mxh8372 Posted December 14, 2017 Report Share Posted December 14, 2017 Hello all! First post on this site and i look forward to hearing your thoughts on my puzzle. Im located on the east coast and at my site my partners and i have found some nice sized nuggets dredging a small section of creek. The largest being just under a half ounce, and total weight in a area of about 200 ft long by 12 ft wide was about 12 ounces of coarse crystalline gold with a number of them being quartz and gold specimens. The valley bottom is pretty much flat, about 150 ft wide and the overburden outside of the creek is about 6 ft deep. The hillsides of the valley are very steep possibly over a 45 degree slope and are about 100 ft tall. I know im close to if not on top of the source which i believe is primarily small quartz stringers that run in the bedrock pretty much perpendicular to the creek. I believe they produce gold in inconsistent pockets, since in the area we have dredged we have yet to see gold within an intact quartz stringer. From all this one would surmise that the steep valley slopes should hold nuggets as well. Well so far with my gpx 4800 and another member of this forums gpx 5000 (local digger) we have not found any gold in the surrounding hillsides. The hillsides being as steep as they are only have about 1 ft of loose overburden over bedrock. The ground is also fairly mild and the creek has very little black sand. The inability of us to find nuggets in the hills around our honey hole has perplexed and frustrated me. Within the creek we have found nuggets for almost a 3 mile length of the creek, yet nothing detecting the surrounding hills. The area was both hardrocked and placered in the past, with ounce nuggets being found in "alluvial sand beds". My new theory is that since the hillsides are so steep the big nuggets once they started to move ended up rolling all the way down to the flat valley bottom and have subsequently been buried by the alluvial overburden. I recently purchased a gold monster 1000 in the hopes that smaller pickers species may still be stuck on the steep hillslopes but are too small for the gpx's with 14" coils to hear. Do you guys think this theory could be the case? Any other theories or ideas? Help is appreciated! I will post some pics of the gold found in the creek this evening, once i get home from work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wes Posted December 14, 2017 Report Share Posted December 14, 2017 Sometimes the line of gold shedding down the slop can be very narrow, or non existent on steeper slopes. Im in the CA motherload, and many creeks just dont have a source you can identify. The enrichment on the local veins/seams was probably only precipitated on the surface of the vein and then it was washed down by massive water action leaving no trace. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mxh8372 Posted December 15, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2017 Some pics of the gold from the creek. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker Posted December 15, 2017 Report Share Posted December 15, 2017 Beautiful gold, definitely small stringer stuff. Hard to find the source. Many times it doesn't exist anymore. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker Posted December 15, 2017 Report Share Posted December 15, 2017 But don't stop trying 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave wiseman Posted December 15, 2017 Report Share Posted December 15, 2017 As Walker mentioned above the veins might have been shallow rich veins that didn't persist in depth and were eroded away over the eons of time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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