Gold Prospecting
The Ultimate Game of Hide and Seek
Many books and articles have been written about gold prospecting and gold recovery. They offer a general idea of the most likely places to find and collect gold flakes and small nuggets. Most rivers and streams that are mentioned, are the ones that flow through known gold bearing regions. The gold flakes are liberated from there host rock by many types of natural occurrences such as: Erosion, Freezing and Thawing, Glacial slides, etc. These gold flakes and small nuggets are discovered in the creeks and rivers by test panning and visibly looking at the material for noticeable gold particles. This is called: Looking for color. When gold particles are seen in the test panning, then it is obvious that the area is a good place to collect many more gold flakes and possibly small nuggets if the prospector digs enough sand and dirt.
The biggest problem with all of this known information and the articles and books and discussions, etc, Is this: No one ever mentions the vast majority of the well hidden gold that is usually much more abundant and yields much more reward for the effort. There are literally thousands of prospectors out there searching for gold and finding limited amounts simply because they have no idea how much gold they missed or actually put back in its environment because they did not see the color. Looking for color is very important but it cannot be the final determining factor of whether or not gold is actually present in the region. Not seeing any color, Usually causes prospectors to assume the area is not worthwhile and so they go somewhere else and look for color.
I am going to mention several facts in this paragraph that will clarify many misunderstandings about liberated, placer gold. This information will be very helpful to all of you that are serious about prospecting and collecting more gold. Fact number one: Gold that actually looks like gold, has been moving around in the river sands within the last decade or so. Gold particles that are staged in the river bank gravels are layered there based on the flood stage, high water flow that brought them there. The reason the gold particles have a bright golden color is because of the abrasion during storm movement. This is the case in all waterways that contain placer gold. Fact number two: Ancient river bed material has the potential of hiding much larger quantities of placer gold. These deposits are known as benches. These deposits are located at various levels above the present water flow level. Often times these layers can be identified by studying the eroded river banks and taking note of the sedimentary layers particularly the rusty looking layers that obviously contained large quantities of iron. As the river was cutting its pathway down through the earth, various old layers from centuries back can be observed. Fact number three: Digging and sampling the ancient gravels and sands will very seldom show bright, shiny gold particles. The gold from these layers will be hidden within rust and mineralization. Imagine a gold coin buried for centuries in a soil that contains iron and lime and many other minerals. If you were to dig it up and take a close look, would you expect it to look like gold? It would actually be coated with rust or mineralization based on the surrounding soil structure and the minerals within this matrix. Liberated gold particles and nuggets from centuries ago were traveling in a slurry of mud and various minerals until they became settled and trapped in specific layers based on particle weight and size. These gold particles blend in with their surrounding earth mineral colors, especially rust color.
Samples of material should be extracted from river banks by digging into and slightly below the rusty colored layers. These samples should be panned very carefully and the heaviest material should be closely inspected with a strong magnifying glass or scope. If gold is spotted hiding within this material then certain quantities should be excavated and placed into buckets and taken to a place where it can be carefully panned or sluiced for maximum recovery of this hidden gold. When you begin finding areas that have certain quantities of this hidden gold, you should excavate sections of this material in a horizontal pattern in line with the estimated sedimentary layer. This material can be placed in plastic buckets and taken home for processing.
The well hidden gold that you extract from these ancient benches is basically locked up in mineralization and the rusty, chunky pieces need to be thoroughly cleaned up and broken apart by a gentle chemical process. There are several safe chemicals that can be used for this. One of my favorites is: C.L.R., (stands for: Calcium, Lime, Rust), It is available at most hardware stores and large retail stores in the shower cleaning and detergents area. Another simple mixture of Sodium and White Vinegar, (Rock Salt and White Vinegar), Works very well. You simply stir in approx two cups full of this type of mild acid along with water to slurry all of the dry dirt that you have in the bucket. Now you put the bucket away for two or three days and let it soak and gently dissolve the minerals that are hiding the gold particles. After a few days you will need to add plenty of fresh water and stir vigorously to scrub the material and liberate the gold so that it can be extracted by panning or whatever method you prefer. Now the Hidden Gold will be visible and you have just won this game of Hide and Seek.
The Ultimate Game of Hide and Seek
Many books and articles have been written about gold prospecting and gold recovery. They offer a general idea of the most likely places to find and collect gold flakes and small nuggets. Most rivers and streams that are mentioned, are the ones that flow through known gold bearing regions. The gold flakes are liberated from there host rock by many types of natural occurrences such as: Erosion, Freezing and Thawing, Glacial slides, etc. These gold flakes and small nuggets are discovered in the creeks and rivers by test panning and visibly looking at the material for noticeable gold particles. This is called: Looking for color. When gold particles are seen in the test panning, then it is obvious that the area is a good place to collect many more gold flakes and possibly small nuggets if the prospector digs enough sand and dirt.
The biggest problem with all of this known information and the articles and books and discussions, etc, Is this: No one ever mentions the vast majority of the well hidden gold that is usually much more abundant and yields much more reward for the effort. There are literally thousands of prospectors out there searching for gold and finding limited amounts simply because they have no idea how much gold they missed or actually put back in its environment because they did not see the color. Looking for color is very important but it cannot be the final determining factor of whether or not gold is actually present in the region. Not seeing any color, Usually causes prospectors to assume the area is not worthwhile and so they go somewhere else and look for color.
I am going to mention several facts in this paragraph that will clarify many misunderstandings about liberated, placer gold. This information will be very helpful to all of you that are serious about prospecting and collecting more gold. Fact number one: Gold that actually looks like gold, has been moving around in the river sands within the last decade or so. Gold particles that are staged in the river bank gravels are layered there based on the flood stage, high water flow that brought them there. The reason the gold particles have a bright golden color is because of the abrasion during storm movement. This is the case in all waterways that contain placer gold. Fact number two: Ancient river bed material has the potential of hiding much larger quantities of placer gold. These deposits are known as benches. These deposits are located at various levels above the present water flow level. Often times these layers can be identified by studying the eroded river banks and taking note of the sedimentary layers particularly the rusty looking layers that obviously contained large quantities of iron. As the river was cutting its pathway down through the earth, various old layers from centuries back can be observed. Fact number three: Digging and sampling the ancient gravels and sands will very seldom show bright, shiny gold particles. The gold from these layers will be hidden within rust and mineralization. Imagine a gold coin buried for centuries in a soil that contains iron and lime and many other minerals. If you were to dig it up and take a close look, would you expect it to look like gold? It would actually be coated with rust or mineralization based on the surrounding soil structure and the minerals within this matrix. Liberated gold particles and nuggets from centuries ago were traveling in a slurry of mud and various minerals until they became settled and trapped in specific layers based on particle weight and size. These gold particles blend in with their surrounding earth mineral colors, especially rust color.
Samples of material should be extracted from river banks by digging into and slightly below the rusty colored layers. These samples should be panned very carefully and the heaviest material should be closely inspected with a strong magnifying glass or scope. If gold is spotted hiding within this material then certain quantities should be excavated and placed into buckets and taken to a place where it can be carefully panned or sluiced for maximum recovery of this hidden gold. When you begin finding areas that have certain quantities of this hidden gold, you should excavate sections of this material in a horizontal pattern in line with the estimated sedimentary layer. This material can be placed in plastic buckets and taken home for processing.
The well hidden gold that you extract from these ancient benches is basically locked up in mineralization and the rusty, chunky pieces need to be thoroughly cleaned up and broken apart by a gentle chemical process. There are several safe chemicals that can be used for this. One of my favorites is: C.L.R., (stands for: Calcium, Lime, Rust), It is available at most hardware stores and large retail stores in the shower cleaning and detergents area. Another simple mixture of Sodium and White Vinegar, (Rock Salt and White Vinegar), Works very well. You simply stir in approx two cups full of this type of mild acid along with water to slurry all of the dry dirt that you have in the bucket. Now you put the bucket away for two or three days and let it soak and gently dissolve the minerals that are hiding the gold particles. After a few days you will need to add plenty of fresh water and stir vigorously to scrub the material and liberate the gold so that it can be extracted by panning or whatever method you prefer. Now the Hidden Gold will be visible and you have just won this game of Hide and Seek.
