February 13, Sluicing + Panning

Around February 13, 2011 I got permission for a new spot so of course I couldn't wait to get out there and see how the color was. Its not too far from another place I was finding some gold so I was hoping the color would be bigger at the new spot. Dr Phil came with, and we sampled up and down a good ways. While sampling, Dr Phil hit on a pretty nice little spot for fine gold that I had just walked past, and we worked that for a 5 gallon bucket or so. But after a bit we both wanted to see what else was around and we were both hoping for some chunkier pieces so we kept moving. There were signs of someone having dredged in a couple places clear to bedrock, and also some tailings piles that looked pretty old. Besides the pans and other equipment, I brought the bazooka, and Dr Phil brought his back packable Angus Mckirk sluice. Oh and I almost forgot, I found a spot with the most crazy pock marked, tore up looking white quartz I have ever seen there. Some of the pock marks were 2 inches or more across and looked like big crystals were in there once.  My camera was low on battery though by that point, but next time i go back I will get some pics. The quartz that was mineralized like that, was also nearby where we were finding some nice fines, so possibly they are related.  

Always exciting to be on a new stretch of creek. Never know what you are going to find before you put that first shovel in. Might be loaded with gold or (more likely) nothing important at all.

Here's all the equipment I brought that day. A shovel, the bazooka gold trap sluice, and a bucket to clean it up into. If the water flow is low, then an Angus Mac Kirk Sluice is another great choice. I use a small back packable Angus Mac Kirk sluice called the Grub Steak as well. 

This boulder had an amazing amount of black sand around it. When I was classifying the material it was solid black before I had even started stratifying. And lots of lead and other heavies, but no color!

This is the first spot I had the bazooka setup at. Because the gold was so fine (around 100 mesh) I classified to 4 mesh first, then ran it through the bazooka.

One of my better pans, keep in mind the color was mostly fines here so this one looked good. It came from a layer of false bedrock that Dr Phil found.

Dr Phil posing for a pic again. This is the stretch of creek that had a good bit of fine gold. 

Spot I was digging with very small gold (barely visible to the naked eye). Dr Phil found this spot, I had walked right past it to sample a turn instead and he called me back showing me there was some fines here. 

Here's a video of Dr Phil feeding his Angus Mckirk sluice.

Here's one of those sections of creek.

Here's how I had the bazooka setup and running in one spot, I also ran it in another spot but have no video of that. This was near where we were finding all the fine gold, so I went ahead and classified to 4 mesh first before I ran it through the sluice. Check out the black sands.

And my final take for the day. A lot of fines! It was a beautiful day to be outside, and trying a new spot. For the amount of material I worked (not that much), that is not a bad day at all. I spent more time sample panning here and there, then actually running the bazooka.The gold there is mostly powder size, but who knows there might be a couple bigger pieces somewhere around that we missed.