Gold Basin - Gold And Meteorites

[fredmason]

my buddy jeff and I went up to Gold Basin for a few days...The Basin has never been generous with me or Jeff but we scapped out some gold and meteorites. This was the first time Jeff has ever bested me in quanity of meteorites and in their size. He also found the first little nuggy...we are not rich but had a fine time!

I will attempt some pic's

First is mine

second is me proving I need to lose weight except I disappeared

three is jeff's

fred

[Patrick in Havasu]

Great job by the both of you......

 

Patrick

[El Dorado]

WTG......we will have to get there one of these days.

[Steve in Idaho]

The last time Allen and I went out hunting meteorites in Gold Basin a few years ago, we both got 1200 grams apiece. We were using gold bug II's. 

[tvanwho]

^{Are the meteors worth anything? Are they iron or stony?}

^{I saw a fireball arcing down by our local airport on my way home from work a few weeks ago. It was a bright white ball of light  the size of the sun which suddenly disappeared ,kinda freaked me out. I saw one a few years back and it was like a giant green ball of fire arcing over my car with a short green tail behind it. I had to go sit at a gas station for a half hour cause it kinda rattled me .}

^{So, whats a meteorite sound like on a GB 2? A hotrock, coin ,or ?}

 

^{-Tom V.}

[Steve in Idaho]

They sound like a loud hot rock, then I dig and use my super magnet. They just jump at the magnet. I have found them lying on brush pieces where some one tossed them thinking that they were a hot rock. These were the stony type that we found in Gold Basin.

[tvanwho]

so, the stony ones are loaded with iron too then?

[Reg]

Tom,

Meteors are what fly by or seen falling before they hit the earth or moon.  Meteorites are ones that have landed. 

Gold Basin meteorites generally are the stony type, which are commonly missing the typical black crust.  What does show are black dots or bumps that when rubbed on a leg of jeans pants will display a silvery shiny dot.  This will be the nickel in the meteorite. Most meteorites found today are the stony type. 

When cut and polished, the Gold Basin meteorites are quite beautiful with a chocolate brown color with bright shiny silvery dots or blotches.  Unfortunately, I don't have a pic of one right now. 

Gold Basin meteorites don't bring much money these days but earlier they were worth over $2.00 per gram. Years back, it wasn't that uncommon to find one worth over $500.   I don't know the going price today, but I have heard they often sell for maybe one fourth of that amount today. 

There are actually several different meteorites found at gold basin with some giving a stronger signal than others.  Most if not all are considered "finds" and not "falls".  A find is a meteorite found that was not tracked in the sky and later found.  A fall is the one tracked and later found. 

On a detector, the stony meteorites often sound much like a piece of basalt.  If you have no basalt in your area to test, then you might search through old red turn of the century bricks used in houses, etc.  You should be able to find several that sound off, with some louder than others on a detector. 

Reg

[DolanDave]

Nice Finds Fred,

  Gold Basin is my backyard, and getting hard nowadays.

[fredmason]

Meteorites from the Basin are not high in money value so much as interesting and something else to find while wandering the hills hoping for gold. There are many types of meteorites, Chrondrites being the most common. There is a pretty good article in the ICMJ that is basic. The only thing I strongly disagree with is the "everything belongs to the Gov" bs...it just ain't so.

Dave, if a minelab won't detect the nickel/iron it must be very fine and very low quality...I doubt anyone will ever sort all the Gb meteorites found there. Just from curiosity I tried my GB Pro in zero discriminate and the smaller Gb meteorites were invisible to it.

fred