Gold Catcher

6 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Yes, we will probably never know but it does make a difference.

It matters when it comes to the price of gold.  Who determines the price per ounce?  Does it have ANYTHING to do with the amount of gold mined or above ground?

That's a great question. Probably not at all. Look at the Cryptos, just a pure numbers game without any underlying asset. If it weren't because of the Bitcoins in the world, gold would be >10,000 by now.

5 hours ago, geof_junk said:

Taking the high figure of 30,000 tons of gold would be nearly 1 billion ounces. With a population of nearly 8 billion if it was shared equally then we all would have an eighht of a ounce each (4 grams). Well at least I have more than my share.

Minelab - We Change People's Fortunes

Agreed Norvic. Gold is hoarded by countries and all major banks for one reason alone: insurance against the cyclic downturn of high flying assets and against fiat currency devaluation. Also, that fact that it is a physical asset with limited supply, rather than just an encoded crypto value-play, is almost a guarantee for wealth preservation, doesn't matter what happens to the markets or mankind for that matter...Unless of course the definition changes and gold is deemed worthless. Highly unlikely in my view!

30 minutes ago, jasong said:

Gold is a pretty poor investment IMO. We'll see what the future holds I guess

It depends on what the objective of the investment is. Gold is an excellent asset for wealth preservation, not for aggressive growth. 

On 3/10/2021 at 8:47 PM, Gerry in Idaho said:

Oh  would you crush it or keep it?

Keep it Gerry. You will soon be selling lots of 6000's, so no need for the money 😜

3 hours ago, Condor said:

I'm running High Yield, Normal, Sens 12, Threshold 27.

Very nice, congrats! It might be worthwile to recheck with HY/difficult and general/difficult, to see what else shows up. 😜

GC

1 hour ago, flakmagnet said:

If you are talking about recreational dredges, I dredged for many years on most of the mother lode rivers and the trash you talk about, was rarely evident. Honest. And that was for six full summers of dredging.
If you meant the huge dredges that tore up miles of river bottom, that's a different story I guess.

Thanks for following up Dave. I thought he meant the bucket lines. I once was at the South Yuba and indeed the metal trash was mind blowing. But good to know that the regular dredge fields appear less trashy. I need to find the dried out ones then 😁

1 hour ago, klunker said:

Here is a little secret, but don't tell anyone.

Just tell me the GPS coordinates. And don't worry, I won't tell anyone 😉

7 minutes ago, oneguy said:

In my limited experience and areas, I find hydraulic areas have less trash than the river bottoms where the dredges operated....

Yeah I am not going there at all with a metal detector 🤪

38 minutes ago, GeoBill said:

This is a GIS based map of the "hydraulic mine pits of california" - has many unnamed small occurrences: Some you probably never knew was there.

https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/571976c2e4b071321fe22947

You can use different base maps.

When I left the USGS in 1995 I was at the time working with Warren Yeend on expanding the Tertiary Gravel study beyond Nevada County. One of the big unanswered questions is the primary source of the gold in the Tertiary Gravels? There have been proposals that there was a similar suture system to the current Mother Lode to the east that has been too deeply eroded: Garside at UNR (and others - some Aussies I can't remember) have proposed a possible source east of the current Sierra Nevada. For the Yuba/Feather area was it simply very rich pocket type occurrences like the 16:1? Lots of other proposed explanations.

Rich Goldfarb and Erin Marsh at the USGS in Denver took over much of this work, bringing in several grad students to work in the Mother Lode, but unfortunately the USGS lost its focus and any significant ore deposit research has long gone by the wayside.

Awesome, thanks GeoBill! I have downloaded the kml file, works great with Google Earth. Now, if we would just have a modern good PI detector that could discriminate. The amount of trash I usually collect in hydraulic pits is mind-boggling. These areas are prime territories for the GM or Nox 8. SDC/Zed completely useless. 

This is another good one: Tertiary Gold-Bearing Channel Gravel in Northern Nevada County, California

https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1968/0566/report.pdf

25 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

More on California paleo channels...

• The Tertiary Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California 1911 USGS Professional Paper 73 by Waldemar Lindgren. A California geology classic. An account of the Tertiary formations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the origin and distribution of the gold-bearing (auriferous) gravels.

Thanks, Steve. I was about to post the exact same document but thought people might not like it because of how old it is. However, it is a great read and a lot to learn in it. I am glad you posted it.

This one is also good, it shows all tert. channels and deposits (Clark, 1965-see attached pdf)TertiaryChannels Sierra Nevada.pdf

1 hour ago, oneguy said:

Stumbled onto this interesting article form another site......  Not sure where to post this but Steve can relocate it where he see's fit?

Thanks for sending, great article and videos. Tertiary channels are plentiful here in the Sierra's. The problem is that some are rather deep with hundreds of feet of alluvial gravel covering the heavies. The trick when metal detecting is to find shallow channels. But those have practically all been mined already. 

Great info, thanks. Will play with it tonight.

34 minutes ago, jasong said:

All of these 3rd party websites like Minecache or yes even Mylandmatters (though they are far and away the best 3rd party site with the most knowledgeable people) are not substitutes for doing any kind of claim research, though many newer people tend to think it's suffices, that is not the case. 

The county recorder is of course the best option, assuming you have an interest in a particular area already established and you take the time to do a deeper dive, i.e. before staking a claim. However, for rapid screening of larger areas that are potentially open for prospecting, for instance before going on a weekend trip, this is not really a practical method IMO.

21 minutes ago, jasong said:

And the BLM does have Google Earth overlays both for the PLSS and land ownership

Never worked well for me with Google Earth, but I will give it another try

3 hours ago, GotAU? said:

I’ve been curious about using the Bureau of Land Management’s MLRS site   https://mlrs.blm.gov/s/   to figure out where to go detect on open lands in heavily claimed areas, and I’ve noticed that it does show some “active claims” on the maps highlighted with red crosshatching, but it doesn’t show “active claims” in other areas at all. It’s strange because the map key includes a code for active load and active placer claims, in addition to closed ones. I’ve heard that it’s because BLM hasn’t caught up on the records yet, but does anyone know why otherwise? I hope it becomes available because that would be a wonderful feature instead of having to get records from their offices. 

I use Minecache, overlaid on Google Earth, to see all mines and claims (active and inactive). I think it is the best research tool out there. I use Google Earth because you can also display USGS maps at the same time as you see all active and passive claims and mines. Unfortunately, BLM does not have a good Google Earth map feature so I go and check the land status on the BLM site separately.

https://minecache.com/ 

1 hour ago, Norvic said:

Yeah GC this is how my detecting has evolved in my environment to now and why the Troopy is set up as is. It is our environment that decides how our individual "style" evolves and we each live in different environments thus develop our own styles, I know as I age and can no longer do the amount of walking that I`ve found necessary, I`m going to have to modify that style yet again maybe revisit those more easy to get to old patches and get the pieces I`d missed with better techniques and more advanced detectors. Never a dull moment with this crazy hobby we are into and who would have it any different.

I have to admit I am envious of the life style you are describing. Things are so different here as you know. Yes, we have vast deserts and other landscapes here to explore as well, but the gold rich areas are much more centered around smaller areas, at least those that produce good size nuggets, and we lack the access to vast goldfields like you are having in Au. Also, the gold is generally much smaller and getting anything bigger than an ounce is extremely rare. Once the stupid pandemic is over I will plan an extended Au-trip with a few friends, just like many other DP members have done before. Who knows, perhaps one day we will have some good coffee together. 😁  

1 minute ago, mn90403 said:

The desert in Arizona is spelled Mohave.  The desert in California is spelled Mojave.

Aha got it, thanks 👍

25 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

MoHave is in Arizona

mmmmm....you mean Mojave desert but the part that is in AZ? Or Mohave County, AZ?

Greater Randsburg area? 

2 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

This was my best sunbaker from 2012.  It has 1.5 ounces of gold with a total weight of 3.5 ounces

Stunning!! Mojave desert?

That's a great attitude and mentality norvic. Unfortunately, here in the US there are not many of these undiscovered countries left. As off the grid, I prefer truck campers. There you have high clearance with full off-road capbilities, but no trailer. Earthroamers are cool. About 1 Million. I bet they throw-in a high-end espresso machine.

25 minutes ago, Norvic said:

What the hell are you fellas on about, what`s a shower?

Since lady's won't be around (at least I am guessing they aren't), shower is just optional, espresso isn't 😅

3 hours ago, Gold Hound said:

Melted it today.

I just melt them all now, I just couln't be bothered trying to sell as is. The only gold I dont melt now is crystal gold.

I understand the reasoning. But it would break my heart having to melt such a wonderful nugget. Unless of course I would find them all the time....