Chris Ben

Lol the other day I started at the head of a small but long wash. Within 5 ft picked up a nugget. Looked down the 50 yards of remaining wash, and thought "oh yeah, patch time" . Nothing else the rest of the way, or the day for that matter!! Lolol. 

Chris 

Yes please, put me in!!

Thank you. Chris 

Geeze Jason, sorry to hear that. It's such bullshit.  If there is anything we can do, let us know. Did you look at all the sale websites? 

Very educational thread, with that being said, if it wasn't for clipping the cord on the GPZ I probably would have already purchased a 10in x coil.

Chris 

Cool looking little nugget,  great catch!

Keep at it!!

Dave was kind enough to say "we" put the video together, but that was all him!! Great job Dave. All I did was find more gold lol. Jk. 

Chris 

Best of luck, keep us posted on your adventure!

Chris 

Great haul there!!

1 hour ago, Jim Hemmingway said:

Hi Chris… it’s a subjective decision, but for whatever it’s worth I wouldn’t do any treatment to your sample. It displays well and is otherwise quite an attractive specimen in its current state. Dave hopefully can satisfactorily identify it for you shortly. 

It is not a simple task to identify your mineral based on a photograph. A black streak test result implies a mineral compound, and not strictly a native metal. Some non-metal minerals do react to both VLF and PI units, producing good metalliferous type signals. In northeastern Ontario, these include solidly structured pyrrhotite, niccolite, cobalt, safflorite, skutterudite, and quite a number of potential silver-cobalt-nickel-iron-arsenide mineral permutations that you will never encounter in generally circulated mineralogical texts.

The silver mineral combinations are sufficiently complex and numerous as to require a reference list from the local museum, and more sophisticated identification techniques are required than the common mineral field tests normally available to hobbyists. We can easily imagine that such minerals would present insurmountable identification issues for hobbyists in the field and certainly the same applies in the context of forum discussion here.

Many of these minerals freshly exposed would produce a similar appearance to the silvery material in your photo. But the primarily cobalt-nickel-iron-arsenide related minerals do not necessarily account for the black host material in your photo with any real confidence. And frankly, I have no idea if these mineral types potentially even exist in your search areas.

There are other suggestions above, such as the enriched copper sulfides (bornite-covellite-chalcocite) that do produce VLF target signals, but do not react to my PI units. Unfortunately I’m not familiar with GPZ responses to various minerals because we have no hands-on experience with it to date.

Attached are a few mineral examples mentioned in this thread including a photo of low-grade cuprite (it’s all I’ve got). Chris R. above makes a perfectly viable case for this mineral’s consideration. Thanks for an interesting topic, it’s been an enjoyable diversion to post our possible solutions for you!!! 

On 1/8/2019 at 7:46 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

Possibly chalcocite, another conductive copper mineral, and dark grey color more the norm.

17 hours ago, Bob(AK) said:

Chris, you now have several possibilities and I'll throw in another, covellite, closely related to 

Steve's  idea of chalcocite. What we collect is usually blue but I have seen some so dark it looks black.

On 1/7/2019 at 9:45 PM, Reno Chris said:

Sometimes cuprite can appear very dark gray, almost black. Its real hard to do mineral ID by a simple photo - even a good clear one. Cuprite will make your detector sound off at a good distance.  Cuprite is a copper mineral that conducts electricity like a metal. Its often a very dark red but can range to a dark gray almost silver color.

These were the test results on the scan

9 hours ago, Reno Chris said:

Sometimes cuprite can appear very dark gray, almost black. Its real hard to do mineral ID by a simple photo - even a good clear one. Cuprite will make your detector sound off at a good distance.  Cuprite is a copper mineral that conducts electricity like a metal. Its often a very dark red but can range to a dark gray almost silver color.

Thanks Chris, it definitely looks like a copper mineral. I'll keep trying to figure out what it is.

Hi Jim, thanks for your reply. Your specimens look great. I did a streak test, and it was black. Maybe it was the silver sulfide coating? My PI ,or the GPZ did pick it up from over a foot, so not sure. Also is there anything I should do the the specimen? To clean? Thank you

Chris

The more you find. The better you get!! Congratulations 

Chris 

Went out detecting with my buddy Dave today, looking for a new spot. He killed it with 7 grams of gold. I did get a signal on a slope. 2 or 3 inches down to bedrock. The signal improved, but a I chipped away the bedrock it got stronger and stronger. Finally over a foot deep I break out a piece of quartz with copper mineral. It is screaming on my GPZ and on Dave's GB 2 also on a pin pointer. We go back to the truck I smash it open and find a silvery metal inside. It is also heavy for its size. About the size of a small plum. I didn't think Galena was very reactive on a detector?

Any ideas ?

Chris 

So I was able to make it out for a half day yesterday of detecting. The plan was to start at an old wash I had found a few nuggets. Hit really low and slow, jamming the coil under all the bushes. I must have done a good job before...no luck. I did see a new wash I never hit before and thought I'd give it a try. Hit a 1 g nugget right of the bat and figured I was on a new patch. NOPE lol. My super power seems to be finding lone random nuggets,  not patches. 

I had an hour and half left before I had to go, so I decided to hit an area that has trash, and most people assume has been pounded. Its below an area of scraping and full of drywasher piles. I tried to look at the area from a different perspective and not automatically go to the washes. The plan worked. I picked the 2 small species back to back and then had to work a little harder to find the last nugget of the year. 2.8g. It was a foot down and not a solid signal to start with.

2018 was a tough year, because 2017 I picked all the low lying fruit with my new then GPZ 7000. Now I have to work a little harder, think more, and explore more. But I figure this is what makes us better prospectors. My buddy Dave and I have tried to explore and expand new areas with very limited success lol. But we will keep trying. 2019 will be a tough year as well because I have a couple of surgeries scheduled, but I'm sure I'll make the most of it. 

Happy New Year everyone!!

Chris

On 12/10/2018 at 12:52 AM, vanursepaul said:

I learned a trick from a WA prospector this year that keeps the flies out of my face and ears---

He said, "You just do a little poo in your pants and they won't come around your head!"

Are they biting flies? Or just irritating?

Wow, great big speci!! Find any other nuggets,  or just the big one?

Chris

4 hours ago, brogansown said:

The BB is possibly a spatter ball from a crucible used to check purity of an ore sample.  I have found a number of BB's on the walls of these crucibles thrown behind the sampling lab.  The crucibles were only used once and then thrown away.  Often the lab guy would miss the spatters up on the sides-sometimes hidden by the flux.  Good find Chris. 

Thanks. I really feel it was a natural formation. It was attached to one of those 4 nuggets, and came free only after a soak in CLR. Plus this was in an area with no signs of man made structures with the exception of a few drywash piles and excavation pits. 

Chris

14 minutes ago, phrunt said:

The BB is really weird, I've never thought to use CLR to clean my gold, nice idea, fortunately most of my gold is already pretty clean and shiny just with a wash in water.

I wonder how the BB formed, if it was natural, it doesn't seem like it could be...

I know the feeling Dave is having, I'm on my longest skunk I've ever had at the moment..... every attempt brings me nothing, it's a bit disheartening.  I got to the point last time I had to check my detector was working by borrowing some of the many nuggets JW had just found in the past hour or so to test I would of found them and yep, no issues with the detector, it's all just me ?  I'm guessing it's been 40 hours of detecting with not even a flake. 

Stay on it !! You are just building up Karma for a big score. There were many days Dave was killing it and offering me a "mercy " nugget lol. The BB was natural somehow it was attached to other nugget. 

Chris

Hi guys, Dave and I had time for a short hunt Sunday. Dave had scoped out a new area that when we got there looked promising. Unfortunately no luck at all. One of these days we will find a new area. 

I then suggested we head back to a spot that had a bunch of trash, but a lit of mining done in the past. I got lucky and found a couple small pieces in some old drywash tailings. Another piece on a slope, and a 1.2 g nugget in an old hole. 

Dave went of in a different direction and had no luck...he really needs to pick up his game, he's been slacking lol I've been on the no luck side many times when he has scored. Hunting with Dave is great because if one of us happens on a patch, we'll radio each other to join in on the fun. It all even out in the end. Good karma lol.

When I got home I soaked the 4 nuggets in some CLR, and when I took them out there were 5. One was a perfectly formed BB of gold... weird!!

I posted before about a quartz specimen I found detecting, decided it wasn't worth keeping as a specimen so I crushed it up, and panned it.  It was better than I thought. 7.7 grams.

Cheers, 

Chris 

6 minutes ago, LipCa said:

I wouldn't do anything to those pieces except maybe clean them in a ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. 

If you can't dissolve the quartz completely, the quartz that is left no longer looks natural and distracts from the specimen.

Those are not the pieces, I just soaked in clr for a bit. This big quartz is the one I'm soaking in Whink. There are many spots of gold in the quartz, mostly small, But I think there is not enough gold to keep as a specimen. I may just crush it.  Thank you for advice. 

Hi all. I made it out Sunday for a nice hunt. Great weather temp wise, maybe a little windy. I want back to the wash I found the nuggets in a couple of weeks back, and was able to squeak out 1 more. I tried to expand the area but not luck. I picked up and headed to an area that has been mined a lot, full of trash, but I figure must be full of gold. Wow I really am amazed what the GPZ is capable of.  2 of the nuggets I found really amazed me, size and depth. 1 of those I was detecting a drywash header pile and got a small repeatable signal. I kept raking back the rocks, still getting the signal till I got to virgin ground under the pile, 6 more inches down I pulled out a sub gram nugget. Amazing. 

All 4 for the day added up to 3.8 grams.

Now to the question,  I've been soaking that big quartz specimen I found in Wink for about a month now, it is exposing more gold, very slowly. How long do I soak? Do I need to refresh the wink? The longer I soak it the more quartz will dissolve? 

Thanks Chris 

Great photos and great story. Congratulations on no skunk!!

Chris 

Not much help for you, but I am a Canadian citizen, but just been living in Las Vegas for 40 years. I'm also half Newfie so be careful ? lol. Good luck out there, keep us posted on your success!

Chris 

So all week long I was fantasizing about the new spot I found where I found the 2 deep nickels on bedrock,  and after hearing the stories about Prospectors putting a nickel in the ground to replace a nugget I figured I was on to a new hotspot...

Well, it was a big bust. The 20 ft of wash I detected was the only part that had anything. Scouting new areas is either hero or zero. It's been zero for me for a while. 

I gave up on the new spot and decided to hit an old area where we have had some success. I decided to drive in a different way, and hit it from a new direction, to maybe see things from a different perspective. I ended up in a wash where my buddy Dave had pulled a couple out of a year ago. By the time I realized I was in that same wash, I was already digging targets. Maybe the monsoons moved some stuff around, because I know Dave hardly misses a crumb. After I dug my first nugget, a 2g chunk I slowed it down and moved the coil under all the shrubs in the wash. That was where I found the other 2 nuggets. A nice patch of 3. And I prevented another skunk. Tried to take a video of the last dig, not sure if I will post. 

I like the quartz one.

Cheers, Chris