Nuggets on Bedrock or Not?


Recommended Posts

  • Admin

Hey Guys,

   The question has always been, are most of the gold nuggets on bedrock?  That is somewhat a loaded question, but I have found more nuggets on bedrock, or the paylayer on bedrock than not.  Here is a gold nugget I picked up working some shallow paylayer (ancient channel) that the old-timers just overlooked.  I had to chip the ancient channel apart, but finally knocked a nice chunk out that screamed on the Minelab GPZ 7000 metal detector.  The nugget was approx 3 Dwt's, so nothing to get super excited, but I did pick up about 6 other ones in the nearby area.  

Hope you enjoy. 

Rob

IMG_2087.jpg

IMG_2088.jpg

IMG_2089.jpg

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Rob! 

That's a bit of an education in it's self I'm hoping you can add to.

Was there so much lime the sediment carrying the gold rolled in it up like snow when your building a snow man? 

Looks like some good size rolled and rounded rock in one picture, honestly I don't care where this is, I'm only hoping to educate us on the type old deposit the old timers left in place.

So here is one question. What is the cement that hold this chunk together and are there untouched areas that glued together gold into a mixture that was undetectable to a miner with a pick and a pan?

Thanks Rob

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Admin

Hey Fishing8046,

   It's an ancient river deposit that was cut into by the modern day channel.  It exposed a bunch of bedrock that had the ancient, cemented gravels on it.  The nugget was probably washed in thousands of years ago, but just recently in the last modern day flash flood exposed it.  

Here is a link that really explains Caliche - 

https://geology.com/rocks/caliche.shtml

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.