- Finding gold in its raw form involves either digging for gold veins or finding the metal in rivers and creeks.Finding gold nuggets involves hard, dirty work either inside caves, on the side of rock hills or more commonly in mountain rivers where rock is washed down from higher elevations. In Arizona, finding the precious metal tends to be impacted by the natural behavior of the desert. Understanding how this topography and its environment work can help in more easily finding gold.
- Deserts are primarily dry, however, many Arizona deserts have flash floods when it does rain. The water goes into what are called desert washes or drainage gulleys. These are common places to find gold nuggets unearthed by the water and deposited in the gulleys.
In those areas where moving water can be found, Arizona creeks and rivers also have the potential for gold nugget discoveries. The work usually involves sifting through the river silt and dirt, which can be a bit of a production to find small nuggets moved by water.
Yavapai County provides a good location for creeks and dry washes. Numerous rain gulleys and creeks exist all over the Bradshaw Mountain foothills. Named creeks and washes that have potential for gold nugget finds, however small, include French, Big Bug and Agua Fria.
In Greenlee County, three locations can provide water-prospecting for gold washed down by rivers: Eagle Creek, Chase Creek and San Francisco River. - For dry harvesting of gold, Mohave County includes a number of locations for gold-digging. The Red Hill placer diggings and Printer's Gulch both have potential for nugget finds. They are found in the Mohave Mountains, a little less than 20 miles outside of Topock.
- In terms of traditional gold-hunting --- going into caves and mining for gold in Arizona --- there are few options. Most of the old mining locations have been stripped from previous activities. Additionally, much of the land is on public government zones where you need prior permission to mine.
Private mining claims basically mean the property is off-limits unless you get the owner's permission. Many gold digging areas are already claimed in Arizona. It would be easier for person to join a mining association and use their claims for recreational nugget finding than to attempt to weave through property rights of various owners.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Gold Rush: Alaska
Premieres Friday, December 3 at 10PM ET/PT
GOLD RUSH: ALASKA, follows six men who, in the face of an economic meltdown, risk everything - their families, their dignity, and in some cases, their lives - to strike it rich mining for gold in the wilds of Alaska. Inspired by his father Jack, Todd Hoffman of Sandy, Oregon, leads a group of greenhorn miners to forge a new frontier and save their families from dire straits. While leasing a gold claim in Alaska, Todd and his company of newbies face the grandeur of Alaska as well as its hardships, including an impending winter that will halt operations and the opportunity to strike gold
GOLD RUSH: ALASKA The United States is the world's second largest gold mining country — behind South Africa.
BACKGROUNDER
THE NEW GOLD RUSH / MINING
Clay and Gravel
Gravel and clay... what to look for!
Gravel bars are a good prospect. This is rounded rock that has migrated down the creek through multiple flood events. The gravel is deposited in layers with each successive season. Gold is heavy, so it quickly settles through the layers to either bedrock or false bedrock. Gold found while digging a bit in the creek was probably deposited recently and it is doubtful you will find paying quantities.
In another region quite geographically distant, gold tends to be concentrated closer to the surface. Some bands are completely barren of gold and others are low-grade. We’ve found gray clay, more than likely decomposed porphrey, which seems to carry a lot of nice flour and small nuggets. If bedrock can be reached, very nice pockets of nuggets exist in a red clay zone which is blackish-red sand carrying small, rounded hematite nodules in abundance.
Snowbound is what we are… not enough to cause travel problems but enough to keep us from trekking through the woods. It’s a good time to discuss where and how to look for gold…
The Black Hills gold rush was mostly composed of would-be prospectors (we call them Greenhorns) looking for gold nuggets to be plucked out of the creek! A small minority of those rushers knew their stuff… and generally were the ones who ended up striking it rich!
We project that 25% of the population wants to be gold prospectors… of that 25%, maybe 1% know what to look for! Most of the claim jumping on our claims is harmless; they don’t know where or what to look for so they just dig in the creek and probably find enough gold to figure out it is hard work for a few flecks of gold!
Here’s where it gets tricky! You’ve found a gravel deposit… where is the gold?
Clay can be false bedrock and will be either your friend or foe. Clay bands are easily recognizable in an exposed bank. They can be false bedrock that keeps the gold from settling to bedrock, but they are also what we like to call “a sluice robber.” Clay in your sluice box will collect gold and carry it back into the stream.
We’ve encountered a variety of clays, everything from gritty red clay to slimy yellow smectite.
There are instances in the Black Hills of yellow clay being high-grade clay containing gold. Historically documented near the modern day Gilt Edge Mine, is a gold rush era article stating, “recent strike at depth of 32 feet proven to be an immense flat body of rich ore resembling yellow mud.”
All clay should be tested before sluicing to determine gold content. Why?? We have trouble convincing “greenhorns” that the ore can’t be put in the sluice box and end up having visible gold in the box “disappear” with clay-bound ore.
So before you sluice suspicious ore, break clay balls and rinse ore extensively while panning. This helps determine the gold content and whether or not the clay becomes water soluble. There is a product called Clay Gone that will help break down the clay, or a few drops of environmentally-friendly dish detergent might accomplish the same purpose. We also “clean” the sluice box before attempting to sluice gold-rich clay-bound material. That way you haven’t lost acquired gold, but might recover gold from the clay.
The Bear Gulch area is said to have a clay band within inches or feet of bedrock. Between the clay and bedrock the gravel is said to be extremely rich in placer gold. It would be assumed that the gold was laid down in gravel, some sedimentary event covered it, and eventually decomposed into a clay. Through the eons other gravel was deposited upon the clay, creating false bedrock.
We’ve also found, at another location nearby, a gold-rich iron-stained band above a grayish-silver clay, the clay band from 6 inches to 3 feet deep. The clay looks like a decomposed bedrock. We’ve never found what is below the clay band because penetration of the clay brings in water.
Clay, therefore, is your friend because it may help collect gold to a specific layer. It is your foe because it absorbs and carries the gold you are trying to recover!
We can’t emphasize strongly enough… look for clay bands to test, but don’t run clays through your sluice box if it already carries gold!
Friday, November 19, 2010
The Gold pan or the Batea
The extraction of gold by washing or dressing alone using a pan or batea is the oldest recovery process employed by the man. The recovery of gold was used in civilized countries and the main disadvantage was the gold loss, which was around 40-50%. This problem was partially solved when gold panning was coupled with amalgamation. In California, gold prospectors used a pan to test gold-bearing rock and to extract the finest gold on a small scale. It was made of black sheet iron, usually Russian sheet iron; in Australia the pan was generally made of sheet tin. In Mexico and South America a wooden dish in the shape of a flattened cone 16 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep was known as batea. Similarly shaped wooden dishes were used by uncivilized or semi-civilized tribes in some parts of the world (e.g. Borneo, Malay Penninsula, and Africa).
The gold pan was used in prospecting for gold in cleaning gold-bearing concentrates and in the hand-working of very rich deposits. It is a shallow pan which varied from 15 inches to 18 inches in diameter at the top, and from 2 inches to 2 ½ inches in depth, the sides having a slope of about 30o. it weighed from 1 to 1.5 kg. Most the time, the pan was made of heavy-gauge steel with the rim turned back over a heavy wire to stiffen it. Where amalgamation was to be done in the pan, it was either made of copper or had a copper bottom. When used by a skilled operator, it has a capacity of from half a yard to 1 yard in 10-11 hours.
The object of panning was to concentrate gold and heavy minerals by washing away the lighter. To do this most efficiently, all material should be of as even size as possible. The pan was filled about three quarters full of gravel to be washed, and then it was submerged in water. The first large gravel was picked up by hand, then the clay was broken, up, after which the operator raised the pan to the edge of the water, inclining it slightly away from him, moving it with a circular motion combined with a slight jerk, thus stirring up the mud and light sand and allowing it to float off. This was continue until only the heavier material remained, such as gold, black sand and other minerals having a high specific gravity. These concentrates were stored until a large quantity was obtained, after which the gold is separated from them. It was picked out by hand, amalgamated with mercury, sometimes in a copper-bottomed pan. In some case where the separation was extremely difficult and the quality and quantity justified, the concentrates were shipped to a smelter. Basically, panning was learned by watching an old miner or experienced operator at work, learning certain tricks in the trade from him. A clean six or eight inches frying pan made an excellent prospecting or clean-up pan. It was well to burn out an iron pan after having used mercury in it, and then polish it with a soft rock or piece of brick, otherwise it was difficult to see small colors or flakes of gold.
The batea was cone-shaped and was the equivalent of the pan. Basically, it was made of wood or sheet metal. It varied from 15 to 24 inches in diameter and had an angle from 150o to 155o at the apex. Many prospectors claimed that wood could hold fine gold better than metal. A shallow wooden chopping bowl was used as a substitute for the batea. This was used in the same manner as the pan.
Pan Batea
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Dont pass up the pretty Rocks they may be worth more than the Gold
FINDING GOLD III (Gold & Sapphires)
www.treasuresites.com Location guides & tools. Do not discount the
"pretty" rocks found along with gold. The sapphires you see are worth many times
more than gold. Sapphire (& Ruby, (corundum), is like garnet, a relatively
high specific gravity that will catch in a sluice readily. These gems act as
gold, they will drop behind a boulder, in bedrock cracks, and set up in the
stratiform layers of a bar on the inside bend of a stream. In a perfect
(laboratory world) a river bar sets up from front to back: Gold, Platinum, Lead,
Iron Ore (black sand), Gems, Sand. and in a stratiform layer (top to bottom)
Sand, Gems, Iron Ore, Lead, Platinum, Gold. In the real world big gold drops out
at the head of the bar and as the bar is formed, it forms an airfoil shape which
sucks light gold flakes (and gems) to the back of the bar. What you want to look
for is concentrations of black sands at the back of the bar to know there is
gold (and gems) likely. At the front of the bar will be the heaviest gold
(nuggets) and gems, but they may be too deep or covered by massive layers of
boulders to get to. Just remember to follow the black sands and move slightly
ahead of them for the richest concentrations of fine & flake gold (and
gems). More info at my website on the Gold and Gems info page.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Lucrative Hobby Of Panning For Gold
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