The Grizzly Tales; Live from AU Colorado

[KevinInColorado]

Time to go prospecting the smaller creeks GG. That's where the higher water helps and the virgin material waits in metro Denver!

 

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[GrizzlyGremlin]

Well its been a good long while! My first season in CO didn't shape up like I had hoped. This state has so much fun stuff to do its tough to keep a straight track in the river. I had to switch careers this summer which put a delay on the fun. Now that things are smoothed over the next season is about to begin, and this Grizzly Gremlin is going to rock it. I've already caught the 3 (real) subspecies of cutthroat trout in the state (excluding the true Greenback which was just saved from the brink of extinction thanks Colorado University!).
My season was NOT a bust however. I did find some nice yellah, and vastly increased my understanding of hard rock mining.
I moved from Golden to Idaho Springs, and now live a mile and a half from what was previously known as "the richest square mile on earth." This referring to the ore bodies between central city and blackhawk. This area up Virginia canyon is riddled with mines.
I have become very interested in the ores of this area. Mainly because the visible free milling gold was exhausted quickly, and sulfide ores were the name of the Colorado game. These ores are not easy to process, but millions of ounces were produced from these "rebellious ores".
The gold is not visible, but rather bound up micron grains stuck more or less within the structure of various types of pyrites. (That's right, fools gold isn't exactly a accurate statement.) Most of the gold and almost all of the silver produced in Colorado was not readily visible in the host rock. Rather disseminated in Galena, Chalcopyrite, iron pyrite, some Arsenopyrite, and rarer Telluride's.
These ores are almost impossible to process profitably on a small scale, and as a result very few people even try with sulfide ores. I'm a bit more stubborn, and have an idea for this stuff. If anyone has successfully refined and recovered from sulfides please chine in.
The dredge only got a few workouts this season. Time was the biggest factor, but this season will be different. Im joining a prospecting club Jan 1st, and starting the season right away! Club claims seem like the way to go for easy access to dredgable dirt.
My season goal was way way off, but life's challenges sometimes get in the way.
Just a few weeks until a new year and new yellow season!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Great to hear from you GG and glad you have landed on your feet!

 

[mytimetoshine]

Good to see you back

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Thanks! Just another tid bit. The gold in the pan isn't my season total. That is from Kevin's recommendation.. A while back Kevin posted about "benched" placers being missed by the 59ers. Well I found one on clear creek. 1.28 grams in 3 five gallon buckets. 2 hours total. Truth be told not all of the benched river rock has gold. This one however did, and chunky gold too. The area was about 4'x 8-10' with 8- 12" of gravels. The rocks were very very very well washed. Everything was very round and smooth. The deposit itself was laying on a small escarpment of bedrock. I tested one other bench that was Devoid of gold. This game is too much fun. I just need to find few thousand yards of this kind of material and I can kiss my day job goodbye!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Awesome to hear that suggestion went so well for you!!

 

[rschneider3]

Looks like I found the local folk, been absent from treasurenet for a bit. I am going to by a sluice this spring and could probably use some guidance, if any of you all are up for it.

See ya out there.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Looks like I found the local folk, been absent from treasurenet for a bit. I am going to by a sluice this spring and could probably use some guidance, if any of you all are up for it.

See ya out there.

Yes definitely!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Fort Collins isn't too bad of a drive to some gold at all. I'm trying to get out again this week.
Work got canceled with the snow this weekend and I decided to go see if I could find some bigger gold in Denver. The gold is revealing.
There's Nothing small. Even the smaller pieces are "pregnant" or swollen not hammered flat.
The fun part is it was exactly where it should have been!
Too bad there wasn't more! Got to go deeper!
The pic is of dry con's BTW.

 

[49er4ever44]

Sent ya another message Grizzly. I'm gonna be in Denver thursday, Friday and maybe Saturday if you want to meet up and find some gold. I've never done any prospecting near Denver but I've got everything ready to try! Lol

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

So I got out yesterday for some fun in the sun! I hit 2 spots at Arapahoe bar that sampled well. First spot was bad. Loose top gravels, and little gold. The second spot proved pretty good. Gold coast as consistent from the top to about 12" down. The black layer was just a few inches below the top mucky hardpack. Dug for 1.5 hours and decided to spend the afternoon with the whiskey and pans!
I did a Kevin Kleenup! As well as got it dry and weighted. I'm lazy usually, but I'm getting to like the calm careful process of cleaning gold very well.
Trying to get back out with 49er this week. If the water stays low and dirt stays good I'm looking for at least a half gram next time.
Oh by the way. The pick of the gold in a little circle is from above my gold in a shot glass. The depression in the bottom of the glass allows you to pipette almost all the water off your clean gold. Drying only takes 10 min with a little heat.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Looking good GG, thanks for the shout out...nice work on that clean up!

My trick to fungal cleaning is to do the final panning/separation in a green ceramic soap dish ($2 at Walmart). The slick surface and a gentle hand does the job every time.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

I bought a super hard smooth plastic finish pan, that works OK, but I experimented with glass and HOLY smokes! The fine sands just ZIP away!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

On another note Denverites! This is what the the paleoplacer gravels in the city look like! This dirt came from a 24' excavation. These gravels are loaded with gold closer to the mountains. Absolutely DYING to get home and pan this mess! Look how black and round this stuff is?! Please let it be super loaded!!

 

[mytimetoshine]

Looks like good stuff!

 

[49er4ever44]

Made it to town and hit Arapaho bar for an hour or so. Little color but met some friendly locals. Think we're gonna try again tomorrow. It's pretty dug up from what we saw but hopefully we can find a little hot spot! Work gonna keep ya out of the water this weekend?

 

[KevinInColorado]

Made it to town and hit Arapaho bar for an hour or so. Little color but met some friendly locals. Think we're gonna try again tomorrow. It's pretty dug up from what we saw but hopefully we can find a little hot spot! Work gonna keep ya out of the water this weekend?

Awesome!
It looks dug up BUT most folks don't dig very deep so just keep goin'!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

I'm hoping hard man to have some time before Sunday man! I'm definitely getting out Sunday, but hopefully sooner too. Your right about the Bar. Someone moved YARDS of dirt in the section just up from the bridge. They only took the top, but the deeper good layers in that steeper section are very thin. There is still hard packed 6-8" gravels right on top in places that have good gold.
People are catching on there I think though! Lots of dirt being moved. Last Sunday I saw 5 guys come down to dig.

 

[49er4ever44]

Had limited time today so only ran one 5gal classified bucket but it looked a lot better. Gonna try to clean it up and post a pic later. Didn't bring much gear thought so we'll see what happens!

 

[PurpleGold]

Had limited time today so only ran one 5gal classified bucket but it looked a lot better. Gonna try to clean it up and post a pic later. Didn't bring much gear thought so we'll see what happens!

Hey 49er4ever, I'd be interested to see your adventures as I also frequent Arapahoe Bar. Have you thought about starting your own journal?