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Need Some Tips On Detecting For Gold In Stream Crevices?


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I hope to be up in Maine in the next 2 weeks and have my eye on a spot I found on Google maps and with my pendulum map dowsing for gold. There is a large slab of bedrock lying at almost 90 degrees across the gold creek. The water flows from a small mountain upstream,to the west, and has to cross this slab. The photo is not as sharp as I'd like, but am assuming there must be a pool of some sort on the upstream side of the slab and I can see gravel on the downstream side on both banks and it looks like the slab is somewhat eroded where the water washes over it.

Now, what would you guys do to go after gold here? I am guessing any decent nuggets would be on the upstream side of the rock in the pool perhaps and clean out any cracks in the slab where the water flows over top and then highbank the gravel areas? Would my Goldbug 2 with the small coil and chest mounted be of any help? I will just take my 1.5 inch dredge hose and 37 gpm pump on my mini highbanker since my 2 inch dredge takes up too much room in my Subaru Forester car. Maybe take a sucker stick for backup and a shovel.

Maine has a dredging season so no permit needed but have to watch out for their many new rules. Dunno if can even dredge the gravel bar yet.Been told by a local I cannot dig where there is any vegetation growing as that is what is considered the bank.

What crevice tools should I take with? I have a slide hammer, turkey baster,pry bars and crow bars, sucker stick, various tools with hooks on and still trying to find a super long spoon? They also require miners to put the streambed back together after done for the day. Cannot leave piles of cobbles stacked up apparently.

Thanks,and the creek is about 25 feet wide and guessing 1-2 feet deep and fast moving ice cold water, filled with small boulders

-Tom

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I hope to be up in Maine in the next 2 weeks and have my eye on a spot I found on Google maps and with my pendulum map dowsing for gold. There is a large slab of bedrock lying at almost 90 degrees across the gold creek. The water flows from a small mountain upstream,to the west, and has to cross this slab. The photo is not as sharp as I'd like, but am assuming there must be a pool of some sort on the upstream side of the slab and I can see gravel on the downstream side on both banks and it looks like the slab is somewhat eroded where the water washes over it.

Now, what would you guys do to go after gold here? I am guessing any decent nuggets would be on the upstream side of the rock in the pool perhaps and clean out any cracks in the slab where the water flows over top and then highbank the gravel areas? Would my Goldbug 2 with the small coil and chest mounted be of any help? I will just take my 1.5 inch dredge hose and 37 gpm pump on my mini highbanker since my 2 inch dredge takes up too much room in my Subaru Forester car. Maybe take a sucker stick for backup and a shovel.

Maine has a dredging season so no permit needed but have to watch out for their many new rules. Dunno if can even dredge the gravel bar yet.Been told by a local I cannot dig where there is any vegetation growing as that is what is considered the bank.

What crevice tools should I take with? I have a slide hammer, turkey baster,pry bars and crow bars, sucker stick, various tools with hooks on and still trying to find a super long spoon? They also require miners to put the streambed back together after done for the day. Cannot leave piles of cobbles stacked up apparently.

Thanks,and the creek is about 25 feet wide and guessing 1-2 feet deep and fast moving ice cold water, filled with small boulders

-Tom

Without seeing the Place its hard to comment, Access is important specially if you have a lot of gear to Tote.

 

The first thing that comes to my mind is, dynamite.

 

 attachicon.gifdynamite.jpg

Yeah, That'll work Along with the Biggest Catchers Mitt you Ever Saw,,

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home depot sells a long skinny narrow u-shaped short bristle stiff wire brush that is good for clearing and breaking up material jammed in crevices. its in the bar-b-q supplies and is made to get into tight places on your grill.

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ps, I got 2, 1/4 inch long flat nuggets in this creek years ago. They were both in bedrock potholes 5 feet above the creek flow. I dug out the softball size dirt filled holes in the boulder and ran the dirt in my sluice and there they were. Dunno how they got so far above the stream bed? I thought nuggets were sposed to be so darn heavy?

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The best thing I have found for cleaning out deeper crevices are sabre saw blades. I usually fashion some sort of handle for them. I would prefer to actually break open the crevice so as not to potentially damage the nuggets I am trying to retrieve but if it is just small gold that will be in there then it is probably just as effective to use the saw blades to scrape them out.

 

I have found gold in cracks in bedrock only a couple of mmm wide. One memorable one yielded half an ounce of flat smooth gold, the crevice was around half a metre deep and less than 5mm at the top and got narrower towards the base. it pays to chase them all the way down! See my videos on youtube, my channel is Mat Brandl and most of my gold comes from bedrock crevices.

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