As a recreational Prospector Weeekends is it forMe, So the time spent prospecting is a valuble comodity. Three years in to my hunting it has been hit and miss some spots show big flakes some spots just dust and then once in a while the pickers just keep popping up.
I know I'm on the spot when I hear a Yaaa Hoo from Jane as she pans the concentrates from the sluice. So How do I Maximize my recovery ? That just depends On which spot I am working so Knowing your area and how the gold hides there is the first step and that only comes from sampling, sampling , and sampling.
Some areas such as a creek I work near Douglas City California the gold is float gold I suspect this Creek was dredged in the late 1800's so any gold has washed down and floated in a deposit about two feet deep in the area I work, this is a place where volume is the secret you just keep digging , classifing,and carrying buckets too the sluice flakes show up in every bucket. if you move 20 feet down stream there is only gold in the first 1" it washes away every year.
I also work in an area that was Hydraulicaly washed when the forest road is open and weather permits, This area is Baron of gold except what was washed out of the hill sides and accross the valley floor here is where the Quality not quanity is important the valley floor hides bed rock and the gold got caught in pockets crevises and rotten bed rock so finding how the slurry was washed accross the valley where they started and finnished is important as digging any where else pays little only small pockets of material were left behind and this is what I have had to learn to Identify at this spot its very small rounded river gravel 1/4 and less in size mixed with a dark brown sand. almost any other material there is barron. many tailing piles may hide these pockets so moving rocks some times is pay off work !
Only Through Sampling can You Decide
Quality Or Quantity
Comments
Every hour spent sampling is an hour less you'll spend throwing buckets of panned gravel out with nothing to show for your work. With school, my prospecting trips are infrequent at best- so I like to maximize my time. Visual sightings, test digs, and sometimes just "moving on" from a spot that yields, but not very much can be the difference between one good day, and a month of nuthin'!
Ted this is why when I get some thoughts rolling around (and that dosn't happen to often) I like to post them here. I always learn so much from the responces Thanks !!!
Not at all Howard: You brought up a good point about working an area where the old timers hydroliced. I ran into a similar situation. Back in the 1870s, the old timers "ground sluiced" an area that I was prospecting. Some of the small ridges that they left, panned pretty good, so I assumed that the ground just above bedrock was the richest. After a lot of testing, I concluded that by washing the material from above, they had enriched the top couple of feet of the gravel that they had left. Just goes to show that there is no substitute for testing. Ted
Ted as always you cut through the overburden of my wordy exclamation and classified the material down to the bits I was trying to impart Thanks for panning my rubble in other words well said !!!
When you find color, the next thing you have to do is try to figure out how it was deposited. There are several ways that placer is deposited: wind and rain erosion, glacier, mud slides, and stream deposites, or any combination of them. Figuring out how the gold got there, will give you an idea of where to look for the concentrations. It can be a guessing game, but by sampling, and keeping track of the changes in material, you can eventually figure out where the highest values are. Ted
Yes. Sample, sample, sample sample, and when you sick of it, sample some more. Don't stop till you have a year or two of digging to catch up on. Just dont get too far ahead or your gonna be like me. Looking at your notebook and scratching your head thinking where did all these trees come from? lol.
At least you enjoyed it Maurice and that can be golden in its self !
I always intend to sample. But for some reason I dig, dig, dig and before I know it I have spent most of my day enjoying prospecting and not much gold to show for it. I need to learn the sampling, sampling , and sampling.
great advise howard thank you