Tips of Crevicing?

[H&F909ORO]

Hi All,

I tried out crevicing last time I was up at the Mother Lode and got good results. I had no idea what I was doing besides digging the dirt out with a pick, then panning it out. That's as much as I know. Do you guys have any tips for me? Going up again soon, and I wanted to know if someone could answer my question. When getting the dirt out of the crevices do you want to go deep into the bedrocks crevice to get better gold? Or just get the surface dirt and wait for it to fill up again. I'm talking about small crevices not huge ones the you could fit a shovel in. Any answers and tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
H&F

 

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[H&F909ORO]

Well it has to be done the hard way. Picks, hammer, etc. If I can't use a vacuum then I guess it will be hand work. I went to mineral bar on Monday and did some more crevicing. I have to know, is it rare to find pickers in crevices? I went through maybe a foot and a half of bedrock and found a pocket of dirt. It's virgin dirt because the rock had never been busted open before. Sadly our two pans of testing it came up with literally nothing. But went through some of it yesterday and found a little color in my pan. I'm hoping to find at least one picker in the dirt but we will see.

 

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[goldenmojo]

HF Just because you go through bedrock does not necessarily mean you are going to get pickers or even gold at all. When I first started almost 6 months ago I found a place that produced color consistently. It was small specs and some flakes and I was happy to find it. I too wanted pickers and there were none to be found in the area I was working and the type of mining I was doing. I would stray away from my good spot and work in different areas only to find very little gold and return to my spot. At this point I had to ask myself why do I find 20 visible pieces in one pan at one site and none at another site. I read everything I could find in this forum and then tried practicing it and what I quickly realized is you must stay focused on what you are learning from each pan and not about the emotion of the shine. Continue to keep reading every post on this forum. Read anything that Lanny writes whether you think it pertains to your current situation or not because it does. Watch every video by MadMarshall because he gives clues to finding gold in that area, you just have to figure out the clues. Also it is impossible to name all the people on here that have years of knowledge and give it so freely and have helped me so much. I thank them all. So stay patient with your progress and you will get there......

GM

 

[PaulieNoNuggets]

If the dirt you're getting is mostly clay, make sure you break it apart really well. Takes a while to break it down, you'll have to work it a bunch with your fingers. If it's red clay out at Mineral Bar, you'll probably not find much in it. For some reason, the red clay there doesn't seem to pay off. I've not found much in the red clay, and others I have spoke to have said the same thing. I do ok with red clay on the South Fork, but not at Mineral Bar for some reason. Now if you find grey/blue clay, that's usually where the shiny stuff is.

 

[H&F909ORO]

Ya I found a tiny tiny speck in this clay. Didn't think it was going to be a bust. Although I do find a bunch of these little blue specks in my pan, they are literally everywhere. Is it silver? Or that blue clay you were telling me about

 

[Lanny in AB]

If you're on a good gold bearing stream known for flakes and pickers, working bedrock is one of the best ways to move very little dirt and have a good shot at some nice gold.

There's always one place someone hasn't looked, seriously. Keep looking and you'll find a spot someone's missed and eventually you'll find your pickers. You may have to have to work up the bank a little higher, or you may have to visit the river when the water has dropped to a very low level.

Up here, low water usually means in the fall, when it's cold (or in the early spring, and I mean early), and most people have gotten out of Dodge because it's right chilly working in the river in the fall, or it's still too chilly in the spring, but that's when the bedrock that's usually inaccessible all year long is finally exposed! And, not much of a surprise about it because it usually means better recovery of nice flakes and pickers.

If you want to work crevices in the river proper, get a suction gun.

Watch the color of the dirt coming out of the crevice. If a crevice has had material sitting in it for a very long time, the super-heavies (magnetite, hematite, pyrite, etc.) will have oxidized and there will be a lot of iron stain in the dirt. If you start to find dirt like that, be absolutely certain you get to the bottom of the crevice. (The heavies in your area may be different, just learn what to look for, colors, etc., by finding out from the locals what they are.) If the crevice has tiny river stones and grit and it's oxidized heavily, you may even hit a nugget!

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[PaulieNoNuggets]

Ya I found a tiny tiny speck in this clay. Didn't think it was going to be a bust. Although I do find a bunch of these little blue specks in my pan, they are literally everywhere. Is it silver? Or that blue clay you were telling me about

I read somewhere that the old timers mining out in Nevada would complain about 'that darned blue stuff' plugging up their riffles. That is, until the Chinese miners came along and showed them that it was actually silver. I don't exactly know what it looks like myself, but I guess that could be what you're seeing in your pan. The clay is just a stodgy goo. Not hard stuff, just difficult to pan as it doesn't wash easily like regular dirt. You have to squish it around with your fingers to break it up or you'll end up washing it out of the pan with the gold still trapped inside.

 

[H&F909ORO]

If you're on a good gold bearing stream known for flakes and pickers, working bedrock is one of the best ways to move very little dirt and have a good shot at some nice gold. There's always one place someone hasn't looked, seriously. Keep looking and you'll find a spot someone's missed and eventually you'll find your pickers. You may have to have to work up the bank a little higher, or you may have to visit the river when the water has dropped to a very low level. Up here, low water usually means in the fall, when it's cold (or in the early spring, and I mean early), and most people have gotten out of Dodge because it's right chilly working in the river in the fall, or it's still too chilly in the spring, but that's when the bedrock that's usually inaccessible all year long is finally exposed! And, not much of a surprise about it because it usually means better recovery of nice flakes and pickers. If you want to work crevices in the river proper, get a suction gun. Watch the color of the dirt coming out of the crevice. If a crevice has had material sitting in it for a very long time, the super-heavies (magnetite, hematite, pyrite, etc.) will have oxidized and there will be a lot of iron stain in the dirt. If you start to find dirt like that, be absolutely certain you get to the bottom of the crevice. (The heavies in your area may be different, just learn what to look for, colors, etc., by finding out from the locals what they are.) If the crevice has tiny river stones and grit and it's oxidized heavily, you may even hit a nugget! All the best, Lanny http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

thanks for the info, sounds like I need to wait. I guess that day will come. My first ever crevice I did last time I was up at NF American river it had tons of small flakes in it. It was great.

 

[H&F909ORO]

Hey lanny I have a bucket of bed rock and dirt I took out of this huge whole I made into the bedrock. What's this kinda of bedrock look like to you? Do you think it holds anything?

 

[H&F909ORO]

Is this rust on bedrock? Or clay. Too close to tell.

 

[Lanny in AB]

I'm just taking a shot in the dark by looking at the picture, and by looking at the way the rock is fractured, it looks like it may be slate? I doubt it would be shale, as the plates from cleavage would be flatter and more regular (would cleave in a more regular pattern). With only the pictures to look at, I may be way off, but if it's slate, slate has some excellent properties for trapping gold because of the way it fractures and wears. I've found lots of gold nuggets, pickers, and flakes in slate. Moreover, slate will often be formed up against another type of mineral bearing rock, and that area creates a contact zone which can be another excellent place to find gold.

So, if it's slate, it can be a sweet type of bedrock to work if the gold is traveling over it. If it's another type of bedrock, and it's fractured with cracks and crevices, or lots of friable rock (contacting perpendicular plates of rock) and the gold is traveling over it, those conditions make for an excellent gold trap as well.

I'll post this guess with an automatic disclaimer, as that's about the best I can do from looking at your pictures. I'm sure if you research the rock types of your specific area you can find what bedrock type is most prominent, then you can look up the stone's properties (plate cleavage, common break patterns, etc.) and you'll know better what to expect and what to look for.

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[Lotus Geologist]

While photographs are notoriously poor for rock and mineral identification, I will go out on a limb and say you have a bucket full of slate, based on what appears to be divergent directions of cleavage and foliation. Slate makes for excellent natural mechanical riffles; however, the rock itself doesn't contain gold. Slate is metamorphosed shale, which itself was deposited as clay sized particles settling out of still water... Much too low energy environment (hydrodynamically) to allow for fluvial gold deposition.

Accordingly, look for areas in Au bearing streams where the slate is upturned and at or near right angles to the existing (or paleo) flow. No better traps exist for finding bedrock gold!

L.G.

 

[Lotus Geologist]

Dang... Beat by Lanny... Won't be the last time!

L.G.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Dang... Beat by Lanny... Won't be the last time!

L.G.

Your description is way cooler than mine, and much more scientific. You've put the years in at school, I've just stumbled around in the wilds and picked up what I could from my own observations or from the generous tips of others in the field.

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[H&F909ORO]

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I will still make sure to do some research tomorrow.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I will still make sure to do some research tomorrow.

Good luck with your research.

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[Marmentman]

Lanny do you know much about the animas or san juan rivers here in co and nm?

 

[Lanny in AB]

Lanny do you know much about the animas or san juan rivers here in co and nm?

I don't, but if you post a thread with that question, there's lots of great people on this forum, and I'm sure someone will be able to help you.

I spend most of my time in the north, and I'm usually planning and scheming on how to get even farther north!

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[Jeff95531]

You need a Dewalt DC500 or DC515K Cordless vacuum. I saw a really neat video on Youtube where some one was using one on crevices.

I really like the vac and price @ $99 is not too bad. However, battery and charger is not included and cost $130.

 

[Jeff95531]

oops

 

[Clay Diggins]

Hey lanny I have a bucket of bed rock and dirt I took out of this huge whole I made into the bedrock. What's this kinda of bedrock look like to you? Do you think it holds anything?

Thats the local metavolcanic slate. It can be a good gold trap, as Lanny pointed out, but it's not a source of gold. Lot's of cracks in this stuff. Take the largest sledge you can find (I use an old 16 pound one) and give the base rock a good wack. Watch for dust or water rising from minute cracks. Keep hitting it in different areas until you see a pattern of crack signs, or identify a single major crack.

You will find good hidden cracks this way. Even though a crack may appear to be hairline on the surface you will be surprised how often the crack "opens up" as you work your way in deeper. These are the most productive cracks in my experience and you already know you are the first one to open them. I keep a high quality rock point and a 3 pound sledge to help open these small cracks. It helps to have a friend with you because the dust or water pops out pretty quick and tends to be pretty narrow and hard to see when you are slamming with your sledge.

Uphill to your East is the Marine Graywacke, it's a kind of course metamorphosed sandstone. Gray in general appearance with a hackly fracture you can see the coarse grains of quartz and mixed minerals in it. The Graywacke doesn't produce any gold either and usually doesn't make a good gold trap.

Just up the hill to your West right about where the road does the sharp switchback is a small serpentine belt. The margins of the Serpentine do produce some gold and the coarser flakes you find on the bar are probably from that source. There is a small old landslide that has moved that gold bearing material down into Mineral Bar.

At Mineral Bar you are on the northern extreme of a good mineralized zone. Upriver from the bar the metavolcanic slate predominates for about the next five miles. There are no other significant gold sources within that stretch of the river. With the exception of a small area of exposed Tertiary gravels, on the divide just North of Colfax, all the significant gold mineralization is far to your East. You may get some small stranded flood deposits on the banks or some crevice material but that stretch of the River is pretty slim pickins until you get below the Iowa Hill diggins.

The northern portion of the campground and the river on both sides for 1/4 mile upstream at Mineral Bar are claimed and are not legally prospectable. It's been claimed there for more than 50 years - long before any withdrawals of the SRA. Don't be fooled into prospecting another man's claim. Always check the land status before prospecting. It's your legal obligation as a prospector on the public lands.

The lower serpentine belt and the landslide area that is moving the gold deposit onto the bar are part of that claim. The extreme uphill portion of that small serpentine belt (above the road switchback) is unclaimed and would be a good area to look. Although you won't have the advantage of flowing water nearby you will be the first to open up those cracks.

Heavy Pans