Prioritizing Sample Locations

[OreCart]

It was raining today, which just meant I got really wet when I retraced my steps to go find my lost camera tripod. I found it, but I had to backtrack 90% of the way out around before I found it. So as my clothes dried in the clothes dryer, I set about organizing my sampling areas.

I used Excel to create a few things. The first was a list of questions.

Does it have Gold?
Does it have Silver?
Does it have Gemstones?
Does it have other Mineralization?
Is it a Placer location?
Is in a Lode location?
Does the location have good access?
Can it be surfaced mined?
Can it have an addit?
Can it take a mine shaft?
What type of analysis was done?

Beside these questions are three columns; a rating, weight and score. That is because the first thing I do is rate how each sampling location turned out. All answers are given in numbers, specifically percentages. For instance, “Does it have gold”, is a yes or no answer, so yes would be 100% and no would be 0%. But others are different, for instance in terms of access, I have places that are 2 mile hikes to get to, while others I can drive right to. So the latter one would be 95%, and the hike would be 5%. A place that was a ½ mile hike? That would be 50%.

But each question might have more or less significance. Like having gold is pretty important, so that gets a heavy weight, say 14% of the total number of percentage points, while having the ability to drive an addit might be really low. This is where a person can really change how they want to prioritize their sampling locations.

Then a score is derived for each question by taking the rating and multiplying it times the weighted percentage. So lets say having gold is 14% of the listed questions, and a sample spot has gold, then it will get a rating of 14% for that question. Then all the question scores are added up, and that one sample spot get assigned a total score. These get linked to a chart where the name of the sample spot is, along with that locations score…listed from highest number to smallest. In other words, what the best sample locations are.

What does that do? It tells me which are my highest priority areas based on my questions. So lets say sample one location has gold, and is rated according to my list of questions, but access is a serious issue, and while it had gold, it was only visually verified and not assayed, it would rate under that of a sample spot that had gold, a road going to it, and was assayed. Or it would rate under that of a sample spot with gold, but poor access, and only visual verification made, but that other location contained silver and garnet. But what happens if a sample location is really great but lacks access? Well computer generated scoring of each sample will tell you, “build a road to that spot!”

It all sounds pretty complicated, but it is not. At any time the weights of the questions can be adjusted to match the prospector’s priorities, so nothing is set in concrete. And no sample location is overlooked, it just has a lower overall score. With only a few sample right now, this does not have a huge impact, but as my sample location grows, it will really let me hone in on where to concentrate my efforts.

Here is a screen shot of my questions, to just one sample spot.

 

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[63bkpkr]

Hello OreCart, you've created an interesting thread and one which I understand as I "play" in the Sierras so lots of ground to cover and this year lots of snow and of course lots of rocks.

I have 90 something days to wait before the snow has melted, possibly a need to wait till mid or late July before the snow could be totally melted, so upwards of 120 days to wait. The waiting is a psychological pain which I try to make less painful by exercise and going over the gear I expect to take with me. In one way you are lucky as you live close to your prospecting area but then again not so lucky as the snow is so deep, the waiting must be especially frustrating as your mineral source is right under the frozen ground you walk on all year long. In my case I've several hundred miles to drive and then some mountainous country to hike around in while exploring the possibilities. One possibility is a large 'bull quartz' deposit I found several years back so your comment about bull quartz not having much in the way of other mineral content caught my attention. I will wave my detector over it and the ground around it and if no signals then I will be done with it and on to the next adventure. I consider the deposit to be significant as it is roughly 60' in length and varies from 3' to 6' in width. When I last saw the outcrop it was some 12" to 16" or more out of the ground, that was ~ 11 years ago so it should be a bit further out of the ground by now.

Then of course there are some interesting side canyons in the area that will likely eat up a week or so of my time which is ok as during the first 2 weeks or more of being out this year in the upper regions the snow runoff will have additional time to dissipate making it easier to explore the river area of my search. So a lot of waiting is in front of the two of us, I hope I use that time wisely.

Good Success to your endeavor's - Family, Farming, Life and some prospecting...............63bkpkr

 

[OreCart]

Hello OreCart, you've created an interesting thread and one which I understand as I "play" in the Sierras so lots of ground to cover and this year lots of snow and of course lots of rocks.

I have 90 something days to wait before the snow has melted, possibly a need to wait till mid or late July before the snow could be totally melted, so upwards of 120 days to wait. The waiting is a psychological pain which I try to make less painful by exercise and going over the gear I expect to take with me. In one way you are lucky as you live close to your prospecting area but then again not so lucky as the snow is so deep, the waiting must be especially frustrating as your mineral source is right under the frozen ground you walk on all year long. In my case I've several hundred miles to drive and then some mountainous country to hike around in while exploring the possibilities. One possibility is a large 'bull quartz' deposit I found several years back so your comment about bull quartz not having much in the way of other mineral content caught my attention. I will wave my detector over it and the ground around it and if no signals then I will be done with it and on to the next adventure. I consider the deposit to be significant as it is roughly 60' in length and varies from 3' to 6' in width. When I last saw the outcrop it was some 12" to 16" or more out of the ground, that was ~ 11 years ago so it should be a bit further out of the ground by now.

Then of course there are some interesting side canyons in the area that will likely eat up a week or so of my time which is ok as during the first 2 weeks or more of being out this year in the upper regions the snow runoff will have additional time to dissipate making it easier to explore the river area of my search. So a lot of waiting is in front of the two of us, I hope I use that time wisely.

Good Success to your endeavor's - Family, Farming, Life and some prospecting...............63bkpkr

All good points my friend.

Yes, I must wait, which is frustrating. Mostly because with snow on the ground, and the ground frozen, there is not much else I can do. But as Spring arrives I can do other things, so spending time prospecting will not be one of them.

I got a guy looking at buying a skidder this week, and another guy wants one of my sawmills, so I was thinking I should saw some more lumber before those two leave. You know how that is; you ship something off, then wish you had done more with it when you had it.

 

[OreCart]

Hello OreCart, you've created an interesting thread and one which I understand as I "play" in the Sierras so lots of ground to cover and this year lots of snow and of course lots of rocks.

I have 90 something days to wait before the snow has melted, possibly a need to wait till mid or late July before the snow could be totally melted, so upwards of 120 days to wait. The waiting is a psychological pain which I try to make less painful by exercise and going over the gear I expect to take with me. In one way you are lucky as you live close to your prospecting area but then again not so lucky as the snow is so deep, the waiting must be especially frustrating as your mineral source is right under the frozen ground you walk on all year long. In my case I've several hundred miles to drive and then some mountainous country to hike around in while exploring the possibilities. One possibility is a large 'bull quartz' deposit I found several years back so your comment about bull quartz not having much in the way of other mineral content caught my attention. I will wave my detector over it and the ground around it and if no signals then I will be done with it and on to the next adventure. I consider the deposit to be significant as it is roughly 60' in length and varies from 3' to 6' in width. When I last saw the outcrop it was some 12" to 16" or more out of the ground, that was ~ 11 years ago so it should be a bit further out of the ground by now.

Then of course there are some interesting side canyons in the area that will likely eat up a week or so of my time which is ok as during the first 2 weeks or more of being out this year in the upper regions the snow runoff will have additional time to dissipate making it easier to explore the river area of my search. So a lot of waiting is in front of the two of us, I hope I use that time wisely.

Good Success to your endeavor's - Family, Farming, Life and some prospecting...............63bkpkr

It can be very frustrating.

I am trying to get outside more and build up my stamina, but I think the damage has been done. I have good days, and I have bad days, and if I overdo it one day, for three days afterwards I am absolutely wiped out. Cancer definitely sucks.

But sunshine and fresh air is good. I can understand being hundreds of miles away from a claim, and being unable to do anything, but I would hate to think people see me on here and say, "that guy lives there, why doesn't he get outside more, and off his computer." That would be a valid point so I try and be creative.

Here is a case in point. I cannot get to my gravel pit yet due to heavy snow, but two years ago I built a road across my field with the gravel from there. That road is on a hill and windswept, so the snow is gone. So today I walked it and estimate about 10% of the gravel is quartz, and vuggy quartz at that. I am not sure that it means a whole lot, but it all adds up to more observations, and that is how a person finds gold.

But frustrating...yes. This road was on the way to the top of the hill where seams of quartz are. Yet all I could see was exposed bedrock on each side of this razor back. It was a tuff of soil perhaps a few inches wide running down the center of the exposed bedrock. I scraped at it, but it was too frozen to remove. I suspect it is a seam of quartz, but I got to wait until the ground thaws to see what it is.