Prospecting Suggestions Please?

[flakmagnet]

Wondering if the 'cave' was the start of a drift mine.

The creek pics look as though they have been worked pretty heavily with all the throw rocks on the hillsides. 

Groveland is indeed great prospecting ground. Search your property carefully, there will be more clues.

Good luck.

[Jeff]

From the looks of the stacked rocks along the sides of Creek photos it was definitely worked hard a long time ago.  You need to locate an area that has more naturally laid down material on top of bedrock with out the stacked or pitched large rocks along creeksides.

Then do some test panning close to bedrock.  If you do not locate any color in a bucket (3-5 gal.) of 1\4" classified material, time to find another test site.......I would surely want to find evidence of some larger pieces of gold in the concentrated Creekbed via test panning before spending big money on a detector just for an unproven area.

[Lanny]

Hi there Longhn,

 "Top ground is red with quartz, then about one to two feet of thick clay, bed rock, then bolder underneath... I think there maybe some gold in the bed rock". How did the bedrock get above the boulders? Is this broken bedrock that was stacked by hand-mining? Usually, the bedrock is below the boulders forming a foundation for the boulders to work down to.

Have you found an literature on your area? For example, describing the material the gold runs in? For instance, smooth stream-worn rocks? Angular material? Only associated with larger material? Gold riding on the clay? False bedrock? These are all important things to know.

I see your "well" is spanned by what look to be old narrow-gauge mining rails?

Whatever you decide to do, remember the three rules of prospecting (after you've researched everything you can find about where the gold is usually found/what the gold travels with in your specific area: Rule 1, test. Rule 2, test. Rule 3, test.

I hope you find a good spot and get some nice gold, as for your tunnel, does it continue for any length? Is that conglomerate over the tunnel mouth? If so, did the gold run under the conglomerate?

Keep researching everything you can until you have/until you learn a few indicators to guide you in the search for gold in your area.

All the best,

Lanny