With an extra day in Las Vegas...

[brianc053]

Hey everyone, I need some advice. I'll be Las Vegas for a conference at the end of the month, and I'd like to extend the trip by a day with the intention of doing some prospecting.
If you had an extra day in Las Vegas (6AM - 5pm), what prospecting would you recommend?

To help guide the conversation:
- I want to use the time for gold prospecting; I will have my fill of gambling, watching sports, drinking etc. during the conference, so the extra day will not be spent on those.
- I've researched the GPAA claims (I'm a member) in Southern NV, about 2 hours away in Gold Basin, AZ and in Southern CA. Those are options and I have an OK metal detector.
- I'm more familiar with sluicing and panning in streams/rivers, but I realize that's next-to-impossible out there in the desert.
- I've used a drywasher once, but have no idea how to rent/borrow one out there
- I've worked with a few guides before, in Colorado and in the Dale Mining District of CA, and those were good experiences, but I haven't found serious guides in the Las Vegas area. I'd LOVE advice in this area.

Heck, I'd love any advice. Thanks in advance.

- Brian

 

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[goldenIrishman]

Well I'm about an hour away from "Lost Wages" and have access to the MPA claims. One is about 20 minutes away from the house and the rest are up in Gold Basin. Have a recirc sluice as well. MPA also has loaner equipment I can use. I also have some areas that are BLM but not claimed (yet).

 

[Clay Diggins]

Bahde 10 claim has good nuggets.

Heavy Pans

 

[brianc053]

Hi everyone, a quick update after my trip. (goldenIrishman and Clay Diggins, thank you for your advice).

On this past Sunday I did end up having an extra day in Las Vegas. I came in late Saturday night and rented a pickup truck ($88 for the day, plus it took about $40 in gas to drive there-and-back).
Since I'm on East Coast time, my body woke up at 5:30AM Vegas time so I got going after a quick shower.
I drove out past the Hoover Dam and through Dolan Springs, AZ into Gold Basin. My destination was the Hoppy GPAA claim, which I won't locate specifically but I will say that it's in the Gold Basin area and - if you've read Clay's "Gold Basin Arizona Geology" post on the forum - it's in the area of some of those "...older gold bearing gravels labeled Qgo."

In summary, overall it was a good day and a good experience for me (as I mentioned earlier I'm not a desert guy; I'm more familiar with sluicing in streams).
I didn't find any gold, which disappointed me, but my expectations were held in check so I wasn't shocked with the result.
I realized that I just don't know what I'm doing out there in the desert. Plus I didn't get bitten by a rattlesnake, scorpion or spider, and I avoided sunburn (via lots of sunscreen, a hat and long sleeves and pants) - and in the end staying safe and health is what's most important.

If you're interested, here's a bit more detail about how I spent the time:
I spent a total of about 6 hours on the claim. For four hours of the time I metal detected. I have a White's MXT detector, which is a multi-use detector with a gold prospecting mode; however it's not a dedicated gold machine and not a $1000 machine, so I recognize that this might have been a small handicap. I brought a 0.3g test nugget and it could find it no problem in that ground, but only a few inches down. I don't think I was detecting very deep.

I mixed it up when choosing detecting target areas. As I walked around I tried to pick paths of HARDER resistance, thinking most detectorists would choose paths of least resistance.
I climbed high, I went low, I looked around bushes and cacti.
I found a few areas where the hot rocks were more prevalent (on my detector I learned the VDI numbers for these pretty quickly) and I even got excited a few times when I found something that did NOT detect like a hot rock and had middle-range VDI's - but those times it still ended up a rock. Ugh.

I took a few breaks from detecting to try a couple of locations for dry panning. I pulled some material from a spot where someone had pulled dry washer material, but didn't get anything at all. I classified to smaller than 1/8", dry panned that, then wet panned the final concentrates, but I got zero.
I also pulled some material from the false bedrock later with a brush and dustpan. I cleaned out some cracks with a screwdriver. Same classify/dry pan/wet pan. Nothing.

My guess on why I didn't get any gold is that I didn't know how to read the desert. I think I used methods that would have produced something - a flake, some flour gold - if there was gold where I was looking. I think I was just looking in the wrong spots.

-----------------------
Things I still wonder about now that I'm gone and back home:

- I believe I found the false bedrock layer (caliche), but I'm not certain. I found conglomerate pseudo-concrete, some white and some a bluish grey. I'm wondering if I found something that was old (in geology terms) or recent...
- I'm wondering about the history of placer mining in the area. Specifically I'm trying to learn how much of that area was really worked hard in the 1930's when the placers were mined. Was the whole Basin basically stripped (and was I seeing 85 years of geology in the Washes)? Or did the placer miners strategically pick areas (and was I seeing millions of years of geology as I walk that ground)? I'm trying to determine: if I were to dig a new hole down to the caliche, would I be the first person to touch that caliche? Or was it touched before by the placer miners? Or did weather mix things up over the 85 years since the Placer miners were there, making all this moot?

Anyway, in summary (again): a good day even though my pan and vial were empty.

- Brian

Here are some pics from the trip:

Sunrise over the Colorado River:
Beautiful vista:
The rental truck on the claim:
Me, getting ready to dry pan in one of the smaller washes (some were as deep as I am tall):

The GoPro captured a giant dragonfly looking creature that tried to carry me away:

 

[Jeff95531]

Great story and your outcome was much more common than you think. You really should have taken goldenIrishmans offer and I'm sure he can help you out with those worrisome thoughts.

 

[NEPADIGGER7]

looks like u had a great trip overall...ya know what the kicker is...you may have gone home empty handed...but i didnt go...and either did alot of people...you had a experience alot of people dont ever get to have...but sounds like a great time! keep ur head up!

 

[goldenIrishman]

Well Brian, by the time you get out here again, we'll have the claims posted and filed so remember that you can always come out and play with us. Would actually be a quicker drive than Gold Basin was and it will be highway for all but the last mile or so. Keep in touch man! We'll make sure we send you back to Jersey with some of that sassy Arizona gold.

EDIT: We can also continue your training on how to use all of the features on MyLandMatters. Knowledge is power especially when it come to this game of hide and seek we play with Mother Nature!

 

[mytimetoshine]

Too bad no gold but you did find adventure! Sometimes it's even better then the gold...sometimes ..lol. I don't know squat about the desert but would like the chance to learn it. Even when you get skunked you learn something, something that can't be learned by reading only by doing. That expirence will add up.

I don't know why but the old Army advertising slogan just popped into my head and easily applies to miners.
"We get more done before 9am then most get done all day". While everyone else in Vegas was nursing there hangover you were out getting sh!t accomplished!

 

[Jeff95531]

Yeah and that dragon fly looks like it mated with a rattler so keep an eye out for those...couldn't be good.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi there,

Been to Gold Basin chasing the gold, and my buddy found a beautiful nugget in a dry-washer pile on the top of a ridge while I was with him.

Those are the spots he'd check, and where he took me, there were lots and lots of dry-washer piles, and lots of trumpet plants. He believed that the trumpet plants rooted in areas of high mineralization, and he sure knew how to find the nuggets, so I guess he knew what he was doing. He also took me through some gullies and washes where he'd found nuggets before. My machine wasn't working right when he took me out; I had battery troubles--it's a long story, but suffice it to say, there's still good gold there, and yes, there's still lots of hot rocks, and lots of abandoned mines and prospect holes (I saw quite a few).

If you haven't seriously detected for nuggets before, it takes a while to learn the finer points of how to find gold in mild to moderate soil, and in some of those places where you were, the soil can get nasty. (I remember walking over an area that ran up to a basalt flow: talk about red hot, too hot for the detector to handle!) So, don't beat yourself up too much about not finding a nugget the first trip to the desert: keep swinging that coil and dig as many targets as you can in your area so you can learn the very subtle differences in the languages your detector is trying to teach you.

There was a book written a while ago entitled, I believe called, "Follow The Dry-Washers" or something like that, and that's how my buddy first got on to the gold, and he used that knowledge the day I was with him. Now, on your GPAA claim, I don't know if there were any dry-washer piles or not, but that sure lets you know where the old-timers found a hot spot, and they definitely did not get all of the gold. The thing about hunting the piles is that bigger gold wound up discarded in some of them.

Other than that, and lots of research, or going with a local (like I did), I think it would be a very steep learning curve hitting the desert with no prior experience. (If you've got a local that will take you, go for it!!) For me it was a steep learning curve for sure as I'm a Rocky Mountain stream prospector, and the Arizona and Nevada deserts are as alien to my landscape as Mars is to Montana.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[mytimetoshine]

Yeah and that dragon fly looks like it mated with a rattler so keep an eye out for those...couldn't be good.

Yea what the hell was that? Looked like a dragonfly/ pufferfish mutated hybrid. Lol

 

[Clay Diggins]

Hi there,

Been to Gold Basin chasing the gold, and my buddy found a beautiful nugget in a dry-washer pile on the top of a ridge while I was with him.

Those are the spots he'd check, and where he took me, there were lots and lots of dry-washer piles, and lots of trumpet plants. He believed that the trumpet plants rooted in areas of high mineralization, and he sure knew how to find the nuggets, so I guess he knew what he was doing. He also took me through some gullies and washes where he'd found nuggets before. My machine wasn't working right when he took me out; I had battery troubles--it's a long story, but suffice it to say, there's still good gold there, and yes, there's still lots of hot rocks, and lots of abandoned mines and prospect holes (I saw quite a few).

If you haven't seriously detected for nuggets before, it takes a while to learn the finer points of how to find gold in mild to moderate soil, and in some of those places where you were, the soil can get nasty. (I remember walking over an area that ran up to a basalt flow: talk about red hot, too hot for the detector to handle!) So, don't beat yourself up too much about not finding a nugget the first trip to the desert: keep swinging that coil and dig as many targets as you can in your area so you can learn the very subtle differences in the languages your detector is trying to teach you.

There was a book written a while ago entitled, I believe called, "Follow The Dry-Washers" or something like that, and that's how my buddy first got on to the gold, and he used that knowledge the day I was with him. Now, on your GPAA claim, I don't know if there were any dry-washer piles or not, but that sure lets you know where the old-timers found a hot spot, and they definitely did not get all of the gold. The thing about hunting the piles is that bigger gold wound up discarded in some of them.

Other than that, and lots of research, or going with a local (like I did), I think it would be a very steep learning curve hitting the desert with no prior experience. (If you've got a local that will take you, go for it!!) For me it was a steep learning curve for sure as I'm a Rocky Mountain stream prospector, and the Arizona and Nevada deserts are as alien to my landscape as Mars is to Montana.

All the best,

Lanny

Those are all good suggestions Lanny. You learned a lot on your visit.

The Follow the Drywashers series is a must for anyone learning desert prospecting. The Author is Jim Straight - one of the most knowledgeable, successful, experienced, educated (and OLD ) geologists to ever tramp the deserts of the Southwest. Every successful southwestern prospector I've met refers to Follow the Drywashers as "The Bible". My copy is ancient (but not as OLD as Jim ) and ragged from many re-reads. You can't go wrong studying Jim's writings.

Another my top educational books on prospecting for gold is Chris Ralph's "Fists full of Gold". Chris is a mining engineer and editor of the Mining Journal as well as being a writer that can explain complex subjects so everyone can understand. Quite the talent there.

If you study and learn the material in those two books you will be miles and nuggets ahead the next time you prospect the desert southwest.

Heavy Pans

p.s. Don't put too much reliance on the desert trumpet plant (Eriogonum inflatum). The rest of the story is that it loves disturbed iron rich soils. It's an indicator of prior activity on iron soils. There are lots of iron rich soils in the desert that have no gold.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Yea what the hell was that? Looked like a dragonfly/ pufferfish mutated hybrid. Lol

It's a dragonfly. Lots of those of different colors in the desert in the monsoon season (late summer). Some of them are pretty big. I've seen some in my yard this year that are bigger than the hummingbirds.

Heavy Pans

 

[Scubaman2]

Hi Clay Diggins, What club owns this claim as I also live in Vegas and am searching for better gold and a good club to join. Any tips are appreciated.

 

[Clay Diggins]

The Bahde 10 claim is GPAA.

For a good club with good claims in the area I would suggest the Mohave Prospectors Association.

Heavy Pans

 

[goldenIrishman]

Mohave Prospectors Association is a good group. Of course I'm a member so my opinion is a little biased. Haven't met a lot of the members yet since the snow birds are still migrating south. The report at the last meeting said that we're up to almost 600 members many of which are out of towners. We've been averaging about 50 members at the meeting during the summer but I expect that to go way up at the next meeting. We're going to have to remember to get to the next meeting early if we want to get a good seat.

Compared to the other clubs in the area that we checked out MPA is a great deal as well. Only $35 a year per household. The Lake Havasu group charges $140 per person for the first year then $40 a year after that. Both groups have some good areas for the members to work but the ones for MPA seem to have better access for the most part. Closer and better roads.