Quick

That is a big drill!! Not to change the subject. I worked with some guys that drilled the Bart under the bay in California. The things they found while drilling were very cool. They drilled though numerous ships that had been sunk during the gold rush to make way for more ships. Root

Not a problem 1515art just thought is was funny. Happy new year,Root

Looks like dirt to me! On a more serious note look at it with a loop that might give you a clue. You could tell if it is porphyritic. Root

I have been called a lot of things but never a Reno Chris haha Root

From what I have learned vugs are crystal lined pockets but I think it was just from the men I have worked around If it didn't have crystals in it it was a void or cavitie. Vugs are not a indicator but they are worth checking out. They just give room for the minerals to forum. Google up the Cresson vug from Cripple Creek Colorado. What dreams are made of. Coal is carbon and gold loves to presipatate onto carbon. I have found gold in slate,schist and cinnabar. I have seen gold that has been found in limestone,coal,calcite and the craziest, in a piece of basalt??? All I can figure is the basalt flowed over a sunbaker. Root

Interesting stuff. For the larger nuggets to fourm the reducing agent would have to be weak this way the gold would preceptate slower. A lesser number of nucleation sites will also help with larger nuggets being formed. This means the host rock must cool quickly.Crystals have to cool slow or the atoms don't line up yet most of the gold pockets I have found have been in a vug with crystals. Or as we know minerals must leach to give room to forum large nuggets in secondary inrichments. All that mud in a gold pocket is what is left of the minerals thar formed with the gold. At depth the below the oxidized zone the minerals are not broken down and the gold in the pockets is usually not in crystal forum. The reason I know is because I have found them. The more gold you find the more you learn IF you slow down and pay attention. Crazy stuff and fun to think about. Root

The oldtimers learned where and why the gold occured in a given area. Pay close attention to where they dug. Jasong make sure you check any rusty red ground or or a spot of groud that is different color also. Might have no or just a small amount of quartz with it. You will also want to prospect any dikes sometimes the gold will be with these and not the quartz vein. Also try to identify any mineral you find you just never know. Most of the time it will only pay to prospect the dikes near the quartz veins. But who knows? Like I keep saying Contacts,Contacts,Contacts!!! My prospecting kit has gotten smaller the older and wiser I get. I use a rubber diaphragm off of a air brake pod for a pan. I take a small piece of lanolium with me to split my samples on. A little bit of 30 mesh sceeen and a small mortar a pestal made out of the bottom of a mercury flask and a piece of drill steel. It is a lot lighter than anything I could find to buy. I cut my samples out of the veins,dikes or the good looking rusty ground. Make sure you take a cut the whole way across the vein. Say you have a 2 foot wide vein sometimes the pay might only be in 6 in. of it. Also take 2 or 3 inches of the hanging and foot wall the gold often occurs at these contacts.Then I crush and screen them on the spot. I then spread them out on the lanolium in a pie shape. I only take 1/8 of a 12 inch pie to camp to pan. I sometimes I have water close if so I will pan the sample there. If not some times I will try to look at what is left of the sample with a 10x loop. I also do this to some of the quartz before I crush it. You would be surprised at the gold you will sometimes see. I should of payed attention when I was younger! I would go prospecting with a oldtimer and he would do assays on the spot. He had a small metal suitcase with him. In it were about a dozen or so different little jars of powders and liquids,a set of scales, small clay cups and a stove. We didn't use it if the weather was bad. Wish I had that setup now with the knowledge of how to use it. Good luck,Root

I have used Dexpan and S-mite. The main problems I had with it is,it dosent work unless there is relief. Trying to do tunnel work with it just didn't happen. I have broke a lot of ground with it on the surface. You must drill alot of holes for it to work with some rock types. Used it one time by a dam in 6 foot deep 2 inch holes it started popping rocks at us before we got all the holes filled. You have to use the right activator with it. If you use the wrong stuff it can be to hot or to cold. To hot and it starts working to fast to cold and it won't work at all. Jasong you can try using a feather and wedge also but for production forget it. I had to do this once on a 1/2 ton quartz rock down on the river that had gold in it.

I have found that recovery rate from the bowls are at 95% also. When I first used them in the recovey circuit I used two. One after the other,the second one didn't have enough gold in it to pay to run it. Root

My rough estimate of gold per ton. I take 4oz.of quartz,crush it to 30 or 40 mesh minus. Pan it until all you have is the concentrate left. If all the gold adds up to about the size of a sesame seed I figure it is running 1oz.to the ton. Just remember this is a rough estamate. The best way to confirm this is to mill a ton of it or better yet 10 or 20 ton of it. I also always send the con off to get checked to see if there is anything else of vaule in it. By sending the con you won't know how much per ton it will be. If something looks good. I do more tests on it. Also look at the minerals that are in the con with a 10x loop. You might find a mineral that is running with the gold that is easier to follow than the gold because there is more of it or it is bigger. Root

It all depends on the rock in a soft rotten vein it is possible but most of these veins get harder as you go down. A large excavator would be a better tool for the job. Less dirt moved and you can shelf off to go deeper. As for soild rock it would be hard for even a large D-8 to get enough traction to push or rip anything. It would not work with a excavator eather.You must first blast the ground. If you don't your going to be breaking your equipment. Large Jack hammers on excavators also tear up the equipment. Never buy a excavator that has been used with a jackhammer! When I do this I use a excavator I take the rock away from the footwall side first then come back and removed the vein. I take a bit of the hanging wall too. Gold likes to deposit between the hanging wall and the vein at times. The same with the footwall. This makes for a cleaner product no need to mix it with the waste and lower the grade of the ore. I hope this answers your question but without seeing what you are going to be mining it is hard to make a assumption. Have a heavy equipment operator look at it he will know the best way to tackle the job. Root

It can be easier to find the ore shoots if the veins and country rock are exposed. Look for areas of contact. There can be a ton of different ways this can occur. What I try to find is where you have a contact of two types of country rock. Lets say greenstone and slate. Sometimes the slate will be on one side of the vein and greenstone on the other but I like it better if they are running up aginst the vein both from the same side and the quartz vain has cut them or has ran into one and turned a bit.Even better is to have a dike hitting the quartz vain in or near this contact. Usually there will be a solution seam that has brought the gold into this ore shoot.It may be nothing more than a crack usually full of mud or iron. It will be coming out of the county rock or runing with a dike. Where it stays with the quartz will be the shoot. Sometimes it can cross it quickly and the shoot will be smaller than if it runs on more of a angle like close to the strike of the vein. There are just so many different ways ore shoots can forum but what most have in common is they are at contacts. The more contacts the better the chance for a ore shoot. Also think of a quartz vein as a stream if it turns,widens or gets narrow the gold falls out of solution and gets deposited just like in a stream. Gold does not all ways deposit in these contacts or changes. It is just the best places to look first. Root

Jim I mill my own rock. I do use gravity for the getting the concentrates. Or the best thing I have found are Knudson bowls they seem to get a high percentage of the heavy stuff. Jasong It is hard to answer your questions about pockets without seeing the structure that you are working on. You must always try to figure out why the gold is pocketing in that area. There will be a indacator. Once that is determined it is easier to follow the shoot. It may be nothing more than a crack in the rock or a rusty seam but it will prospect. You may only get one color per pan but you have to follow it to the next pocket. I have all ways found more than one pocket usually the further apart they are the bigger they have been. Almost all of them have been within 12 feet of the last one. The more gold pockets you find the more you will learn about what makes them forum in the area you are working. It will make it easier to find the next one. I'm assuming the vuggy pocket you found was close to the surface. If this is the case the other minerals leached out and left the gold behind but this is only a assumption.With out seeing it I'm only guessing. When most pockets are found there is usually a lot of mud in with them this is the other minerals that formed with the gold. I have not mined far from where I grew up and live so I can only give you advice on my experience from within a small mining district. Every district seems to have its own set of rules as to why the gold forums the way that it does and sometimes the individual mines within a district will not follow these rules. When you find gold in a pocket learn all you can about why it is there. If it were easy everybody would be doing it. Reseach is 90% of becoming successfull at mining in a new area.Finding the clues within the reports from the past can be just as fun as finding that first pocket. Root

The tricks of the trade are usually only Givin to those that have put in the time. I could write all day on them. One of the best books I have seen on the subject,that have most of them in it,is a book by Koehler S. Stout "The Profitable Small Mine" you will find what you need in this book. You can find it on Amazon. I have mined in old workings mostly,but I have been lucky enough to find a few of my own that the oldtimers missed. Mostly I work mines that throw pockets. Once the frist pocket is found it is only a matter of staying on the shoot line to find more. It is also usually a smaller vein that makes them. They are easier to work with a one or two man operation and the out lay is small and profit is higher.The milling costs are small too. Most of the gold is found in bunches of high grade rock,so milling is usually only done with a few ton that has surrounded the pocket. One of the best pieces of advise I can give is to do your research on the area that you are interested in. Try to find out what made the ore shoots in your area. You must learn how to read the ground. In most places there is a geologic structure that causes the gold to occur in rich enough quality to make a profit. These are at the contacts of a dike and quartz with a third leg that is usually a small seam of iron or calcium or??? If you ask me assays are a waste of time unless you can do hundreds of them. I crush the rock I'm interested in and pan it. I have done it enough that I can give a good estimate of what it runs in free gold. As for the sulfide or telluride ore it must be sent off for assay. I have used detectors under ground in the search for gold and I have had success in doing it,but I think the pan is a better tool for this type of prospecting. Root

I have been hardrock mining most of my life. I must say it is a hard way to make a living but the rewards can be good at times. It has taken years of learning and a lot of prying the tricks of the trade out of the oldtimers to become successful at it. It is also very expensive. The last time I worked the mine it was costing 1200.00 a foot in a 5x7 foot drift. That is including track,ties,waterline, airline,powder,fuse,caps,drill steel and fuel. I never estimated the milling cost. One of the biggest problems now days is putting up the money to get powder. The government wants you to get separate permits for each component you use in blasting. You must also have a certified powder box and they are pricey. On top of that you must also have the powder delivered by the powder company. The last time the delivery fee was $1000.00. I'm not trying to discourage anybody from doing it. There are areas that have the right geology that can be mined with less cost. I worked a mine years ago that was in some very soft ground. I was able to take out the ore shoot with electric jack hammers,but I did have the cost of timbering it. It is one heck of alot of fun when you are on the gold. But very expensive and stressful when you are not! Root

Other than them both making your teeth fall out, I'm not sure. I can tell you the amount of cons you would need to make a profit is huge. I'm always amazed at the risk people will take to get a bit of gold. Your heath is more important than any amount of gold,please keep that in mind. Root

The only force that it opened up for those of us in my area,was a new breed of wild eyed claim jumper....It has slowed down now and hopefully it stays that way. Root

You would think we would get fortune cookies on a prospecting forum!

I have used the coin/relic timings with some success on the beaches in Oregon. In two days of detecting I dug 3 copper ship rivets and one silver quarter. Plus about 125 pennies and clad coins. It also loves aluminum. One large rivet was about 30 inches deep and the quarter was at 15 inches. I also used the stock DD coil and set the discriminator on full. Without digging everything I have no idea how well it was working. I have tried this timing elsewhere around old homesteads but the ground was just to mineralized to run it. So I use the Normal timings and have done well with it looking for coins/relics. In this case you will need to use a small DD coil to navigate around the trash. I don't believe I have used the coin/relic timings enough to give much of a report no it. But I would use it again in low mineralized areas looking for coins and such. Root

It's a secret.

Cool stuff I really like the hand made pan. But the whole setup being from your gramps makes it even better. Root

Way to go Paul!!

What are you looking for coins or nuggets? With a 18in DD coil I would use the Normal or Sharp timings for the best depth. I prefer to run the detector in fixed GB on the front panel I think it gives me more depth. Run it in general on the back. Tracking in Medium for a DD coil. The rest of the settings are going to be set by the type of ground you are detecting over. Try to get the detector running smooth by adjusting the gain stabilizer,motion and audio. To start out try gain 8-12 Stabilizer 2 numbers down from your gain setting. Motion slow or medium Audio normal With a DD coil you must swing it slow. It is not possible to GB on a target to eliminate that size target. If you did this all you would be doing is putting your detector out of GB and this would cause you to loose depth and miss targets. Above all read the manual and try to find someone to give you instructions out in the field.

The silver colored part is more than likely Galena a silver,lead ore.

Greedy Governments!