Box Elder County Utah

[paradiceau]

Do any of you know of any areas in  Box Elder Co. Utah known to have gold large enough to be considered "detectable"?

I have a friend who is under the impression that such gold exists there, I don't find evidence of such in my search thus far.

Any insight you may have is appreciated.

Thank you.

[Jim in Idaho]

 The only place I know there is the old, I think it was called, the Texas Mining district in the old days. It had gold, but was mainly silver. It included the Vipont mine, which is privately owned, and they don't like trespassers. I've done considerable prospecting in and around the old PegLeg mine on the Idaho border..literally, right on the border, and just a short distance north of the Vipont. It was gold/silver. And this summer, about 5 miles north of there, a company from Nevada had a drilling operation going on, but after talking to them I got the feeling they were not finding the gold that the company that hired them hoped was there. The drilling crew kept pestering us about any gold we might have found. They wouldn't do that unless they weren't finding any. There currently, in the ICMJ magazine, is an old gold mine for sale north of Rosette, over at the base of the mountains. It was a fairly large operation. I think he was asking a couple of million. There's also a trommell setup on the south side of the hiway just east of Park Valley. I've always wondered if it was a gold operation. That area east of PV has a LOT of volcanics, and is not far from the Blackpine district in Idaho, which was a gold mining area. I think there also were some gold claims at what is now City of Rocks National Reserve, but no digging is now allowed. All this, of course, is in the western part of a very large county. I know nothing about the portion over towards Logan.

Jim

[MSC]

I have tried but have not so far, found any detectable gold in Utah. I have found several areas that contain quarts and detected some of those areas but so far nothing. There is find gold to be found in some streams. 

[paradiceau]

Jim and MSC, thank you both for your input, it is appreciated!

[Jim in Idaho]

1 hour ago, paradiceau said:

Jim and MSC, thank you both for your input, it is appreciated!

Keep us updated if you find anything worthwhile. Maybe between the 3 of us we can do some good.

Jim

[jasong]

21 hours ago, MSC said:

I have tried but have not so far, found any detectable gold in Utah. I have found several areas that contain quarts and detected some of those areas but so far nothing. There is find gold to be found in some streams. 

There is stuff up to rice grain size supposedly up on those mesas below the La Sals by Moab, VLF could hit it. A long time back I found some old photos of miners running a long tom further up towards the mountains and it seems they mentioned some kind of coarse gold there too. Not sure it's plentiful enough to detect, but a GB2 or whatever else would hear it if so.  I never got up there as I was mostly dredging back then across the Colorado border. The San Miguel and Dolores across the border have large flake and occasional small pickers and nuggets, I'd see stuff while dredging I could pick up with my fingers.  

Pretty sure I remember reading they used to find larger nuggets around what is now the Bingham Canyon mine too, as it started out a placer. Not sure if that entire area got turned into an open pit or if there might still be some parts of the placer remaining somewhere if a guy looked around, or if there is even accessible land there or not. 

[abenson]

15 minutes ago, jasong said:

Pretty sure I remember reading they used to find larger nuggets around what is now the Bingham Canyon mine too, as it started out a placer. Not sure if that entire area got turned into an open pit or if there might still be some parts of the placer remaining somewhere if a guy looked around, or if there is even accessible land there or not. 

Placer gold was discovered at the mouth of Bingham Canyon in 1864 approximately 72,000 ounces of placer deposits were recovered with the biggest nugget being over 7 ounces. By 1870 most of the placer deposits had been depleted. The Rio Tinto mine owns all the property at the mouth of Bigham Canyon and I doubt they would let anyone on it. It's most likely been completely mined at this point anyway.

Over the mountain is the Mercur Mine. Placer deposits were also discovered at this area but has since been open pit mined. It's possible some placer deposits could exist down the canyon father, but I've never heard of any being found.

[GeoBill]

About 30 years ago when I was doing some work more to the SW, there was active gold exploration in the Drum Mountain. In Millard County.

Found this Utah Geological Survey Open File Report in my files which might be of some help

Mines and Prospects Containing Gold in Utah
UGS OFR-207

ofr-207.pdf

[MSC]

There is a good paper book called " Gold Panning in Utah" written by Alan Chenworth, first printing in 2007. Very good guide for finding fine gold in 25-30 streams in Utah. Very detailed as he has been to every stream/river in the state that he reports on. Give a history of finding gold in the state, claims that the largest nugget found was 1+ ounce that he knew of.  

 I have been to the Drum Mountains, again not finding detectable gold, but may try again someday in a different area around there. Thanks for the article GeoBill. 

[Jim in Idaho]

2 hours ago, GeoBill said:

About 30 years ago when I was doing some work more to the SW, there was active gold exploration in the Drum Mountain. In Millard County.

Found this Utah Geological Survey Open File Report in my files which might be of some help

Mines and Prospects Containing Gold in Utah
UGS OFR-207

ofr-207.pdf 43.27 MB · 3 downloads

That's right, Bill. I'd forgotten about the Millard County. Had a buddy working at the mines around Millford, too. Mostly copper, but gold was produced, too. Though the OP asked about Box Elder county, this thread has morphed into all of Utah...LOL

Jim