Pocket Gold

[nickinCA]

I have heard that recovering pocket gold is now one of the top ways to find gold these days. Pocket gold is gold that has eroded from its vein but has not reached the river or stream yet. Has anyone tried prospecting for pocket gold? What if you go to an old mine and search downhill from it? Thanks.

 

[Goldwasher]

oh yea black stuff? i find placer gold with dirty black mercury on it,and i have found galena, and silver deposits that started as black streaks, so a long time ago when these minerals were intoduced within these pockets as a hydrothermal mess they layed the foundation for an ugly treasure, remember most of the highest yielding goldmines have very little visible gold in their lodes.

 

[AUDuke]

I am 74 yrs old and I have been mining and prospecting since I was 18, and I have never heard such a bunch of crap from people who knew nothing about gold or mining.

 

[Goldwasher]

must not have heard cause no one wants to be around your close minded cranky a**. and im sure in your old times callin someone a liar entitled you to a ..... well, i guess times have changed.

 

[AUDuke]

Don't know nuttin about your brothers, wusses, purple hearts, lawn tractors or even venna sauage or any other of your "old mans" complaints. Sounds like you must have had a lousy child hood. Sorry.

 

[kuger]

Well duke,My mentor and lifetime miner is 76(all he has ever done is hardrock mine and is the king of "pocket" mining),and I am a seventh generation miner,Your opinion is appreciated though!!!

 

[bug]

black coating is manganese I believe

 

[Goldwasher]

thank you for having a camera that works.....

 

[nickinCA]

wow havnt seen anything like that before

 

[AUDuke]

Well duke,My mentor and lifetime miner is 76(all he has ever done is hardrock mine and is the king of "pocket" mining),and I am a seventh generation miner,Your opinion is appreciated though!!!

I didnt say the posts were all crap. I should have been more specific.

 

[CokeZero]

black coating is manganese I believe

Could also be oxides or sulfides from impurities such as copper.

 

[kuger]

Well duke,My mentor and lifetime miner is 76(all he has ever done is hardrock mine and is the king of "pocket" mining),and I am a seventh generation miner,Your opinion is appreciated though!!!

I didnt say the posts were all crap. I should have been more specific.

Thanks Duke,I share your opinion ocassionaly myself.

 

[russau]

As soon as dredgn' season is done/get caught I'll have time to go through boxes/find and email info ifn' I ain't in the pokey -John

John let me know where to send the bail money or plan #2 i have a battery power saw and ill be there at midnight!

 

[BBad]

if you find quarts its a lode,if you find gold in it its a vein, if its eroded its eluvial no watercourse yet, when it hits the creek its aluvial placer, aluvium.thats your mini geology lesson for the day..

Slight clarification, if the quartz 'vein' intrudes another rock it is a vein. Gold in quartz (in bedrock) is Lode. Gold can be in quartz as a placer as in a stream cobble, yes, alluvial, more specifically fluvial. Alluvium doesn't neccessarily have to be water deposited, alluvial fans in the desert are dry talus slopes at the base of mountain ranges.

Eluvial implies wind erosion, as in dune sands.

No offense, just wanted the terms to be used correctly. It helps us all speak the same language and can talk to each other. I don't blame anyone, geology jargon is difficult. I have two geologic dictionaries, both heavily used.

Edit, more than likely the black staining is a manganese oxide coating, very common.

 

[patches63]

all very true, and the possibilities are endless.in 1993 i found a very rich pocket of alluvial eroded pocket. actualy about 35 yards of slate and magnetite, and talcum powder sized gold, gold was very rough looking upon magnification,wasnt much quartz at all.that 35 yards of material seemed to have just slumped down to the back of a river bar.back then i was skimming the bars for flood gold.big highbankers.one afternoon while disgusted,walked over to the hillside and kicked a few rocks.could see heavy black sand mixed with bragsdon slate.country rock was shale w/old river placer.went and panned some.rest was history, my brother and i had a great week after that.and spent a month after, scouring that whole ridge and mountainside.nothing there.there was just that patch a pocket gold that sagged off the hillside.you just never know. best a luck.

 

[patches63]

for every rule, there is an exception.used to try to explain that to my high school principal. anyway, most black gold i have seen usually tertiary channel gold, was stained somehow with manganese.

 

[pegleglooker]

black coating is manganese I believe

Hey Bug,
Were those found in California ( SoCal ) It could help me with another story if they were...

Thx
PLL

 

[kuger]

I find that black(Stained) gold all time in certain places (Placer)

 

[pegleglooker]

Yes but in SoCal

PLL

 

[BBad]

Speaking of gossan stains, I do have a question about those. Do they stain the ground brown too or just the rock?

It is my understanding that the rock takes on a gossan form due to leaching, bacterial activity, ect... When the rock has reached that gossan type of degradation it deosn't take too much more to completely break it down into a soil like material so that there is a natural transition from solid rock-->gossan/highly wathered rock-->soil. Analagous to a saprolytic (saprolite) soil if you know the term. If you didn't before, now you do. Bust that one out in class.

 

[beaks]

i just call it what it is, GOLD! LOL

it doesnt matter if it looks like the sun or like a buzzard puked it up its still good ole yeller gold when it comes down to cashin in.

i dont care if it pops out of the ground like a turd and hollers howdy ho! i will pick it up and cooker down til shes purdy n bright, stare at it fer a good long time and then sell it.