So right now I’d like to talk about gold site surveys.
You know, where would I find gold on this site?
Hi, I’m Prospector Jess. I’m here from Hunting4Gold and I’m here to help you find more gold. On our page “Hunting for Gold,” on Facebook we have a question and answer area.
So, Grant asked, “Where would you dig [for gold?]”
And William answered “that bar on the left side of the shot” [or the picture] you see the bar is this red curve that goes around all the sand and gravel. It’s piled up in the center of the stream bed as it curves around the corner. Let’s take a closer look at this site and some of the attributes of various places on it. At first it just looks like an ordinary meandering stream heading around the corner and turning to the left, but if you look a little closer, you’re going to see a few things like this pile of gravel on the side here.
You notice how the rocks are sharp and how the soil that’s basically forming that riverbank is all dusty and uncompacted and unconcreted. That’s an important clue. We’ll talk about a little later, but basically what it indicates is that you might find some gold under there, but not likely because this was all laid down in a flood and when it laid down the flood settled the gold below this. This is what we would call overburden. This section over here, you notice the rounded cobbles, those that would indicate that those have been in the stream bed floating around for a while, getting rounded instead of this angular appearance over here. That’s an important little factor, a clue that you want to keep in mind when you look at a placer stream bed or a gold site.
Now that rounding and the size of the cobbles would also indicate that somewhere along, and here’s where some larger gold particles might settle out as it curves around the corner, driven by what’s been called the helical flow. You’ll find “helical flow” in a report I have elsewhere.
Now I want to call your attention to these two trees in the background, actually it is three trees. This one right here and these two connected together at all intertwined. Those trees are being eroded at their base, into the stream bed. They over the years, may have locked in some prior gold that got trapped in their roots. That’s an important place to look for gold down underneath them. In this area here and in this area right here, you want to make sure you don’t disturb the trees, but you can still look where the roots had been eroded and check to see if there aren’t nuggets locked in. That’s a great place for metal detecting. For example,
I want to call your attention to another area that’s kind of not quite as visible. You see back in the forest there, there’s a lower section lower than the stream bed is currently, but the stream doesn’t flow through it. Now imagine what this looks like. If the stream we’re flooding, this whole area would fill in and that water would rush down through here and probably cross over this road bed back here, downstream here, somewhere flowing in the same general direction, but the fact is that the water, the heavy floodwaters would go out and settled through here and would have done so a long time ago. In fact, the Stream is actually eroding it’s way into this bank, but may have flowed through here in times prehistoric, so to speak. It’s important to keep that in mind when you’re looking at gold placer streams.
You’re not just looking where it flows now, think flood and then think where it might flowed before and they’ll part of what you want to look for the different layers in these areas here to see if he seen he rounded cobbles or compacting, concreting of the material that would tell you about an ancient flow. Something to keep your eyes out for.
So, Where would you dig?
This has been Prospector Jess asking you this question. Thanks, Grant for bringing it up. It’s a good idea and thanks William for engaging with us. I look forward to more of this from the rest of you guys out there on the “Hunting for Gold” page and that’s our “Gold Site Survey” for today.
Thanks a lot and as always –
Good Prospecting!
Prospector Jess – over and out.
P.S. Another tip when sampling for gold on a site like this, dig to bedrock, the gold will concentrate there in a flood.
