Question About Tailings Piles

[Jesse]

I'm relatively new to metal detecting tailings, my experience is more with bedrock. I've found several spots close by that are old historical mining sites. My problem is I don't know what to look for, do you go to the big cobbles or smaller rocks? I've attached a few pictures hopefully they make sense. Thank you in advance.

[2Valen]

I agree with phrunt on this as he is correct about the larger rocks, unless you plan to separate all those large rocks nice and even.

I would hit the smaller stuff and then dig down a ways to the layers below it so as not to miss anything.

[Jesse]

Thank you, I'll check it out and hopefully find something they missed.😀

[Jim McCulloch]

Jesse, but then again big cobbles can often hold LOTS of gold. A buddy of mine found a cobble about a foot wide that the oldtimers had had placed on a claim marker,  that had 26 oz of small gold in it. And Jimmy Sierra found similar piece with 27 oz in it. So, feel free to detect the big cobbles, too, you have my permission!😊

[Gold Catcher]

I usually use my VLF with iron meter for tailing pile hunting. Using the Zed will drive you crazy unless your hobby is junk digging 😉

[Gold Catcher]

It's always being said that hunting tailing piles, and header piles, is so effective. I can't speak for others, but in my experience this has rarely paid off and mostly is a giant waste of time. With sensitive pi or zvt detectors you will spend most of your time digging out trash. Really fun to recover tiny screen wires with the Zed and the 14 in coil. VLF and iron meter with small coil is the only way to be productive here in my view. I know this may sound provocative to some 🙂

[Steve Herschbach]

Most of the gold I have detected has come from tailing piles, several pounds worth. The net take away from it all is that you can find gold in any of it and can’t discount anything. The spot no one else will hunt is where the last remaining nugget waits. That said, the decision to hunt large cobbles or not largely depends on the historical production of the creek. The average trommel has holes around 2 - 2.5 inch in size. If the creek produced lots of large gold that would not fit through that screen you’d be crazy not to hunt the cobbles. If on the other hand the creek produced nothing but smaller gold, then the cobbles are a poor bet. Research is the key.

In general because small gold is more common than large gold your odds at finding any gold at all is better in the smaller material. But aren’t we all in this to make the big score? If you want to find big gold you have to go where the big gold is, and most spectacular finds, though rare, come out of the cobbles. But I have to reiterate, if the creek has no history of large gold the odds are very low in the cobbles.

Three days detecting in tailing piles

[oneguy]

Yes indeed....hunt every inch of it!!!!

[WesD]

Gravely smaller tailing piles that were shoveled out at the end of Long Toms and Sluices, can be great.

 

[Andyy]

3 hours ago, Gold Catcher said:

I usually use my VLF with iron meter for tailing pile hunting. Using the Zed will drive you crazy unless your hobby is junk digging 😉

And if the smaller gravel piles have a lot of iron in them, use a rake with strong magnets on the teeth.  This will help you spend less time digging trash.