Bedrock or Bust - Gold Prospecting in Idaho

The Zeus Box

2012-01-25T14:41:00.000-08:00

Last year, a friend of mine gave me a stainless steel box and tray. He got if from someone who was attempting to create a clone of Alan Tree's Gold Grabber.
After much thought, I came up with this design. My main concern was to have the gold bearing material spend as much time as possible traveling over the capture media.

The box measures 14"x14"x32". The sluice tray is 14"x28". The plumbing is 1" supply to a ¾" distributor then to ½" spray bars. A 2000 GPM bilge pump works just fine.

The vertical processor sits atop the sluice tray with no attachments (nuts & bolts) necessary. The sluice tray has a few inches of deep ribbed rubber at the head, followed by Shaw Veranda carpet under 1" raised expanded metal.

The first stage of the processor is a hinged ¼" classifier tray. I only run classified material through this unit as I've never found gold larger than ¼" so far.

Attached to the underside of the classifier tray is another tray that diverts the material toward the upper portion of the next capture tray.

Here's a view looking down into the box. What you see here is the first stage capture media. A strip of entry mat receives the material from the classifier. The material then travels down across the expanded and one riffle. At the end of this first stage is a gap to allow the material to fall down to the next stage.

With the first stage capture media swung up and out of the way, the second stage capture media is visible and available for clean up. The flat expanded is there to stiffen up the first stage sheet metal only.
After the material has passed over the second stage media, it hits the head of the sluice tray.

Prior to proceeding down the sluice tray, the material is restricted from moving by an adjustable flow control gate. At the bottom of the flow control gate is a rubber flap to flatten out the flow over the rest of the sluice tray. I currently run the gate about 3/8" above the raised expanded metal.
Within a 14"x28" footprint I have just over 55 linear inches of recovery media.(770 square inches) The advantage this design offers is what I call a time delay. If I was to run material through a conventional sluice box, the material would spend very little time over the capture media before exiting the sluice box.
I have built in a time delay with my 'Z' configuration and the adjustable flow control gate. When I first showed someone how it worked he thought that I was filling the box with water...then he saw the material starting to show in the sluice tray. There is that much of a delay. The many times that I've run this, I rarely recover gold from the sluice tray as most of the gold is recovered in the first two stages of the processor. It's kind of nice to swing the classifier tray out of the way and see the gold laying all over that first stage capture media.

Well, it's winter time...can't mine so the only thing left to do is create things. I'm working on a bilge pump powered crevice sucker as we speak. Stay tuned and click each pic for a larger view.

Season Finale @ the Bedrock Bonanza placer claim

2011-11-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

2011 wasn't a great year on the Bedrock Bonanza placer claim. The late winter kept the river swolen well into late July-early August. That made for a short season. On top of that, BLM performed an 'instream' project consisting of digging over 20+ 'salmon pools' over the entire length of the claim.
They dug down to bedrock and placed the gold mearing material up on the bank. Then they did a road decomissioning and cut a new ATV trail high above the old trail. Some of the material that came out of the 'salmon pools' ended up being used for fill on the new ATV trail. So now my gold bearing gravel is scattered helter skelter all over the place. I wrote a letter to the editor of a few local papers trying to express my frustrations. You can read my letter HERE.

I spent most of my time each trip at one spot I call the Glory Hole. I uncovered some bedrock steps that payed half way decent but required processing alot of material. Since all of my work is with hand tools, I was limited to how many pans I could process in a day's time. The bedrock steps sloped downstream so as I cleaned out the next step, the debris was tossed into the previous worked out step.
On my last trip in October, I cleaned step #4 and hit the face on what looks like step #5. This will have to wait until next season as snow is forecast for the area.

This is the total from working the bedrock steps. Just a touch over 2.5 pennyweight. The gold on the right is what I took from step #4 on my last trip.
My winter mining will find me back on the Clearwater River in search of frozen colors!

A Colorful Specimen

2011-08-08T19:02:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting looking specimen I pulled from the claim this past weekend. I was working a deep bedrock crack with my modified DeserDog sucker tube and when finishing a pan of material, I noticed this piece hiding among the black sands. It's almost more quartz than gold, but the back side shows only gold. I wish I could have taken some larger pictures but my camera and I aren't on the same page...guess I'll have to read the instructions one more time.

Here's another view from the same quartzy side. I do believe this chunk hasn't traveled very far before being recovered by the DeserDog sucker tube. In order to get the good gold, you have to use some type of suction device as just scooping or shoveling doesn't get right down to the very bottom where all the good gold hides. Our claim is on a non-dredging body of water so we have to make do with hand tools only. The DeserDog sucker tube is the limit to what we can use as far as suction devices go. It won't move the same amount of material as a dredge but it does a good jog of leaving the bedrock clean and free of gold !!!

Bedrock Sniping

2011-07-19T14:48:00.000-07:00

Butch and I headed up to our claim on Saturday to do a little sniping. We had been up on the claim two weeks prior but the water was still too high to work.
The only thing we got accomplished on the last trip was me sacrificing my glasses to the river. I was bent over looking at something in the river when my glasses fell off my head. I made a mad scramble with my viewing box trying to locate them before they washed a mile downstream but to no avail. With no glasses, my vision was greatly impaired and any gold in my pan looked like radiant stars. I couldn't tell mica from gold without my glasses so I had to have Butch 'proof read' my pan!!!

Since that trip, I purchased new glasses so I was ready to see some color in my pan. Butch and I have a 40 acre placer claim up in Elk City, Idaho. This trip found us at the head of the claim working just past an inside bend. The first thing we do is locate some promising bedrock structure, then build a wing dam to divert the current and give us some semi calm water to work in. We had just enough current to clear the milky sediment within 5-10 seconds. When we get into some good material, it usually carries a bit of clay so the little bit of current we had worked well for clearing the cloud.We both use our viewing boxes to get a good look at the bottom.

Here's a good shot of some cracks in the bedrock. This isn't at the true bottom yet so they have to get worked. They come apart pretty easily and as small as the cracks are, there is always some material discovered within. That's usually where we find the milky clay material. As soon as we start wedging the crack, a milky cloud will come spewing out of the crack. We keep working away at this structure until we hit a flat bottom and there are no more cracks showing. That's when we know we've hit true bedrock.

As we work our way down to true bedrock, we use our viewing box to help us locate gold in situ. I use a 4" paintbrush to gently sweep away the material from the bedrock and then wait for the milky cloud to dissipate. Now, we spend a lot of time looking and most of the time we don't spot anything, but this trip had me grabbing my camera twice. This first time I saw this little picker waiting to be discovered. I grabbed my camera and moved the viewing box over and snapped a pic shooting through the viewing box.

Here's the little rascal after being retrieved from his bedrock home.

A short time later, while looking at a spot I had just swept clean, I notice this little fella sitting there. I moved the viewing box over and took his pic.

This one has some real character. The gold we find is still pretty ragged so it hasn't traveled far. There are several lode mines up on the hills upriver and that could be the source.

Here's my take from our sniping adventure. Keep in mind that we don't move a lot of material. We shovel off the overburden until we get to the tightly packed gravels near the bottom. ("We don't need no stinkin overburden") Then we use a small scoop to pull the majority of gravel. The final stage is sweeping the floor into a small pile and using our DeserDog sucker tubes to extract the richer pay dirt found at the very bottom.
I want to thank IdahoGoldGettR for turning us on to this 'sporty' way of mining. We learned a lot from him on his claim upriver last year and now it's paying off on our own claim. Thanks Randy !!!

Glacial Deposit

2011-07-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

A mining friend discovered a roadside cut bank showing evidence of river rock and quartz a few years back and invited me up to take a few buckets of material a few weeks ago. He's been digging here for a few years. This hump sits between two gulches running NE to SW. The top of the hump sits about 30 feet above the nearby gulch. Across the road, the deposit continues downhill for another 50 foot drop in elevation.

Here's a good pic of what the material looks like.
A nice rusty layer sitting atop a gray layer that sits atop deomposed granite. It's terrible stuff to extract and required a pick, prybar and rock hammer.
Every rock was encrusted with a cement like material and what material wasn't solid rock was a thick, heavy clay.

Since there was no water available to process this ore on site, I resorted to my wheel barrow and garden hose to soften up the clays. I imagine if I let it sit for a week, it might have been workable without any further work.

Not having the patience to wait, I attacked each piece of quartz with a fine spray, rinsing the stubborn clay off until each piece was clean. The smaller pieces got the same treatment after I scooped the raw material from the wheel barrow and worked it through a ¼" classifer. I still had to work the material by hand in the classifier, using the palm of my hand to work all the clay off the small chunks. I did put on a pair of rubber gloves after cutting myself on the sharp quartz the first time.

Here's the overburden. Pile on the right is all the hand washed larger material and the pile on the left is tailings after running through my highbanker. As you can see, there was a whole lot more large rock then there was small material to run through the machine. Next pic shows the pay from the material I ran through the highbanker. I'd guess there's probably 6 or 7 gallons of paydirt that got processed. Pretty good take if you figure the ratio of dirt to gold. Click any pic for a better view.

Gold from a Windfall

2011-05-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

A visit to a little creek I prospected a few years ago revealed a giant red fir tree uprooted from the severe winds we had back in November of 2010. I used to pan at the base of this tree and always found a little color in the pan. Now the tree's downfall exposed the historic stream bed. I checked the material in the root wad and saw chunks of quartz and some decent looking gravel. I figured it wouldn't hurt to pull a sample so I loaded up my pan.
Sure enough, the pan revealed one tiny piece of gold. I pulled my 20X loupe and inspected the piece up close. It had character and looked like a 'micro-nugget". I didn't work the footprint where the tree originally stood as there was lots and lots of sticky clay covering that spot. The clay was deposited since the tree fell during the high water runoff. I suppose If I got ambitious and wanted to spend a few hours just shoveling off the clay, I may be rewarded with more historic stream bed material.

Here's a close up pic of the gold. You'll have to click the pic to get the larger view, but it's worth the mouse click. As tiny as this stuff is, it all has character.
Notice the one piece of wire gold in the lower left area of the pic. The one piece in the upper left looks pretty good too.
I explored the creek upstream and found that the creek split. One side had the water running, the other side was dry. In between the two is about 30 feet of tailings covered in 100 years of pine duff and fallen trees. I proceeded further upstream and discovered an old earthen diversion dam. This is where the tailing pile stopped. I figure they diverted the water away from the historic stream channel in order to work it down to bedrock, which is decomposed granite. Once they cleaned up that portion, they again diverted the water back into the historic stream bed and worked the area they had just hydraulic mined.

While looking around, something caught my eye. I though it was just an old log but I seemed to see a pattern in the bark. Upon closer investigation, I discovered this old mining artifact. When I was still 75 feet away, I thought I was looking at a trommel barrel but as I got closer it turned out to be something I've never seen before. I believe it was used for classifying but don't know how they used it.
It's probably 12" x 48" with 3/8" holes. One end is blanked off, surrounded by rivets and has a handle on it. The other end is rusted out so I don't know if that end was left open.
I looked for any inscriptions and found none.

Here's a view of the inside. If anyone has any idea about this piece, I'd like to hear from you. Email me
by clicking the "Bedrock or Bust" logo on the left side of the page.

Tips from the Tailing Pile

2011-05-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

I've added a new feature to Bedrock of Bust.
"Tips from the Tailing Pile"
As I dredge up something worth sharing, I'll add it to the tailings pile.
Click the link to go there now. Don't forget to bookmark it !

The Kress Gold Pan

2011-05-16T17:08:00.000-07:00

Patented in 1957 by the late Mr. Bruce Kress of Idaho.
His nephew James gave me this pan and he held onto the only other one that we know still to exist.
These pans were manufactured by a sheet metal shop in Clarkston, Washington. Besides the unique classifier screen, the pan has a very shallow draft. Today's pans have a 45 degree angle draft but this pan is only half that. The reason for the shallow draft is that the pan did not have to be tilted much to back wash the heavies, thus keeping the gold from washing out. You'll also notice that there is a blank border in the classifier screen where there are no holes. This void allowed the gold to be retained behind the void.

The holes in the classifier screen are 3/16" as this pan was specifically designed to work the flood gold of the Clearwater River here in Idaho. Not much chance of finding gold that wouldn't fit through the holes.
You don't work this pan in the conventional manner.
After placing a shovel full of material into the pan, the pan gets worked vigorously side to side working the heavies down through the classifier plate. It doesn't take long for the gold to drop through the holes so 15 or 20 seconds of action is all it takes.
This is when the process departs from our conventional pans. With the back of your hand, you sweep off everything above the classifier plate. No questions asked...just sweep off the overburden. Next, place another shovel full of material in the pan and repeat the above process. After a half dozen repeats, you'll notice that the entire area under the classifier plate is solid black sand and gold. At this time, you can now revert to the conventional manner of panning or remove the classifier plate and dump you super-cons into a container for home processing through a blue bowl or gold wheel.

Here's some gold that I recovered using the Kress Pan. There's a tiny little creek just about 20 miles up the road that produces some nice gold and I'll be visiting it some time before the end of May. I'll be using my Kress Pan again as you can work 5 times the material with this pan as you can with a conventional pan. This is due to the time you save not having to pan down to a tablespoon of cons with each pan. Dump a load of material, shake, sweep and repeat.
(click any pic for a larger view)

New Year...New Gold

2011-02-05T19:25:00.000-08:00

Several miles up Highway 12 from Orofino is a highway cutbank with exposed hardpack river gravels. They blasted through this bench deposit in order to make Highway 12 way back when.
I parked the truck and headed down to the river to investigate where or if the hardpack met the river.

I found this wash of gravel hidden in the blackberry bushes and proceeded to clear off the larger rocks. I didn't bring shears so I was attacked several times by the blackberry thorns.

About 6-8 inches deep I found the hardpack that you saw in the first photo across the highway. This stuff is miserable to dig and almost as miserable to work as the rocks are laden with a thick rust colored sandy cement.

Here's the color that came from that sample hole.
This is some VERY SMALL GOLD. I have no doubt it would pass through a -100 mesh screen.
Some may say that's a good showing from a hole no wider or deeper than the blade on a #2 shovel.
Ok, I'll agree, but they pay by weight, not by volume and this gold takes a lot of volume to even register on a scale. After this pan, the sun shown over the mountain and I decided to head home and work on my new mining equipment. Maybe I'll post an article on my mining equipment next...maybe :^)
(click pics for larger view)

Summer Wrap Up

2010-09-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

The summer of 2010 is one I'll remember for a good long time. The weather was great, the camp site was ideal and the friendship was more valuable than gold. Our friend, "The Guide", gave us valuable lessons, good instructions, good humor and an opportunity to work a high grade placer deposit. Butch and I returned twice more since the July 25th trip and worked downstream of our guide's diggings, per his request. On each trip, on our last afternoon before leaving for home, our guide materialized from the timber and offered us free reign to his diggings so that we wouldn't go home without a good showing of gold.

Pictured to the left is a spot that kept my interest high. This bedrock crack payed me 55 chunky pieces of gold in one pan within the area circled. That's only about a foot in length. I chased the crack further toward mid-stream but it didn't pay as well as it did within the circled area. On our last visit, that bedrock crack drew my attention once more. This time I chased it toward shore, pulling some clay from the bottom. I continued following the crack to the creek bank. The crack jogged to the left and then jogged to the right and continued under the bank. I couldn't see what I was doing so I had to feel my way along the crack, pulling material from the crack as I progressed further.

Here's a sight you don't see often. This is the yield from one sample pan taken from the material in the bedrock crack a foot under the creek bank.
I took the time to do a count and including the few pieces of -30, the total came to 72 pieces. This is what the old timers used to get from their pans when they were working virgin ground 150 years ago. When you see this in your pan, it's like you went back in time and are re-living those days of old. I'm never in a hurry to remove the gold from the pan when my pan looks like this. It's always good to take a few moments to reflect and give thanks.

Here's another sight you don't see often. Butch was screening down some ¼" material and just as he was ready to discard the tailings, he took that extra few seconds to review the classifier one more time. He said "Bob, check this out". I grabbed my camera and recorded it as a reminder to both of us to not get lazy with our classifying.

The two pieces were wedged in pretty tight but with the aid of a pair of tweezers, they finally found their way into Butch's sucker bottle.

We both checked our classifiers every single time we did a pan after that, but of course you know how that goes...no repeat performance.

The picture to the left represents the Summer of 2010. Four pennyweight of nice chunky gold all recovered without the aid or use of motorized equipment. Our recovery tools consisted of shovels, scoops, brushes, crevice suckers and gold pans. All of this would not have been possible without the generousity of our friend from Elk City. If the Good Lord is keeping score, our friend tallied up extra bonus points this summer with his 'no strings attached' kindness. Within the gold mining community, this guy is a gem!

Next blog entry will have me back on the Clearwater so stay tuned.

Bedrock or Bust...just as the title implies.

2010-07-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

Mid week found Butch and I back at the Independence Day diggings. We set up camp on some flattened tailings and met our guide at the claim. The water level had dropped quite a bit since the last trip and it seemed a bit warmer also. I chose a spot that showed some exposed bedrock near shore and proceeded to chase it to mid-stream. I probed with my shovel deeper and deeper to follow the path of the ridges and valleys of the bedrock to get a 'mind's eye view' of what I was up against. Your shovel can tell you alot about what the 'bottom floor' looks like just by the feel. When I probed along a valley and hit a wall, I'd probe left and right to see if the valley continued in either direction. If it did, I'd keep probing to see if I had a 'honey hole' going for me. I did spend way too much time sampling the overburden as sometimes the sample pan would show a few pickers...sometimes nothing at all. I'd rather the overburden didn't show anything so that I could spend more time discarding the overburden instead of sampling it but that's a lesson I learned.

Butch and our guide were downstream studying the lay of the creek. If you just looked at the surface of the creek bed you'd think that it just looks like every other piece of creek bed you've looked at but our guide had experience on his side and knew that this spot would pay Butch if he got down deep enough.

Meanwhile, our guide is working his hole with much success. As you can see in the picture, he's got his own little 'Chinese Tailing Pile'. He works the large rocks out by hand, then works his shovel until the shovel becomes useless due to the increasingly narrow "V" formation of the bedrock floor. When he's ready to collect the paydirt on the bedrock floor, out come the fox tail brush.

He'll brush the floor material into a pile and then use the sucker tube to extract it and dump it into his classifier / pan. Keep in mind that he's moved a ton of overburden to reach the spot he's at now. You're not going to walk down a creek and find a spot like this, you've got to invest the time to create a spot like this and he's definately invested
wisely.

You'll notice that he's wearing a full wetsuit with snorkel and mask. There's a good reason for that. As he's brushing the material at the bottom of the bedrock in preparation for the sucker tube, he'll spot a chunk of gold laying in situ. Now don't ya just hate it when the bedrock is 'littered' with gold? We can tell when he's discovered a chunk of gold laying on the bedrock as some strange noises emit from his snorkel like that of a whale in heat!

I guess if I found a nice chunk of gold like that just laying on bedrock, I'd make some funny noises too. Actually some time later as I was fanning the material from a crevice, I also found a small little picker just waiting for me to arrive. It now resides safely in a glass vial.

When I say he cleans down to bedrock, this picture illustrates that to a "T". Check out the fantastic gold grabbing structure of the bedrock, running perpendicular to the flow of the stream.

Mother Nature's riffles doing their best to trap gold and doing exactly that as illustrated in the following picture.

Here's a shot of the gold that came from 5 gallons of material cleaned from just a portion of the area shown in the photo above.

Here's his take from one day of 'sweeping the floor'. The piece on the dime weighs .5 gram.

Meanwhile, Butch is working his downstream location and getting down to the bottom of the bedrock. He's just working one pan at a time as the overburden in his spot is paying more frequently.

As you can see, he's getting some good pans and some nice little pickers.

I'm cleaning out a nice portion of crevice with my home made sucker tube. The part that shows at the water line is a 2" Tee with a collection tube and 24" of stinger so my hole is about 30 inches deep so far. When I ended the day I could stand in the hole and the water was up to my waist.

This is my take from the hole I was working. The weight is 1.4 grams and every piece has character.

(Please click every pic for a larger view)

You won't find gold like this laying in a flood layer down at the Clearwater River. However, if you hit the back country creeks, try not to judge them by their surface exposure. Look deeper by probing and digging sample holes until you hear your shovel hit bedrock. You may have to spend a full day just removing overburden but just as the title of my blog implies...it's Bedrock of Bust.

Independence Day

2010-07-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

July 2nd found me exploring the creeks around the Red River Hot Springs. With the aid of my Yamaha ATV, I was able to explore 20 miles from camp in areas only an ATV could access. I sampled all the creeks I could find on a map and found no color willing to show in my pan. July 3rd was a repeat of the previous day with the same results in my pan. I set my mental alarm clock for a 4:30 Sunday morning wake-up, finished my whiskey, stoked the woodstove and hit the rack.
July 4th, I awoke at 4:32 am... only missed my mark by two minutes! I loaded the truck, bid farewell to camp and headed down the road to my next destination. At the old townsite of Raymond, I was greeted by several herd of elk, leaving the meadows in search of big timber.

Nixon Rock seemed to have a smile on his face...was this an indication of a better day of mining?

I met my guide and new friend at a local cafe for breakfast and a quick 'show-n-tell' of his collection of gold from the local creeks. Impressed? You bet I was and most anxious to hit the creek.

We set up camp, loaded the ATV and drove to the diggings. Upon arrival, I was impressed to see all the exposed bedrock with it's many fractures and cracks. My guide set about cleaning out the overburden in one spot while I took a sample from the tail end of an exposed crack. First pan showed no color. Wait, wasn't Nixon Rock smiling this morning? Ok, no big deal, I'll try another sample.
I loaded up my ¼" classifier stacked on my 1/8" classifier sitting on my Garret pan. I gave everything a good wash and inspected the ¼" classifier. Just overburden, so I tossed it off. Picked up my 1/8" classifier and low and behold, there's a half gram nugget sitting there smiling at me. I was awstruck and couldn't believe what I was seeing. I thought maybe my first nugget would show up in my pan, but this one never made it that far as it was hand picked right out of the classifier.

I worked a few more pans from that spot and got a few small pickers and then it ran out. I moved to another crack and cleaned out the bottom with a sucker tube. I worked the material in my pan meticulously as I didn't want to loose even the smallest of pieces. My guide got a chuckle out of my panning as he knows I've only ever worked the tiny flood gold found on the Clearwater River which takes a great deal of finesse to capture.

About the time that I had only about a tablespoon of black sand left in my pan and still no color showing I sped up my backwashing a little. Figured if nothing is showing yet, then there's probably nothing hiding at the bottom of what little black sand is still there

Well, lookie there...them little varmits were hiding under the black sands and waited until I was about ready to flush the whole pan back into the creek before raising there heads to say hello.

That's a pretty good lick of gold to come from one crack, of which I cleaned about a foot in length.
Meanwhile, my guide is working the cracks downstream when he calls my attention to a piece of gold laying in situ and would make a good photo opportunity. I grab my camera and one of his home made viewing lenses and slowly walk to his location, hoping not to muddy up the water.

With his finger pointing the way, I focus my camera on the chunk of gold, newly exposed to the world. Can you think of anything cooler than to see gold laying in situ and not having to work it through some type of machine first. Now I realize why he spends the whole day with his wetsuit, mask and snorkel...he gets to see God's gifts up close and personal.

I had the best mining experience I've ever had thanks to the help of my "guide" and new friend.
I promised not to use his name or location to protect his privacy.
As we were about to leave the diggings we both heard a loud POP as if a rock from above had fallen onto a rock on the creek bank. We both looked up the hill just as a 100' tall fir tree decided to depart ways with the earth. We stood frozen for a second trying to decifer it's downward path...sort of like a stationary panic. We figured we were safe so we watched it come crashing down, tearing limbs and debris from any tree that dare get in it's way. It settled back to earth a few yards downstream from where my friend was digging.
I have no doubt that when a tree falls in the woods and there's nobody there to hear it, YES, it does make a noise....a BIG one. For half a minute after it's crash, fine debris rained down on us like confetti or chinese cardboard from a pyrotecnics display. It was an awsome end to a great weekend. I've arranged my gold as best I could to resemble a fireworks display. I thought it was fitting. Please click all pics for a larger view.

Close To The Source - Good Indicators

2010-05-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

We all spend some time checking the quartz in our classifier before tossing...just out of curiosity. I mean you never know when that one piece of quartz will have something of value attached to it. I recently visited with a geologist who just returned from teaching a 3 week course on placer mining in California. Man, what I'd give to be seated in that class ! During my short visit, he produced 3 pieces of quartz and explained to me what I was seeing and how it related to my search for the source of placer deposits. This first piece is some very white quartz with fresh pyrite. Don't let the pyrite fool you (fools gold),

This second piece is nowhere near as white as the first and the pyrite is now oxidized and showing hematite. Ok, we're getting close to the good stuff.

There may be gold sulfides locked up within the quartz but only leaching will extract it.
Now then, this quartz piece is beyond the white stage and is mostly grey. You'll see grey viens running throught it and if you look at the top left of the piece, you'll see visible "free milling" gold.

(Click pics for closer view)

This is definately some hi-grade ore and if you find this in your classifier, jump up and down and holler EUREKA !!! This is what you're looking for as you sample a creek for the source of the placer deposits. If you find this, mark the spot and keep searching upstream. If the upstream search produces nothing further, return to your original spot and look uphill. Is there a gulch or dry ravine? If so, sample your way up in an inverted V shape and follow the color. This could be the day you discover the Mother Lode and become a hard rock miner.

Little Chunks from a Little Creek

2010-05-20T16:38:00.000-07:00

A return trip ½ mile upstream did not produce any color. We hit bedrock but it was barren.

Next trip will find us a shorter distance upstream from our original find. I did manage to get a decent little picker which I define as anything larger than Roosevelt's ear on a US Dime.

This gold has not traveled far as even the tiniest spec of gold is not flat but rather chunky. Maybe next time we'll zero in on the source...stay tuned.

(click pic for closer view)

Close to home

2010-05-17T11:05:00.000-07:00

Since my hot spot on the Clearwater River is underwater, Butch and I ventured up the road about 25 miles and rode the 4 wheelers another 2 miles up a small mountain creek. The water level was insufficient to even run a small Tee Dee Easy Sluice so it was hand panning only. We were digging a spot where decomposed granite was exposed just above the water level. It was slow going and the rewards were few and far between. Sometimes we would work 3 pans before getting a single spec of color. Other times a pan would show 4 or 5 pieces. The gold we did recover showed 3 dimensions as opposed to the super flat Clearwater flood gold we're used to. One piece showed a piece of quartz attached when viewed under a 20x loupe.

Based on the results of our efforts, the next trip up this small mountain creek will find us further upstream in pursuit of the larger color. With luck, we'll find a spot where the decomposed granite bedrock is not 8 feet deep. Stay tuned...

(click any pic for a larger view)

GONE !

2010-05-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

Before and after pics.

It was good while it lasted. My winter mining spot is underwater and will remain that way for several more months. Last year it didn't get exposed until near the end of September. However, with the lack of snow pack in the mountains this year, it may become exposed a little earlier than normal. In the meanwhile, I'm waiting for the back country roads and trails to become snow-free so that I can begin exploring a few spots I've researched all winter. It's tough being in prospector's limbo but patience has it's own reward. Keep watching...you never know what I'll post next!

Going...Going...

2010-03-31T20:57:00.000-07:00

The river she's a rising. The water is up 3 feet since my last post a week ago. Although the area has hundreds of good spots, the primo crevices and 'V' holes are now few and far between. I did however spy a pretty good spot today and the first pan was most impressive.

It may not look like much, but click the pic to get a larger view and you'll count more than 200 pieces of gold from this one sample pan. I worked 4 more pans with similar results until the hole started filling with water from below. I checked my backpack for my battery acid bulb sucker and remembered seeing it at home next to the blue bowl. My hand dredge was borrowed to make a duplicate based on my design so I had nothing with which to get the last little morsels of gold from the bottom of the crevice. Oh well, sometimes that little bit of gold is the tithing required for a better showing of gold on the next trip. By the looks of the rising river, it may be a while until the next trip.

Going...Going............

A Rising River

2010-03-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

My winter mining location is slowly drowning in the rising waters of the Clearwater river.
My blue clay spot is underwater and I believe the entire area will soon be hidden from everyone except the fish. I decided to try a new spot way down river before it too was lost to the spring runoff.

I stumbled upon what I call a pit. In an area of fairly level, though somewhat rough terrain, this spot seems to be lacking the usual high density of football and larger size cobble. The depth of the depression was about 18-24" and 10-12 feet in diameter. I found a likely spot to take a sample, loaded up my 12 mesh classifier and headed for the water's edge.

After a quick wash of the gravel, the pan revealed a pretty good showing of color. (click any pic for a larger view)

This picture shows a side view of the pit. This entire ¼ mile location is a giant natural riffle system and this particular spot could be classified as a 'drop riffle'. Before I left the truck I promised myself I would NOT carry any 5 gallon buckets of material from way down there and then way up here to the truck so I used the one and only bucket I did bring to carry gravel to the river's edge. I then sat down and panned about 4 pans to the bucket load. I did that 3 times until my wrists got a little crampy so I called it a day. It was still a long walk back to the truck but at least I wasn't carrying two 50 pound buckets with me.

Here's the pay from panning. No weight to it but there sure are a lot of tiny little pieces.

As the water rises, it creates isolated spots where a guy could set up a sluice box. I think next time down I'll carry the sluice box downriver and see if I can increase my tonnage of material processed.

Recirculators

2010-02-10T13:26:00.000-08:00

Recirculating your process water in a tub could be the only way to work a piece of ground in the future. This enormous fear by environmentalists that the miners are polluting the waterways is getting way out of hand. They say the dredgers are killing the fish....NO, FISHERMAN KILL FISH!

They say that the silty discharge from your dredge is burying the fish eggs and killing the fry.

NEWS FLASH...has any of these enviro-wackos ever witnessed SPRING RUNOFF?

How do they propose to control what Mother Nature dishes out each spring? Seems the fish do just fine when Mother Nature rears her ugly head but somehow, a short plume behind a dredge is instant death for anything living downstream.

Now a reasonable person would have to wonder why the "Powers That Be" aren't concerned with the huge amount of silt during spring runoff, but are proposing to enact more rules and restrictions on the dredge miners. Could it be they fear what they don't understand? I'd like to know how many of these "Rule-Makers" have ever held a gold pan in their hand? Have they ever been on the end of a 5" dredge hose, let alone see one in action.? It's like the old saying..."Those Who Can, Do. Those Who Can't, Teach" or in this case, Regulate.
Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now and show you my lineup of recirculating sluices that I plan on using this year...without permits !!!
The first one on the left is my Keene A52 with the felt flare. This will be used for handling the raw material once classified to ½".
Next one over is my new Warm & Fuzzy. 100% felt and described further in the post below. This could be used to process the cons from the Keene.
On the right is my DK Nugget Mini-Highbanker. Again, a real good cleanup sluice or running raw material classified to 3/16". They all run just fine on a 1250 GPH 12 volt pump. My water tub is a 54 gallon plastic tub purchased from Home Depot. The power supply is a DieHard 950 Power Pack.
Should the DieHard get low, I can plug in to my ATV.
If you're getting tired of all the additional rules and restrictions being proposed, give a little thought to recirculating sluices. It could just be the wave of the future.

The Warm & Fuzzy Sluice

2010-02-09T16:46:00.000-08:00

If you follow my blog, you've seen my Keene A52 with the felt lined flare. Well, the felt works so good on the flare that I decided to build a sluice with nothing but felt. I started with a piece of 1" x 8" cedar. I then marked out 4 areas for a series of drop riffles. Each drop riffle is about 1" wide x ¼" deep.
The space between drop riffles is 4". There is an 8" blank on the head and tail of the sluice.I sprayed 3M spray adhesive over the entire board being careful to cover all the corners of the drop riffle areas.I then took my piece of felt which was cut oversize, and layed it onto and into all areas of the board. I tucked the felt in tightly to the drop riffle areas using a squeegee. Next was adding some sides, which consists of 1" x 4" cedar. Ok, looks like it done.

Not one to leave well enough alone, I proceeded to add a spray bar. I tested it to see how the flow was working and I wasn't happy with all the turbulence and air bubbles. I proceeded to cut a piece of cedar to use as a gate to help control the water flow. The following picture explains what I was trying to accomplish.

The gate allows only ¼" of slurry to escape, thus eliminating any turbulance or bubbles...just a nice steady flow of material. When I tested it again, I realized I had created a "Boiling Chamber". I cranked the water wide open and was really impressed with the way the spray bars were blasting the chamber. I adjusted the water flow to where the water just starts to escape over the gate, then crank it back just a touch. Meanwhile the slurry flow remained constant. The next picture gives you a side view of what's happening.

Here are the details. Click the pic to see a larger view.

Here's a pic of the boiling chamber in action.
Pretty wild action inside the chamber but notice the nice evenly distributed flow downstream.
If I choose to use this in-stream, removal of a handful of screws and I'm ready to go.
And that is my "Warm & Fuzzy Sluice Box".

Winter Panning on the Clearwater

2010-01-27T10:55:00.001-08:00

Winter for most miners is a time to prepare their gear for the coming season. I'm fortunate to live where there may be a few feet of snow at home, but just a 20 minute drive down off the hill will put me into the banana belt weather. Sometimes the river bank will be frozen tight but it doesn't last long. A few days of 40 degree temps softens the material for easy access to the hidden treasure found within the black sands, garnets and clay.

Since the first of the year I've visited my favorite spot on the Clearwater at least once a week to pull several buckets of paydirt. After processing at home and discovering my buckets are now empty, I'm off to the river for a re-supply.

Now most folks won't mine in the winter due to the harsh temps and freezing water but if you go prepared, there's no difference between mining in the winter or mining in the summer...the gold is still there for the taking. You sure won't be sweating like you do in the summer :^)

Here are the gloves I wear when winter mining.

They are soft enough to maintain desterity and warm enough to keep you on the water all day.

The other essential item is a good pair of insulated rubber boots. Cabelas carries a variety of insulated rubber boots if you're interested.

While my fellow miners are watching the flames in the fireplace, I'm on the river and at least a gram ahead of them for the season !!!

My Recirculating Gold Getter

2009-12-15T11:50:00.000-08:00

Here's my latest little gold getter. The top unit is a DK Nugget mini highbanker with a pull-out pay drawer. The bottom unit you'll recognize as a Keene A52 sluice box. I've set the unit up to capture the local fine gold but if I get into an area that has coarse gold I can reinstall the Keene riffles and miner's moss. I've experimented with the heavy black sand / garnet mix I've been pulling out of the Clearwater and so far I have found no gold in the tailings bucket. I run all the water to the top unit, then when I'm done running material, I shut that valve and open the valve on the Keene's spraybar to clean out the bottom box. The green felt really holds the -100 gold and I don't even try to do a good cleanup on the felt until the end of the season. I ran the Keene box with just felt in the flare last season and then pulled the felt out, torched it in a steel pan and then ran the remains through my blue bowl. I think I had a quarter gram of -100 gold come from the felt. You can't really see the gold in the felt, but after burning, the blue bowl told the whole story. Total gold capture area is 85" long so you could call this a Compact Long Tom. Anyway, this is what I'll be running year round as there are no restrictions on running a recirculating unit and no permitting needed.

Click the pic to view a larger version.

Time for a Cold One

2009-12-14T13:48:00.000-08:00

While digging in the Elk City area this fall, this beer can emerged from a depth of 8+ feet and within 40 feet of the active creek. I researched it's history and found that this 'Jubilee' series can was only manufactured between 1953 and 1956. Being buried and never exposed to air, it maintained it's appearance quite well for being 53-56 years old. Brewed by "Sicks' Rainier Brewing Company, Spokane, Washington.

The top reads " Does not contain more than 4% alcohol by weight"

The old miner who drank this beer decided to open it from the bottom, thus maintaining the appearance that this beer remained unopened when viewed in normal beer can holding fashion.

Click any image for full size view.

Blue Clay Revisited

2009-10-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

As promised, I returned to the blue clay discovery and sampled under it and only found one color. I then carefully removed the blue clay material and found nothing. Next up was the rusty red clay. Since it was so close to the top it was hard to separate it from the top sand so part of the sample included the top layer of sand. Results were most impressive so I threw red clay and top sand into 4 buckets and headed home. I classified the material to roughly 15 mesh. Once the classifying was done, my yield of material was roughly 7 gallons which I ran through my cleanup sluice...

So here's the results of 7 gallons of classified material. Think about this for a moment; how long would it take you to run 7 gallons of material through your sluice box, dredge or highbanker? Not long. Now imagine working this site with your highbanker or dredge and working a good 8 hour day. Can you say "quarter to half ounce of gold" ? or MORE !!!
Currently, the river is rising but I'm making plans to bring my cleanup sluice to the site and setting it up in recirculating mode. I think I could work 25-30 gallons of classified material in a day, allowing for cleanups after each bucket. If it snows, all bets are off :^)

Blue Clay Discovery

2009-10-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

Usually I'd be elk hunting in October but my resident herd of elk have left me for greener pastures but they'll be back. In the meantime, I keep thinking about "The River". After a short 1 hour hike in the woods to verify my elk were elsewhere, I packed up the truck with mining gear and headed down river.

I chose a new spot at my favorite location on the river and started sampling. I was working the material just above the rusty red clay layer and pulling some good color. When I scooped a little deeper I found something blue staring back at me.

I widened the hole to see how wide the blue clay ran and discovered more bedrock within the blue clay layer. Some of the bedrock was fractured so I removed some pieces and brushed the material off the chunks of bedrock and into my pan. It was a mix of reds and blues coming off the bedrock.
I put a good load of material into my pan and headed for the water...

This is what I got from one pan. If you click the pic to get a larger view, you should count nearly 50 pieces of gold of different size. I decided that I should bring home 5 gallons of screened material from this spot to see how well it payed. I put a few gallons of material in two buckets and headed back home.

I figured everyone is getting tired of seeing my reference dimes so I tossed in a Susan B. That's a pretty good lick of gold for 5 gallons of screened raw material. If I punch my elk tag soon, I'll return to the blue clay and investigate what lies under it, around it and in it.

Sniper's Paradise...The Finale...maybe

2009-09-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

The weather forecast calls for rain this week and I believe I may loose this site to high water. I hit it
again a few days ago and worked this patch of bedrock. I pulled one chunk out to discover another layer just a few inches below. I cleaned out the material that was laying under and around it and it payed out pretty good.
(click any pic for a large view)

I then tried to extracate another piece and found that it was sheared away from the base about 2 feet below. My luck, I forgot my pry bar and it was just too darn heavy to pull straight up out of the hole by hand. I relieved it of it's gold bearing gravel as best I could, using my finger tips to pull the last remaining bits.

I brought home several partial buckets of the material I gathered and ran them through my clean up sluice.

Here's my reward. I going to try and hit it again before the rains come and this time I'm going to bring my pry bar as the best gold is coming from near the bottom of those chunks of bedrock. I just need to be able to extract them from their sockets.

Sniper's Paradise Redux

2009-09-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

Well, after getting sidetracked with the quartz vein last time, I decided to return to Sniper's Paradise. I concentrated on finding a spot that would pay well and not move much overburden.
As I was walking along the rough stuff, I noticed one area that was elevated about 3 feet higher than the surroundings. I walked over and discovered a crater within the elevated area. I guess you could call it a 'rock nest' so to speak. (click any pic for a larger view)
What I immediately noticed was black sands and garnet exposed on the surface...

I used my treasure scoop to see how deep the black sand / garnet streak went and discovered it went about 6 to 8 inches deep. I checked a few other spots within this 'rock nest' and found it looked the same...lot's of black sand & garnet.
I took a scoop full of material and dumped it into my 20 mesh classifier and headed for the water's edge.

There was hardly any light sand in the mix as you see by the picture. I don't enjoy panning such a heavy amount of black sands as it takes too much time...time better spent gathering material to bring home. Anyway, after about 10 minutes of working the black sands down to nearly nothing, this is what I got from one scoop...

Not a bad showing of color from one scoop of material. I then parked my classifier on top of a 5 gallon bucket and commenced to screening down material to bring home. I put about 2 gallons of material into 2 buckets and started the trip back to the truck. I had to stop 3 times to give the buckets a break :^)

This is what I pulled from 4 gallons of screened material. I used my cleanup sluice to work everything down to cons, then used the blue bowl to finish up. I haven't run the blue bowl tailings again yet, so I'm sure there's more gold that can be added to this amount. The blue bowl is a nice piece of equipment but it's only about 75 - 80% efficient no matter how you run it or feed it so I never, ever toss my blue bowl tailings. I've got about 4 gallons of blue bowl tailings just waiting to be processed again...and again :^)

Sniper's Paradise

2009-09-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

Finally, the Corps of Engineers stopped releasing so much water from Dworshak Dam into the Clearwater River. The water level came down over 4 feet in as many days and exposed all this fine looking slate / bedrock. I had a supplemental dredge permit for this site but never got to work it due to the high water and now the dredge season is over on the Clearwater :^(

(click any pic for a larger view)

I located this nice open seam and started working it with a scoop. As I got deeper, it narrowed so I had to use my gloved hand to extract material from the bottom. I was up to my armpits and could dig no further.

Here's what came out of that open seam.
I saw another interesting spot so I moved my gear and started removing material. This is when the day changed from Placer Mining to Hard Rock Mining....

Well lookie there, a quartz vein jambed tight into the bedrock. This looks very similar to the vein I located about a quarter mile upriver last winter.
I carefully dug in and around it until I could extract enough for a crushing sample.
Then I looked to the left.....

Seperated from the other vein by about 6 inches is another quartz vein, this one larger and thicker.
I used my flushing bulb to wash away material from around it and removed a large chunk.

Here's that large chunk I broke out. The smaller chunks are in the bucket. This piece is iron stained on both sides and in the next pic you'll see what the core looks like...

Looks real interesting and I hope to crush some up real soon to see what's hiding inside.
Well, what started out as a Placer mining trip turned into a Lode mining adventure and I never had to change locations :^)

Well I'll Be Dog Gone!

2009-09-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

While rummaging around my garage today, I found a PetStep dog ramp we used for our elderly dogs a few years ago. It's entire surface is coated with rubber to allow the dogs a sure-footed climb. It folds in half and when opened, it's over 60" long. (click any pic for a larger view)

The ribs are 1/8" tall, 5/16" wide followed by a gap of 5/8". There are two areas running the entire length that are raised slightly. (see the pink area) Well, I temporarily mounted my spray bar to it, propped it up on a bucket to give it a 1"/1' slope and gave it a go. I didn't have any raw material but I had some black sands that had been run through the blue bowl once and knowing the blue bowl misses a lot of gold, I fed the "Dog Gone Sluice" with those concentrates. These cons were from the North Fork of the Clearwater which has almost flour gold

When I shut off the water supply I was very surprised to see the micro gold that this thing captured. We're talking -100 mesh gold.

I cleaned out two ribs each at the top, middle and bottom of the sluice. The top held the most gold, the middle had a little and the bottom had none. I'm going to gather up some raw material this weekend and see how the "Dog Gone Sluice" works on some larger flood gold.

Stay tuned !!!

Washing Slate

2009-08-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

This slate is well fractured and positioned to capture flood gold. I decided to see just how much gold I could get from just washing the material from the slate into a bucket and gathering the material between each piece of slate.
Using a small pinch bar, I loosened each piece like a bad tooth and pulled them out of their sockets. (click pics for larger view)

I then used my modified paint brush to scrub all the material from each piece of slate. I won't wash dishes at home but I'll do a bang up job on slate!!!
Just kidding (my wife reads my blog).

Here is what the spot looked like when I was done pulling the loose slate. I cleaned out about 3 feet total length. The gold just couldn't go any deeper due to the bedrock bottom.

Well, looks like there was a little bit of gold hidden amoung the cracks and crevices in the slate.
Next time you're working a wet area and the rocks are covered in sand, don't toss them until you've washed the gold off first :^)

Undisclosed Locations...

2009-08-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

Steep access and tons of overburden greeted us at this new location. We were going to give the Hydro Force 250 a workout but with all the rocks and boulders it just wasn't a good use of our time. Instead, we spent our time moving rocks and stock piling material. When we had a sufficient mound of material, we'd fire up the pump and feed the Proline highbanker set up with the ½" expanded metal. We ran the pump at just a crack over idle and fed the material slowly into the hopper. I worked this method in 5 spots at this location, never digging more than 6" down, merely skimming the cream.

Here's the results from skimming the cream. Lots and lots of small flood gold which is found within the first 6" of material. (click any pic for a larger view)

Here is Butch's take from skimming the cream.

Dry Land Dredging

2009-08-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

WOW !!! That's the first thing I said when I tried Chuck Lassiter's Hydro-Force 250 from Midwest Prospectors.
I spoke to North West Gold Prospectors Clearwater Chapter club member Dave Clark on the phone and he mentioned he's got this special nozzle for a 2½" dredge. I asked if it was the Hydro-Force? He said Yup, sure is. Well I read a lot about these and watched a video demonstration but I just had to see one in action. So off to Gibbs Eddy for a test of the Hydro-Force 250.
I set my 3"Proline Combo into dredge configuration and fed his 2½"hose into the 3" input collar. A little sloppy but it worked. I had the expanded metal tray in the Proline and we ran it like that for the first run. (click any pic for a larger view)

We picked a spot next to the area I worked last week. There's a good pay layer about 3 inches down so we wetted the area to create a puddle.

This was accomplished by opening the valve that directs some of the pressure hose water into the face of the nozzle.

We then backed the valve off slightly and vacuumed up the material. Unlike your convention dredging methods, you can really HOG the material. This thing will keep up with you.

The trick to working Gibbs Eddy is not to go deep. The pay layer is shallow so you have to go wide not deep. We installed the OEM riffle tray from Proline and started a second run. Here, Dave is expanding the hole to wash the pay layer into the depression at his feet. Then he vacuums the material in the depression and widens the hole again. Oh, throw away you shovels, you'll never need them again !!! Just toss the oversized rocks and suck up the gold bearing material.

Here's a little gold from my time on the nozzle.

The temp was over 103 so we didn't stay long, just long enough to see how sweet the Hydro-Force dry land nozzle really is.

If you're interested in purchasing, there's a 2 week backorder on 2½" & 3" nozzles.

I'm putting one on my Christmas list !!!

Gibbs Eddy

2009-08-17T11:17:00.000-07:00

In a previous post, I mention Gibbs Eddy.

I thought I'd give a little more info on this area. Located approximately 17 miles from Lewiston, Idaho, this beach is formed at the downstream end of an inside corner (see photo). I called it 'old reliable' because on any day you can find gold in almost any location. There is ample parking for RVs, campers, etc and there is a two-track just below the highway that follows the river upstream for almost a quarter mile. You don't have to haul your equipment far as you can park your truck within 25 yards of the river.

I took this photo of my setup standing within 25 feet of my truck...easy access! The scenery isn't bad either.

Here's the spot I chose after spending over an hour sampling different spots. This one seems to pay the most colors per sample. There's about 2 inches of beach sand overburden, then it turns to a very coarse material with lots of black sand. That layer is the pay layer and it only runs about 3 to 4 inches deep before turning to a barren fine sand again.

To keep lazy highgraders from working my spot, I always fill my holes...actually it's a requirement as part of the Best Mining Practices.

Here's the take from that small area I worked. Seems the size of this flood gold runs just a little bit larger than the flood gold we've taken from the Salmon River and the North Fork of the Clearwater River. Like I said, "Old Reliable" Gibbs Eddy. (click any pic for a larger image)

Clearwater & Salmon River Gold

2009-08-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a little comparison of how well the Salmon River pays compared to the Clearwater River.
The Salmon River gold came from 3 trips.
The Clearwater River gold is an accumulation of many trips starting in the summer of '08.
I have one special spot on the Clearwater River that may pay as well as the Salmon River if only the Corp of Engineers would stop releasing water from Dworshak Dam. Last winter we worked this spot when the water was really low. We did well just hand panning and if the water level improves before the end of dredging season, I'll bring my Proline and work it like it should be worked.
In the meantime, it's off to Gibbs Eddy for a little bit of old reliable Clearwater River gold.

North Fork Paystreak

2009-08-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

We revisited our honey hole on the North Fork a few days before the dredging season closed on August 15. Sampling showed that there was a good showing of color in a narrow path extending about 20 from the honey hole we worked back in July. A sample a foot to the left or a foot to the right showed little to no color. We used a pry bar and moved some boulders that were laying within the paystreak. We used treasure scoops to dig the material and while digging you could see a very definate black sand layer only inches wide and a few inches deep. I gathered up 6 buckets of material and Butch gathered about the same amount. Our plan was to haul the Proline down to the water and run our material first thing the next morning. However, Mother Nature decided it would be a good time open up the skies and drench us with a downpour. We woke up early the next morning with the tent roof holding about 20 gallons of water and decided to cut our losses. With everything soaking wet, including our tent, we packed up and headed for home.
I ran my material through my cleanup sluice and then finished it with the blue bowl. Here's the take from my 6 buckets. I think if we didn't get rained out we could have really cleaned up that paystreak, moved a lot of material and had a real good showing of color. Although the trip was a washout, we did bring home a little something for our efforts.
I'll post a pic of Butch's gold when he's done with his cleanup. Click the pics for larger views.

A 52 Cleanup Sluice Mods

2009-07-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

I took the liberty of experimenting with different materials to catch the fine gold that we have in this area. Originally I used the flare as a slick plate for the first 6 inches, then the deep V matting, then a 2" piece of astro turf.

Well, this weekend I pulled out some red felt that I had laying around and covered the slick plate area with the red felt. I then pulled up the astro turf and replaced it with the red felt.
I ran concentrates through the sluice and I just couldn't believe all the gold that was stopping right where I was dumping the concentrates. That red felt is like a magnet for fine gold (-20 and smaller). Talk about instant gratification :^)

Here's a close up view of the business end of the cleanup sluice. Red felt slick plate, deep V running with the flow followed by a 2" section of red felt and then the remainder of the sluice is deep V running across the flow.

I use a battery acid bulb to flush out the felt and matting when I want to do a clean up of the sluice. This thing holds over twice the volume of water over a conventional turkey baster and you can get one at any auto parts store.

Here's how it looks in action.
Click the pic for a large view. Sure is pretty !!!

North Fork Honey Hole

2009-07-03T17:51:00.000-07:00

Butch and I hit the North Fork of the Clearwater River for a little hand panning. The water level is dropping and there were a lot of good spots newly exposed by the drop in water level.

Butch found a bowl shaped area behind some large boulders and worked it hard. I witnessed one of his pans and saw nearly 300 pieces of fine flood gold.

I found a pocket behind the large boulders in the same area and pulled about 5 gallons of raw material. As you can see by clicking the pic, there's some good looking material in there.

Here I am hauling one of three buckets of material back up to the truck. The heat was intense and we quit early in the afternoon.

Too bad there are no good spots located under a big old shade tree :^)

Here's the cleanup from those 5 gallons of material. After tossing all the rocks and overburden that wouldn't pass through a 30 mesh screen, the finished concentrates measured about 2 gallons. After running it through my cleanup sluice, the final concentrates measured about 1 pint.

UPDATE: Here's Butch's haul from that bowl he was working. Not too shabby !!!

Clearwater River Quartz Vein

2009-06-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

Last winter I discovered a vein of quartz and pulled a third of an ice cream container's worth to bring home to process. Well, today I finally started to process it. I crushed it and crushed it and crushed it, then classified it to -50 mesh.
I ran the -50 through my blue bowl, low & slow.

Surprise...this quartz is loaded with gold !
I still have more than half the material to crush and you can bet I'll be returning to that spot on the river to retrieve more quartz and save it as a winter project.
Quartz crushing party anyone???

Boulder Sniping

2009-06-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Butch and I hit the Clearwater for a little sniping action. We cherry picked spots that had large boulders whose face sloped down toward another boulder creating a 'V'. I gathered up about 3 gallons from this location pictured and about 2 gallons from another spot. I prescreened the material to about 30 mesh as I was filling the bucket.

I ran the material through my converted Keene A-52 sluice box. It's now my cleanup sluice. As you can see by clicking on the picture, I run the first section of deep V matting with the flow, followed by a 2" section of Astro Turf. Behind the Astro Turf is deep V matting running across the flow. Most of the gold stops at the first section of deep V matting, the rest gets hung up in the Astro Turf. I've found very little gold in the lower section of deep V and I have never found one piece in my tailings.

Here is the take from sniping between boulders: about 5 gallons of 30 mesh material processed through my converted cleanup sluice. Final seperation of black sand / gold is done with my Blue Bowl. This stuff is extremely small with only a few pieces not passing through a 50 mesh classifier. Sizes range from 50 to 200 mesh (est.)

Here's a little picker Butch pulled from some material he gathered outside the Elk City area a few weeks ago. Click the pic for a larger view.

Testing the Expanded Metal Mod to my Proline

2009-06-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

On June 17, Butch and I drove down to the Salmon River to test my Proline 3" Combo using my new expanded metal setup.
We ran the motor/pump at about ½ throttle.
The expanded metal didn't clog up like the old riffle tray did. Since we didn't have to run the motor/pump at full throttle, the water flowing over the expanded metal was a lot smoother and not as violent. For what little material we shoveled through the box, I think we captured a lot more gold than when we were using the old riffle tray. The gold pictured is from 2 fifteen minute runs of the power sluice. When the water level on the Salmon River gets down to the 18' mark, or less, we'll head on down again.

Here's Butch's cleanup. This is from 6 gallons of
raw material and one 15 minute sluice run. I'd say between this and my gold above, we took about 1½ to 2 grams of gold and only ran the machine for about 45 minutes. Can't wait until we tow the camper down there and spend a week doing some serious mining.

Modifying my Proline 3" Dredge/Highbanker Combo

2009-06-22T19:16:00.001-07:00

Here's the new tray for my 3" Proline Combo Box.The stock tray consisted of a punch plate followed by riffles. Feeding shovels of fine sand seemed to load the riffles up too quickly. We tried running the motor/pump at full throttle to clear the problem but it made no difference, so I opted for just the ½" Expanded Metal over Unbacked Miner's Moss over Deep V Ribbed Rubber mat. I imagine now I'll get better results with the expanded metal than using the riffles.Time will tell as the water level on the Salmon River is still 6 to 8 feet too high! When it reaches the 18' mark, I'll venture down and spend a week.

Click the chart below for current Salmon River info.

Salmon River Gold

2009-06-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

Here is .6 grams of Salmon River Gold recovered from just 6 gallons of raw material from behind a large boulder on May 16, 2009.
Tom Allison showed us this spot and after seeing my cleanup, I immediately put in for a supplemental dredge permit to work the Salmon River this summer.
We happen to hit this spot while the water was relatively low, compared to the near flood stage that exists now. Looks like it will be a while before we return. I'm watching the Salmon River gage height and flow rate at this website:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/id/nwis/uv/?site_no=13317000

Gibbs Eddy Gold...continued

2009-06-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

While working the broken shale the water level started to rise so I lost the broken shale spot. I moved up about 10 feet and dug between two large boulder that angled down toward each other, creating a "V". I cleaned out the "V" and spotted a quartz vein. It wasn't very thick, maybe half to three quarters inch thick, but it ran deeper than I could dig and ran a course from the highway toward the river.
I managed to gather about 2 gallons of it in pieces about 3-4 inches long. I need to crush it up and see how or if it pays. Then the water rose some more and I lost access to my quartz vein. I did however locate a landmark and distance to the spot prior to loosing it to high water.

2008 Clearwater River Gold

2009-06-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

Here's my take from the Clearwater River in 2008. We frequented a spot called Gibbs Eddy which is located about 30 miles down river from Orofino. Butch and I worked it hard but I'm sure we lost a lot of gold due to our inexperience.
I noticed that my Proline required a real strong flow of water to keep the riffles half way clear.
Problem is, the gold here is so fine that the water force probably blew a lot of fines right out the end.
We worked the Clearwater most of the winter. We tried any spot that had a turnout to park the truck. We found one spot that really excited us.
We sampled one area where you wouldn't expect to find much gold but what we found was 200-250 colors per pan! The gold was small - 50 to 100 mesh, but plentiful. We worked that one spot until the colors diminished to just 10-15 pieces.
I located another spot in the same area that had broken shale bedrock running perpendicular to the flow. I broke the ice from the shale and dug out some material. The pan showed 50-60 colors so I made a mental note to put in a supplemental dredge permit for this area of the Clearwater !The broken shale area is large and I located another similar area downstream so we should do well in 2009.