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Colorado Prospector - Gem and mineral prospecting and mining forums _ Prospectors and Rockhounding Field Work _ Before winter claim trip

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Nov 3 2017, 09:45 PM

We have the car packed up and making a trip to the claim again tomorrow. I really don't know how much time we will get there before it snows.
We have about 8 more buckets we can fill for a boring winter day later on....never know where the next corn flake may be hiding! I'd like to run some material too so I'll post if there's anything good.
I've been working in that area all week and I can feel the claim calling me. It's been torture I tell ya!
I have an idea for the biggest hole yet. The area we plugged up for the dredge earlier this summer has been over flowing for months onto the area I first opened up and it's soggy and saturated now. I might try to divert the creek on around further to dry it up and take advantage of that to open a huge hole right across the main channel. Seems like a decent plan and I was getting good gold there before anyway. Whoohoo!

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Nov 3 2017, 09:51 PM

I thought I had posted this in the members forum but I can see I didn't haha. I don't think I divulged any secret info... atomic.gif

Posted by: Dave S. Nov 4 2017, 01:24 PM

Right on, pull out a nugget! I just started a new job, and will be limited to Clear Creek for the winter season.
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Posted by: johnnybravo300 Nov 8 2017, 09:24 PM

We bailed on Saturday and went Sunday instead, the weather was much more favorable. We had a great day out there and saw really nice gold. I haven't cleaned up my snuffer or my cons yet so this weekend I'll get that done. I can't wait to see it!

Posted by: Crusty Nov 9 2017, 08:25 AM

Glad you got one more good day in!

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Nov 22 2017, 10:32 AM

I dropped my wife, son, and daughter-in-law off at DIA yesterday to fly to South Africa to visit family so I'm on my own for a few weeks with the dogs cats and chickens keeping me company...the best kind of company sometimes!
Im heading back to the claim tomorrow to work on the new diversion and fill more buckets to bring home. After this I'll have almost 40 gallons here for the winter to keep my gold withdraws at bay hehe. I'll probably run a few buckets while I'm there if I get time but I have alot to do so who knows.
I picked up a new shovel a month or so ago and can't say enough about it. I'd recommend it to anyone that digs in deep murky water and is tired of pulling the shovel up only to see most of the material washed off. Really irks me so I got this and it's made my life much easier! The guy is a miner in Cali and hand builds them for these conditions. His website is betterbasicsmining and he has a few models. I went with the Ace model. It has the long t handle. They are very well constructed with nice welds and very stiff.
He has a number to text and reach him and he was great to deal with. I wish I would have had this shovel long ago!
I don't try to advertise for anyone but with tools out there like this I like to share if it helps someone out. Personally id rather scoop 20 times than 50 for the same amount hehe.
This new hole should be big enough for quite a few guys to work in if it works out that way, maybe 5 or 6 guys. Theres a big rock layer knee deep or so that I've gotten nice chunkers from and I'd like to access it all eventually as well as get deeper.
Our area here at home is pretty snow covered so my sep nod and pet wood hunting days are coming to a close.

Posted by: Crusty Nov 22 2017, 11:50 AM

Gotta love colorado weather! Looks like a great weekend to get back up there!

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Nov 23 2017, 09:26 PM

I got a little mercury in the last clean out today. I haven't seen mercury there before.
I didn't do anything all day except bail water and sluice. The other project will have to wait for when I want to mess with it because everytime I get there I end up wanting to run material....I'm not going to make plans anymore haha.
I left my buckets and pans there for tomorrow and maybe pics will load better later but not working for me now.
The new shovel totally killed it today and I forgot to mention the 14 lb San Angelo bar makes a great combo for complete creek bed destruction and recovery.
I'll see how tomorrow goes and if the weather holds out it may be a multi day event for me. Whoohoo!
I think the photo of the mercury loaded. It came from the deepest part of the hole which is 4 feet below the water level and it suprised me. It seems fairly deep and far downstream to be from the old timers? Anyone else seen mercury there?


 

Posted by: Dave S. Nov 24 2017, 11:41 PM

Nice Johnny!

Nope, never seen mercury there, but it might also be un-oxidized silver. There is native silver in the area, and I've seen some lightly oxidized silver in my pans a few times, especially with the chunky gold spots. There is some copper with the gold too, giving it that red hue.

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Nov 25 2017, 10:56 AM

It was definitely mercury because I smashed it around with my finger and did the taste test. (JK!!)
I did smash it though and it was already amalgamated (or whatever it's called?) onto some gold so it was cottage cheesy in appearance and a little chunky inside. I have some I've found that is still pure little balls but when I find it with gold it's usually like this.
I did suck up a flake or two of silver yesterday and I'll try to get a pic of that today. They were a little bigger than what I've seen and almost tapped out with the gold.
When I got there yesterday I decided to do some test pans just downstream from the hole I've been digging in. I noticed a layer of rocks along the bank about the same elevation that I was digging upstream so I scraped the over burden off and it was all red underneath. I dug out under the first rock and did two test pans.
After two pans i thought for sure my samples were contaminated so I snuffed out the gold, washed my pan out really good and did a third.
It was such easy digging and the gold was decent so I decided to dig right there. I could reach everything from one place so that was nice. My sluice and bucket were right next to me, I've never had it so easy! I ran about 16 gallons total, nice for an easy and relaxing dig and a beautiful day.
This hole went into the older deposit bank between knee high and knee deep and my samples came right off the surface almost....it got better as I dug in and pulled out rocks. It was really nice being able to roll rocks out onto grade instead of lifting them out of a deep hole haha.
If there are gold bearing clay layers above the existing creek channel then that's a great sign and it's easy ground to take advantage of. A highbanker would be perfect in places like that where you can stand in the water channel at an easy working level and shovel directly in. I love it!!
Today I'm staying home catching up on chores and cleaning up the Johnny trail around here.
Sunday is looking great for weather so I'll head back for another day. I need to get some rubber gloves like Mike uses but haven't found any. My hands get so cold they hurt.



Posted by: MikeS Nov 26 2017, 04:46 PM

Nice! Good to hear you are finding other hot spots near the surface. The deep holes can quickly become more work than they are worth.
Those gloves are handy. I can be more productive when my hands stay dry and warm.

Some of the old miners may have used mercury upstream but these operations were small so it is unlikely to find much.

We need to do more research on the black sands we are getting. It might be worth some cash. thumbsupsmileyanim.gif

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Nov 28 2017, 09:09 AM

Yes I need a pair of those gloves! I'll see if I can find some in Gunnison today.
I was there again Sunday and it was a balmy 68 degrees. The gold I got out from around the rock on the bank seem to have played out so after testing around there for awhile I went back to my big hole.
There's an old standing dead pine I'm working towards just a few feet away and the gold seems to be getting more concentrated the closer I get to the tree for some reason, and it's just the top couple of feet I've been digging in so that's interesting.
I've read about guys finding good pockets around tree roots and up underneath the root balls but I've never tried this. If it's a standing dead on my own claim I don't have a problem with undercutting it and it's worth a look.
There are alot of pines that probably grew up there while the creek bed was dry, but pines don't normally grow that close to water and I'm guessing that's why the ones right along the bank have died. TOO much water now. They were most likely growing and healthy when the old timers diverted the creek upstream.
A pine can stand for an easy 50 years or more even after it's dead and most of these don't even have any branches left on them, just barren trunks, so they are probably older than that.
The firewood I cut on the hill behind me was in a fire almost 100 years ago and there still lots of burned trees standing. Once they fall they rot much faster of course but they really can stand for a long long time.
I'll post a pic later today of what I got Sunday. I'll try to get back out there a few more times this week if I can.

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Nov 28 2017, 09:17 AM

Mike, do you mean the silver values? I was reading about processing silver from black sands and I think I could do that. There are also companies out there that will process bags #5-#50 of cons or bigger. They pull out all the metals and anything of value and ship it all to the proper places. Seems like something worth checking in to if we have good values. I know one guy that sells his black sands for aquariums and another that sells his magnatite to a welder.
They are just selling the waste and that's pretty good!

Posted by: MikeS Nov 28 2017, 10:04 AM

QUOTE (johnnybravo300 @ Nov 28 2017, 08:17 AM) *
Mike, do you mean the silver values? I was reading about processing silver from black sands and I think I could do that. There are also companies out there that will process bags #5-#50 of cons or bigger. They pull out all the metals and anything of value and ship it all to the proper places. Seems like something worth checking in to if we have good values. I know one guy that sells his black sands for aquariums and another that sells his magnatite to a welder.
They are just selling the waste and that's pretty good!


I was meaning the black sand itself may be valuable. You may have noticed that the black sand there seems extra heavy and it can be hard to get the gold to settle to the bottom. I am convinced that a good portion of our black sand there is columbite-tantilite. This mineral is more heavy than the magnatite. It is also more valuable. Current spot price for tantalite ore is about $123 kg ($56 lb.) If the sands there are more concentrated than typical ore then those sands may be worth more than spot price. We may be throwing out $100 worth of black sand for every $20 worth of gold we are getting. smiley-shocked003.gif


I need to do more testing to find out more about it.

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Nov 28 2017, 10:18 AM

That would certainly help to fund an operation, no doubt. Everything helps.
I always notice the line of silver at the top and wondered what the heck else is in there....but I don't know enough about it.
I don't know how much it costs to test what we have but that's an option. Ill see if I can reach the company I read about and ask some questions and find out what they can extract. They claim they have a new method that's much more efficient.
If there are other values then that's a bonus and I should stop tossing my black sands back in the creek haha. Dohhh!

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Nov 28 2017, 04:29 PM

The gold around the penny is from just downstream from the new bank hole. I expected to see more gold after having good test pans and I ran almost 20 gallons but the hole went dry. It must have been a small pocket under that big rock. I tested again after seeing my cleanup and wasn't seeing $h1t! I hate that!
Two opposing angle pics of the big hole ive been working on. Close up to that tree near the white bucket is where I dug Sunday and the last chunky pics are from there. I don't get to put pieces of gold on my fingers very often so this was a great day. I ran an easy 14 gallons Sunday for those chunkers after wasting hours being perplexed by the rock pocket that fooled me. Dohh!
Supposed to be almost 60 tomorrow and I found some gloves so I'm hoping to head back and dig towards and under that tree.
The sunset pic was from my drive home that evening. The gold gods were smiling on me.














 

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Nov 28 2017, 04:50 PM

If you notice the grassy area next to the tree. Those deposits form up and down the creek in every low pressure area and the tree is at the upstream end of this one.
I had always guessed they were formed during the last big floods through that creek during the end of the ice age but there must have been more recent floods through there as I've found pieces of wood buried 3 and 4 feet deep. No way would it be preserved for 10000 years....
The deposits themselves carry good gold and if it's recent enough then this tree could play a big part of possibly catching some good stuff.

I'm trying to be optimistic haha......

Posted by: Crusty Nov 29 2017, 07:39 AM

Damn, nice hole you've got going! Gold is looking good!!

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Dec 1 2017, 07:14 PM

I didn't make a dent in it but that's a good thing. Plenty more material to run.
It will be a work in progress and I'm hoping to make it back tomorrow. This was from the top two feet of the creek bed, about 25 gallons through the little Angus. I really need a bigger faster sluice box, it's way too slow.
This material wasn't the richest but I needed to dig it out so I ran it.




 

Posted by: nate Dec 3 2017, 09:17 PM

i think you should commission dave to make you one of his multi stage multi level sluice epics designed for that stream......

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Dec 4 2017, 10:00 AM

Saturday Andrew and I went back to dig more. I suggested we set up at my hole and we could throw everything at it since it's a big area.
We we're trying to get to the clays but all we ended up running was the creek bed gravels. The gravels we're holding some values so we ended up running all that but its not as rich as I'd expect the clays to be underneath.
I stayed in the hole digging and he was shoveling buckets into his le trap.
We got a third of a gram from the top two feet of gravels that we were digging but I think we could do alot better in better material. Either way it has to be moved...might as well get the gold out eh. It was all loose material without any clays so we didn't classify, we just pulled out any big rocks and ran it.....seemed to work great.

It was nice working with someone all day and I think it helps to keep you going. We will probably try this more often than working alone. We both agreed it was nice having another guy there.


 

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