Somebody has to be doing something

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Jim_Alaska
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Re: Somebody has to be doing something

Post by Jim_Alaska » Sat Sep 01, 2018 3:07 am

That's what Steve Herschbach always said Harry. In order to find gold with a detector you have to get the coil over it. :lol: Sounds simple, but it is the hardest part, aside from patience, which I am weak on.
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Re: Somebody has to be doing something

Post by delnorter » Sat Sep 01, 2018 2:49 pm

Thanks for helping the new forum along Harry.

Wow, very nice gold. I think you’ve said you’re using the ATX NOW?

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Re: Somebody has to be doing something

Post by leonard » Sat Sep 01, 2018 8:49 pm

One days results from a small plant
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Re: Somebody has to be doing something

Post by LipCa » Sat Sep 01, 2018 10:14 pm

Only in difficult soil Mike. All that was found with GB2

Nice, Leonard
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Re: Somebody has to be doing something

Post by Jim_Alaska » Sat Sep 01, 2018 10:21 pm

Now you guys did it. After posting that gold I just have to show off too. Although I have not done any kind of mining this summer because of my legs and feet, I did do some last summer and got what I consider an impressive result in an old hydraulic pit that is on a club claim.

I'll post about it later this evening.
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Re: Somebody has to be doing something

Post by Jim_Alaska » Sun Sep 02, 2018 12:20 am

OK here's the recount of my mining in an old hydraulic pit last summer. Even though the club motto is "miners helping miners", I am not going to reveal the location I was working. This is not because I am hoarding it to myself, anyone else can work there that finds it. I would personally like to see more members out on the claims prospecting for good places. There are a lot of claims that go untouched for years at a time, this place I worked was one of them.

We have to remember that many claims were used mainly for suction dredging, so many members don't even think of them for mining out of the water. In any event although this claim is very accessible, people just don't even think to try it out to see if there is anything worth working for. I was at first looking at this section of the claim for nugget shooting. I didn't find anything with the detector except the usual square nails, boot tacks and lead shot.

But what caught my eye was that in many places in the hydraulic pit there was a lot of ancient bedrock, some of it quite high since this was the bottom of the river at one time. As I looked over this situation I saw many cracks and crevices. So I thought this might just be a good place to crevice.

I came back with a whole pile of crevice tools, most of which are home made, chisels, hammers and my gas vac.
Of course because I am basically lazy, I concentrated on cracks and crevices that could be easily scraped out. The exposed bedrock was not very extensive so it was not long before I had worked it to where the only method left was to hammer and chisel the lager cracks open. This was hard work and it got really hot on those rocks once it hit ten o'clock in the morning, so I usually quit about that time.

This kind of mining takes a lot of time, it is not for the faint-hearted or those not willing to work hard for their gold. I even pried apart some impressive slabs of bedrock with a six foot bar and even at times a hydraulic jack. Some of the slabs I couldn't move out of the way by lifting so I had to just pry them aside with a long bar.

There is no water to be had close by, so I simply dry classified what came out of the cracks and ran the remainder through a LeTrap sluice in a small creek on another day. So, all in all it was hard work, but I could see with every clean-up that I was getting good enough gold to keep working and keep me interested. I will say that I didn't get rich doing this, but did get what I consider good gold for my efforts.

If club members would just get out on their own or with a friend and do some real looking around on claims that have been neglected by many, they might just be rewarded with a golden surprise.

So, with that said, I will post some pictures of some results I got last summer doing this.
hydraulic pit pan.jpg
hydraulic pit.jpg
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Re: Somebody has to be doing something

Post by delnorter » Sun Sep 02, 2018 12:58 am

You’re a man of science with that Gold Bug 2 Harry. Really nice.

That’s real pretty gold Jim. Good for you still runing the dirt.

Do either of you guys know if Ladd Road is passable very far up the river there at Seiad?

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Re: Somebody has to be doing something

Post by Jim_Alaska » Sun Sep 02, 2018 1:24 am

I have not been up there since last summer Mike. But when I was there the road was passable all the way to Negro Creek. It is gated beyond Negro Creek, private property. It should be OK since it is a county road and I see county pickups on it frequently. Also the guy that has private property has to be able to get in and out, he lives there year round.
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Re: Somebody has to be doing something

Post by LipCa » Sun Sep 02, 2018 4:08 am

Thanks Mike. After swinging the GB2 for about 25 years now, it just comes natural.
Jim, I didn't know you were finding such fine looking gold! If you need help moving a rock sometime, give me a shout.
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Re: Somebody has to be doing something

Post by Jim_Alaska » Sun Sep 02, 2018 4:39 am

LipCa wrote:
Sun Sep 02, 2018 4:08 am
Thanks Mike. After swinging the GB2 for about 25 years now, it just comes natural.
Jim, I didn't know you were finding such fine looking gold! If you need help moving a rock sometime, give me a shout.
Thanks for the offer Harry, but like I said in that post, that was last summer. This year my leg and feet conditions won't allow me to scramble over rocks. It's about all I can do to navigate level ground.
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