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Prospecting Detecting Nevada Geology Training?


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Its not that the textbook info is wrong, but that it is focused in a different direction. It is focused on deposits mining companies want to find or at least did want to find and work when the book was written. Almost none of that stuff is written with the individual prospector in mind.

As Rob hinted at, a lot of placer gold comes from deposits that do not look like your big classic quartz vein. Sure, some placer comes from quartz veins, but if nearly all of it did, probably 90 percent of the gold we detect would be specimen, rather than most gold is nugget, and a little is specimen. A few places like Moore Creek in Alaska produce a lot of gold that is specimen in nature and clearly comes from a vein - but a lot of gold does not come from obvious veins. So in my book, Fists Full of Gold, you will find a good discussion - honestly probably better than any I have seen in other books - about placer sources like little veinlets, seams and mineralized fault zones that produce placer gold.

While I totally agree with Rob that buying from a dealer who is experienced and will give you a good day's training is well worth the small expense over buying from some cut rate mail order place that once you buy you are on your own, a days training hardly makes one an experienced prospector. Yes, get your day's training, yes, read some good books and the ICMJ, and that will give you a valuable leg up in getting started, but in the end you will need to put in some time in the field and gain some experience actually looking at things out in the field and finding some gold on your own. The most valuable experience of all is that which you gain in actually finding and digging your own gold.

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I'm one those read...see...do folks. After reading goldbrick's post in the research section "1893 Pocket Hunting Treatise" and in Jim Straight's book Advanced Prospecting & Detecting a description of "supergene enrichment of sulphide deposit" I see a common process. I have seen pockets on this side of the mountains. Personally what I am looking for are local eyes on in Nevada.  I realize this is a detecting prospecting forum but the detector to me is just another tool. I am a late blooming prospector with no desire to become a miner beyond the limits of my prospects. My better half is withholding Chris's book until Xmas. I' ll do my homework over the winter then make the decision on whether to spend my money on gas or consultation. I agree gold is where you find it but now days that usually is where someone else hasn't. Most of us are searching for something more than gold but a way of life that we refuse to acknowledge may be gone so we dig deeper. 

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Hey Chris,

  I agree with you on the training.  If someone is a seasoned prospector with experience with prior PI's, they normally can get away with a day or so of training.  The new customers that are jumping into a PI or GPZ are so green at detecting, terminology, techniques, that normally these guys/gals will need much more fine tuning along the way.  

One reason I always honor unlimited support beyond the sale.  This allows customers to always email, call or visit our forums if they have questions or issues beyond the field instructions.  

Some people's learning curve is also much greater than others.  I've had some jump right in and take off like they have done it for 20 years, while others really struggle.  

Today there is so much research material such as the Internet, books, publications, geologic maps, Google Earth and much more.  

Chris Ralph's Book, Fist Full of Gold is a must have in my opinion as it covers pretty much everything you can think about and more.  

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Chris, Rob,

Your advise is slowly sinking in.  It doesn't hurt to have an over view in your head of the major fault systems in a region. I remember looking out into a basin one evening from what I took as a pediment.  If there was an epithermal deposit under all that sediment I did not have the means to reach it. Nor reach any deposits directly beneath. My frame of reference filtered what I was observing. My limited experience is of gold moving via liquification throught loosen gravel downward towards bedrock or hard pan.  Until I get the book in my hands I am assuming differing rainfall amounts and perhaps tighter soils in both Arizona and Nevada change both gold's the downward path and surface distribution. No doubt l'll step up in metal detectors & training once I get a handle. I'll take view of some of your videos. Thanks for the info.

 

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Definitely read the book. Gold virtually never moves downward through gravels via liquefaction. It just doesn't happen. A real big nugget may sink into clay soils an inch or two, but gold is on the bedrock in streams because the water flows there.

Gold moves down through gravels only when water is flowing sufficient to move the gravels. Gold resists movement because of its density, so while gravels are washed away in the flow, the gold works its way down to bedrock and even into crevices in the bedrock as the gravels flow on by.

Surface concentration placers in desert locations in Arizona and Nevada away from streams form by deflation - sand and gravel are removed by wind and rain, leaving gold nuggets concentrated near the surface. Gold wont sink down in these types of locations, which is why dozer scrapes quickly deplete the surface gold even though there is still many feet of soil until bedrock is reached.

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On 12/12/2016 at 0:17 AM, Reno Chris said:

Definitely read the book. Gold virtually never moves downward through gravels via liquefaction. It just doesn't happen. A real big nugget may sink into clay soils an inch or two, but gold is on the bedrock in streams because the water flows there.

Gold moves down through gravels only when water is flowing sufficient to move the gravels. Gold resists movement because of its density, so while gravels are washed away in the flow, the gold works its way down to bedrock and even into crevices in the bedrock as the gravels flow on by.

Surface concentration placers in desert locations in Arizona and Nevada away from streams form by deflation - sand and gravel are removed by wind and rain, leaving gold nuggets concentrated near the surface. Gold wont sink down in these types of locations, which is why dozer scrapes quickly deplete the surface gold even though there is still many feet of soil until bedrock is reached.

This is interesting and is making me re-think digging out a gravel bench I found up high above an old stream. I found a nice nugget up there mixed in with the gravel and clay and was wondering if more nuggets were up there deeper beyond the reach of my detector. But that nugget could have been brought there by a flood a long time ago and that spot wasn't necessarily a place where gold accumulated. I've found a few more smaller nuggets in the surrounding area but didn't find any others in that gravel yet. 

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