BC witness Posted July 22, 2019 Author Posted July 22, 2019 There are some interesting looking bedrock riffles in the main creek. I'll have to get back up there again this summer with my gold pan. Ya never know! 4
BigTreeWalker Posted July 22, 2019 Posted July 22, 2019 7 hours ago, BC witness said: There are some interesting looking bedrock riffles in the main creek. I'll have to get back up there again this summer with my gold pan. Ya never know! Last summer I found a creek that looked like the bottom of a sluice box for about a mile. Ripples in the bed rock. Need to take my pan back there again. Left it in the vehicle and I was a couple miles in. Great looking area, BC. 1
BC witness Posted July 22, 2019 Author Posted July 22, 2019 Norse, if you mean what was I hunting near Kaslo, my wife and I limited out on deer, both whitetail and mulie, several times there. We also hunted elk, but got skunked on those. Yesterday, in the creek valley south of the Fraser, I was hunting Sasquatch, since no other big game is open right now, except feral hogs, which aren't in that area. That might be what the scat was that you spotted the other day. BigTreeWalker, I found a spot like that on the Simillkameen River about 40 years ago, when the water level was at an all time low, and my young son and I were picking small nuggets out of the riffles with a teaspoon! 3
SWWASAS Posted July 22, 2019 BFF Patron Posted July 22, 2019 Anyplace with nuggets should be scanned with a metal detector. They could go down in cracks and crannies and not be visible to the eye. Even though the rock in the Lewis RIver drainage is not what you would expect to be gold bearing, I know of one gold claim on the East Fork of the Lewis River. One normally associates gold bearing rock with quartz deposits. Finding gold is right up there with a BF encounter in my play book. Something exciting about that soft yellow metal.
BC witness Posted July 22, 2019 Author Posted July 22, 2019 Something exciting about that soft yellow metal. You've got that right. I had a placer claim on the Lillooet River, in BC, for a couple of years. Though we never got much more than enough to cover our gas to get there and our food and beer for the weekends, it was always a rush to see the yellow in the pan after a cleanup. We usually just got flakes and flour gold, but my wife had a knack for locating nice little grain of rice size nuggets. We might have done better if I'd been able to use my 4" dredge there, but it's a salmon spawning river, so that couldn't happen. We had to work in pits above the high water level, and have a settling pond for the water that went back into the river. There were the remnants of gold rush era workings just downstream from my claim, and they had systematically sluiced every square foot of that area, leaving long rows of boulders piled diagonally along the banks.
norseman Posted July 22, 2019 Admin Posted July 22, 2019 4 hours ago, SWWASAS said: Anyplace with nuggets should be scanned with a metal detector. They could go down in cracks and crannies and not be visible to the eye. Even though the rock in the Lewis RIver drainage is not what you would expect to be gold bearing, I know of one gold claim on the East Fork of the Lewis River. One normally associates gold bearing rock with quartz deposits. Finding gold is right up there with a BF encounter in my play book. Something exciting about that soft yellow metal. My ranch is full of quartz. Never found any gold tho....
BC witness Posted July 23, 2019 Author Posted July 23, 2019 norseman, the gold could be in tiny pieces inside the quartz, and you'd never know until you crushed some of that rock very fine, then panned the dust to see what's there. Lots of the old timers did that, using mercury to separate the gold out of the powder, ruining their health in the process.
norseman Posted July 23, 2019 Admin Posted July 23, 2019 1 hour ago, BC witness said: norseman, the gold could be in tiny pieces inside the quartz, and you'd never know until you crushed some of that rock very fine, then panned the dust to see what's there. Lots of the old timers did that, using mercury to separate the gold out of the powder, ruining their health in the process. I had my buddy wave his gold detector over some stuff I collected, with no success. But anything is possible!
Catmandoo Posted July 23, 2019 Posted July 23, 2019 10 hours ago, BC witness said: We might have done better if I'd been able to use my 4" dredge there Operating a 4" dredge is a family operation ( slave labor ). Should I guess that you are the nozzle guy and your wife is the one who moves the rocks away from the nozzle? 29 minutes ago, norseman said: I had my buddy wave his gold detector over some stuff I collected, with no success. Metal detectors can be fooled. Western Washington has about 12 minerals that will give a metal detector false positives. So many makes of detectors, frequencies, coils, blah blah blah. I have been in the Blewett Mining District in Eastern Washington. That is as far east as I have prospected. Blewett Pass has fossils so there are other items to look for. Does your buddy have a 'Falcon MD20' detector? High frequency, short range (depth). Waterproof probe on about 6' wand. 1
norseman Posted July 23, 2019 Admin Posted July 23, 2019 2 minutes ago, Catmandoo said: Operating a 4" dredge is a family operation ( slave labor ). Should I guess that you are the nozzle guy and your wife is the one who moves the rocks away from the nozzle? Metal detectors can be fooled. Western Washington has about 12 minerals that will give a metal detector false positives. So many makes of detectors, frequencies, coils, blah blah blah. I have been in the Blewett Mining District in Eastern Washington. That is as far east as I have prospected. Blewett Pass has fossils so there are other items to look for. Does your buddy have a 'Falcon MD20' detector? High frequency, short range (depth). Waterproof probe on about 6' wand. It is a mine lab of some sort.
Catmandoo Posted July 23, 2019 Posted July 23, 2019 (edited) 13 hours ago, norseman said: My buddy just got a mine lab detector. I missed your post. That is a good brand. Is that his only detector? Mixing up the frequencies is a strategy for different soils / locations. The Falcon MD20 is 300kHz I think, Short range but it is for flour and flake gold. Besides requiring a good chunk of change for equipment, prospecting is hard ass work. It all comes down to how many 5 gallon buckets that you can process in a day. That is humping with a #2 shovel. I guestimate dredge cost at about $1000 per inch diameter of the nozzle. Add 4" hose monster. Smaller stuff like highbankers and sluices are easier to pack around. Edited July 23, 2019 by Catmandoo more text
norseman Posted July 23, 2019 Admin Posted July 23, 2019 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Catmandoo said: I missed your post. That is a good brand. Is that his only detector? Mixing up the frequencies is a strategy for different soils / locations. The Falcon MD20 is 300kHz I think, Short range but it is for flour and flake gold. Besides requiring a good chunk of change for equipment, prospecting is hard ass work. It all comes down to how many 5 gallon buckets that you can process in a day. That is humping with a #2 shovel. I guestimate dredge cost at about $1000 per inch diameter of the nozzle. Add 4" hose monster. Smaller stuff like highbankers and sluices are easier to pack around. This is all quartz laying on the ground that you can pick up with one hand. Edited July 23, 2019 by norseman
Incorrigible1 Posted July 23, 2019 Posted July 23, 2019 Fascinating subject, panning and searching for gold. I'm ignorant of the subject, but still take great interest. Worthy of its own thread. Carry on, learning from you all! 1
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