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Detecting Along Gold Mint Trail


Robert F

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Hello, has anybody done detecting in the valley that the Little Susitna river passes through? I am thinking of the valley and slopes to the north and south of the river along the Gold Mint trail.

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Very hot bedrock in there, difficult to run a VLF. And gold, if you are lucky enough to get over any, is small. It would be a good place for a Minelab SDC 2300 but not very good odds of finding gold. Lots of loose rock and boulders, not so much in the way of detectable ground. I have found gold in Hatcher Pass with a Gold Bug 2, but the ground was so hot I just eyeballed quartz specimens, and ran them under the coil by hand. http://www.detectorprospector.com/steves-mining-journal/metal-detecting-lode-gold-hatcher-pass-alaska.htm

Gold Ore From Hatcher Pass Found With Gold Bug 2

hatcher-pass-alaska-gold-ore.jpg.686b7d7

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As Steve mentioned the gold is small and a lot of hot rocks. You would be better off running a sluice.

Here is a picture of some gold I dredged at the public panning area just at the small camp ground on the Little Su.

post-10-0-77257900-1448347959_thumb.jpg

I found all the gold in the recent flood gravels, about the top foot +/- and nothing below that.

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  • 2 years later...

I’m pretty sure that is the exact reason when I recently got into detecting I was kind of discouraged because I was so overwhelmed with hotrocks with my GBP. That later made me want to get a PI detector that could “see through” or “wouldn’t be affected” by them. Seeing this post makes me happier I wasn’t the only one that seemed to have a bit of a problem out there. I just have yet to make it back out there now. ?

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/23/2015 at 8:27 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

have found gold in Hatcher Pass with a Gold Bug 2, but the ground was so hot I just eyeballed quartz specimens, and ran them under the coil by hand

I second this ... is how I have found gold there also (and running a sluice) .. but to be fair, when I found gold via GB2 several years ago I was on another's lode claim (with permission of course), and no way could I have done so (found the gold-quartz pieces) had that not been the case, due to that area so heavily claimed, and mineral entry areas plus the SRS and historical areas, which prohibit detecting/ collecting altogether, but oh how I wish the state offered us miners the same emergency order system that applies for anglers, lol, like granting us a 1 day EO allowing detectors due to so much gold to be thinned out lol ... so much gold there remaining yet can't be had due to the "historical significance" yet based on that logic isn't all gold still in the ground part of the AK history also? ... Not to give suggestions/ ideas to the state on how to further limit the noncommercial AK mining enthusiast

 

On 7/27/2018 at 7:52 AM, Boogness said:

discouraged because I was so overwhelmed with hotrocks

Boogness, you're not alone ... frustration has been my experience too in that Lil Su zone for years, and have only been there once with my PI but didn't give it a strong effort

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