THERE"S GOLD IN THE GRANITE "GRANITE STATE THAT IS"

[OreCart]

What part of Maine are you located. Yes that would be great to prospect. And also have the family help out. Nothing better. I know of gold streams in Maine that run West, south and east. Maine is mostly placier gold.But there may be other factors. Faults, Volcano"s etc. Hopefully you can find some gold. Right off to keep the kids interested. In streams places to look. Inside bends follow the larger rocks. Behind large boulders. Low pressure areas. Snipeing on the stream banks in the bedrock cracks running across the stream. And just above clay layers. Thats where I found my best maine gold. Above clay. And you may have to dig down 3 feet or More. To clay or false bedrock. Or bedrock. And always reserch can save a lot of time. In the field.

I have found gold in two spot so far, both were inclusions in bedrock outcroppings, so it is lode gold. I brought one sample to my father-in-law and he confirmed my suspicions. I dropped off some more ore samples last week with him, and he promised me he would pan it out this week. With encouragement from that, I checked a secondary spot, on the west side of the outcropping 800 feet away, and the bedrock looked good and showed some gold. That tells me that there is some consistency through the bedrock hummock, though on the west side it was not nearly as good as it was on the east side. Again, not really shocking to me.

I did a lot of research to find this, not to mention gold being discovered in a stream nearby in the 1870's. The geology here is just unique according to the Maine Geological Survey, so throughout the years, I have just asked a lot of questions, was constantly observant, and would occasional look around for gold. It sounds strange perhaps, to discover gold here, on my first try, but it was just a matter of connecting some dots that looking back, were obvious.

And some was just blind luck: I was heading to another spot, and was just too tired to get there, so I stopped by an outcropping nearby in sheer laziness. (I have cancer and only someone with cancer can explain the fatigue that can come with it. Changing a car tire will take you out for three days afterwards for example.) It surprised me that it looked promising, but then looking back upon it, it really was right where it should have been, at the headwaters of the stream where I found gold (unconfirmed by a secondary party) a few years ago, as well as the same stream where gold was discovered in the 1870's.

The geologists were not surprised gold was here geology wise, they were just surprised it had not been discovered. But this land has been in my family since 1746, ten generations, so access has always been very limited. We are farmers and loggers, and managed to do well during the depression of 1871, and the 1930's so no one was really looking for it.

Me? I always dug gravel, cleared land from forest back into fields, and raised sheep, but I find that to be rather boring. After you move 2000 cubic yards of gravel a day, or push 300 stumps per acre, or raise hundreds of sheep, something different becomes attractive.

 

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[OreCart]

Gold in the area is one thing, gold in my gravel pit is another. I have no idea if gold is there or not. It is possible. The face where I found the lode gold is the headwaters of a stream that meanders right into my gravel pit, then back out. A soil engineer from Alaska (USDA-NRCS) scoffed at the thought, so I am doubtful. She is from Alaska originally and would know gold bearing areas.

One thing that might be confusing is, I extract very little gravel out of my gravel pit. I use it ONLY for my own use. My gravel adventures are buying gravel from other landowners paying what is called "stumpage" per yard based on where jobs are located. If the state is rebuilding a road for instance, I will try and find a gravel pit nearby that meets Maine Dept of Transportation specs and crush and screen the aggregate for the job. That is getting harder to do as most contractors big enough to do State Jobs have their own crushers and screens, so I have morphed into land clearing. Since it is just me working, it is far easier as I can just run the excavator one day, then clean up with the bulldozer the next.

I am just explaining it, as it would be confusing to think I pull 2000 cubic yards of gravel out of an 8 acre gravel pit.

 

[triple d]

I have found gold in several streams. That were not suppose to have gold in them.Very small amounts with no value. Same as driving by out cropings. That I know would have gold in them. There are places in Maine. There is talk of the possibility of finding lots of gold. But no one has found them. But chances are it would be microscopic. And very costly to extract. But you never know. A few Oz. to help pay the taxes would be great. Looks like your on it. So hopefuly it pans out. Thanks for the replys.

 

[OreCart]

I have found gold in several streams. That were not suppose to have gold in them.Very small amounts with no value. Same as driving by out cropings. That I know would have gold in them. There are places in Maine. There is talk of the possibility of finding lots of gold. But no one has found them. But chances are it would be microscopic. And very costly to extract. But you never know. A few Oz. to help pay the taxes would be great. Looks like your on it. So hopefuly it pans out. Thanks for the replys.

I guess really there are two types of prospectors; those that are happy just to find gold, especially where it is not supposed to be, and actually getting gold of measurable amounts.

It would be nice to extract enough gold to pay my property taxes every year, but at current prices, that would require 8 ounces a year! I do not know how much work that would entail? The same amount of work as raising 102 lambs or cutting 145 cords of wood?

I do not know enough about mining gold to say so or not, but that is what it takes to pay my property taxes now. Of course if I sell my house in New Hampshire, and one in Maine, those taxes would be reduced somewhat.

There was a video on YouTube that said it takes ore in the 1 ounce per ton to be worth it. That is 2/3 of a cubic yard roughly, so I doubt I would have that in the lode gold. I could try and figure out a way to lower my extraction costs, and then maybe it would be worthwhile. It is a very attractive avenue to go down though because as a farmer/logger bedrock has little value to me. So if I could use bedrock and the gold it contains, to pay my property taxes, even if only for a few years, it would save me 102 lambs or 145 cords of wood per year.

 

[triple d]

If we had only started when we where younger. Hopefully There will be some silver also. Could be a better chance to pay the taxes. Even if theres lead there. Lead contains silver. Silver is more likely to be in Lbs not Ozs. Then add in some gold. You never know. Also theres the possibility to find Gems. Some large deposits have been found in Maine. You have the equipment. Scratch around where you found the ore. If you can get to the area.

 

[OreCart]

If we had only started when we where younger. Hopefully There will be some silver also. Could be a better chance to pay the taxes. Even if theres lead there. Lead contains silver. Silver is more likely to be in Lbs not Ozs. Then add in some gold. You never know. Also theres the possibility to find Gems. Some large deposits have been found in Maine. You have the equipment. Scratch around where you found the ore. If you can get to the area.

You very well may be onto something in terms of Silver. I know nothing about it, and what little I have done, I got conflicting reports. For instance one person said they used a sluice to separate out country rock from silver, and smelted down a 1 ounce slug as proof, but another said that sluicing and panning was not practical?

I would not be at all surprised if silver was present in larger quantities here. At current prices, it would take 48 pounds a year of it to pay my property taxes though.

I am not sure what I found, but I found some rock with ribbons of grayish material through it. About the width of a stray, round and protruding from where the face of the outcropping had fallen off by erosion. That gray ribbon was embedded between the country rock and the quartz veins, and soft in nature. I assumed it was Galena, but it was not flaky. Silver perhaps? I got a sample of it anyway.

But my father in law said on his farm in Landaff, NH they had a giant boulder in the back pasture, nothing around it, that was a huge quartz rock, and all through it was streaks of silver. He said it had to have come from somewhere up the mountain.

Sadly, he said that Pettyboro Brook is now closed to panning. Fishing, hunting...anything else, but it has signs all along it that said "No Gold Panning" And I thought New Hampshire was "Live Free or Die"? (LOL)

 

[triple d]

Pettyboro brook is closed. Because it has decent gold in it. Some of the land owners. Use to let other people prospect on there land. Until they found out that.They were get some decent gold. I have a 15 lb rock I found in Maine. With a bunch of lead and silver in it. And there was a lot more where that came from.

 

[OreCart]

Pettyboro brook is closed. Because it has decent gold in it. Some of the land owners. Use to let other people prospect on there land. Until they found out that.They were get some decent gold. I have a 15 lb rock I found in Maine. With a bunch of lead and silver in it. And there was a lot more where that came from.

The kids spent the week in New Hampshire so we met Katie's parents for lunch in Gorham, NH yesterday. He brought along a vial of gold he had picked up in areas streams around the Lisbon Area. Most were small pieces, but one was a "picker" I would say. I would say it was a nugget, but since it fit in a vial, it was not all that big obviously, so some nice gold can be had for sure in New Hampshire.

He bought me a gold panning kit; an obvious attempt to steer me away from the Lode Gold and towards Placer Gold which he is forever after! (LOL)

But I am thankful, now I can at least look the part, and as I am out and about. Now all I need is a donkey, but for two reason's: I can have the Jenny lug my tools and ore samples, and so I can tell Katie she has "a really nice azz". (LOL)

(I am only teasing on the last part; Katie (my wife) is a very pretty girl. About the only thing she has in common with a donkey is, with 4 daughter's, a farm, a job as a banker, and (3) houses, is that she works like a rented-mule.)

 

[Johnnybravo300]

The gold pan is the primary testing tool for the job, lode or placer. It's the fastest easiest way to see what you have and can save you countless expensive assays.
It's not a placer specific tool. It is the easiest method for gravity separation and always the tool to start with, and usually for cleanups too.
The pan will take all the guessing out of it and show you exactly what is there. It's a prospectors most important tool next to research.

 

[triple d]

Ive seen several nice nuggets. That have been found in both Maine And N.H. I have a couple over a gram. Gold in streams can possibly lead you to load deposits.Gold that has not been flatten. Usually means your close to the source. By sampling the streams you can narrow down the source. Most of the Larger gold if dredging is allowed. Has been gotten because they can get down to bedrock. How much snow do they have in Lisbon.

 

[OreCart]

Ive seen several nice nuggets. That have been found in both Maine And N.H. I have a couple over a gram. Gold in streams can possibly lead you to load deposits.Gold that has not been flatten. Usually means your close to the source. By sampling the streams you can narrow down the source. Most of the Larger gold if dredging is allowed. Has been gotten because they can get down to bedrock. How much snow do they have in Lisbon.

They have quite a bit, the snow is up to the stop signs. I am not sure how much they have out in the woods, I would say about as much as we have here; probably 3-1/2 feet or so. The weather forecasters (sooth-sayers as I call them), assert that we have more snow this year, then we did all of last year, mostly because we have been getting numerous little storms.

Lisbon, NH though is so much different weather-wise than here mostly because the other side of the White Mountains makes for a totally different weather pattern. Either way, it will be awhile before any stream sampling is going to happen because of snow-melt and high water. :-(

 

[triple d]

We have had a lot of storms. But they start as snow, And turns to crap. We have maybe 6 inches of snow. And 3 inches of ice. You must be inland a ways then. To have that much snow. Hope your finds turn into something big. I tried to find more on the N.H mines. But didn" find much. I thought I had some of there history.Written down but I can"t find it. Some went back to the late 1700 hundreds. I wanted to find when most of them closed. And what they where finding. I want to do some more research. Its got my interest again.

 

[OreCart]

We have had a lot of storms. But they start as snow, And turns to crap. We have maybe 6 inches of snow. And 3 inches of ice. You must be inland a ways then. To have that much snow. Hope your finds turn into something big. I tried to find more on the N.H mines. But didn" find much. I thought I had some of there history.Written down but I can"t find it. Some went back to the late 1700 hundreds. I wanted to find when most of them closed. And what they where finding. I want to do some more research. Its got my interest again.

We got quite the storm last night! No snow but HIGH WINDS!

I live high on a hill, and can see Mount Washington, and they said they had the highest winds ever recorded in February: 171 Miles Per Hour
!! They said radio towers toppled over, and power went out all over Maine. Ours managed to stay on, but flickered a lot. I use a PTO Generator as a backup power source, and so I had hooked it to the back of my tractor, and was ready just in case.

As for the gold mines in New Hampshire, I'll see if I can get a screen shot of that Gold Mine in Lisbon, NH. Katie and I were digging around on Google Maps and you can see it in the trees. But here is the thing with that mine. Her Father calls it a "Gold Mine", and Katie refers to it as a "Garnet Mine." I am not sure if you looked up Garnet Mines in New Hampshire it would help or not?

 

[OreCart]

I was looking into that Garnet I found in that outcropping of rock here in Maine, and after a lot of research have determined it is Melanite-Garnet. I say that because it is jet black in color, and originally thought it might be Black Tourmaline since we have so much of that in Maine. Over all there just is not a lot of Black Garnet out there. But I determined it was Melanite when I chiseled off a few with a chisel and they stuck to a magnet, something Black Tourmaline would do.

 

[OreCart]

I found a photo of that Tower Collapse atop Sugarloaf Mountain. It will be interesting what happens as it was a tower that really provided communication for everything in that area. I am not talking just about a few people not making a call on their smart phones, but everything from police communications, to television and radio.

 

[triple d]

We had a mountain in town. That had a lot of black Tourmaline. Its now picked clean. Another good sign. Maybe you will get in to. Some mineral pockets. Quite a wind to blow that tower over.

 

[OreCart]

Here is a screen shot of Lisbon with that Gold Mine/Garnet Mine circled in black with an arrow.

 

[triple d]

Thats must be pretty close to pettyboro brook. Is it near your other house. Most Lisbon Mines are in that General area. And south into Bath.

 

[OreCart]

Thats must be pretty close to pettyboro brook.

Not really. Pettyboro Brook is 1.5 miles away, and on the other side of the hill.

Is it near your other house. Most Lisbon Mines are in that General area. And south into Bath.

Our other house in New Hampshire is 1700 feet away, but my inlaws are the second house you come to from that Gold/Garnet Mine at only 800 feet away; that is why Katie and her father know it so well. Myself, I have never been there.

 

[triple d]

Well hang in there. There talking more snow. Hopefully you can check some of that area out.