but some small stuff that never got a chance to settle behind the riffles.
I know many of you would never go to the effort of digging for three to four hours through the tailings in these washes. Again, I'm a bit stubborn, and anyway, I just wanted to have some fun locally, instead of driving 300 miles roundtrip to something that gives a little more for less effort.
I've spent the last three weeks, digging a few times a week along about 30 yards of wash, and have recovered just about a gram of gold. That might not seem like much, but I have only dug up 5 grams, not counting this one gram in almost 20 years out here drywashing in the desert of southern California.
As you would know, things always seem to go wrong. My gas powered blower motor decided it was time for the repair shop, and haven't heard from the shop in two weeks. So I purchased a WORX WG521 corded electric leaf blower to use with my Royal Large drywasher. I'm using a portable generator to provide the power. And it actually is working better than with my old gas powered blower. I have to run the blower on the lowest speed, or I just blow everything through the riffles. Results are very good, as I am getting gold specks so small that I will have to use the Blue bowl in order to recover them.
I'm not only getting a little gold, I'm having some fun, and I am getting a good workout. I've lost 10 pounds since I started. So things are going well.
I'm still digging test holes around the old time hard rock mines in the hope I will find where the gold has drifted downhill below these mines. So far just a couple specks here and there. I figure I just have to move laterally one way or the other before I get something better Of course, I' don't really know if the old timers stripped the hillsides. Even if they have, they apparently aren't as thorough as I am. I hope that I may be lucky and find a larger piece of gold that the old timers, previous placer miners, and detectorists have missed.
Hope everyone is having as much fun as I have been having.

 

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[desertgolddigger]

Reed, I think I purchased the Bowl about 15 years ago. Never could get it to work.

I purchased the Table a few months ago, simply because I was getting so much micro gold with the way I was now setting up my drywasher. On my first trial with the Table I covered a 1 ounce glass vial bottom with the micro gold. Like I said, some of the gold is so small I can't see it with, until it's gathered together.

I don't know what kind of water we have. I know it has lots of minerals in it because, if I fill a glass of water, and set it on the counter over night, those minerals sink to the bottom, in a whitish film. I now filter my water before drinking it. Maybe in the future I will get a plumber to install a filtration system that cleans and softens the water, though with just me living in a 800 sq foot house, that might not be practical.

 

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[desertgolddigger]

One other thing I noticed, once I started running my drywasher material slower, was that when I cleaned out the blower cavity of the ultra fine material that seems to seep down into it, I discovered in that material was the ultra fine gold I've mentioned before. This is the gold I said I cannot see on the Miller's Table until I card it. I know that years ago I just dumped the stuff, without looking, then read that there might be gold in the bottom of the drywasher.

Anyone just tossing that material out of the bottom of their drywasher is possibly dumping gold.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Yesterday I did some more diggin'. Didn't get a whole lot, even with vacuuming the bedrock. Just managed .09 grams. The gold off the bedrock was just a couple of pieces.

Again, I was travelling on Highway 62, back to my house, and noticed a truck in the sand alongside the road. I didn't think I could get something buried down to the frame, and I didn't. I stayed to make sure they got towed out safely, gave them directions, and parted. Told them that when in the desert, always keep one set of wheels on the pavement. I tell that to all I have assisted.

I stayed home today, and decided to run the pile of the past few months panning tailings to see what I might have missed. I missed a lot, some 40 pieces plus fine gold too small to get with tweezers. Weight came to .13 grams, and I am thinking the stuff I panned twice probably still has some gold in it. So I will save it in a bucket, and again, will save my panning tailings to run through the drywasher.

I still can't believe I missed that much during my panning sessions. I did have a lot of magnetite in the material, so that might have been part of the problem.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Wouldn't you know it. I didn't check the weather forecast last night. Woke up at 3:30 AM, at noticed a musty smell in the air normally associated with light rain in the desert. I nearly got out to the claim when it started doing more than an occasional drop on the wind screen. So I turned around and came home. So far we've only had scattered showers, but in our area, it can be a downpour less than a mile away, and bright and sunny where you are, and never rain where you are. So, if the weather improves, I will scout to see if drywashing is possible. Otherwise, I will just walk around the claim to see where my next dig might take place.

Anyway, the day wasn't a waste. I've nearly finished two Dove nesting boxes that I hope will have residents next year. At least some old wood is going to a good cause.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Scouting report after rain in area. I went to the claim this morning to see what I could see.

Gold Crown Road had three areas where flowing water passed. The branch roads to the claim got slammed by that flowing water, but it is still passable with 4-wheel drive.

The claim got only a smattering if rain with a few washes showing there was flowing water, but not a lot.

Seems the higher elevations got slammed with the rain, and that water all went downhill through all the big washes. But like I said in the previous post, we get spotty thunderstorms, and they really bypassed the claim. It'll take a few days to dry out enough for normal drywashing.

I dug another old drywashing tailing pile. Immediately I got the impression that whomever worked these, knew what they were doing. My 12 1/2 five gallon buckets produced only six tiny pieces and a few I will have to run on the Miller's Table.

I emptied the bottom of my drywasher, producing nine tiny pieces, and a few micro gold.

I'm going back to where I was digging, and will work down to bedrock. I seem to find fairly good gold doing that. This area looks like it had flowing water a very long time ago, and as with most streams and washes, they tend to wiggle around over the millennia. Who knows, maybe there are some pickers in my future diggings in this area.

The only problem with this area is that the miner's have used this area as a road alongside the wash. I guess I will have to dig in one direction, and backfill behind me, as I go.

Still not a bad day. I didn't get skunked, though it was close.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Woo-Hoo! Quite a day, today. While many of you would probably say what I got today, isn't worth the effort, it's darn good for our claim.

I got there in the dark. I have a very powerful battery operated LED spotlight I use to help me see when digging.

I managed 14 half filled five gallon buckets. I had another eleven five gallon buckets I filled with coarse gravel, and placed that on our claim access road.

I just finished panning the concentrates. For the most part, it was all black sand/magnetite, except for those 200+ pieces of yellow stuff. One was even considered a small picker. There's so much flour gold that I will have to run on the Miller Table. I'll edit this when I determine the weight. I doubt it's a record. The most I dug up in one session was a little over .35 grams.

Tomorrow I'm going to run the past three sessions of drywasher tailings to see if I missed anything, and I think I might have because I've been getting a lot of black sand/magnetite. Will let you know the results of that experiment also. If there's any gold, it's probably flour gold that couldn't be trapped by the riffles because there was so much black sand.

EDITED: Total weight for today was 1/4 gram, which is my 4th highest total for this year.

 

[southfork]

Woo-Hoo! Quite a day, today. While many of you would probably say what I got today, isn't worth the effort, it's darn good for our claim.

I got there in the dark. I have a very powerful battery operated LED spotlight I use to help me see when digging.

I managed 14 half filled five gallon buckets. I had another eleven five gallon buckets I filled with coarse gravel, and placed that on our claim access road.

I just finished panning the concentrates. For the most part, it was all black sand/magnetite, except for those 200+ pieces of yellow stuff. One was even considered a small picker. There's so much flour gold that I will have to run on the Miller Table. I'll edit this when I determine the weight. I doubt it's a record. The most I dug up in one session was a little over .35 grams.

Tomorrow I'm going to run the past three sessions of drywasher tailings to see if I missed anything, and I think I might have because I've been getting a lot of black sand/magnetite. Will let you know the results of that experiment also. If there's any gold, it's probably flour gold that couldn't be trapped by the riffles because there was so much black sand.

Any day you find color is a good day. The black sands have been giving me fits I put a micro–Dream Mat in the Blue Bowl. Increases recovery and speeds up the clean-up. Some say better than a miller table?

 

[desertgolddigger]

southfork, I have to run my Miller's Table two to three times to get 90+ percent of the fines. It's still easier than the Blue Bowl for me. But I think I'm just not practised enough with the Bowl. That's one reason I'm constructing a semi "Gold Lab" setup. I'm just waiting on parts so I can make one. I just hope my build efforts end in easier cleanups.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Results of my experiment: I classified down 24 half five gallon buckets to 8 mesh, and ran that in three batches.

I am now satisfied my current drywasher setup is getting 95+ percent of the yellow stuff,

I saw only six super tiny pieces of gold, but am guessing that might be half or a third of the micro gold. The black sand was almost as much as previous batches.

Will run the results sometime in the future when I have enough to justify setting up the Miller Table

 

[desertgolddigger]

Today was another wonderful day. Weight was just under .26 grams, not counting the flour gold.

I'm still not understanding why there's so much fine gold about 3 yards off of the current wash location.. There are two possibilities. First is that the wash channel moved over a long period of time. The other possibility might be that the old time miners strip mined the area for all the large gold, leaving the smaller pieces. Or maybe it's a combination of both.

It does look like I'm digging in some kind of channel. I'm slowly widening the dig to see if there are higher sections on either side. So far I haven't run into anything higher than where I'm digging.

 

[southfork]

Gold is great exercise

 

[desertgolddigger]

Yeah southfork, good exercise. I brought in the 4th with a sneak attack at the claim. Lots of pickaxe work, and filling those buckets was worthwhile. I netted .29 grams, and got another small picker which weighed .061 grams. This little small chunk is really pretty, shining so brightly, and so smooth, much brighter in colour than you typical wedding band.

I also managed another 20 buckets of paving gravel for the access road.

Just before leaving, I had to stop suddenly, as I thought I might have forgotten a piece of equipment. I got out of the truck to look, and to my surprise, a very large Desert Tortoise was scooting across the narrow road bordering the wash. Had to be 15-18 inches long, and very tall shell (4 inches?). Anyway, we both said hello, I retreated, and waited while the little one finished it's journey into that wash.

These little ones are extremely rare, and just seeing one is a treat. It's only the second I've seen in 15 years. They are protected, so you don't scare them, touch them, or take them home.

Of course, I get more entertainment by seeing the ground squirrels, (thunder) lizards, Horned Lizards, and the occasional (Beep Beep) Roadrunner, as well as the normal snakles, birdies and insects. Who says the desert is dead.

Hope Everyone had a great 4th, and if you dug or mined, that you found a little yellow stuff for your collections.

 

[NVNutcase]

Just noticed this thread, I’ll be following along ! Keep up the good work .

 

[desertgolddigger]

NVNutcase, thanks.

Well, Everyone, I think I've solved the question about the wash I'm working near.

Back in the early 2000's when I first worked this wash, It was perhaps 10 feet wide. I later had to stop Placer mining, as I didn't have a vehicle that I could access this area safely in.

Fast forward to this year, and with my new Nissan 4x4 truck, I'm happily digging again.

The wash is now at least double the width I mentioned on average where I'm now digging.

I originally was working old drywasher tailing piles, and getting some gold each outing.

But as I got down to the bottom of these piles, I kept getting better gold, as I kept going down. I finally hit bedrock, and the gold was even better. For the past month I've been working the bedrock very slowly. It's very hard work with all kinds of rocks and gravel tightly packed.

Now my realisation, after noticing several outcrops of rock about 10 feet from where I'm digging that I'm digging in a very old part of the wash. The wash everyone has been digging in is only deeper due to it being eroded because that's where all the water flows now. But where I'm digging is an ancient part of the wash area that was covered a long time ago.

Most people kept digging in the wash they saw, and kept piling up all the rocks, gravel, and drywasher tailings, creating about a three foot layer of overburden. below this overburden is about three to four feet of compacted material laid down centuries or millenia ago, and that's where I'm getting my gold.

Gee, now that I've let the cat out of the bag, Everyone will be digging in this area, though after the Club's campout, I've only seen one person on the claim, and I think that is one of the Forum's members who came out to say hello, and check out the claim. Sorry to him for not recognising him.

Anyway, I'm guessing I will have good digging for quite some time, though it will be difficult with that hard rocky soil to get through.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Was out very early today to dig 6-7, 5 gallon buckets of pay dirt. That's all I could manage, as the digging, even with a pickaxe is very difficult things are almost like concrete.

Of course, I also did my 20 buckets of access road gravel paving.

I had been digging as many as 10, 5 gallon buckets, and getting on average the past two times around 6/100 grams. Today I got 1/10 gram. Figure it. Not complaining. I just wish there was better consistency. Of course I doubt there's ever any consistency when placer mining.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Mining the claim is over for the summer. 🙁

It's just too hot when overnight temperatures don't go lower than the 80's. I'll have to wait until September I guess,

Don't know how you Guys manage in the high heat.

 

[Reed Lukens]

We go out early in the morning at daybreak, fill our buckets and are back home by 9am running material. The mornings are great, we watch the sun rise, usually in the mid 70's to low 80's... 82° today but it will be over 100° by 10:30am. Finally, we're getting a hot week this week... it's been cooler this year, rarely breaking 100° up here.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Reed, You're about a thousand feet higher than I am. That's about six degrees cooler or so. Not sure how high up your mining area is.

I live on 1/16th of an acre in a somewhat spread out residential area, so I can do a little drywashing, but there's really no place to dump the dirt without loading it back up on the truck and hauling it back out somewhere, And I don't have any shade to work in. I tried drywashing at home three times, and it took me longer than if I just did that at the claim. It's because I have to tote all the gear and buckets 100 feet to the very back of my property where I can do the drywashing

I've been getting to the claim about two hours before the eastern horizon starts to glow. There's a hill right next to where I dig east of me. That allows about an extra hour for me to work before the Sun peeks over.

I've used that time to dig just five to six full 5 gallon buckets to run through the drywasher. The ground is so difficult to work, it nearly takes two hours for digging up the material, then another hour to run the material.

Maybe I'm just not as strong as you Guys swinging a 5 pound pickaxe. Of course it's probably the fact I have to sift out the larger rocks (pea gravel to football sized) before I can run things. If I don't, I lose most of the gold I've been finding.

I tried two days in a row this time, and it wrecked me physically. It usually takes me a day to recover from just one day's outing, so I usually go out every other or every third day.

Maybe I'm just pooped from those two days in a row I tried.

Anyway, the heat is probably why it seems the club members only work our claim twice a year, and that's in association with the campouts. So far I've seen no one there outside of the campout, and our local hard rock miner who dropped by to view our claim. It's lonely out there.

Thanks for listening to me blubber. Wish I had a digging partner.

 

[southfork]

Seems the desert mining is always a hard day I tried it a few times dry washing and metal detecting with limited sucess. It always amazed me what people would do for a little gold like those old Bore holes along Goler gulch where some were climbing down inside to scratch a little pay.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Seems at least two gold areas were called "Goler Gulch. One near El Paso, Texas, and the other in the Randsburg, California area.

In the old days, even if you had a well paying job, it seemed some would leave that job for the gold. Also seems not many were realistic minded, and thought everyone would strike it rich. The only people who got rich were those selling supplies and foodstuffs to the miners.

I placer mine for my health, and yes, to find gold. I've a goal of two grams a month. Not going to get rich that way. So far I've found a little over six grams of the yellow stuff since March. So I'm not going to get my goal unless I find a nice hole with ooodles of yellow stuff in it. Basically I've paid for the fuel for my truck and leaf blower...., if that much.