Big Nuggets Are Often Shallow!

[goldbrick]

Recently GB_Amateur started a thread titled " How important is getting to bedrock". Reading thru the thread I started thinking of the many nuggets that I have found that have been no where near bedrock, which got me thinking about the under lying reasons why gold(even BIG gold) may be found shallow. I remember reading something by Jim Straight about this very subject. I would like to review this material for my own research and to post it for GB_Amateur and others benefit. The problem is I can not find it on the net. If my memory serves me correctly it was not a publication for sale such as one of his books but possibly a magazine article or position paper. It was not many pages in length. The title was something along the lines of " Finding big gold shallow" or something with similar key words. If any forumites has access to this article please post a link or?

Thanks,

Merton

 

[goldbrick]

I did find the following article in the ICMJ but I don't think this is the one I was looking for although it covers many of the same points.

"Detecting for possible mid-range elluvial gold" ICMJ September 2006.

 

Detecting for Possible Mid-Range Eluvial Gold - September 2006 (Vol.76, No

[Steve Herschbach]

Chris Ralph Treasure Talk blog on Eolian Gold

There was this on the forum Where Are All The Big Nuggets.

[LipCa]

I've found half ouncers lying practically on the surface.... bedrock was probably 5 or 6 feet down. (on a bare hillside no less)

[Glenn in CO]

There has been large gold specimens found in "Float Gold" where a vein has decompose and exposed gold on or near the surface. I had a friend several years ago searching a area where there had been hardrock mining in the past and found float gold specimens that sold for around $8,000. Apparently the miners back then had missed the vein or felt it wasn't worth pursuing. Maybe Eolian Gold deposits and Float Gold are the same.

[Reno Chris]

Quote

Maybe Eolian Gold deposits and Float Gold are the same.

No, they are very different. I suggest reading the article Steve linked to.

Float vein material, even if it has a decent amount of gold, has a low overall density and so does not tend to work its way down in the soil like a solid nugget. The exceptions are the quartz specimens that are mostly gold with only a little quartz. Specimens with mostly quartz will roll right through a sluice box because of their overall low density.

[Hobo]

eolian placers can be explained, but  some shallow  gold nuggets  seem completely out of place. I found a half ouncer on the surface,with desert varnish on it and no  nore near it.

[californiagold]

I found many large nuggets thru the years shallow. I found a couple at different places that were 1/2 mile from any discernable diggings. I gridded the whole area and even panned buckets of dirt at those places and never found anything else. sometimes I think some of these could have been dropped by an unlucky prospector. Either in recent times or long ago. I talked to a local indian elder before about the history of when the white man first showed up to prospectv for gold. he told me from past stories that the indians tried to kill as many prospectors as they could invading their land. and when they did , they took their belongings and tools including gold and threw them away somewhere that they couldn't be found and used again. maybe when they were packing this stuff off from an ambush in a hurry, they may have dropped a chunk of gold  here and there. 

[Sourdough Scott]

Bedrock is "sometimes " overated! I feel detecting near bedrock is not always a optimal place for me. Once picked clean, it takes a extremely winter or storm to replenish.  I too have found many large nuggets in very shallow soil. Have found very smooth, rounded water worn nuggets,and 3 feet away found a very coarse, rough, not traveled to far nugget. And also have tested the gravels and not enough fines to be had to make it worthwhile.