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Hitting Some Tailings Piles This Week


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On a hot tip from a city worker that lives across the street, I am going to be looking for gold in a city park that is basically twenty acres of tailings piles.  I did some recon, and it doesn't look like anyone in town is doing any digging there at all.  The dredge definitely hauled some weight out of here, so It will be interesting to see if there's anything left behind.  I'll be using the Equinox.  Have read a few of the archive threads on detecting tailings, but if anyone has any advice they would care to impart, this noob would greatly appreciate it!

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take your rake along......good luck!

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14 minutes ago, oneguy said:

take your rake along......good luck!

Thanks oneguy!  Have rake, attaching magnets...

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The guys who use the 800 on dredge tailings in Idaho like the bigger coils so if you don't have a 6" coil you are ok.  Dig everything for the beginning until you get a feel for what is there in terms of type and size.  Once you really know the sound of trash then you can skip some of it and start to look for the gold numbers of 0,1,2.  You don't have to be in gold mode either but it can help on the small stuff but you likely have a few larger nuggets in that stuff.

Have fun.  It is sure worth a try and with a tip like you've got you are ahead of the game.

Were the tailings trucked in from another location?  Research where they were found and you will know how much gold was there before they processed it.

Mitchel

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2 hours ago, mn90403 said:

The guys who use the 800 on dredge tailings in Idaho like the bigger coils so if you don't have a 6" coil you are ok.  Dig everything for the beginning until you get a feel for what is there in terms of type and size.  Once you really know the sound of trash then you can skip some of it and start to look for the gold numbers of 0,1,2.  You don't have to be in gold mode either but it can help on the small stuff but you likely have a few larger nuggets in that stuff.

Have fun.  It is sure worth a try and with a tip like you've got you are ahead of the game.

Were the tailings trucked in from another location?  Research where they were found and you will know how much gold was there before they processed it.

Mitchel

I'll be using the stock 800 coil - haven't purchased the 6" coil (yet). 😆

Near as I can tell from research, these are "in place" tailings.  Here's what I found from the State DEQ site:

In 1938 the placers again began to bring forth gold as the Porter Brothers Corporation's electric Yuba dredge began to work the flats north of town. From November of 1935 to August 1943 the dredge worked continuously on the flats. In that time 45,000 ounces of gold were recovered from gravel that averaged 18 to 30 cents per cubic yard. A second dredge, the Perry-Schroeder, was active in 1940 and 1941 and its totals included in the total gold recovery. Dredging stopped in 1943 due to the war-time restrictions on gold mining. When this ban was lifted in 1945, the Porter Brothers dredge worked one more season. Total value of the gold from this dredge was reported to be more than $2,500,000 (Lyden 1948).

The nice thing is, it's literally a 3 minute drive from the house.  Worst case scenario, I dig a lot of trash and enjoy a sunny day outdoors!

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Contact Gerry and Lunk.  They'll give you pointers.

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On 5/3/2020 at 10:24 PM, Bashin said:

On a hot tip from a city worker that lives across the street, I am going to be looking for gold in a city park that is basically twenty acres of tailings piles.  I did some recon, and it doesn't look like anyone in town is doing any digging there at all.  The dredge definitely hauled some weight out of here, so It will be interesting to see if there's anything left behind.  I'll be using the Equinox.  Have read a few of the archive threads on detecting tailings, but if anyone has any advice they would care to impart, this noob would greatly appreciate it!

CameraZOOM-20200429104158618.jpg

CameraZOOM-20200429104205556.jpg

CameraZOOM-20200429104258885.jpg

CameraZOOM-20200429104313106.jpg

Good luck cant wait for the clean up

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Don't forget to fill in holes, best of luck to you !!!!!

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55 minutes ago, Dig It said:

Don't forget to fill in holes, best of luck to you !!!!!

Always do!

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On 5/3/2020 at 6:56 PM, mn90403 said:

...Look for the gold numbers of 0,1,2.

Just to make sure Bashin understands, the {0,1,2} TID's are the very small nuggets ('pickers'?), meaning those in the neighborhood of 0.1 g (or less).  Bigger pieces will give higher TID's.  There are two factors here -- the size distribution of the original virgin material and the efficiency of the dredge to remove them.  Large pieces (again, if they were there at all) may have been rejected by the screening process.  Small pieces (which the dredge was mainly concerned with) may have escaped due to either improper operation or just the limiting efficiency of the dredge itself.

Wish I had options like yours in my neighborhood, Bashin.  The good news is that there appears to be plenty of ground to cover!

 

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