A simple question for the placer experts
 

I've planned a one week vacation for the first week in July this summer with a good friend. We are planning on spending two of those days doing nothing but prospecting. If we find a good pay pocket we might spend the whole week there! I have researched the claim history of those rivers and indentified three stretches of river that have produced good documented placer (all over 250,000 ounces) and who knows how much undocumented recovery. I have also made a detailed map of public/private property as well as existing active placer claims. In other words, I know all the stretches of those rivers that are "fair game" in the areas that have a history of producing placer.

So, what's my questions? Here you go. When you first walk onto the bank of a new-to-you river, what is your strategy for sampling? Do you start on the inside banks? Do you start behind the big rocks? Or exposed bedrock in flood areas? I don't have the priveledge of surveying the area with my eyes in advance -- just Google Earth. I want to make sure that we are as efficient as possible and use every moment wisely. Once we find color I think we will fill buckets with concentrates and sort it out back home with the Gold Miner spiral panner.

PS - Of the three stretches of river I've identified, I've prioritized towards those more crowded with active/recent claims. The logic is that people wouldn't be paying to keep their claims active if they weren't finding something.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Study a topographical map of the areas your interested in. Map features will tell you a lot about the lay of the land and the waterway. Use that information when you get to the stream.

A prospector needs to clear his mind as he approaches a prospect (an area that has good potential to hold gold). With a clear mind, find places where you can see as much of the waterway as possible. Elevation can sometimes help a lot with this.

Where's the gold? Answer: It's in the ground; been laying there for tens to hundreds of thousands of years. And when a waterway erodes a place (bank) where a color has been laying, it gets washed into the waterway. "New" gold gets washed into streams every year by erosion and moved by flood waters. Rule of thumb: When a nugget erodes into a waterway, floodwaters will cause it to travel a distance of no more than 1500 feet regardless of how many years it's in a streambed.

During flood conditions larger colors move along the bottom of a stream channel incompany with tons boulders, rocks, gravel, and sand. As the heaver colors move they try to "straighten" out the waterway. Specifically, they move on the bottom in the channel in as much of a direct line as they can, cutting across the inside of bends.

Imaging torrential flood waters moving down the stream and imagine all the power the violance and power the water has. Work to identify locations where a feature or features exist that would reduce the velocity of the water so that heavier gold will fall out and deposit. These locations include among other things, the downstream side of the inside of bends, large rocks & boulders, dropoffs, logs, in & below falls, etc. Gravel bars are a good example of this. Gravel bars form only immediately downstream from something that forces the velocity of the water to decrease thus letting the materials fall out, settle, and accumulate.

Gold is 6-7 times more dense (comparatively heavy related to size) then any rock you'll find in the stream. Gold will therefore be the very first thing that settles out when the velocity of the stream slows enough to permit it. Boulders will also be first to settle out....thus the saying "Big rocks, big gold". Where boulders locate there is also a good chance that colors also located. Check the downstream side of all boulders.

Fine (minus 20 mesh) and flour (minus 50 mesh) size colors will move higher in the stream suspended in the water and will often deposit on banks or in the top to middle layers of gravel and other materials in the streambed. A heavier color will move in the channel along the bottom with other heavy rocks and boulders and will be pulled as deep as it can go until it hits something that is solid enough to prevent it from going deeper. It will continue to move until it reaches a "low pressure" area (location where the velocity of the current is reduced to a point that the color can fall out and deposit. Larger colors will often be located in crevices on a hard packed layer of clay or bedrock (the earth's crust), or lodge in a decomposing layer of bedrock that is in a low pressure area.

Sample in specific locations where you think colors might have deposited and sample deep...if there's gold there, the larger colors will ALWAYS be deep. You have to move "dirt" (in a stream: silt, sands, gravel & rocks) to find gold.

When you sample and find colors, count the number of colors your finding in a pan full of dirt and note their size. Then "work" (excavate) the location(s) that show the most colors....and dig as deeply as you can.

DO NOT try to prospect and mine at the same time or you'll be doing a half-ass job of both. If you don't have a deposit of colors to mine at a specific location, then you need to go prospecting. When you locate a good place to excavate assess what tools you'll need to excavate that location and bring them in. Don't make yourself a beast of burden by toting a bunch of stuff to the creek that you don't/won't need at that specific location.

Carry a 3/5 gal plastic pail ( pad the handle with something and cover it with duct tape so that it's larger in diameter and soft) to tote some things including gloves and a trowel. Also tote a long-handle shovel. A long handled shovel makes a great walking stick, allows you to dig without bending over, and is a VERY effective tool to keep 2 or 4-legged critters at bay. Take a lunch or some snacks also. And if you need a compass be sure you carry two. Same with lightweight flashlights.

Remember that anyplace you find one nugget you'll often find more.

Work safely; don't hurry and don't take chances. What you carry in pack out. Tell someone where you are going and what time you plan to return. Take plenty of water drink a little often. Remember that it always takes longer to get out of a watershed then it did to enter it (back to the vehicle is usually uphill and you can bet you'll be tired). Allow extra time so you can safely get out before dark.

Good hunting and if you find nuggets call me; I need to know where you're digging.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

THANKS! That is excellent information. I'm going to print it out and study it.

I heard good news on the radio yesterday. The area we will be prospecting has about 150% of average snow pack (highest in 45 years). This should provide for good springtime erosion. If we're "lucky", there will be a hard thaw and a nice flood or two to really move things into the river.

I really appreciate the time you took to share that information. I haven't found a single speck yet, but I think this trip will yield SOMETHING to us.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Bet the water will be COLD!!

Sounds like fun. Please post your experience....

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

I'm a member of another forum for prospecting and metal detecting. PM me if you want the site, it has some great info. I even found diagrams of stream locations to search.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

The colors that wash out of the banks is called "new" gold. Those already in the waterway are called "old" gold.

Much old gold gets redistributed during fast flood waters.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

When I was a kid we used to camp down there as a family. My dad would always bathe in the river -- it was some sort of rite of passage. You are right... even in July the river is very cold at 10,000 feet. I'm going to be using hip waders. Fortunately, in most places we won't be more than 300 yards from the road.

I remember as a kid reading many treasure stories of lost mines with incredibly rich ore in that canyon. One summer (when I was about 10) I used my souvenir money my dad gave me to buy a 10" steel pan. I remember puting sand in it, and swishing it around in the river -- I had no idea what I was doing, and I know that I would not have recognized gold if I even found it. I did find some "pretty rocks", though.

I hope to spend the first afternoon and evening prospecting. Once we select our favorite prospect we will set up camp there and spend the next day mining it until we are exhausted -- it will be great fun. :D I'll be sure to give a report when we get back (after Independence Day).

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

What equipment do you plan to use to wash your bank-run materials? I hope you have something more than a pan because panning is the slowest and most labor intensive method there is for separating out colors.

If you have water and don't have a lightweight aluminum sluice box, see if you can find one to rent. If you don't know how to set it up and operate it let me know. It's easy but you need to know what your doing or you'll be blowing gold out the foot along with the lighter gravels you don't want.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Ok... I feel stupid... :hahaha::embarasse ... what is "bank-run"? Are you talking about using a "high-banker"?

I was planning on using shovels and pans. We will be working in a running river. Would you recommend a sluice box like this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/Sluice-Box-Long-...QQcmdZViewItem

Also, I don't know anything about using a sluice box (except for a vague idea of how they work). If you wouldn't mind doing so, I'd appreciate your explanation. Perhaps you could tell me what equipment you would use, and the way you would use it.

Thanks!

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

OK... I did some searching and come up with this article by Keene: http://www.keeneengineering.com/pamp...howsluice.html.

It seems to me that I would want a sluice box with a rubber mat for prospecting. Is bigger better? (As long as it is reasonably light) Do you classify before sluicing?

I did some more looking on E-bay, and I found this one which looks a bit better than the last one I listed: http://cgi.ebay.com/JOBE-45-YELLOW-J...QQcmdZViewItem

http://i21.ebayimg.com/08/i/000/bd/ee/34ea_1.JPG

Or, there is the Keene High Production 51" sluice?

http://www.keeneeng.com/Merchant2/images/sluice/A52.jpg

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Our family goes to South Fork Colorado every summer, cabin is right on the river. Would it be worth it to try and pan/slu in there?

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Fun place! I've stayed around the corner in Creede a couple time in September -- GREAT fishing on the Rio Grande. If you haven't done it you should drive up through the old mining roads behind Creede and up to the ghost town (almost invisible) of Bachelor.

Give me 24 hours, and I will let you know what kind of prospects might be around South Fork.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Yep, love Creede. My grandfather used to take me fishing there as a kid. Never been to Bachelor, will have to check it out. We're headed up in June.

Thanks ahead for the prospects.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

"Bank run" "dirt" (soil, sand, gravel, rocks...we call it all "dirt") is materials as they come out of the ground or stream....haven't been screened (or classified).

If you're thinking about an aluminum hand sluice Keene's A51 can't be beat. The A51A us a very small box that can be set up in real small creeks that don't have much water running. It can also be easily packed into remote areas because it's so small & light.

IMO you need to avoid the A52...it's bigger than the A51, more difficult to pack in, and more difficult to set up.

"Letrap" and "River Robber" plastic hand sluices also work well. Their also lightweight, reasonably strong & durable.

And yes, you need to classify materials. NEVER but NEVER run anything over 3/8" through a sluice box. 1/4" is better, but takes longer to classify.
The problem with running materials larger than 3/8" is that as they move through the box they will dislodge colors already trapped, and they create a vortex of their own that traps smaller colors and carries them out the foot of the box.

You can easily make a very good classifier system from 2 3 or 5 gal. pails. IMO 3 gal are better because 5 gal holds too much dirt = too hard and too much work to tote.

Take one 3 or 5 gal pail and drill 3/8" holes about 3/4" apart all over the bottom, and around the side of the pail starting about 3/4" from the bottom edge, in several stagered rows also about 3/4 to 1" apart. Pad the handle so it is larger and more comfortable to hold.

To use this system, fill the pail without the holes with water and then set the pail with the holes inside it. Put some "dirt" in the pail with the holes...not too much - no more then maybe a half-shovel full. Now grab the handle of the pail with the holes and twist it back & forth in the water inside the pail without the holes. The moving water entering the pail with the holes will loosen and suspend the materials, causing everything that is smaller then 3/8" to wash through the holes and settle in the pail without the holes. When you get a pretty good amount of minus 3/8" dirt in the solid pail, start feeding it through the sluice.

If you decide to get a box let me know and I'll tell you everything you need about setting it up, washing gravels, and doing a "clean-up" (screening and panning out all the concentrates that you trapped in the box, to separate out the colors).

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

goldminer,

Thanks for the tip on the Keene. I know I'll be working smaller creeks near home this summer, so I'll try to pick up the A51A. I'll plan an outing with it in a few weeks to practice here at home before we go on our trip.

LiquidFactor,

I did some homework, and although Creede does have a gold mining district it really is a silver mining area. Most of the gold mined in that area was incidental to silver mining, and all of it was in ore - no record of placer.

If you want to find placer close to South Fork you will have to go to Summitville (I forget the name of the creek... I'll get back to you on that). You can research mining claims on Federal land here: http://www.geocommunicator.gov/GeoComm/index.shtm. I recommend you use this tool along with an official BLM 1:100,000 scale map showing distinct federal/private land boundaries. This will show you where you can go.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

If you can, look at the two boxes and compare size. When I say the smaller one allows a person to work smaller streams, I mean smaller streams...waterways like an inch deep by maybe 9-10 inches wide.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

So, I'm assuming that in a river that is about knee deep and 5 yards wide this little one would be seriously inadequate? Of course I suppose I could always set up to the side where the current/depth was apropriate. On the other hand, it seems to me that a larger sluice would work material more quickly.

Maybe I'll have to pick up both. The creeks that I work in my neck-o-the-woods are as wide as a single step from bank to bank and run about ankle deep.

I'm beginning to think that if I had a sluice I wouldn't need a pan at the river except for quality sampling. My thinking is that I could just take the sluice materials back to the cabin, classify it, and run it through my spiral panner. I'd like to try my hand at black sands recovery anyway (later when I get home).

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Liquidfactor,

Here is a little more information about the Summitville placers:

Wrightman Fork below South Mountain (25 miles from South Fork)
Township:37N, Range:4E

Source Material:
1974 - "Gold Placers of Colorado" (volume 2), B. H. Parker, Colorado School of Mines Quarterly, v. 69, No. 3
1947 - "Mineral Resources of Colorado", J. W. Vanderwilt, Mineral Resource Board. Denver, Colorado

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

SLV, be sure to watch "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" before you leave for your trip, just in case things get hairy. :wink: :bear_tongue:

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

LOL! My friend and I have already talked about that. Before I prospect with ANYONE else we agree on the rules:

1. Any nuggets/pickers are the property of the finder.
2. Everything smaller is weighed and split 50/50.
3. I pick all the locations and you do all of the shoveling.

Now, #3 I'm just kidding about, but #1 and #2 are my rules of partner prospecting/mining.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Do you have a crotchety old-timer lined up to tag along and point out all the proper ways of doing things? LOL. :D Hopefully one that speaks Spanish in case any superstitious natives show up and decide to worship him.

Actually the fella in the movie wasn't crotchety at all. He was rather pleasant and had a good attitude in general. But "pleasant elderly ex-miner" wouldn't have worked as well for my purposes. :bear_tongue:

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

SLV - Good luck to you on your prospecting trip. Be sure to post back here with whatever you find.

Chris

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

SLV
From the stream sizes you report, you will be far better off to get the A51. It without a doubt is the most popular sluice box in the country and for good reasons. then later if you want to get a smaller box to work dribbling waters, pick up an A51A.

The boxes have a (maybe) 6" long piece of black ribbed rubber matting on the bottom just in front of the riffles. The head of the box is smooth and the smooth is very important. It's where you will want to slowly but steadily feed your materials. The smooth bottom allows a riffle free area where the colors can quickly fall out before they enter the ribbed mat area. The black ribbed mat will let you see if you're getting any fine, medium, & nugget colors from the dirt you're washing. Otherwise to find out you'd have to pull the riffle section and pan out your concentrates.

Rule: the more gold bearing (auriferous) dirt a person washes the more colors they will recover. Use the daylight time you have on the creek wisely.

You don't say what kind of a spiral wheel you have but I'm assuming it's either a "Desert Fox" or a "Goldminer"? If so it is CRITICAL that you screen your concentrates down and keep and work the different size materials separately. I initially screen 1/4" (4-mesh = 4 holes per linear inch), and then screen everything thats -4 through a 12-mesh (12 holes per linear inch) and then 20-mesh (20 holes per linear inch) screens. You can pan everything that's larger then 20-mesh (called + 20). This is screen with holes just a little larger then the window screen you have in your house.

I then screen all -20 materials through 50-mesh, 100-mesh, 150-mesh, and 200-mesh screens. If you're going to get the flour gold (-40 colors) you need to work them with particles that are about the same size. This lets the colors be comparatively heavy, and the near same size particles will not create vortex's as they move that will trap and cause colors to wash out with them.

If you can't get access to these screens, you can use a piece of window screen or a regular kitchen strainer available at Wally-world...you can also use a smaller screened Tea strainer also available at Wally-world.

And don't throw away your black sands. If you accumulate enough there are people who will buy them. If you don't want to accumulate them then spread them around your wife's roses...the sands (minerals) will work wonders for the flowers.

You can also use mercury to recover the colors but mercury is a deadly poison and a person needs to be well versed about how to store, transport, transfer, and handle the metal without touching, breathing fumes (mercury vaporizes at room temperature), or letting it get into the environment.

If the spiral machine you have is a "Gold Magic", you can run the concentrates through it but I would also classify them down and wash the different lots separately....otherwise you'll be loosing a large percentage of the smaller colors.

If you really want to try to get all the gold then you need to be heating the black sands so they crack...it will free the colors that are iron and other mineral encrusted.
And if you don't know it before you screen any concentrates, make sure you use a magnet to pull out as much magnetite as possible. Up to 50% of your sands will be magnetite and if you remove it, you won't have to be messing with them trying to get your colors.

Put the sands in water and put a magnet in a plastic sandwich bag. While gently stiring the sands underwater, move the bag with the magnet just over the top of them (don't touch the sands or particles of magnetite that attach themselves to the magnet will trap micron colors and you'll loose them. Use the magnet to pull the magnetite off the bottom...get as much of it out that you can and spread it around the roses.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

OK... so the A51 it is. I have a shop nearby that stocks the Keene equipment. I also have Keene classifiers #8, #20 and #50. I did this because of the "rule of thirds": gold's specific gravity is @3 times greater than iron, so my classifiers make sure that the gold is only swimming with black sands up to 2.5 times its volume (therefore less than its mass).

My spiral pan is the GoldMiner. I will run the 8-20 mesh, 20-50 mesh, and 50+ each seperately through the GoldMiner when I get back to the cabin. I'm going to pick up #4 to pre-classify everything going down the sluice, so I will use my pan to do final clean-up on the 4-8 concentrates from the sluice box.

I am planning on heat-cracking my black sands just for the experience. I'm confused on the magnetite. Were you saying that I should remove magnetite prior to fracturing the black sands? Won't the magnet also pick up iron particles?

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Ha! I'd love to take RenoChris or goldminer, but their gold-fever is so bad I wouldn't be able to trust them. ;)

I've looked for a local mentor -- even advertised on Craigslist -- but there isn't anyone around. I've heard rumors of a local prospecting club, but I haven't been able to locate them. This Prospecting forum is really my only source of expert help.

I did a little looking around GPAA today, and I think I will join up. I found this great basic video: http://www.goldprospectors.org/media...hows/110GF.htm (it is long, but inspiring). I noticed that the guy demonstrating the sluice was getting his material a substantial distance from the creek-bed. Is it your experience, goldminer, that the dry ground (previous flood deposits) is more likely to contain remaining colors due to its "unobviousness"? Do you have a habit of starting in the stream bed or on dry ground when you prospect an area?

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

This seems obvious, but maybe I'm missing the point. Would you say that the wisest use of daylight is finding the most "auriferous" dirt? (that is a cool word!)

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Get the magnetite out first; it will cut the amount of cons you have to process by up to 50%. You'll be surprised at how much of it is in there.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

So, remove all of the magnetic black sands first, then process concentrates, then heat-fracture ALL of the black sands together? I'm still stuck on the idea that magnetite as well as ferous black sands (perhaps gold-bearing) would both be removed by the magnet.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

By all means do it whatever way you think will work best for you.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

My wife and I are talking about making and overnight survey trip in May for my birthday. I'll get to see the canyons when the water is running high. I might also do some sample panning. I'll try to get some pictures from a good upstream/downstream perspective. Maybe some of you could then point out the structures you would first target.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Very cool SLV, thanks for the info.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Geocommunicator is back up today, and I was able to verify that there are no active mining claims on Wrightman Fork (directly east out of Summitville). The private property/public property wasn't very clear. I recommend that you contact the BLM and order a 1:100,000 map of that area ($4.00 delivered).

Good luck! Let us know what you find!

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Great thread! ...im planning on going out this year also,as its nearly a record snowfall.....so the high water should shake out a bit more than usual....but the d*mn grizzlies :bear_angry: you always need a second to watch your back in the wilderness areas....and watch the mules:D.

Goldminer,your ....uh...goldmine of information..sorry,couldnt resist.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

First off, I don't have any experience in gold mining. However, I think I've read some posts at places like treasurenet.com that said that using a magnet would often pick up colors with the junk you're trying to get out, sometimes as particles trapped between others, or also as gold coated by another material. Just what I've read FWIW.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

I've been trying to think of a way to agitate the water sufficiently so that it will circulate past a magnet in suspension (like a large blender). In the meantime I've taken an old Jiffy peanut butter jar (with metal lid) and stuck a large speaker magnet to the outside. I'm thinking that by shaking the can vigorously (upright) I might get good seperation.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

I leave Monday morning! We've decided to spend all day Tuesday prospecting/mining. If we find strong colors we will return on Wednesday to increase our take. I'll be back in a week to report on the trip. I wish I had more experience... I'm afraid most of my time will be eaten up by errant digging locations and unfamiliarity with the sluice box. Oh well... you have to learn somehow.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Have a great trip, SLV! Can't wait to hear your report when you get back.

Stay safe, too. If Humphrey Bogart comes up to you with that leery, twitchy look in his eye, be sure to sleep with one eye open! :D :bear_tongue:

(Treasure of the Sierra Madre...)

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

OK... so here's the lowdown:

We found about 17 specs of gold you can barely see if you squint. :emotions16:

It was a good experience, though. Here are some things I've learned:

1. No amount of looking at maps compares to looking at the stream.
2. No map can really show you how hard it is to get to a particular spot.
3. At 9,600 feet the river is STILL barely above freezing even in July. (You'll do OK when you get past the severe aches in your feet to plain numbness.)
4. Breaking apart bedrock and washing out the clay is fun!
5. How the heck do you actually USE a sluice???
6. You never know WHO you are going to meet... (I'll explain in a moment)

We were on the East Mancos and La Plata rivers between Durango and Mancos. The East Mancos proved to be a grueling one mile hike (250 foot descent) into a narrow canyon. We did find an outside corner where the river turned hard against exposed bedrock (the river was more like a continuous waterfall at this point than anything else). The bedrock was stratified and each piece easily pull out with the leverage of a shovel. We spent about an hour washing the clay off the rocks and panning it out. We found a few specs -- my first gold ever, and it felt good even though it wasn't much.

After the 2 hour hike back out of the canyon we headed to the La Plata which runs nicely alongside a 4x4 road. After walking down to the river we stumbled on a couple fisherman. We didn't want to interfere with their fishing, so we asked if they were working upstream or down. At first we thought they were a young married couple, but after a little bit of talking we realized that the tall skinny one with a pretty brunette ponytail was actually man. This was a little strange because you could see the imprint of a bra through his t-shirt... and he apparently had boobs.

Anyway we took off, and a couple minutes later this "couple" caught up with us and offered to show us a better way to get downstream. When we got there they asked for a demonstration, so I pulled out the pan and took a bit of material from the bank and panned it out. As I was getting down to the black sands "bra-man" said, "There is another place I could show you -- my bathtub."
:eek_ma:

Errrrrrrrrr... I was staring at my pan and I remember thinking, "Did he just say 'bathtub'?" After a long awkward pause his little blond friend said, "No, I don't think he'd be interested in going there."
:elefant:

We made a quick departure to the other side of the river and had a great laugh. I think that was the first time I have ever been propositioned by a gay man (thing, it, whatever). I'm not sure it is actually flattering.

Anyway, we found a very little bit of gold, and I got some great exercise and enjoyed the scenery. I'll post some pictures of our digging locations as soon as I get them from my friend.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

:haha:

Great story, SLV! Being propositioned while gold-panning. In a strange way that sounds like the highlight of your trip, or at least the most entertaining part of the story to tell. :D Who knows, maybe he actually has a bathtub full of gold that he wanted to share with you, and just wasn't suave enough to phrase it without in a way that didn't sound like he was asking you out. :bear_whistle:

Is a sluice that water box that gold miners would rock back and forth like a baby's cradle?

Can't wait to see some pictures from your trip.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

We were actually right behind his blond friends cabin. Maybe they thought my friend and I bent their way... yikes! A moment later they were asking what gold looked like and I said, "It is not shiny, but yellow... LIKE MY WEDDING RING."

I think you are talking about a "rocker-box" which is sluice like. The sluice doesn't need to be rocked to move the materials because it uses the current from the stream. I think it would be easier to learn how to use a sluice if I found stronger colors in my pan first.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

SLV, FWIW, I looked in vane for gold and it was basically all around my location here in OH. I didn't learn how to actually know how to pan or sluice until I joined the GPAA and went to a chapter meeting. My wife was with me and all the old salts had to show her how to pan - I just acted dumb and watched. Then as I was making my attempt a couple of them noticed I didn't know how either and took mercy on me. Now my wife gets her pan down to cons and dumps it in mine to finish.

Here we mostly use high bankers or several of the people have dredges. The water flow is sometimes not great enough to use the sluice unless you can alter the stream somehow, which I don't like to do as all land is either restricted or private here.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

That's a great comeback!

This is for your bathtub pal...:elefant:

:haha:

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

OK... for some pictures. I wish I could display them in the post and comment on each one, but I'll try to do my best to identify each one.

#1. I'm looking down a cascading waterfall on the East Mancos (I'm standing half way down its descent) trying to figure out how to get down. I had a hard time convincing my friend we should go down -- he was worried about the climb back out with the gear. We found the exposed bedrock farther down.

#2. This is a look at the exposed bedrock. The rock is stratified and broken apart. There was quite a bit of clay between the rocks, so we started disassembling it and washing it into a bucket. This is where I found my first gold.

#3. A closer look at the bedrock (looking down, facing the bank).

#4. My friend shot this picture on the La Plata while I paused from digging to eat a sandwich. I was digging under a large portion of stratified rock on the inside bank (near the shovel). I dug back until I hit solid rock. NOTE: I found gold in the dirt at the BOTTOM of this hole (rock) but none in the dirt I scraped out of the top of the hole - sounds obvious, huh?

#5. This was going to be our last spot on the La PLata, but the sun was setting, and the feeling had finally come back to my feet. I liked the look of the far bank, but the La Plata was tricky because the sedimentary rock seemed like it was miles deep -- digging was a pain moving all those rocks and never getting to the bottom.

Re: A simple question for the placer experts
 

Thanks for the pics, SLV. :wavey: Looks like you guys were in some pretty country. Gets me in the mood to watch the mining DVD from the GOLD! series from the History Channel. :D