What are the best methods to sample for gold?

[azblackbird]

For those of you who sample… what's your best tried and true methods here in the deserts and mountains of AZ?

What specific tools would you recommend to best sample as much area in the shortest time possible?

What are your break even points on whether you decide to dig/detect an area, or continue on to another area that may prove more viable?

Just some more questions from a newbie…

[frank c]

The pan is a prospectors best friend.

[adam]

Dowsing Rods

[ahorton10]

Ive done a fair amount of sampling, its tough to get a clear picture of whats in an area with just a pan, especially in the desert where things dont classify nicely in the rivers. I usually start with a pan to determine if an area has anything, taking samples from the washes. Then I drywash for a day in one spot, move upstream the next day and so on. Trying to find if the gold gets better one way or another. I consider it all sampling, I havent yet found a spot that could pay my bills so ill just keep sampling diferent areas till I get on something rich enough and big enough to make a profit.

[azblackbird]

Ive done a fair amount of sampling, its tough to get a clear picture of whats in an area with just a pan, especially in the desert where things dont classify nicely in the rivers. I usually start with a pan to determine if an area has anything, taking samples from the washes. Then I drywash for a day in one spot, move upstream the next day and so on. Trying to find if the gold gets better one way or another. I consider it all sampling, I havent yet found a spot that could pay my bills so ill just keep sampling diferent areas till I get on something rich enough and big enough to make a profit.

That's kinda the idea… I'm basically looking for a down and dirty method of sampling whereas I don't have to cart around a dry washer until I've hit upon a good spot that's going to make it worth while to dig and dry wash. Most definitely a shovel, pick, pan, bucket, classifier are in the picture. Thinking about adding a Falcon MD20 to the tool box rather than wasting time dry panning. Me thinks if I dig, classify, pan, concentrate, demagnetize, run the MD20 over the concentrates, get a signal, then bag it and tag it for later processing. If no signal, then on to the next hole. I think I can sample a lot of ground fairly fast using that method.

[ahorton10]

The md20 is pretty cool, a friend of mine bought one for checking crevices in bed rock. I'm not sure how much luck he had with it. It will definitely sound off on some tiny gold. It also has a different response to black sand then it does to gold. Could come in handy.

[azblackbird]

The md20 is pretty cool, a friend of mine bought one for checking crevices in bed rock. I'm not sure how much luck he had with it. It will definitely sound off on some tiny gold. It also has a different response to black sand then it does to gold. Could come in handy.

Some say the MD20 wand won't fit into a lot small crevices, so me thinks for crevices in bedrock, I'll just use my hammer, chisel and crevicing tools, then vacuum up the dirt and then throw it into a pan and run the MD wand over it to see it I hit anything.

[LuckyLundy]

AzBlackBird,

Frank, has it right a gold pan. Now I grew up in Arizona and it took me a couple of years to learn to leave the dry washer at home or in the truck. Wickenburg to Lake Pleasant, was my stopping grounds, there is a ton of old diggings and unproven dirt between those marks. Winter/ Spring, if your lucky there's enough water around to test likely spots, if not dry pan. Remember, your spots where you found color and if you think its worth your while to drag your equipment to the spot. If I could get a dozen or more colors per pan in a given area, these would be the spots I'd dredge or what for the dirt to dry for the dry washer. Lots of leg work, but beats dry runs with your bigger equipment. Good luck

LuckyLundy

[azblackbird]

Frank, has it right a gold pan. Now I grew up in Arizona and it took me a couple of years to learn to leave the dry washer at home or in the truck. Wickenburg to Lake Pleasant, was my stopping grounds, there is a ton of old diggings and unproven dirt between those marks. Winter/ Spring, if your lucky there's enough water around to test likely spots, if not dry pan. Remember, your spots where you found color and if you think its worth your while to drag your equipment to the spot. If I could get a dozen or more colors per pan in a given area, these would be the spots I'd dredge or what for the dirt to dry for the dry washer. Lots of leg work, but beats dry runs with your bigger equipment. Good lucky

Here's my sampling plan guys… tell me if I'm way off base, or if I'm farting in the wind and wasting a bunch of time. Let me know if there are any steps you'd add or eliminate.

1. Find a nice area to prospect by doing diligent research which includes aerials, topography, geological maps, historical mining reports, bulletins, etc.

2. Once I get to the area, try and get a good read of the terrain by syncing the geological formations, fault lines, mineralization zones, etc. with what I have marked on my maps, and with what is actually under my feet.

3. Grid off the most likely areas that I believe to contain mineral deposits from interpreting the map data and what the terrain is telling me.

4. Do a quick sweep of the area with either a PI or VLF detector and record any nugget finds or high ground mineralization to narrow down the sampling area.

5. Once the sampling area(s) have been determined either through a nugget find, or from highly mineralized ground, then I will grid them out.

6. Once gridded out, start digging and classifying a (5) bucket hole as deep as I can dig vertically, and space them every 50 feet according to the terrain and the map data.

7. Dump classified material on tarp in order of bucket loads so I know what depths the dirt came from.

8. Rake out and run a strong magnet over classified dirt to eliminate any trash or hot rocks.

9. Run VLF detector over classified dirt. If it signals then pull the nugget out and record depth. If signal is too small to see, then put dirt in gold pan and run MD20 over pan. If still getting a signal but too small to pick, then dump dirt in bag and record depth.

10. Continue until all dirt has been processed. If both detectors are going crazy and subsequent pans indicate good color, then bag the dirt and tag it with location, depth, and date for further classifying and processing. If no signals, then fill the hole back up and go on to the next one.

7. Once I have an area dug and sampled that shows promising results, I will process the concentrates at home and then make a determination whether it's worth it to bring in a dry washer and continue further exploration.

I'm shooting for at least a gram an hour of production from any sampled areas. If I can't hit that, then I'll keep looking until I can hit that number.

Am I being to optimistic?

[ahorton10]

If each test hole is gonna be a 5 gallon bucket load from a general area, why not just run each bucket through a drywasher? Sounds like you plan to dig a lot of buckets worth, it only takes a couple minutes to run a bucket and pour the concentrates in a bag with label.

[azblackbird]

If each test hole is gonna be a 5 gallon bucket load from a general area, why not just run each bucket through a drywasher? Sounds like you plan to dig a lot of buckets worth, it only takes a couple minutes to run a bucket and pour the concentrates in a bag with label.

If I had somebody helping me, the dry washer route might something to consider. However, I can't count on my buddy to always being available to go prospecting with me, so it's easier for me to plan my operations as if I'm the one and only. For one thing I'm riding a Rokon, I can only carry enough equipment to do proper sampling (detector, shovel, pick, classifier, bucket, etc) but I just don't have the room for hauling a dry washer and motor.

I find working as one person, it's easier for me just to shovel dirt through a classifier into a bucket, then dump it out and run a detector over it, rather than mess with the noise and dust of running it through a dry washer. Besides, not all the ground I dig is dry washer friendly anyways. Some of it gets pretty moist the further down I go, so that requires more baby sitting and fine tuning, or worse yet, having to run the material through again, which would basically defeat my purpose of run and gun sampling in the first place.

I figure between using my GMT and an MD20 to more or less (faux pan or drywash), if I can't process the same amount of nuggets and fines in less time than I could by panning or drywashing, then something is wrong.

[LuckyLundy]

AZBlackBird,

Your making it way to hard and time consuming. Now first of all, I'm glad I never gave up my day job for this hobby of ours. So while at work, I thought of ways to work smarter and not harder! Now if you know the area between those two places I mention in my above comments, you know it's loaded with proven gold all the way North to Prescott too! Topo's are great and DD (do diligent) is a must as well. Put a pan in your hand and boots on the ground, this teaches you what to look for and where to dig. Each mining district may have different clues to find color. But, dry washing and reading the wash or alluvial is SOP throughout the western states. As far as digging straight down...you maybe missing the best flood gold layer in the first few inches of the dirt, same goes to say why not dig down to bedrock! My gold pan, has led me to a many of Summer nights shovel parties in that area!

LuckyLundy

[oldies1955]

Here's my sampling plan guys… tell me if I'm way off base, or if I'm farting in the wind and wasting a bunch of time. Let me know if there are any steps you'd add or eliminate.

1. Find a nice area to prospect by doing diligent research which includes aerials, topography, geological maps, historical mining reports, bulletins, etc.

2. Once I get to the area, try and get a good read of the terrain by syncing the geological formations, fault lines, mineralization zones, etc. with what I have marked on my maps, and with what is actually under my feet.

3. Grid off the most likely areas that I believe to contain mineral deposits from interpreting the map data and what the terrain is telling me.

4. Do a quick sweep of the area with either a PI or VLF detector and record any nugget finds or high ground mineralization to narrow down the sampling area.

5. Once the sampling area(s) have been determined either through a nugget find, or from highly mineralized ground, then I will grid them out.

6. Once gridded out, start digging and classifying a (5) bucket hole as deep as I can dig vertically, and space them every 50 feet according to the terrain and the map data.

7. Dump classified material on tarp in order of bucket loads so I know what depths the dirt came from.

8. Rake out and run a strong magnet over classified dirt to eliminate any trash or hot rocks.

9. Run VLF detector over classified dirt. If it signals then pull the nugget out and record depth. If signal is too small to see, then put dirt in gold pan and run MD20 over pan. If still getting a signal but too small to pick, then dump dirt in bag and record depth.

10. Continue until all dirt has been processed. If both detectors are going crazy and subsequent pans indicate good color, then bag the dirt and tag it with location, depth, and date for further classifying and processing. If no signals, then fill the hole back up and go on to the next one.

7. Once I have an area dug and sampled that shows promising results, I will process the concentrates at home and then make a determination whether it's worth it to bring in a dry washer and continue further exploration.

I'm shooting for at least a gram an hour of production from any sampled areas. If I can't hit that, then I'll keep looking until I can hit that number.

Am I being to optimistic?

I just sample with a detector walking up washes? Many many miles of washes.

I must be doing something wrong.

Tom H.

[way2cool]

I would start by searching the gold forums for any posts by a guy named Russ Ford on prospecting or sampling. I would also invest in a small drywasher one that will fit in a five gallon bucket and learn to dry pan.

[azblackbird]

As far as digging straight down...you maybe missing the best flood gold layer in the first few inches of the dirt, same goes to say why not dig down to bedrock! My gold pan, has led me to a many of Summer nights shovel parties in that area!

Hey Lucky… the areas you referenced in your comments are my primary prospecting areas. Pretty much everything N. of the Carefree Hwy. up to the Crown King area, so yes, the area we're talking about literally contains hundreds of thousand of acres of undiscovered gold bearing ground. My prospecting and sampling plan probably sounds a lot worse than it actually is. Believe me it's not all that much work, all except for the digging part anyways. Concerning the digging part, I'm actually testing all layers of soil, at least as far as I can feasibly dig anyways. As you know there are many gold bearing areas here in AZ where there is no bedrock, but yet has produced immense amounts of gold. So digging down to bedrock is not always feasible.

I think the only thing I would probably change is the (5) bucket limit. As ahorton10 already stated, if I'm going to be doing that much digging for one sample, I might as well set up camp and start a dry washing operation. Reason for the 5 buckets, I was using that as a gauge to test my yardage since 40 buckets equal a yard, so 5 would be 1/8. Me thinks I'll just use a post hole digger and will trim it down to (2) bucket samples and multiplying the results by 20 to get my yardage yield.

I hate dry panning, thus the reason for just shoveling the dirt on to a tarp and using the detectors to find any gold rather than sit and waste precious time trying to pan it all down and look for any color. Much easier to let the detectors do the work.

I appreciate all the advice so far… it will all come together here real soon and I'll finally start pulling in the gold. I guess I'm just looking at what I'm doing as more of a business rather than a hobby, as I eventually hope to find something that I can get some investors involved in. Thus the somewhat detailed and laborious sampling plan. Smart investors aren't going to give me diddly if I can't show them that I somewhat sampled the ground and did my due diligence.

[azblackbird]

I just sample with a detector walking up washes? Many many miles of washes.

I must be doing something wrong.

Tom H.

I hate washes. Way too rich for my blood. To many millionaires prospect the washes. I could never keep up.

[azblackbird]

I would start by searching the gold forums for any posts by a guy named Russ Ford on prospecting or sampling. I would also invest in a small drywasher one that will fit in a five gallon bucket and learn to dry pan.

I hate dry panning. Would rather let a detector do my work. I've got a dry washer. When the time is right I'll start using it. I've read Russ Ford, learned a few tips and tricks. Basically what he does is what I'll be doing, just a different twist, results will still be the same.